Canberra runner Martin Dent has been racing in the City2Surf in Sydney since he was 13.
He knows every hill, every turn and every bend of the 14km.
And yesterday the 29-year-old put it all together and broke through for his first win, in 41min, 12sec to become the first Australian to win the event in 11 years.
At the other end of the spectrum another ACT athlete, 18-year-old Emily Brichacek, surprised the field in the women's race to finish second in her first City2Surf.
But yesterday was all Dent's day as he made an early break and kept up the pace up heartbreak hill, before breaking away to run into Bondi by himself and finish 12 seconds ahead of Michael Shelley.
''I've been running since I was 13 and improving each time and I finished third three years ago and third two years ago, so it's great to finally win it,'' Dent said.
Dent just missed out on the Beijing Olympic Games after selectors decided not to pick him in the 3000m steeplechase despite recording a B-qualifier in the selection period. But he said the City2Surf was a great consolation.
''It would have been great to be at the Olympics, it's the biggest event in the world, but the City to Surf is still a pretty big deal and to win after so many years, I'm pretty excited.'' Dent said.
Dent raced the 3000m steeplechase at the 2006 Commonwealth Games where he finished fourth, but the versatile runner is considering making the marathon his main focus ahead of the 2010 Games and then hopefully, the 2012 London Olympics.
Dent plans on running the Fukuoka marathon in Japan in December.
''I've changed around a bit in my career but I think that the marathon is one of those events that if it's your day, anything can happen,'' he said.
In the women's race yesterday, 19-year-old Sydneysider Rebecca Lowe won in a time of 47min18sec, but Canberran Emily Brichacek surprised the field when she finished second in her first City2Surf race, with a time of 48min12sec.
Brichacek like Dent ran for Australia in the world cross country championships earlier this year and has developed an all-round ability. She finished second in last year's Canberra Times fun-run.
''When I'm a bit older maybe I'll think about specialising,'' Brichacek said. ''But at the moment I'll just keep doing a bit of everything I think, everything is going pretty well so far and I enjoy everything.''
Both Brichacek and Dent will head to Geelong in two weeks' time for the Australia Cross Country Championships.
Yesterday, Dent had a record field of 70,000 people behind him in the run from Sydney's CBD to Bondi in the eastern suburbs. Also in yesterday's race, a 26-year-old man died when he had a heart attack 200m from the finish line.
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll lllllllllllllllllAT A GLANCE2008 City2Surf: Men: 1st Martin Dent, 41.12; 2nd Michael Shelley, 41.24; 3rd Josphat Mwangi (Kenya), 41.51
Women: 1st Rebecca Lowe, 47.18; 2nd Emily Brichacek, 48.12; 3rd Eliza Stewart, 48.35
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff