A VETERAN of more the 15 marathons, Warrnambool’s Sam Edney raised more than a few eyebrows when he blitzed the field in Sunday’s Narrawong Mouth2Mouth feature event.

Edney completed the Yumbah Classic 14km beach run – this year an out and back course starting and finishing at the Narrawong Recreation Reserve – in a impressive 55min40sec, more than five minutes quicker than Portland’s Craig Keenan (1:00:46) and Robert Logan (1:02:04).

Twenty-two starters took to the long distance event, on par from the last running in 2020.

And while for many it was a big achievement to complete the 14km, for Edney it was simply a training run.

“I came over with my girlfriend (Ashleigh Hargreaves) this morning, she did the 7km (and placed second in the women’s event),” Edney said.

“I am just kicking off a bit of a training block for a marathon coming up later in the year.

“It was supposed to be a training run, but it turned into a bit of an effort, probably a bit harder than a training run to be honest.

“I have done a bit of beach running.

“Being from Warrnambool there’s always a bit of beach running involved with training.

“Conditions were good – a bit tough towards the end – from the turnaround point it felt like a completely different day.”

Edney has long eyed the Mouth2Mouth but an ongoing commitment to the Warrnambool Surf to Surf had prevented him entering in the past.

“It’s my first time here.

“Normally this weekend is the Surf to Surf but that’s not on this year.

“I’ve always wanted to do the Narrawong run, but Surf to Surf is something I always want to do each year.

“It was good to have a chance to come and do this.”

The 7km Auntie Annie’s Run was taken out by Drew Christian (31:43), ahead of Daniel Polkinghorne (32:06) and Dirk Herat (32:10), while the 3km Surry Scurry was claimed by Noah Board (13:04), in front of Cameron Botica (13:35) and Baron Reeves (13:50).