A spur of the moment decision, and a little bit of perseverance, has ended in success for the underdog winner of the Dubbo Stampede's 10km Cheetah Chase race.
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Daniel Carson had intended to travel to the Stampede, and Dubbo, as part of a larger cohort, but found plans changing at the eleventh hour.
"Yeah, it's my first time being here, competing in Dubbo," Carson said.
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"I had some friends who were coming along to compete all in a group, but they got sick at the last minute, however, I'd already registered so I just decided to keep going."
"It was pretty much just a spur of the moment with friends sort of thing, I hadn't raced 10km in a long while, but it seemed like a really good, fun event and a great chance to come along and see the zoo."
Although Carson was dismayed to suddenly be completing alone, the trip to Dubbo from Canberra was well worth the journey, not just getting to enjoy the surroundings, but also netting a $500 prize for his first place finish.
"The track was lovely, the course was beautiful, the volunteers here were so great."
Although Carson (00:34:35) was two minutes off breaking the course record (32:42:00) and netting himself a further bonus, he still left pleased with his overall result.
"I'm really delighted with the result, I've never actually really won a race for prize money or anything like that, so it's a pretty nice achievement."
Carson was also able to find some inspiration for his winning form from one of the other competitors, Paige Campbell, who took out the women's category at the 10km with a 00:35:01 first place finish.
"I'm not sure of her name, but the woman that came first, we were running together for the first 8km or so and she was super consistent and was really motivating, she's a really fantastic runner," Carson said.
