December 26, 2017
Shane Ruljancich and Dawn Wilson
Shane ran the fastest time of 1:02:28 in the 2-lap Harriers Boxing Day 10 Miler while Dawn ran the fastest time of 41:59 in the 1-lap accompanying 5 Miler today which attracted 22 finishers with 20 completing the 10 mile course and 2 completing the 5 mile course. Directed by Gary Duncan the 19th annual event attracted runners from Hamilton, ON, Richland, WA, Canmore, AB, Calgary, AB and Courtenay, BC. There were 10 Harriers participating with Chris Callendar, 1:05:21, placing second overall and Chris Albertson, 1:05:51, takng third. The top 10-mile female was Denisse Justiniano; she 9th OA in 1:15:43.
Previous Years - Runners of the Week (Since 1997)
December 26, 2017
Shane Ruljancich and Dawn Wilson
Shane ran the fastest time of 1:02:28 in the 2-lap Harriers Boxing Day 10 Miler while Dawn ran the fastest time of 41:59 in the 1-lap accompanying 5 Miler today which attracted 22 finishers with 20 completing the 10 mile course and 2 completing the 5 mile course. Directed by Gary Duncan the 19th annual event attracted runners from Hamilton, ON, Richland, WA, Canmore, AB, Calgary, AB and Courtenay, BC. There were 10 Harriers participating with Chris Callendar, 1:05:21, placing second overall and Chris Albertson, 1:05:51, takng third. The top 10-mile female was Denisse Justiniano; she 9th OA in 1:15:43.
December 9, 2017
Lucy Smith and Maia Watson
It was a like mother, like daughter, like brother family affair today at the 14th annual Stewart Mountain Cross Country Challenge as Lucy was the top female overall in the 10 Miler and daughter, Maia, was the top female in the 5 Miler and Lucy's brother, Dan Smith, was the top M50 of 21 men in his age category. Lucy placed 16th of 138 Ten Mile finishers with a time of 1:17:26 shattering Gwyn Woodson's F50 course record by over 9 minutes. Gwyn ran 1:26:33 to set the previous F50 record in 2005 at the second annual Stewart Mountain race. Maia, at 17 years old, was the first female, first junior and first Harrier in the Five Mile race in 42:46. She finished third overall of 46 finishers and was almost 5 minutes ahead of the second female, Naomi Cooper, 47:24. Wendy Davies and Dawn Wilson finished 1-2 of 13 women in the F50 division in 47:49 and 48:07. The race champions were Nanaimo's Travis Pirozzini, 1:04:54 in the 10 Miler, and Victoria's Mike Armet, 40:08 in the 5 Miler. The new Thetis Lake Adventure Quad Series of 4 races attracted over 700 finishers with only five runners earning the coveted Thetis Lake Quad Team special shirt for completing all four events. They included Harriers' Christine Thate, John Atkinson, Kevin Jones and Gary Duncan and Brenda Niziol from CeeVacs. The first 150 runners of the 184 finishers also received an attractive Stewart Mountain race shirt compliments of our Thetis Lake sponsor, Phil Nicholls of 2:18 Run Store in the Fairfield Plaza. There were 123 volunteers assisting at one, two, three or all four races and each of them received a warm, fleece-lined sweatshirt from 2:18 Run. Five Harriers worked at all four events and Race Directors, Bob Reid, Elaine Galbraith and Gary Duncan were extremely pleased with their loyal and continued assistance in key roles at the Thetis Lake Cross Country Trail Series held every fall. This Series is the largest fund-raiser to support scholarships, bursaries, charities, community projects, trail improvements, youth development and travel assistance for Harriers Foundation initiatives. Over $350,000 has been donated to date to support 98 projects since the Foundation was initiated in 1986 following the death of PIH founding member, Gunner Shaw, who was killed tragically in 1984 in a traffic accident. Gunner's Bursary in Athletics at the University of Victoria was the first Harriers Foundation project.
December 9, 2017
Angus Brown
Angus, a member of the Harriers Youth Team, finished second overall in 18:06 and he was the top Harrier and the top junior runner with a new P.B. this morning at the 18th Park Run at Clover Point. Matthew Winkler the 2017 Harriers Magical Mile Champion, won the Park Run 5K in 17:52 while Bronwyn Ambrock, the first female, placed 7th overall of 18 finishers with a time of 2o:3. She was about one minutes ahead of the second female, Jennifer Cameron, who finished in 21:34.
December 2, 2017
Lyndon Clazie and Patricia Roney
Lyndon and Patricia were the top Harriers placing 16th and 19th overall of 128 finishers in the 10K race at the 34th annual Gunner Shaw Memorial Cross Country event held in Vancouver today at Jericho Beach. Lyndon was the top junior U20 runner in 38:49 and Patricia placed first in the F30 age category in 41:43. There were six club members that made the trip across the water accompanied by club photographer Joseph Camilleri with four Harriers winning their age divisions. Besides Lyndon and Patricia, Gary Duncan won the M60 category by 7 minutes in 42:12 and Dawn Wilson, Lyndon's mom, won the F55 category by one and a half minutes in 53:46. The 10K race winners were Benoit Gignac in 37:08 and Robyn Mildren; she placed 6th overall in 38:49. Benjamin Paetzel and Bridgett Baziw won the accompanying 5K Silver Fox race in 18:05 and 19:52. There were 57 finishers in the 5K race and 128 in the 10K race for a total of 185 finishers today. Results are here: Vancouver Gunner Shaw Results; photos are here: Joseph Camilleri Photos
November 25, 2017
Lucy Smith
Two weeks after being inducted into the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame in Halifax, Lucy returned to her west coast home to shatter the F50 course record by 6 minutes and finish 9th overall of 248 finishers at the 33rd annual Gunner Shaw Cross Country Classic, Race #3 of 4 trail events which comprise the Harriers Thetis Lake Adventure Quad Series. Lucy was the first female Harrier, first female overall and first master, winning the F50 category by a staggering 13 and a half minutes. There were 34 runners in the F50 division and Lucy's time for the 10K was 39:35 on a hilly, rooty, rocky, slippery, soggy, challenging, character and classic race course to celebrate the life of the Prairie Inn Harriers founding club member, Gunner Shaw. The male winner was Shelby Drope, from Nanaimo, breaking the tape in 34:58. There were 30 Harriers participating and 40 more volunteering at the popular fall event. Several club members ran well with nine reaching the podium including six winning their age category, two placing second and one placing third. Gold medalists were Lucy Smith, F50, 39:35, Shane Ruljancich, M40, 36:55, Jonah Brost, M19, 37:49, Patricia Roney, F30, 41:48, Gary Duncan, M60, 43:39, and Charlene Waldner, F40, 52:29. Silver medalist Harriers included Louise Proulx, F50, 52:00, and Chris Hamilton, M60, 53:02, while 12-year-old Trevor Neil collected a bronze in the M19 category in 44:23. The Harriers Foundation project this year was a new Sandy Auburn Environmental Studies Scholarship at Camosun College. Over $6,000 was raised from last year's Gunner Shaw race proceeds and donations. Today's event including donations is assured of contributing the remaining $4,000 to attain the goal of a $10,000 grant to Camosun College to initiate the new Environmental Studies scholarship.
November 19, 2017
Gary Duncan
Gary finished 11th overall today of 412 finishers at the Bear Mountain 10K. His time was 43:13 to win the M60 division establishing a new age category course record. The race was won by little known Julien Bahain in 38:24; he is an Olympic bronze medalist in rowing that doesn't race often but today he topped the field by beating second place finisher, Peterson Perrin, by 19 seconds. Felipe Edora finished third in 39:53 while Harriers Magical Mile winner, Matthew Winkler, placed fourth in 40:47. The first female was Elsabet Lapointe, she was 14th overall in 44:17. There were very few Harriers registered for Bear Mountain, for besides Gary, only Peggy Sherwood, 377th, Eric Sherwood, 393rd, and Christine Thate, 401st, finished the race. On the Bear Mountain website the event is billed as "Canada's Hardest 10K" however 248 finishers at the Gunner Shaw 10K Classic one week later would question that claim!
November 18, 2017
John Atkinson
John won his second Clover Point 5K Park Run today with a sprint to the finish line for a one second margin of victory and a new personal best time of 19:18. Matthew Winkler placed second in 19:19 while the first female, Helen Bailey, finished fourth overall in 20:56. There were 13 finishers today at the 15th Clover Point Park race. John also won the October 21 - 11th Clover Point Park 5K in 20:59 which had 14 finishers.
November 12, 2017
Natasha Wodak
Natasha was the second female finishing 22nd overall of 5,552 finishers at the Monterey Bay Half Marathon in California today. Her time was 1:13:19 which was 24 seconds behind the top female, Kenyan Monicah Ngige, who finished 21st overall in 1:12:55. The male race champion was also from Kenya with Daniel Tapia leading the field in 1:03:36. Other Vancouverites ran very well with Sarah Inglis finishing 25th, fifth female, in 1:13:34, and Rachel Cliff finishing 29th, sixth female, in 1:14:25. A recap of the Race is here from the Athletics Illustrated website: Chris Kelsall article
November 11, 2017
Valerie Bell
Val had the distinction today of being the only four-time winner at the 21st Annual Harriers Thetis Lake 20K Relay with all of her achievements coming in the same race. Her first victory was the top female master in the Solo Division by running all four 5K laps in 1:34:20 to place 6th overall in the Solo Division and 49th overall of the 93 teams. Her second victory came by running the lead leg of the first place Veteran Mixed team, PIH Chasing Down the Runner Who is Running Down the Dream. Her third victory was claiming the top prize for the Race Director's choice for the worst team name in the Thetis Lake Relay. Her fourth and final victory was the $100.00 draw prize of a gift card at the Westin Bear Mountain Bella Restaurant by having her name pulled from the bowl of 60 Thetis Lake Adventure Series volunteers at the Harriers A.G.M the following week. The first place team at the Relay was from Nanaimo and their name was Havefuntryhardmakenewfriends, yet another "bad" team name announced by the Race Director at the awards ceremony. The Havefun team was captained by Shelby Drope who started the final 5K leg in third position but passed the second place Frontrunners team and the third place UVic Alumni team, KOMing in Hot, to claim the victory. The top three team times were 1:03:04, 1:03:27 and 1:05:13. There were 22 Harriers teams entered, all receiving a complimentary entry for being part of the host club, and an additional 25 volunteers were helping at the event.
