By Callum Ludwig
A Yarra Junction marathon runner has ducked across to take out the title in a flourishing fun run event before she sets her sights overseas.
Sarah Klein won the women’s title of the 42nd annual 8km Mountain to Surf hosted by the Lorne Life Saving Club on Friday 12 January.
Ms Klein said he hadn’t run the event before but learnt about it from some members of the organising committee who said she should come down and give it a go.
“It’s always nice this time of year, getting to that side of the bay and being in places like Lorne, I was aware of some other athletes that had run in the past and won as it has attracted some pretty good athletes over the years so I thought I’d give it a go,” she said.
“I had a great day, it obviously helps that I won and ran well, but it was a really cool event to be part of.”
Ms Klein completed the race in a scintillating time of 26 minutes and four seconds, almost two minutes ahead of the next competitor. The 38-year-old previously represented Australia in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014, finishing tenth with a time of two hours, 35 minutes and 21 seconds.
Ms Klein said the Mountain to Surf was her first race back off an injury late last year.
“My body was feeling good and I was happy with the way that I ran on the day, so now that I’ve got that in the bank, I can get stuck into the next phase of training and look towards the next race,” she said.
“I’m looking towards running my next marathon, maybe in April. The race is to be confirmed but my aim is towards the Milan Marathon, so I want to try to build up some fitness between now and then and run a PB (personal best),”
“It’s obviously an Olympic year and the women’s marathon running is like the best it’s ever been ever in Australia, so there’s a lot of competition to make that Olympic team so I just wnat to have a crack at the distance, try and run a PB and see what I can do.”
About 2000 runners of all ages and abilities competedin the Mountain to Surf, with about 5000 swimmers competing in the 1.2km Pier to Pub swim the following day.
Ms Klein said she had imagined the race would be hilly based off what she knew of Lorne but otherwise didn’t know what to expect.
“Those first couple of hills to start with were a bit of a tough way to start, but finishing along the Great Ocean Road was amazing, she said.
“You step out onto the road and you’re off the trails, taking a deep breath, enjoying the sea breeze and the view for the last couple of kilometres.”
Ms Klein has competed at the last two Athletics World Championships; held in the city of Eugene in the USA in 2022 and in Budapest, Hungary in 2023. In the 2022 event, she posted her best competitive marathon time to date with a time of two hours, 30 minutes and 10 seconds which saw her finish 14th overall.
Ms Klein competes in marathon and road running events, as well as previously having competed in the 5000m and 10,000m events. She is currently ranked 237th in the world for women’s road running and 415th for the women’s marathon, with her best prior world rankings for each event being 196th and 172nd in the world respectively.
Ms Klein said she has been running forever, ever since she was in ‘Little Aths.’
“For young athletes, whatever you do, you want to be consistent with what you do, so don’t go too hard too early and then give it all away,” she said.
“But most importantly, you have to learn to enjoy what you do every day and to enjoy the process, because unfortunately, in sport and in running, you’re never guaranteed to get better day after day, year after year, because injuries and growing and developing and all of that sort of stuff happens.”
