IT WAS a blistery morning at Lakeside Stadium in Albert Park but that didn’t stop a determined media pack from swapping business attire, voice recorders, notepads and pens for some brand new Canterbury sportswear.

Even North legend Mick Martyn gave up his day job to return for another dreaded pre-season training session.

At a special time trial to announce North Melbourne’s new partnership with leading apparel brand Canterbury, several members of the sports media and Martyn were put through their paces against the Kangaroos’ senior players.

Up against the club’s elite in Sam Gibson, Ryan Bastinac and Mason Wood, the journalists were out to make an impression.

There were some visible signs of pre-race nerves as the media representatives lined up at the starting blocks.

Fox Sports’ Julian ‘the dog’ de Stoop declaring, “If Tony Jones beats me, I’ll walk back to work.”

Tom Browne went out a little too hard and while he opened up a big early lead, the Seven News sports reporter’s strategy was poorly thought out.

After two laps, he began to tire dramatically and quickly surrendered the lead.

After some jostling for position, most runners settled into their groove. Nine’s Tony Jones adopted the tried and true tortoise and hare approach with a slow start but steady finish and eventually reeled in Browne and North champion Mick Martyn.

But it was AFL.com.au reporter Nick Bowen who claimed the bragging rights (7:28), finishing ahead of the Herald Sun’s Sam Edmund (7:38), de Stoop (8:10), Channel Ten’s Trent Dann (8:17), Jones (8:43), Browne (8:48) and Martyn (8:58).

Bowen, who stood out from his colleagues from the outset courtesy of a bright orange Canterbury T-shirt, may have timed his run to perfection but wasn’t proud of it.

“I ran it in a very gutless way,” Bowen said after taking the honours.

“I went out pretty gently and let some of the other media boys set the pace.”

Despite crossing the line in second position, Edmund wasn’t overly happy with his efforts either but said his main aim was “just to finish”.

“I think when you’ve got no ability, you need guts and determination, but we haven’t got that either,” Edmund said.

“To be honest, I had delusions of grandeur that I might’ve been able to overhaul Todd Goldstein but he put that to bed within about 200m when I saw those big, long, loping legs disappearing into the distance.

“It’s good to get an insight into just how fast they (North Melbourne) are going for December and how fit they’re going to be, come the start of the season.”

The Herald Sun reporter full of praise for Bowen.

“(He’s) very strong, he got me on the last lap when he surged away and I couldn’t reel him in. He’s a big bloke (with a) big engine (and a) big heart,” he said.

Senior coach Brad Scott was also impressed with Bowen’s performance.

“AFL Media had the winner today – Nick Bowen was a key standout,” Scott said.

“I didn’t think you had that time in you, Nick.”

The Roos’ coach said Jones was touted as “the smoky coming in”.

“There was a fair rumour that he’s quite a regular runner, but he assures me it’s over a longer, slower distance than a 2km time trial,” he said with a laugh.

For the third-placed de Stoop, his sole aim was to triumph over his commercial television counterparts.

“I had two (motivations going into the race), not to lose to Tony Jones and not to lose to Tom Browne,” de Stoop said.

“When Tom took off at the start, I was a bit worried but we reeled him in pretty quickly and beat them both home which was good.”

Canterbury last month signed a three-year deal with North Melbourne as its official apparel partner and appointed vice-captain Jack Ziebell as an ambassador.