November 4, 2017
Binder Kelsall
Binder won the major prize of a 30"x40" Roger Bannister and John Landy framed print in the first-ever sub 4-minute mile achieved at the 1954 Miracle Mile held in Vancouver as part of the British Empire Games, now the Commonwealth Games. Binder was the top female overall at the of the second edition of the Harriers Bob Reid Magical Mile on the Galloping Goose Regional Trail today with a winning time of 6:10.7. The male race winner was Matthew Winkler in 4:37.5 who also received a Bannister/Landy framed print as the male race champion. There were 22 finishers at the Magical Mile today including 16 club members. Harriers age category winners were Shane Ruljancich, M40 in 4:51.7, Lief Baradoy, M30 in 5:12.2, Brent Scott, M60 in 5:35.6, Binder Kelsall, F40 in 6:10.7, Jeff Beddoes, M50 in 6:16.6, Ulla Hansen, F50 in 6:30.0, Magdalena Bazalova-Carter, F30 in 7:17.4, and Marcia Stromsmoe, F60 in 7:34.4. The first edition 2013 Harriers Bob Reid Magical Mile race champions were Geoff Martinson in 4:14.4 and Brittany Therrien in 5:07.3. The 2018 Magical Mile will be moved to a rugged trail race in Thetis Lake Park to align with the other Harriers Adventure Quad Trail Series races including the Thetis Lake Relay, Gunner Shaw Classic and Stewart Mountain Challenge.
November 4, 2017
Justine Stecko and Liam Dwyer
Justine was the top female Harrier and placed first overall in the senior girls race attracting 242 finishers and Liam was the top male Harrier by finishing 7th overall of 233 finishers in the senior boys race at the British Columbia High School Cross Country Championships held at Jericho Park in Vancouver today. Justine, running in her school colours of Oak Bay Secondary, finished in 17:01 for 5K and Liam, from Mount Douglas Secondary, finished in 23:47 for 6K; he was 30 seconds behind race champion, Zach Wyatt, from R.E. Mountain, who won the race in 23:17. Other Harriers running well were Kalum Delaney (Reynolds), 7th in 23:57, Cooper Langard (Parklands), 10th in 23:58, and Findlay Day (Oak Bay), 11th in 24:01. There were a total of 998 finishers today in 4 races including senior girls, senior boys, junior girls, junior boys and para categories.
October 29, 2017
Chris Callendar, Patricia Roney and Will Boothman
The fifth and final race of the Mountain Equipment Coop Series wrapped up today at Beaver Lake Park with the MEC Grand Banana featuring over 900 registrations and 623 finishers including 197 in the 5K, 283 in the 10K and 143 in the half marathon. Chris was the top Harrier, 9th overall in 18:55 in the 5K, Patricia, 10th overall and second female in 40:03 in the 10K, and Will, 7th overall in 1:29:18 to win the M50 division in the half marathon, were the top three Harriers at the event. The race champions were Ty Fuoco, 16:21, and Annie Leblanc, 18:20, in the 5K, Cole Peterson, 32:46, and Mariah Kelly, second place overall in 37:47, in the 10K and Brent McMahon, 1:11:55, and Care Nelson, 1:25:27, in the half marathon.
October 28, 2017
Natasha Wodak and Justine Stecko
Natasha finished first overall and Justine was the top junior at the British Columbia Cross Country Championships in Abbottsford today. The top three senior women were Natasha, 18:39, Sarah Inglis, 18:47, and Rachel Cliff, 18:53. Lucas Bruchet won the senior men's race in 22:10 and Tyler Dozzi was the top Harrier in the junior men's race finishing 4th in 23:59. Junior, senior and master men all ran together in the same race which was the largest field of finishers with 101. The junior/senior/master women's race had 75 finishers and there were 8 other races in two-year intervals for boys and girls starting at age 9 to age 17. Besides Natasha and Justine, three Harriers master men won their age categories with Kris Swanson topping the pseudo-master M35 division in 24:21, Craig Odermatt winning the M45 division in 23:15 and Gary Duncan finishing first in the M60 division in 30:39.
October 25, 2017
Justine Stecko and Findlay Day
Justine and Findlay, both of Oak Bay Secondary, won the senior girls and senior boys races at Beaver Lake today and were crowned as champions at the Vancouver Island High School Cross Country Championships at Beaver Lake Park. The Harriers Youth Team placed 6 runners in the top 10 in the boy's race with Findlay Day, 1st in 21:47, Cooper Langard (Parklands), 2nd in 21:49, Kalum Delaney (Reynolds), 5th in 22:16, Michael Barber (Oak Bay), 6th in 22:25, Liam Dwyer (Mount Douglas), 8th in 22:37, and Jack Boden (Oak Bay), 9th in 22:51. Harriers Youth Team girls had 4 of the top 10 finishers with Justtine Steco, 1st in 16:41, Bridget Mateyko (St. Andrews), 2nd in 17:19, Alisa Lyesina (Oak Bay), 9th in 17:53 and Bridget Cameron (Victor Brodeur), 10th in 17:53. There were 81 finishers in the senior boys race, 125 in the junior boys, 98 in the senior girls and 91 in the junior girls for a total of 395 at the Vancouver Island XC Championships.
October 22, 2017
Gary Duncan
In his durable workmanlike fashion, Gary successfully completed four different events in two days, the first race was the BC Cross Country Championships on Saturday in Abbottsford where he won an M60 gold medal and the next three races were in Duncan (a Duncan in Duncan experience) on Sunday where he collected three more gold medals at the 3rd annual Cowichan Autumn Classic 10K, 5K and Combo Races hosted by CeeVacs Running Club. In a unique format where the 5K runners started at 9:30 am and the 10K runners started at 10:30 am, competitors had the option of running one race or both races where their times added together to get a "Combo" ranking. Gary placed 6th overall in the 5K in 20:45, 7th overall in the 10K in 43:18 and 4th overall in the Combo event in 1:04:03. There were a total of 572 finishers including 204 in the 5K, 264 in the 10K and 104 in the Combo. The race champions were Richard Light, 18:44, and Lydia Pedri, 22:09, in the 5K, Dusty Spiller, 36:07, and Kristen Lefler, 44:57, in the 10K and Richard Light, 58:25, and Stephanie Renwick, 1:12:45, in the Combo. The event was sponsored by Zanatta Winery where competitors were offered free wine tastings after the race and winners were presented with Zanatta wine glasses.
October 21, 2017
Gary Duncan, Valerie Bell, Dan Stefanson and Tammy Miles
Gary and Val were the top Harriers running the long course and Dan and Tammy were the top Harriers running the short course at the Burgoyne Bay Gutbuster on Salt Spring Island today. Gary placed 10th overall of 78 finishers in 2:00:12 to win the M60 age category while Val placed 43rd overall to win the F50 division in 2:24:50. Dan placed 20th of 80 finishers in 1:23:33 to place second in the M50 age category and Tammy placed 65th in 2:10:02 and placed 12th of 20 in the F40 division. The race winners were Nanaimo's Shelby Drope in 1:30:41 and Nanaimo's Melissa Ross in 1:50:54 for the long course and Trevor Coey, from Saanichton, 1:05:47, and Victoria's Alison Bishop, 1:14:47, for the short course. Burgoyne Bay was the final event of the six-race series of the 2017 Vancouver Island Trail Runs.
