Patches of rain over the weekend did not bode well for Canberra day. But lo and behold- a perfect day! Hot air balloons dotted the sky as scores of eager runners turned out to register. Even the dreaded Skywhale couldn't tarnish the atmosphere (just kidding- we all love our Skywhale).

Having checked the course the day before, the race director had been alerted to a large dead tree which had fallen across the bike path, just before Black Mountain Peninsula. Two beefy cyclists helped him remove it- or rather, he helped them, as they were already wrestling with the fallen giant when he arrived. So a big thanks to our tree wranglers, who prevented our race from becoming a hurdles event.

All preparations were made, the 10km started more or less on time, with the 4km runners starting a few minutes later. All was well, but then- the laptop used for timing the 4km developed an unusual feature, which involved not recording any runners' times. Hilarious! Fortunately we had a high-tech backup known as a pen and some paper, on a fancy device called a "clipboard". This enabled us to enter a post-computer age, and record some results.

The incredible Keely Small was the first home overall in the 4km in a time of 15:13, winning the girls' Under 13 category, and pipping Andrew Simpfendorfer (Male Over 17) by five seconds. Connor Frew won the boys' Under 17 in 16:12, one second ahead of Alex Hughes (Boys Under 13).

Aston Duncan 37:18 (Male Under 50) was the overall winner in the 1okm race. Hannah Walmsley 38:42 (Female Under 50) was the fastest woman. Caroline Campbell was the only Over 70 finisher today, beating the sixty minute mark by 27 seconds.

Overall there were 229 finishers in the two races, making this one of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team's biggest ever races at Acton Ferry Terminal on beautiful Lake Burley Griffin. Thank you to all the runners and walkers who turned out.

Full results are published, and also a photo gallery.