December 1998 by plane to MELBOURNE for the Australian Men's 50km walk Championship and World cup trial..

It was my first 50km race and the furthest distance I had ever walked (The most I did in training was 42.5km), but I got there in 5hr 38min. Full results here. It was the toughest race I had ever done, and I really wanted to come back and take on the challenge again. Which I did the following year, see here.... Everyone there was so nice. The Erickson's and a few others helped me out with various things like somewhere to stay. It was great to see Justine Tonti-Phillipini competing for WA, and it meant a lot to me in the race the encouragement from various people there.

Also raced a 3km walk on the track in the local State League at Olympic Park while I was there, and trained with a former member of my coach's original training group (about 10 years earlier in WA Armadale), Graham Watt around the Tan (Royal Botannical Gardens...there is a 4km track which we did a few laps of, I did it to get rid of some of the stiffness after my 50k a few days later...). Also stayed at an old school friends house, from Willetton S.H.S. (Michael), and caught the train to the country town of Sale, to visit Dan & Simone who I got to know while Dan was at my church in Wanneroo in early 98. Back to Jon's main travel page