October 15, 2017
Shannon Coutts, Ee-Fah Glynn and Garth Campbell
Shannon was the second female overall and top master F40 in 2:32:07, Aoibhe "Piggy" Glynn was first F30 and fourth female overall in 2:44:13, while Garth was the top male Harrier by finishing 16th overall, third M50, in 2:11:57 at the second annual CrossFondo 40K trail cycling challenge today. They are COWS today (Cyclists Of the Week). The Tripleshot long course 40K winners were Dave Vunic in 1:56:47 and Emily Johnson, 8th overall in 2:02:44 to top the F16 junior division. The Doubleshot short course 20K winners were Alan Cassels, in 1:59:58, (yes, Dave Vunic covered twice the distance in a faster time!) and Brynn Johnston; she finished second overall in 2:09:13. There were a total of 206 registrations and 188 finishers including 153 on the long 40K course and 35 on the 20K short course using the trails of Thetis Lake Park, Francis King Park, Hartland Park, Vancouver Island Technology Centre and private landowners including Goodwin Farm at the base of Stewart Mountain. Other Harriers performing well on their cross bikes and mountain bikes on the 40K long course were Bertrand Bozek, 20th overall and 7th M40 in 2:16:10, Adam Lawrence, 28th overall and 10th M40 in 2:24:34, and Patricia Roney, 8th female overall and 3rd F30 in 2:51:17. I hiked with Shannon and the dogs the night before the race and she told me, "I'm not racing tomorrow, I am only participating in the event." I'd hate to think if she was racing as she might have been the race champion at the age of 49! She was 7 minutes ahead of the third female, Emily Boyle, who finished in 2:39:05 and was the second F40 master. I also chatted with Ee-Fah over a coffee yesterday following the Thetis Lake trail run, club photo around the Thetis Lake Park sign and the Harriers dog race. She commented that she wasn't ready for the CrossFondo as she is involved in several other sports including running, soccer, cycling and others. I replied, "You should add MORE sports to your daily routine, not less, as you are doing well in ALL of them!" Results are here: Tripleshot Results
October 14, 2017
Maisie Proulx, Katie Hamilton and Bebe Reid
One-year-old sisters from Sooke, Maisey and Katie, were FL-COWS (Four-Legged Canines of the Week) today as they finished first and second in a strong field of 7 fast dogs at the coveted 10th annual Harriers Hounds 40 Metre Sand Sprint on the main beach of Thetis Lake Park. Maisey won the race in 3.73 seconds and narrowly missed the course record of 3.44 seconds set by her Shawnigan Lake cousin, Abby Nylen, who blitzed the 40 metre sand course in 2015 to record the fastest time ever in the 10-year history of the race. Katie was 1/10th of one second behind Maisie hitting the finish line in 4.82 seconds while Kali Simpson finished third in 5.27 seconds. Bebe Reid was presented with the Ten-Year Gold Medal for Most Harriers Hounds Races (all 10) as she was 10 months old for the first race in 2008 and today she is 10 years and 10 months old for her tenth consecutive race in 2017. She finished 6th today in 6.89 seconds. Guiness Coutts won the Most Easily Distracted Award for the final finisher in 12.43 seconds. The race was completely dominated by females capturing the top six positions overall before the lone male, Guniess, sauntered across the finish line. Joseph Camilleri took some great pictures of the dog race and there's a good group shot of 29 2-legged Harriers gathered around the Thetis Lake Park sign before their trail run after the 4-legged Harriers canines had their run on the sand. We are the only running club in Canada with a canine membership and our very own annual dog race! Here's a link to Joseph's photos: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155811944435859&set=a.10155811959130859&type=3&theater. A complete set of Official Race Results can be found here: Official 2017 Harriers Hounds Race Results
October 8, 2017
Geoff Martinson, Brittany Therrien and Lucy Smith
Our former Victorian Harriers couple now residing in Vancouver, Geoff and Brittany, both recorded personal best times while Lucy notched another Canadian F50 Record at today's GoodLife Fitness Victoria Half Marathon and 8K Road Race. Geoff led the field of 2,635 Half Marathon finishers to celebrate his victory with a new P.B. of 1:04:28 and Brittany was third female overall and placed 24th of 2,122 finishers with a P.B. of 28:28 and a silver medal in the F25 division in the 8K Road Race. Fresh off her Canadian Record 28K Trail Race and new course record at the Finlayson Arm Ultras four weeks ago and her second place overall finish at the Seaside 10K in Sidney two weeks ago, Lucy set a new F50 Canadian Half Marathon Record of 1:19:53 today to win her age category by a staggering 16 minutes over Susan Bogle, of Whitehorse, who finished second in the F50 age category in 1:35:55. The race champions of the 38th annual GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon were Kenyan Daniel Kipkoech, of Lethbridge, in 2:21:03 and Vancouver's Lissa Zimmer placing 14th overall of 1,072 finishers in 2:48:14. Besides Geoff winning the Half Marathon in 1:04:28, Sarah Inglis, from Langley, topped the women's field placing 11th overall in 1:14:20 for a new personal best time. The 8K winners were Burnaby's Justin Kent in 24:04 (P.B.) and Lindsay Carson, formerly of Whitehorse but now living in Burnaby, in 27:26 (P.B.) to claim her fourth consecutive GoodLife Fitness Victoria 8K victory. If you have 22 minutes to spare for a great re-cap of the race, here's an excellent edition of "Game On" by Jeff King and Kevin Charach, of CHEK TV, interviewing the winners and other inspirational runners right at the finish line today: https://www.cheknews.ca/game-october-8th-2017-374814/
October 8, 2017
Justine Stecko, Liam Dwyer, Craig Odermatt and Ian Searle
In the most popular race of the day where 37 Harriers were among the 2,122 finishers in the 8K Road Race, the PIH Youth Team recorded some remarkable performances where all seven young Harriers reached the podium. Justine was the second female overall and first in the F16 division and ran step for step with the race champion, Lindsay Carson, for 7.5 kilometres before the 4-time winner inched away over the final 500 metres. Their times were 27:26 (P.B.) and 27:38 (P.B.). Liam was 10th overall and the top junior to win the M16 division in 26:54 (P.B.) and Craig finished 6th overall to claim the top master's position by placing first in the M45 division in 26:23. Besides Justine, Liam and Craig winning their age categories, Shane Ruljancich, M40, 27:17, Findlay Day, M13, 27:34, Erin Burrett, F35, 29:22, Trevor Neil, M12, 29:48, Patricia Roney, F30, 30:52, Gary Duncan, M55, 31:51, Brian Connon, M70, 34:08, Sandra Mullen, F55, 36:41, and John Cliff, M75, 41:07, all won their age divisions. Ian finished 10th overall of 1,072 Marathon finishers to claim the first Victorian honours in his marathon debut by recording a great time of 2:40:42. There were 60 Harriers participants of the a total of 6,924 finishers today including 1,072 in the Marathon, 75 in the Marathon Relay, 2,635 in the Half Marathon, 2,122 in the 8K and 1,020 for the 1.2K Kids' Run. Literally hundreds of club members volunteered at the event and 12 Harriers played key roles on the Organizing Committee with Cathy Noel, General Manager, Rob Reid, Race Director, Garth Reid, Start Line, Bob Reid, Lead Cyclists, Susan Norrington, Finish Line, Ulla Hansen, High Performance Athletes, Gary Duncan, Course certification and Marking, Rod McCrimmon, Awards Announcing, Mike Emerson, Course Set-up and Equipment, Paddy McCluskey, Medical Team, and Chris Kelsall, Photography, all helping to make the 38th edition outstanding on a very successful and sunny day! The entire group of 15 Cycling Officials were also club members with the exclusion of TC10K reporter extraordinaire and honourary Harrier, Jack Knox, who kept us amused throughout the day with his somewhat-warped but brilliant sense of humour. Jack's wife, Lucille Knox, ran a P.B. of 2:03:06 in the Half Marathon then she raced home to cook Jack a Thanksgiving turkey dinner!
October 1, 2017
Louise Proulx and Chris Hamilton
Louise and Chris registered as the Prairie Inn Harriers Cycling Team at the Okanagan Intrepid, a three day riding event starting and finishing in Osoyoos, BC. Participants rode between 120 and 170 kilometres each day. The website describes the race as a timed event with 3 stages attracting 50 expert riders covering over 400 kilometres with an elevation gain of 7,000 metres. There were solo riders and men's, women's and mixed teams of 2 riders per team and team members were required to ride together. The race attracted 44 finishers including 33 on the full course and 11 more did a shorter, half course, ride each day. On the first day, Louise and Chris finished 11th and 12th overall in 4:22:56, the second day they were 10th and 11th in 5:52:08 and the third day they achieved their best performances finishing 5th and 6th overall in 4:38:04. Their total of 14 hours, 53 minutes and 8 seconds earned them the top mixed team with Louise finishing as the top female and top master on the final day and Chris finishing as the top master male. The first solo rider was Michael Balt, from Squamish who recorded times of 4:13:57, 5:46:34 and 4:36:51 for a total time riding of 14:37:22. As part of the entry fee, food and accommodations were provided at the Waterfront Beach Resort on Osoyoos Lake.
September 29 and 30, 2017
Lisa Cantwell, Walter Cantwell, Valerie Bell and Larry Nylen
Lisa, Walter, Valerie and Larry all had high achievements at the Ultras in Golden, BC today today, a trail distance event in the Kootenays described as "Three Days of Pure Mountain Bliss". The first day featured a 3K hill climb with 600 metres of ascent and a 5K hill climb with 1,000 metres of ascent. Day 2 included a 30K run with 660 metres of ascent and a 60K run with 2,500 metres of ascent and Day 3 was a 10.5K run with 220 metres of ascent and a 22K run with 900 metres of ascent. Day 1 had 178 finishers in the 5K with Lisa finishing in 1:38:20 and 65 finishers in the 3K with Val finishing as first F50 in 47:47, Larry finishing as first M50 in 49:12 and Walter was third M40 in 49:30. Day 2 attracted 189 finishers in the rugged 60K race with Lisa finishing in 11:17:16 while Walter was first M40 in the 30K in 2:50:54, Larry was first M50 in 3:19:28 and Val was first F50 in 3:30:08. There were 102 finishers in the 30K won by Andrew Cassidy, of Edmonton, in 2:20:07. Richard Reid, also from Edmonton, won the 60K in 5:46:10.
