It had been a long time in between drinks for Keith Macpherson at the Tamworth Running Festival but the runner made his return a worthwhile one by taking out the half-marathon at Sunday’s event.
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Macpherson, originally from Scone but now living in Sydney, has only entered the festival once before – when he was at school in Tamworth – where he missed out on the win but the runner made up for that this time around.
“I did it once. I think we got beaten by the Hickey boys, they were running hot then, in the 10,” Macpherson said.
“It was a pretty similar race. It hasn't changed much apart from its gotten bigger, which is good to see.”
Macpherson finished the 21-kilometre race in 1:11:36, which he used as a warm up for next weekend’s City2Surf in Sydney.
In turn, the 14-kilometre City2Surf is a stepping stone towards Macpherson’s bigger goal.
“I have a marathon, my first one ever, in October and this is what this is all leading towards,” he said.
The Scone native finished six minutes ahead of Brendan Davies on Saturday with Will Barton a further two minutes back in third.
Despite the handy lead, Macpherson said at times Davies got the better of him in the race.
“There was points where I was really struggling in it and he was gaining,” Macpherson said.
Of the females, Emma Just was the quickest in a time of 1:30:17 in the half marathon.
Allan Thompson posted the quickest time (19:30) in the five-kilometre race while Gerald Macpherson won the 10-kilometre in 34:21.
