2023 Warrnambool Running Festival

Fleur Barling speaks to The Standard after winning the half marathon.

Transcript

00:00 Joined here by Fleur Barling, winner of the half marathon.

00:03 Must be absolutely thrilled to tick this one off and get the win.

00:07 Yeah, absolutely.

00:08 And it was an amazing course and it's great to see so many people from both interstate

00:14 and the surrounding as well.

00:16 Lots of people that attracted.

00:18 It was a beautiful course.

00:20 And many thanks to the local people around here that actually put it on.

00:25 It works really hard and it was a really fun course.

00:28 Challenging but really fun.

00:29 So what made it challenging exactly?

00:31 Was it the wind?

00:33 Obviously Warrnambool's windy.

00:34 It's quite hilly.

00:36 Yeah, so heading back towards Thunder Point we had a head on wind.

00:40 And of course uphill I was thinking, I love Warrnambool but fuck.

00:43 Fuck out the hills.

00:45 But yeah, it was mainly the hills, undulation.

00:48 It was really sort of tight down near Thunder Point.

00:52 But yeah, it was well worth the view.

00:54 It was beautiful.

00:55 So what did preparation kind of look like for you leading in?

00:57 How long does it kind of take to get ready for an event like this?

01:01 Well, I'm actually in the middle of a marathon plan.

01:04 So I'm at Marathon Block for Melbourne Marathon.

01:07 So I've only got four more weeks to go.

01:09 And I treated this as a bit of a long run with a few surges and things.

01:12 Yeah, it definitely tested me.

01:14 But I'm quite fatigued from the marathon build.

01:17 But it's slotted in perfectly.

01:19 Beautiful. Congratulations.