September 24, 2017
Lucy Smith, Meghan Stothers and Craig Odermatt
Lucy, F50, narrowly missed finishing first overall by 10 seconds while Meghan placed 12th overall; she was the third female and won the F40 division at the first annual Seaside 10K in Sidney today at two races dominated by excellent women's performances. Craig, M40, won the accompanying 5K race in 16:29 with a comfortable margin of victory over Peterson Perrin, M20, who placed second and was over a minute and a half back in 17:53. Heather Macdonald, F40, was third finisher, top female and top master in the 5K in 18:17. SpeedFarm's Chris Beuley won the 10K race in 36:11, Lucy was second in 36:21, Chris Jones, M20, was third in 36:43 and Meghan, F40, finished in 40:22. There were a total of 409 finishers at Sidney including 243 in the 10K and 162 in the 5K. Here is a link to the complete story on Victoria Sports News: http://victoriasportsnews.com/women-dominate-inaugural-seaside-10k-5k/
September 24, 2017
Justine Stecko, Findlay Day and Jack Boden
Several members of our Harriers Youth Team traveled to Vancouver today to compete in the Vancouver Spirit Run featuring 13 different races in a variety of age categories and attracting a total of 389 finishers. Justine, 2016 winner of the Stewart Fall Harriers Junior of the Year, finished first overall in the F16-17 race by topping the 4K field in 15:17. Megan Roxby was second in 16:27 and Harriers' Alisa Lysina was sixth in 17:16. Findlay, son of former Gunner Shaw Most Valuable Runner, Meghan Day, placed 6th in the M16-17 5K race, Jack was 7th and their times were 17:59 and 18:07. Harriers' Joe Robertson, 18:40, and Michael Barber, 18:41 finished 12th and 13th while Zachary Wyatt, of Langley, won the 5K race in 17:12. The Vancouver Spirit Run had separate races for Elementary, High School and University students as well as Junior, Senior and Master men's and women's races. Full results are on the RaceDay Timing website.
September 24, 2017
Natasha Wodak
Natasha placed second overall in Ottawa today at Emilie's 5K Run of 109 finishers in a women's-only race in memory of Emilie Mondor; her time was 16:47. The race winner was Julie-Anne Staehli, of Kingston, in 16:25. Nadine Frost, from Ottawa, won the accompanying 5K Ottawa Run in 18:43. Started in 2005 by running coach and RunnersWeb.com founder Ken Parker, the event aims to provide an opportunity for competitive women to lead a race, set the pace, and be the overall race winners, as well as encourage new runners to come out and experience the race day environment for the first time. Since its inception, the race has been draw for Canada and the world’s elite female runners, like New Zealand’s Mary Davies and Kenya’s Lucy Njeri Macharia. Canadian Rachel Hannah is the reigning two-time champion, and also set the course record of 15:57 in 2014. The run was named in memory of Émilie Mondor, the first Canadian woman to run sub-15:00 in the 5K and a member of Team Canada at the 2004 Olympics. Originally from Mascouche, Quebec, Émilie was living in Ottawa to train for the marathon when she died in a car accident in the fall of 2006.
September 17, 2017
Lyndon Clazie, Dawn Wilson, Bill Boothman and Shane Ruljancich
Lyndon (Dawn's son), Dawn, Bill and Shane all had excellent performances at MEC Race #4 - 5K, 10K and 15K courses at Sooke Potholes today. Lyndon, 16, won the M16-19 junior division and finished second overall while mom, Dawn, won the F55 master's division and finished 19th overall of 99 finishers in the 5K race. Their times were 18:06 and 24:49. Bill was the top Harrier of the day in winning the longest 15K race nixing second place finisher, Craig Nix, by 22 seconds with times of 1:01:15 and 1:01:37. Shane staged a fierce battle with perennial MEC champion, outstanding triathlete and MEC employee/event organizer, Andrew McCartney, as Andrew hit the tape in 35:04 in the 10K race while Shane was second overall, 36 seconds back to claim top master's honours in 35:40. The race champions of the 5K were Matthew Winkler, 16:54, and Shannon Colman, 21:04, 10K winners were Andrew McCartney, 35:04, and Allison Fryer, 42:14, and 15K champions were Bill Boothman, 1:01:15, and Steph Romany-Phipps, 1:09:43. There were 99 finishers in the 5K , 101 in the 10K and 68 in the 15K for a total of 268 finishers at Sooke Potholes today. The 5-race MEC Series wraps up at Beaver Lake on October 29.
September 17, 2017
Geoff Martinson and Natasha Wodak
Sarah Inglis upset Rio Olympians and London 2017 World Championships competitors to win the Under Armour Eastside 10K this morning. The sold-out event, held in Vancouver, had a stacked women’s field including Olympians Natasha Wodak and Lanni Marchant as well as 2017 IAAF World Championships competitor Rachel Cliff. The Canada Running Series event featured 2,796 participants and was also the BC Championship Road Race as part of BC Athletics Super Series. The final BCSS race is the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon on October 8. Inglis, a Scottish runner who attended Trinity Western University in Langley, BC, beat defending champion Leslie Sexton, who is preparing for the 2017 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, by 15 seconds clocking 33:45, a personal best. Natasha, the Canadian 10,000m record holder, was third in 34:32 followed by Lanni Marchant and Rachel Cliff. Inglis was the Canadian university cross-country champion in 2015. "I am really happy to win the race with a personal best today," Inglis says. "It was a great field of women this year with Natasha, Rachel and Leslie and I felt strong on the hills and great during the race. I’ve been training really well and I am looking forward to the Victoria Half Marathon in a couple of weeks. Harriers Most Valuable Runner for 2016, Geoff Martinson, won the men’s race in a rather-tactical 30:00 bettering Justin Kent and Kevin Coffey in a BC Endurance Project sweep. All three, as does Cliff, train with the high-performance training group based in the Metro Vancouver area and are coached by former-Harrier Richard Lee. Kent and Coffey ran 30:17 and 30:38, respectively as Martinson regains his Eastside 10K title from 2015. Geoff and Natasha not only won the BC 10K Road Race Championship at Eastside, they also took over the top spot in the 12-race BC Super Series. Full story from Canadian Running including photos is here: https://runningmagazine.ca/2017-under-armour-eastside-10k-recap/
September 16, 2017
Kris Swanson
Kris, our Harriers representative and Team Canada team member at multiple World Championship mountain races, placed fourth place overall recording a time of 29:38 at the Grouse Grind today, a 2.9K (1.8 Mile) Climb featuring 2,800 feet in elevation gain, 2,830 boulder and wooden steps, a 56 degree slope and a 3,700 foot summit of Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver. The race champions were Geoff Kabush, mountain biker extraordinaire from Squamish in 28:06, and Robyn Mildren, of Vancouver; she placed 21st overall of 343 finishers in 34:35. The Grouse Grind course records are 25:01 for men and 31:04 for women.
September 10, 2017
Jericho O'Connell, Chrissa Tromp, Gary Duncan and Dee Ogden
Jericho, M20, and Chrissa, F16, were the top Harriers and both were age group gold medalists at the Metchosin Days 5K today attracting 101 finishers. Jericho won the race in 16:34 and Chrissa placed 9th overall and was the first female in 20:05. Gary placed 7th to win the M60 division in 19:41 and Dee placed 38th to win the F50 age division in 25:15. The 24rd Annual Metchosin Days 5K is a locally organized run/walk supporting the Metchosin Community House. It is a run for fun and a community-oriented, fitness event. The course uses country roads as well as the Galloping Goose Regional Trail and includes the big Lombard Road Hill. Keeping with the theme of being a local rural fun run, age category winners were awarded fresh Metchosin produce for their efforts. The event has seen a record number of local participants over the past three years.
September 10, 2017
Lucy Smith, Andrew Pape-Salmon and Andrew Barclay
Lucy and Andrew P-S. had outstanding performances at the 28K Finlayson Arm Trail Race today while Andrew B. completed the 100K Finlayson Arm Trail Race on Friday and topped it off by finishing the 28K event on Sunday! Lucy, at 50 years old, finished 4th overall of 140 finishers in the 28K rugged course over Mount Finlayson and Jocelyn Peak with a time of 3:05:25 to smash 26-year-old Kaylee Beales's course record of 3:27:40, set in 2016, by over 22 minutes. Lucy was the first female, top master and won the F50 age category. Andrew P-S was the top master and finished 6th overall in 3:14:25. Andrew B. finished the 100K in 13th place in 21 hours, 16 minutes and 17 seconds and finished the 28K in 66th place in 4 hours, 35 minutes and 30 seconds. The race champions were Jesse Booi, of North Vancouver, finishing in 16:06:53 in the 100K, Michael McMillan, also of North Vancouver, winning in 5:53:02 in the 50K and Nanaimo's Yann Bernaquez, running 2:45:12 to take the victory in the 28K. There were a total of 282 finishers at the Finlayson Arm Ultras with 27 in the 100K , 115 in the 50K and 140 in the 28K.
September 6, 2017
Ken Bonner
Ken, a lifetime member of the Prairie Inn Harriers with 36 years as a club member, extraordinary marathoner, triathlete and randonneur cyclist was the subject of a feature article about his running and cycling accomplishments in the Black Press today including a photo of his 10th completion of 36 consecutive Royal Victoria Marathons. Ken has run over 170 races starting in 1960 at the once-and-only All-Sooke Days Marathon featuring seven participants running from Victoria City Hall right down the middle of Douglas Street in rush hour, out the Trans Canada Highway before forking off on the Old Island Highway to Sooke Road and finishing the race in the tiny community of Sooke in time to watch the Logger's Wood-Splitting and Pole-Climbing Sports at All-Sooke Days. Thank god there was NO Colwood Crawl in the '60s as the roads were both traffic-free and runner-friendly. The race boasted one aid station with sliced oranges located at Colwood Corners. Ken's cycling accomplishments are even more astonishing where he has completed numerous 1,200 kilometre ans 600 kilometre rides covering several days sitting on a bike seat. He once told me that he had mastered the art of sleeping with his feet on the ground and his head on the handlebars for 5 minute intervals during these grueling, multi-day, randonneur rides. Ken's entertaining profile can be read here http://www.vicnews.com/sports/goodlife-fitness-victoria-marathon-oak-bay-based-runner-and-cyclist-has-been-a-stalwart-at-race/
September 2, 2017
Chris Callendar, Michael Angrove, Joseph Camilleri, Amy Perry, Maddie Perry and Wendy Davies
Chris, Michael, Amy, Maddie and Wendy have all emerged as race champions after the first four 5K ParkRuns have been completed starting and finishing at Clover Point and organized by Harriers' club member Michael Angrove. They are free 5K events held around the world on Saturday mornings. You only register once and you are issued a barcode for timing which you bring to each race. The first time trial 5K run was held on August 12 and attracted 47 finishers including 5 Harriers. The race winners were Chris Callendar, 18:12, and Amy Perry, 23:26. ParkRun 2 was on August 19 with 26 finishers including 2 Harriers and the race winners were Matthew Winkler, 17:07, and Lauren Wilson, 19:12. ParkRun 3 was August 26 with 28 finishers, 6 Harriers and the winners were Michael Angrove, 17:48, and Wendy Davies, 24:00. The fourth ParkRun was today, September 2, and attracted 35 finishers and 2 Harriers. The race winners were Ander Gat, 19:06, and Maddie Perry, 21:16. Joseph Camilleri continued his dominance in the M65 age category by collecting his third consecutive gold medal to go with his M65 victories at the Vancouver Marathon in May and the Navy 10K Run, 43:19, held in June. Vancouver was his marathon debut and he nailed it with a time of 3:34:52 to qualify for Boston next April. Today he placed second overall of the 35 finishers with another P.B. of 20:28.
