Kermeen, in her first year as a Warrnambool Athletics Club member, won the club’s 10km handicap race on Sunday on a rare weekend off from her netball commitments.

“Funny,” she said. “I’m not a runner.”

Kermeen said she and husband Jason had joined the club for fitness.

“I thought it would be a good thing for me and Jason to do. It’s our thing, we go running by ourselves.

“We used to just run around at home and thought joining the club would make us find the time to keep doing it. It’s made us commit to doing it.”

While Kermeen had the weekend off netball with the Hampden league having a bye, she said she pushed herself harder than before.

Instead of completing the 10km in her usual time of about 60 minutes, Kermeen surged around the course in 50 minutes and 47 seconds, giving her the win on handicap.

Kermeen said the course had to be changed because some parts were under water.

“They were explaining the route at the start and it was really confusing because it wasn’t on the rail trail. I said to someone standing beside me, ‘I’m OK, I will be able to follow someone’.

“I got to the front at 5km and led for the last 5km. I had no one to follow. I didn’t get lost, they had all the arrows out.”

Kermeen played down cutting 10 minutes from her usual time. “I’m not fast by any means,” she said.

“At least with the handicap it gives you a chance to win.

“It’s the fastest I’ve ever run. About 2km to go I thought I could win it and it made me go quicker.”

Kermeen attributed her improved time to the absence of netball the day before.

She plans to contest Sunday’s 16-kilometre club race, the last in her preparation for the June 16 half-marathon.

Kermeen is aiming for a time of about two hours for the half-marathon but that will depend on how she pulls up from netball.

“It will be good this week to see how I go doing 16km the day after the game.”

While Kermeen took out Sunday’s handicap race, teenager Thomas Hynes was the first male on handicap after narrowly being beaten for fastest time honours by Clinton Hall. Hall completed the course in 33 minutes and 26 seconds, 22 seconds ahead of Hynes. Tracey Kol was the fastest female in 42.27.