THIS morning, Lee Troop is running 45 kilometres around the Great Ocean Road from Lorne to Apollo Bay. Yesterday, he ran, and won the Victorian 10-kilometre road championships in cold, wet and windy conditions at Sandown racecourse.
It is part of the preparation, if not the acclimatisation, for a possible third Olympic marathon in Beijing in August. That race will be run in sweltering conditions, a stark contrast to yesterday's freeze. Whatever the Great Ocean Road offers this morning, it is likely to be closer to Sandown than Beijing.
Troop should be among the nominations when the Olympic marathoners are named tomorrow. He is the only male with the tougher Australian A-standard, though Scott Westcott and Andrew Letherby have both met the standard required by the International Olympic Committee. Benita Johnson and Kate Smyth are the two women who have met Australia's standards, while Lisa Jane Weightman has bettered the international mark.
Sponsorship allowed Athletics Victoria to invite some of the best Australians to yesterday's race that, traditionally, has always been the most competitive of the state winter season. Last year's winner, Michael Shelley from Queensland, was back, along with NSW pair Ben St Lawrence and Tim Rowe. Liam Adams headed a strong local challenge.
Shelley, Adams and, for over half the race, St Lawrence, stuck with Troop in the lead group. But it was Troop who did most to force the pace. Looking as smooth as he has on the roads for some time, Troop forced a small break in the last kilometre of the race and was able to hold off Shelley by about five metres.
Troop ran 28 minutes 50 seconds, good running given the conditions, with Shelley a second behind him and Adams producing his best performance over the distance to take third in 29 minutes exactly.
Rowan Baird, a New Zealander doing an architecture course at the University of Queensland, ran an outstanding 32:44 to take the women's race by just over a minute from Lara Tamsett of NSW. Tara Palm of South Australia was third with the Victorian title going to Renate Wyss in fourth place.
It was the second title in a row for Wyss, a Swiss national competing for Melbourne University. She won the six kilometres cross-country a fortnight ago.