August 23, 2017
Melanie McQuaid
An up-and-coming youngster and a seasoned veteran, both Victorians, came away with two world championship titles in Penticton today with Matt Sharpe, 26, winning the Aquathon and Melanie McQuaid, 44, winning the Cross Triathlon at the Multisport International Triathlon Union World Championships. An Aquathon is swimming and running, a Duathlon is cycling and running while a Cross Triathlon is swimming, trail running and mountain biking. Matt finished first in a one kilometre swim and five kilometre run while fellow Canadian Aidan Longcroft-Harris placed second. Melanie topped the field in the 1.5K swim, 30K mountain bike ride and 10K trail run. Jacquel1ne Slack, of Great Britain, was second and Switzerland's Ladina Buss placed third. Francisco Serrano of Mexico won the men's world championship Cross Triathlon. Melanie has now won five off-road triathlon World Championship titles including three full distance X-Terra Triathlon championships in Hawaii in 2003, 2005 and 2006 and two ITU Cross Triathlon championships including today's victory in Penticton and her victory in Kelowna in 2011.
August 20, 2017
Claire Morgan, Doug Doyle, Lori Chestnut and Barry Lycett
Claire was the second female and top master in the 140K Epic Division of the 7th annual Tour de Victoria today by placing 41st overall with a time of 4:06:36 while Doug was third of 48 in the M55 age category and 49th overall of 499 finishers in the longest race of the day. His time was 4:10:02. Lori Chestnut, better known as 3-time Hawaii Ironman Champion Lori Bowden, was third of 16 in the F50 age category while riding with her husband, James Chestnut, in the 45K Challenge Division from Sidney to downtown Victoria. They placed 81st and 82nd overall of 225 finishers and were both timed at 1:56:31. Barry was second in the M75 age category with a remarkable time of 3:51:00; he was 95th of 300 finishers in the 90K Legend Division while former PIH President, Mike Boisonneault, was 8th in the M60 age category in 3:16:53. The 3-Division race featured a total of 1,024 finishers with 499 in the 140K Epic, 300 in the 90K Legend and 225 in the Challenge. The 140K race champions were Nathan Brown, 3:50:47, and Megan Rathwell, 3:59:11, the 90K champions were Daniel Cure-Boulay, 2:49:30, and Kristin Campbell, 3:02:39, and the 45K champions were Harley Preston, 1:24:30, and former Harrier Hillerie Denning, 1:29:11.
August 12, 2017
Finn Battersby and Patricia Roney
Finn, 5th overall of 71 finishers in 1:25:20 and winning the M16 age category, and Patricia, 10th overall in 1:33:13, was the first female and won the F30 age category. They were both the top Harriers at the Mount Washington 14K Ascent Gutbuster today, Race #5 of the 6-Race Vancouver Island Trail Running Series concluding in October on Salt Spring Island. The male winner of the long course was Shelby Drope, in 1:13:20, while the male and female winners of the short course featuring 80 finishers were Trevor Coey, in 47:50, and Brittany Brooks, 4th overall in 56:59. The combined total of 151 finishers today was very close to the course record of 154 finishers set last year. The highest-ever number of finishers for any VITRS race is 271 which was established this year in Duncan at the Mount Tzouhalem Gutbuster. Events run every month starting with Cobble Hill in April, Mount Tzouhalen in May, Royal Roads in June, Ladysmith in July, Mount Washington in August and Burgoyne Bay, Salt Spring Island in October.
August 12, 2017
Kris Swanson
Perennial Canadian Team mountain-runner, Kris, once again won the Emperor’s Challenge Mountain Run today, a 20K event that leads over the summit of Mt Babcock south of Tumbler Ridge. His time was 1:29:24 and this was the 19th Emperor’s Challenge. Kris has won 18 of these races, the only exception being in 2007 when he was just nipped by three-time Royal Victoria Marathon winner and Harriers team mate, Steve Osaduik. Both Harriers were on the course again 2009 where Kris won in an epic battle. There is no comparable feat in Canadian running or athletics history of an athlete winning a single event so many times. In the global annals of mountain-running, Kris’s awe-inspiring achievement is very unique. Maurice Wilson, BC Athletics Technical Manager for Road and Cross Country Running, commented, “The Emperor’s Challenge has repeatedly demonstrated itself to be the most popular off-road event of its type in BC, a testament to the quality of the organization. Kris’s accomplishment is unheralded in Canadian running, demonstrating his endurance, strength and persistence.” The 2017 event was held in warm, somewhat smoky conditions, with little wind and there were a total of 1,082 entries with 713 finishers. Julianne Kucheran, of Fort St. John, won women’s event in a time of 2:01:28. The Emperor’s Challenge is one of the largest events of its kind in Canada. The field for the adult race is capped at 1000; registration opens 4 months before the race day, and in 2017 it filled up in just 15 hours. You can read the complete story from the BC Athletics website here: http://www.bcathletics.org/News/swanson-makes-it-18-19-in-the-emperors-challenge/2649/
August 12, 2017
Natasha Wodak
After finishing the 10,000 metre race with a season best of 31:55 while representing Team Canada at the IAAF World Championships in London, England, one week later Natasha jumped into the Rock 'n Roll 5K race while holidaying in Dublin, Ireland, and narrowly missed a gold medal by two tenths of a second in a photo finish. The top two females placed 7th and 8th overall out of an incredible 2,296 finishers and both were timed at 17:43. Lindsay Tessier was named the race champion and her time was listed as 17:43.5 while Natasha claimed second place after the photo review in 17:43.7. The male race champion was Michael Harty in 15:17. The Affidea R'nR 5K was held today and the Affidea Rock n' Roll Half Marathon will be run tomorrow. Both events are two of the most popular summer races in Ireland.
August 7, 2017
Erin Burrett, Craig Odermatt and Dee Ogden
Only three Harriers made the trip north to Comox today to compete in the Nautical Days 4 Miler and all three of them came away with medals. Erin was the top female, 8th overall in 23:39 to win the F30 division. Craig captured gold in the M40 division by finishing 11 seconds ahead of his Campbell River rival, Mark Cryderman, who was third overall in 21:16. Dee took bronze in the F50 division won by Campbell River's Shelagh Germyn; Shelagh was 44th overall in 30:37. Craig placed 2nd OA in 21:05 while Dee was 59th OA of 103 finishers in 33:01. The race champions were Derek Vinge, of Courtenay, in 20:59, and Erin Burrett, from Nanaimo, in 23:39. The loop course started at the Comox Town Hall on Beaufort Avenue and finished in front of the Lorne Hotel on Comox Avenue. The Comox Nautical Days 4 Mile Foot Race celebrated its 48th anniversary today making it the longest continuous race of any distance in British Columbia. Ya gotta love those "old school" imperial distance events. I ran three of my very best performances at the Chemainus Twilight Shuffle 4 Miler, the Vancouver Lions Gate Grand Marnier 10 Miler and the Royal Victoria Marathon 26.2 Miler. There's just something more rewarding and satisfying about training and racing in miles rather than the "modern day runner" charting and logging everything in kilometres and millimetres.
August 5, 2017
Natasha Wodak
Natasha finished the 10,000 metre race in 31:55 today recording a seasonal best at the IAAF World Championships in London, England. She placed 16th of 31 finishers and was the top Canadian. Her team mate from Vancouver, Rachel Cliff, ran a personal best time of 32:00 to place 20th. The gold and silver medalists were both Ethiopians with Almaz Ayana running a world best of 30:16 and Tirunesh Dibaba running a seasonal best of 31:02. The bronze medal went to Kenyan Agnes Jebet Tirup in 31:03. There were 33 starters and 31 finishers representing 19 different countries in the 10,000 metre final event.
