"Maybe a little annoyed," he said.

The Warrnambool young gun was the first junior across the line in yesterday's 29th Surf 'T' Surf.

His little legs ran the 10 kilometres in an impressive time of 38 minutes and 37 seconds.

"I thought that was pretty good," he said. "I wanted to get under 40 minutes."

Yesterday was Tom's third Surf 'T' Surf.

He finished last year's in 40:41 while the year before he completed the event in 45 minutes.

The Warrnambool Athletics Club member had been busy preparing for the run.

"I've been doing one bigger run, a five-kilometre one or so, once a week and then I have a rest day and do five 3.5km runs," he said.

The youngster started running competitively a few years ago.

"School sports were coming up and I thought I would try it," he said.

Emmanuel College will gain the services of the up-and-coming Tom this year, when he starts secondary school.