It’s not often a 14-year-old from Dubbo has the opportunity to run alongside a dual Olympian and World Championship steeplechaser.
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But that’s exactly what can, and does, happen at the Dubbo Stampede.
Lockie Townsend finished third overall, and was the second-placed male, in the 10 kilometre Cheetah Chase on Sunday with a time of 37 minutes and 21 seconds.
He also had the chance to run alongside one of his heroes in Olympic steeplechaser Vic Mitchell, who took young Lockie under her wing.
“He was amazing,” Mitchell said.
“I was running with him … he got into third at one point and I was like ‘don’t worry, we’ll reel in the next dude’.
“He [Lockie] is definitely an Olympian of the future.”
“That was amazing,” Townsend said.
“When she started the 5k she was first out and I was like ‘are you serious? This is Vic Mitchell!’”
The pair were part of the lead pack in the opening kilometres of the race before eventual winner Mitch Williamson broke away. Steve Ballantine went with him.
But Mitchell assured Townsend they could run Ballantine down, which they did. Mitchell ended up finishing second overall in a time of 36:58, behind Williamson’s of 34:47.
The win gave Mitchell the double – first female in the 5.3km Dingo Dash and the 10km Cheetah Chase – a feat Williamson also managed.
“She had a bit more in her legs after she had done the five as well,” Townsend said.
“I just kept looking beside me like ‘this is amazing – I’m running beside an Olympian here’.”
Mitchell, who is not sponsored, said the prize money made the Dubbo Stampede attractive, but that she also liked to support country events and communities.
She also liked having the chance to get back to where her own running journey began.
“We all start somewhere and I started with Little Athletics and fun runs so it will always be part of my running,” she said.
“When you come to events like this, everybody is doing the same thing. Everybody just wants to do their best so it brings people together – it’s not as if I’m better than anyone else.”
It was Mitchell’s first time at the Dubbo Stampede and has certainly made an impression.
The event fit nicely into her training program, Mitchell said, and she said hard work was the key for any aspiring young athletes like Lockie.
”Just keep the joy in it,” she said.
“Train hard, just slowly build your training and anything is possible.”