August 1, 2017
Michael Lax, Sara Lax, Louise Wilkin, Kirsten Ramsay and Chris Wille
Five Harriers led by Michael, with his daughter Sara and niece Louise and accompanied by friends Kirsten and Chris, completed a rugged 170 kilometre extreme wilderness mountain run in July through France, Italy and Switzerland as they conquered the magnificent Mont Blanc. At 4,810 metres, or nearly 16,000 feet, Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in western Europe. Mont Blanc is more than a single peak: it’s a 25-km long wall of rock, ice and snow known as the ‘Mont Blanc massif’, encompassing some 400 summits and over 40 glaciers. The “Tour du Mont Blanc” (TMB) is the most popular long distance trekking trail in Europe, with about 10,000 hikers every summer. The trail circumnavigates the Mont Blanc massif, as well as several adjacent mountains, in a large loop through France, Italy and Switzerland. Trekkers usually allow 10-14 days to complete the ‘classic’ TMB route of 170 km. Multiple ‘alternate’ routes are possible, often traversing remote high mountain passes and ridges. The Harriers fivesome completed the run in six days. Here is Michael's story of the adventure including 14 beautiful photos Michael's Mont Blanc Story along with a fact sheet Mont Blanc Fact Sheet and a check list Mont Blanc Check List . After the first day his comment was, "Exhausted but content, with eyes full of wonder, this was life as it should be lived..." and after the final day he summed up the experience as, "I'd be back in a heartbeat!" My favourite picture is the switchback trail one simply titled - "Oh Shit"
July 23, 2017
Will Boothman, Pat Bryant, Jordan Cheung and Magdalena Carter
Will finished second in the M50 age category in 1:15:25, Pat was third M50 in 1:15:45 and Jordan was fifth M20 in 1:17:51. The Harriers trio placed 11th, 12th and 15th overall of 128 finishers at the MEC Victoria Triathlon today at the Panorama Leisure Centre and using the roads of North and Central Saanich for the bike and run portions of the event. Magdalena was eighth F30 in 1:33:58 and finished 71st overall. The race champions were Alex Walker breaking the tape in 1:02:04 and Alia Zawacki; she was first F30 and 13th overall in 1:16:03.
July 22, 2017
Justine Stecko and Andrew Pape-Salmon
In her first and longest race of this nature, Justine, a member of the Harriers Youth Team, completely annihilated the women's field at the Ladysmith Gutbuster long course today, Race #4 of 6 in the Vancouver Island Trail Running Series. Justine was the top female of 55 women finishers, she was the top junior, the top Harrier overall leading all the male Harriers in the race and finished a staggering 10 minutes ahead of the second female, Julia Tschanz, and almost 20 minutes clear of the third place female, Emily Solsberg. Julia was the race champion at this year's Gutbuster held at Royal Roads and Emily has also finished first in a previous Gutbuster race. At 17 years old, Justine became the youngest person, male or female, ever to win a Gutbuster event. The top three women's times were 1:19:22, 1:29:44 and 1:38:00 while the top three men, Shelby Drope, Travis Pirozzini, both from Nanaimo, and Duncan's James Richardson finished in 1:08:31, 1:11:19 and 1:12:57. Andrew, 1:20:59, was one position behind Justine and he was the top master and top male Harrier; they were 6th and 7th overall of 118 long course finishers including 55 women and 63 men. Besides Justine, F16, and Andrew, M40, Finn Battersby, M16, Gary Duncan, M60, and Valerie Bell, F50, also collected gold medals in their age divisions. The Ladysmith short course featured 81 finishers and the race champions were Peterson Perrin, 41:08, and Alison Bishop, 4th OA in 46:43. Wendy Davies was the top Harrier in the short course; she was 2nd of 13 in the F50 category in 59:34.
July 17, 2017
Lucy Smith
Canadian Masters Athletic Association announced today that Lucy was one of two athletes that have been selected from a large number of excellent performances to nationally share the Athlete of the Month honours. Lucy broke the Canadian W50 5000m record in Victoria on June 14 at the Christie Phoenix Victoria Track Series with a time of 17:39.66. One week later, she broke it again with a time of 17:32.97 while pacing another team mate in the 5000m. This was a fantastic race achieving a 95% age-graded performance. The link to the CMAA article is http://canadianmasters.ca/cmaa-news/canadian-masters-athlete-of-the-month-june-6/.
July 14, 2017
Natasha Wodak and Craig Odermatt
Natasha was the first female and finished 10th overall today in 32:52 at the 29th annual Summerfast 10K on the Seawall in Stanley Park, a race hosted by the Vancouver Falcons Athletic Club under the leadership of coach John Hill. She was more than 2 minutes clear of the second female, Robyn Mildren, who finished 18th OA in 34:52 while Christy Lovig, from Kelowna, was the top master and third female in 35:04. The male race champion was Benard Ngeno breaking the tape in 31:16 finishing first ahead of a record high of 419 finishers. Second place went to Brendan Wong in 31:39 and Bilal Shamsi took third in 31:57. Craig topped the M45 age category by finishing 12th overall in 33:28. The Summerfast 10K is Race #10 of 12 BC Super Series events commencing with the Harriers Pioneer 8K on January 8 and concluding with the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon on October 8. The BCSS is a collaboration between BC Athletics and 12 of BC's best road races, which bring the best athletes in BC together in competition, and encourage participation from all abilities. Runners must complete four or more races to qualify for prizes. The 12 races have been selected based on the quality of the events and the competitiveness of their fields. They include BC Championship races at 5K, 8K, 10K, Half and Full Marathon distances.
July 9, 2017
Bertrand Bozek and Jordan Cheung
Bertrand, 49, was the top master and finished second overall of 25 finishers in 1:32:36 at the 2017 XTerra Triathlon Short Course held at Durrance Lake and used the mountain bike trails of Hartland and Partridge Hills. The Short Course race winner was Graham Frost in 1:27:46 and the first female was Katherine Barry; she placed 7th OA in 1:55:10. The Long Course race champions were Madsen Karsten, 2:08:36, and Suzie Snyder in 2:29:35. There were 108 XTerra Long Course finishers. On the same day Jordan, a member of the Harriers Youth Team, won his age category and finished 9th overall at the Langford Sprint Triathlon. The Langford Triathlon attracted 152 finishers in Sprint, Olympic and Duathlon races. Other Harriers placed well including Fiona Peters, 1st F45, Brent Chan, 2nd M45, and Sandra Mullen, 2nd F55.
July 8, 2017
Liam Stanley, Michael Barber and Tyler Dozzi
Three members of the Harriers Youth team, coached by Bruce Deacon, won medals in Ottawa today at the National Youth Championships for Paralympic athletes and potential Olympic athletes. Liam boasted a gold medal in para-ambulatory 800m race and claimed a silver in the 1,500m event. Michael won a silver medal in the para-ambulatory 800m race and Tyler also took a silver in the junior men's 5,000 metres. There is a good article by Cleve Dheensaw in the Sunday, July 9th edition of the Times Colonist focusing on the new track being built at UVic and acknowledging performances by the Harriers Youth Team at the Ottawa national championships.
July 7, 2017
Shannon Coutts
Shannon placed 8th out of 22 Solo Master Women in the 7-day BC Mountain Bike Race which started today in Cumberland and concluded on July 13 in Whistler. She finished 374th overall of the 532 male and 90 female athletes. The 622 riders from 27 countries completed the strenuous event where competitors averaged 50 kilometres per day with races in Cumberland, Powell River, Sechelt, Langdale, North Vancouver, Squamish and Whistler. The race was won by Courtenay's Geoff Kabush who finished first overall in 5 of the 7 consecutive days and placed second overall in the other 2 days. The female race champion was Katrina Nash, from the Czech Republic; she placed 19th overall and also finished first in 5 of the 7 days and finished second the remaining 2 days.
June 25, 2017
Wendy Davies, Dawn Wilson, Leigh Sunderland and Gary Duncan
The MEC Tape Breaker was held at Royal Roads today and established a record number of 446 finishers including 149 in the 5K, 199 in the 10K and 98 in the Half Marathon, all run on hilly, challenging road and trail race courses. Wendy, Dawn and Leigh staged a fierce competition in the F55 division by finishing 1-2-3 and 16th, 17th and 20th overall in the 5K Tape Breaker with Wendy capturing gold in 25:35, Dawn taking silver in 24:41 and Leigh settling for a bronze in 25:58. Grace Boothman also won her F16 age category by finishing 27th of 149 finishers in the 5K in 27:05. Gary was the top Harrier and won the M55 division in the 10K Tape Breaker by finishing 5th overall of 199 finishers in the most popular 10K distance with a time of 41:30. Will Boothman, M50, and Rob Grant, M60, also won their age categories in the 10K. Stefan Lehmann was the top Harrier in the Half Marathon finishing 33rd in 1:52:34. The six race champions included Matthew Winkler, 17:50, and Elodie Chantel, 21:21, in the 5K, Matt Walsh, 39:11, and Brianna Brandon, 41:46, in the 10K and Andrew McCartney, 1:20:38, and Elise Moore, 1:38:08, in the Half Marathon.
June 25, 2017
Nolan Bentham, Camie Bentham, Dan Stefanson and Bridget Cameron
Harriers Juniors and Harriers Masters put on a clinic on how to win tonight at the 33rd annual Twilight Shuffle held at the University of Victoria on a flat and fast course around Ring Road. A tall, 14-year-old successful hockey player who has done very little running and is the son of Camie Bentham accompanied his mom to the event and, at the last minute, he decided to toe the line with her. Nolan Bentham shocked the entire field by sprinting away from last year's race champion and Harriers team mate, Dan Stefanson, to steal the overall victory by 10 seconds. Their times were 19:36 and 19:46. Dan, 49, claimed the master men's title while Camie, 46, was the top female master in 21:42 and placed 9th overall of 44 finishers. Bridget finished 6th overall to capture the junior women's crown in 20:53. For the first 23 years from 1985 to 2007 the Twilight Shuffle was a 4 Mile Race staged in Chemainus before shifting to the 5 Kilometre distance in 2008. It has remained at 5K for the past 10 years and in 2015 the venue shifted from Chemainus to Victoria and has been held here for the past 3 years. In a unique situation tonight, several "firsts" were established even though the field of finishers was the smallest in the 33 year history of the event. Including the 44 finishers and 2 race volunteers, there were five present and past race champions in attendance. Race Director, Phil Nicholls, won the first-ever Shuffle in 1985, Bob Reid, Finish Line Manager, was the first master to win the overall title in 1987, Nolan Bentham became the first junior race champion and was the youngest winner ever, Dan Stefanson, last year's champion, was the oldest master ever to break the tape in 2016 and was the first person to finish first and second in two consecutive years and Camie Bentham was the first master to win the race when it shifted to Victoria in 2015. It was also the first time that a mother and son topped their age categories in the same race and the first time that the ladies outnumbered the men in the race with 32 female finishers compared to 12 male finishers. The top three men and women tonight all received an attractive gift pack provided by 2:18 Run located in the Fairfield Plaza.
June 24, 2017
Patricia Roney
Patricia was the top Harrier and second female at the grueling 13th annual Kusam Klimb today by finishing 15th overall of the 513 finishers that struggled through a mountainous race course mainly covered with snow. The event is a 13.8 mile extreme mountain run near Sayward, a race that climbs 5,000 feet and is billed, "Are You Tough Enough?". The race winner was Nanaimo's Travis Pirozzini in 2:28:45 followed by Brady Dunne, from Vancouver, in 2:29:26, and Nanaimo's Yann Bernaquez took third in 2:30:54. The female race champion was 25 year old Darbykai Standrick, from Vancouver, she was 7th OA in 2:43:55, Patricia was second in 3:02:18 and Sandra Jensen, of Campbell River, was the third female and top master finishing 16th in 3:02:48. The 513 finishers today was 16 short of the record turnout of 529 set in 2015.
June 18, 2017
Gary Duncan, Paul Siluch, Pat Bryant and Jeff Beddoes
Gary, 41:11, Paul, 42:34, Pat, 44:10, and Jeff, 45:02, coincidentally all running in the M50 age category, were the only Harriers in the race and finished 1-2-3-4 overall of 48 finishers at the Father's Day 10K held on the trails behind PISE and the Interurban campus of Camosun College. The next four positions were all females finishing 5-6-7-8 overall including Karlie Leclaire, F20, 46:39, Alia Zawacki, F30, 46:46, Lana Spiers, F50, 47:07, and Megan Douglas, F20, 49:11. The accompanying 5K race was more popular with 135 finishers and the race champions were Emily Goldstone, F20, first overall in 24:09, and Noah Weaver, M20, second overall in 26:23. The event is sponsored by Paul Siluch's investment firm, Raymond James, and proceeds go towards Prostate Cancer research.
June 18, 2017
Mike Angrove, Walter Catwell, Dee Ogden and Joseph Camilleri
Also on Father's Day, the Navy Run in Esquimalt attracted 234 finishers in the 5K race and another 225 finishers in the 10K race. Mike was the race champion of the 5K in 17:46 and Walter was the top master by finishing third overall in 19:03. Dee won the F50 division in 24:30. The 10K race was a Nick-Nick show with Nick Walker winning in 33:52 and Nick Lightbody finishing second in 34:32. The female 10K champion, Mary McGregor, finished third overall in 37:03; she was more than 4 minutes ahead of the second female, Camille Hamm, from Thunder Bay, who finished 20th in 41:19. Joseph continued his dominance in the M65 age category by taking another gold medal, he was 33rd overall in 43:19 and placed 28th of 126 men in the 10K race. The top Harriers in the 10K were Mark Ritchie, 8th in 38:51, and Kirsten Arensen, 25th in 42:11.
June 18, 2017
Sara Pape-Salmon
In today's Times Colonist, Sara was pictured with her mother and she was recognized for her long-standing commitment to treating people with mental illness. Sara received UVic's Nurse Practitioner of the Year Award. It's not often that this ROTW forum recognizes a club member for an outstanding performance while on the job, but Sara has certainly earned "Worker of the Week" honours for her efforts. She is a member of the Assertive Community Treatment Teams and works with patients afflicted with some of the most severe mental illnesses and addiction issues. Sara also works with students, especially those in nursing or other branches of medicine, offering assistance during practical experience sessions. The University of Victoria presented the award recognizing her as a teacher and as a roll model at the annual UVic Nursing Awards Ceremony on June 7.
June 17, 2017
Natasha Wodak
Canadian Olympian Natasha Wodak, 33:52, and Kenyan-born Torontonian Daniel Wendimu, 30:26, won today’s Toronto Waterfront 10K, presented by lululemon athletica, in exciting races up front. Councillor Norm Kelly sent off a sold-out crowd of 7,100 from the 7:30 a.m. start on University Avenue next to City Hall under bright, sunny skies. The start temperature was a reasonable 21 degrees for June, with only a light breeze of 10k/hr from the east and humidity at 73%. The participants were drawn from 11 Canadian provinces and territories, 17 American states and 9 countries. The men went through the first, downhill kilometre in 2:48 as Toronto Olympic Club’s Abrehem Wagaye moved to the front to push the pace ahead of a pack that included Wendimu, Canadian Olympians Eric Gillis and Reid Coolsaet, and Toronto’s Sami Jibril who ran so well as the top Canadian at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in March. Wagaye steadily stretched his lead, to almost 100m at one point, passing 5k in 14:53. But gradually, as the sun and temperature rose, he began to fade and the chasers closed in to set up an exciting finish. Harriers' Natasha led the women’s race from start to finish to build a commanding lead in the current Canada Running Series standings after her victory at the Race Roster Spring Run Off 8K in April in High Park. London, Ontario’s Leslie Sexton and Olympian Krista DuChene of Brantford tucked in behind for the first two kilometres before Canada’s 10,000m record holder dropped the hammer in a quick third kilometre. She then cruised along Toronto’s scenic waterfront, perhaps losing a little concentration mid-race. “At 8km I wrote off the course record of 33:50,” said Natasha. “Then with about 50 metres to go I saw the clock and sprinted as hard as I could.” She crossed the line in 33:52, to take home $2,800 first-prize, but missed the $500 record bonus by a scant 2 seconds! Leslie Sexton, 34:49, who was also thrilled to be back racing after a lengthy injury-layoff, hung on for second place with Dehininet Jara a close third in 34:51. Natasha has been selected to Team Canada to run the IAAF World Track and Field Championships in London, England between August 4 and August 13. Here is her profile from the Athletics Canada website listing PIH as her club http://athletics.ca/national-team/our-team/418178/#sthash.HD6Hw11k.dpbs
June 11, 2017
Geoff Martinson and Natasha Wodak
Geoff ran a huge personal best 10,000 metre race tonight in Event No. 45 of the Portland Track Festival featuring the very best elite runners in North America. He lowered is 10,000m P.B. time from 30:12 to an amazing 28:48 by finishing 8th in the race won by Galen Rupp, of the Nike Oregon Project, in 28:19. Natasha had to "prove fitness" to qualify for the Canadian 5,000m Championships in Ottawa in 2 weeks and to make Team Canada for the World 10,000m Championships in London, England in August. She has an outstanding 5,000m race finishing in 5th place out of 17 elite females in Event No. 37 with a National Standard, a World Championships Qualifying time and a personal best of 15:42. The 5,000m race was won by Shannon Rowbury, also of the Nike Oregon Project, in 15:12.
June 10, 2017
Steve Osaduik and Shane Ruljancich
Steve and Shane finished third and fourth overall of 100 finishers on long course of the Royal Roads Gutbuster today, Race #3 of 6 in the Vancouver Island Trail Running Series. Their times were 43:15 and 43:27. Andrew Pape-Salmon, Kyle Weagant and Finn Battersby all had strong performances placing in the top 10 by finishing 6th, 7th and 9th in 47:17, 48:05 and 49:43. The first two long course finishers were both from Nanaimo as Travis Pirozzini and Shelby Drope placed 1-2 in 42:55 and 43:03. The top female was Julia Tschanz; she was 11th overall in 50:31. The short course champions were Tyler Leach, 27:24, and Alison Bishop, 4th OA in 28:38. There were 11 Harriers at Royal Roads, all of which ran the long course, and five of them won their age categories. Gold medalists included, Shane, M40, Finn, M16, Gary Duncan, M60, Valerie Bell, F50, and Kathleen Kane, F60. There were a total of 166 finishers including 100 on the long course and 66 on the short course.
June 6, 2017
Tyler Dozzi
BC Athletics and The Vancouver Foundation are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2017 Harry Jerome Scholarship. This year’s award winners are Tyler Dozzi of Terrace, currently living in Victoria training under Bruce Deacon's coaching the Harriers Youth Team, Madelyn Huston of Maple Ridge, and Thomas Nobbs of Vancouver. This award is administered by BC Athletics through The Vancouver Foundation. Eligible applicants must be residents of BC and be matriculating students progressing to post-secondary study. This scholarship is awarded to individuals who have demonstrated exceptional ability and show considerable promise in Athletics including Track & Field, Road Racing, or Cross Country Running; demonstrate financial need; have attained an acceptable academic record, and have demonstrated qualities of character and leadership. Tyler demonstrates strength, courage, and tenacity in all areas of his life. Tyler’s athletic abilities are undisputed as he has competed for BC multiple times and has recently captured the Youth Boys Canadian Cross Country National title in 2016. His passion for mathematics has led him to pursue engineering at the University of British Columbia this fall as he aspires to become an aerospace engineer. Outside of athletics and academics, Tyler involves himself in school culture by being a member of the Oak Bay Student Council. He is also a leader for the Cops for Cancer canvassing team and he raised funds for the Canadian Cancer Society. Tyler receives the Harry Jerome Scholarship Award as he consistently demonstrates admirable qualities during his pursuits within athletics, academics, and the community.
June 5, 2017
Liam Stanley
Athletics Canada announced today the team that will compete at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships in London, England, from July 14 to 23. It includes Harriers Youth Team member, Liam Stanley, who captured a silver medal in the Paralympic Games in Rio last summer. Liam also won the Harriers Stewart Fall Junior of the Year Award for 2016. Leading the way in London for Team Canada is Brent Lakatos of Dorval, Que. Lakatos, who lives and trains in England, recently set four World Records over the course of the world renowned Swiss Wheelchair Racing Series. His career resume is impressive to say the least; seven Paralympic Games medals and 12 World Para Athletics Championships medals. At the last World Para Athletics Championships, Lakatos won gold in the T53 wheelchair 100-metres, 200-metres and 800-metres, as well as silver in the 400-metres The team also includes Rio medalists Alexandre Dupont (wheelchair 4x400-metres), Alister McQueen (F44 javelin throw), Tristan Smyth (wheelchair 4x400-metres), Liam Stanley (T37 1500-metres) and Curtis Thom (wheelchair 4x400-metres).
June 4, 2017
Lucy Smith, Cathy Noel and Tami Tate
Lucy, at the age of 50, won the 5K race, Cathy managed a very successful 6th annual Victoria Goddess Run and Tami directed her first Goddess event and came away with flying colours with her attention to detail in organizing all aspects of a successful, large, women's-only race. Lucy's course-record winning time was 17:56 which completely dominated the field as Yana Hempler, 25, finished more than 3 minutes back in 20:57 and 14-year-old, Sophie Mallory, claimed third place in 21:10. Jen Millar also smashed the course record in the 10K race by winning in 37:28 and finishing more than 6 minutes ahead of runner-up, Ashley Armstrong, who hit the tape in 43:46. Liz Betteridge, from Nanaimo, placed third in 45:08 and was the top master. There were a total of 960 finishers at the Victoria Goddess Run including 440 in the 10K race and 520 in the 5K race. An accompanying Coquitlam Goddess Run will host their first race next weekend and the event may further expand to Calgary next year.
June 3, 2017
Lucy Smith and Herb Phillips
Lucy and Herb are both recent Hall of Fame inductees with Herb being inducted into the Canadian Masters Association Hall of Fame and Lucy being inducted into the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame. They join Maurice Tarrant who was inducted earlier this year into the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame. Lucy, Herb and Maurice undisputedly are the best master runners ever to sport a Harriers singlet of more than 1,200 club members within the last 40 years since PIH was founded in 1978 at the Prairie Inn Neighbourhood Pub by Gunner Shaw, Alex Marshall and Robin Pearson. I have known Herb for over 40 years and Lucy for over 25 years; they are great friends and they've been brilliant athletes throughout their entire running careers. We have competed together in many track meets, cross country races and road running events from a mile race to an ultramarathon. Herb has been a master's runner for 35 years, winning road races from one mile to 100 kilometres, track events from 800 metres to 10,000 metres, and many championship cross country events. Some of his highlights include: 11 age group gold medals in Canadian Cross Country Championships from 1992 to 2007; 12 Canadian age group records on the Track and the Roads, including two M55 records set in 1995, the 10K Road Race and the Marathon, which remain as records today 22 years later; in 2000 he was the gold medal winner in three 100K events including Canadian and World Championships, and he has run an estimated total in his career of more than 1,040 races, totaling over 102,000 miles or over 163,200 kilometres. Herb's tribute with a picture of him running proudly with his Harriers uniform in the Times Colonist 10K can be viewed on this link http://canadianmasters.ca/
June 3, 2017
Tyler Dozzi
BURNABY — The only way Charlie Dannatt could have predicted the final weekend of his high school track career would have been to answer the question ‘What’s greatest dream finish you could possibly predict for yourself?’ To which he would have fantasized that in the 50th anniversary of the meet that he’d like to win his two favourite races — the 1,500m and 3,000m — set a new B.C. meet record in at least one of them and in the end be named the Top Male Athlete of the Meet. “I am so ecstatic right now I can’t even put it into words,” the senior from North Vancouver’s Handsworth Secondary said after everything on the aforementioned list became reality for him by mid-afternoon Saturday at McLeod Athletic Park. “I am on top of the world.” In what amounted to a weekend duel under the sun with Oak Bay Bays’ senior Tyler Dozzi, Dannatt edged his future UBC Thunderbirds teammate in Friday’s 1,500m final (3:57.52-to-3:59.02), then did the same in a most remarkable Saturday running of the 3,000 in which both runners obliterated the 42-year-old record of 8:21.27 set in 1975 by Burnaby South’s John Martens. Dannatt ran in Dozzi’s immediate shadow for virtually the entire race, breaking free over the stretch drive to win in 8:15.93. Dozzi picked up his second silver medal of the weekend by finishing at 8:16.22. Both runners were a full 27 seconds ahead of the next fastest runner, bronze medallist Jack Stanley of Oak Bay, who clocked a time (8:43.83) which would have won nine of the 18 B.C. meet finals contested at the distance since the turn of the century. “To be completely honest, I hadn’t had my eyes on the record until just a couple of weeks before the race,” said Dannatt who is the first Handsworth male runner to win any senior running event from 100 metres to 3,000 metres at the provincial high school meet since Olympian Chris Winter capped off back-to-back-to-back steeplechase victories in 2004. “It just came into the back of my mind that I could and that’s where I kept it,” he continued. “I thought it was a possibility but I was just focusing on the race.” Dannatt gives full kudos to Dozzi who set the pace which enabled both to break the old record.“I knew Tyler had his sights set on the record coming in, but I told myself that I was just as fit as anyone, and that if he goes for the record, I’ll just stick right with him. Props to Tyler. He just went out there and gave it his all and it’s so much fun to race against him.” The wins in the 1,500 and 3,000 were enough for officials to name Dannatt the meet’s Top Male Athlete.
May 27, 2017
Natasha Wodak
Returning to competitive racing after her recent victory three weeks ago at the BMO Vancouver Half Marathon, Natasha had to settle for a silver medal today at the Tamarack Ottawa 10K Canadian Championship Road Race as team mate, Rachel Cliff, also of Vancouver, stole the show by winning the race in 33:35. Natasha finished 20 seconds back in 33:55 while former Victorian, past Harrier member and top-level triathlete, Victoria Coates, placed third in 34:46.
May 22, 2017
John Catterall and Wendy Davies
John and Wendy were the top laddie and lassie Harriers at the Kilted Mile today, held among the many sports events comprising Scottish Highland Games at Topaz Park. John finished second overall to race champion, Taylor Farwood, and Taylor collected $75.00 in prize money while John received $50.00 and third place, Jamie Polk, collected $25.00. Their times were 5:49, 5:53 and 5:58. Wendy was the second female to finish; she was the top master and won $25.00 in prize money for her 7:48 performance to place 8th overall. Other Harriers in the race were Gary Duncan, 4th in 6:03, and Marcia Stromsmoe, 12th in 8:18. The Glasgow Green oval race course was 1/8 of a mile on the upper baseball field and it was squeezed between the entertainment tent, beer garden, dance stage and clan tents which made for a lot of spirited cheering as the competitors completed their 8 laps.
May 21, 2017
Jordan Cheung and Gord Christie
Jordan and Gord finished 17th and 21st overall at the Oasis Shaughnessy 8K starting from the Kerrisdale Arena in Vancouver, a race that was dominated by Kenyans that took the top three positions with Paul Kimugul winning in 24:18. The first female was Kenyan Gladys Jepkechi-Tarus; she was 13th OA in 27:36. Jordan, a member of the PIH Youth Team, was fourth M20 in 32:11 and Gord, a former Cross Country champion, was first M55 in 33:13. The first Canadian was Christian Gravel who finished fourth in 25:35 and the top master was Kevin O'Connor finishing eighth overall and was first M50 in 26:38. The Oasis Shaughnessy 8K was Race No. 4 of the Lower Mainland Road Race Series and was hosted by Lions Gate Road Runners. There were 154 finishers including 82 men and 72 women and it was a hot sunny day.
May 18, 2017
Tyler Dozzi
An outstanding member of the Harriers Youth Team coached by Bruce Deacon, Tyler crushed the 3,000 meet record last night by running 8:28.00 at UVic's Centennial Stadium at the 50th annual Vancouver Island High School Championships. His time lowered the record of 8:34.78 by over 6 seconds which was set by Reynolds Secondary School student Brendan Hoff in 2016. The feature 3,000 metre race is the longest distance offered in the championships. Tonight, he won the 1,500 metre race and was named Male Athlete of the Meet. Hassy Fashiba-Bombata, of the Wellington Wildcats in Nanaimo, was named the Female Athlete of the Meet as she won the 100 metre and 200 metre races. Tyler is a grade 12 student at Oak Bay High School and his performances solidified the Track and Field crown for Oak Bay which also won the Cross Country title a few months ago. Oak Bay has won the T&F Vancouver Island team championship for the past 25 consecutive years. Tyler hopes to continue his education at U.B.C. where, besides his excellent running prowess, he will be studying aerospace and mechanical engineering.
May 13, 2017
Darcy Kernel and Martha McNeely
Too often the Runner of the Week features a club member's performance at a race but this week's acknowledgement recognizes two outstanding volunteers at the 30th Annual Harriers Elk/Beaver Ultras staged at Elk Lake today. Darcy completed his third year as Race Director and successfully managed all aspects of the event from his arrival at 5:00 am today to the final runner completing the course at 5:00 pm. His duties included race package pick up at the Howard Johnson Hotel on Friday night and Saturday race day activities of course marking, finish line set up and tear down, food, refreshments, volunteer coordination, results, awards and participant cheering throughout the day. Martha spent 12 solid hours and single-handedly managed the timing of each of the 10 laps for the 100K runners, 8 laps for the 50 milers, 5 laps for the 50Kers and 4 laps for the Glen Jaques 40K walkers. The inclement weather offered very cold and rainy conditions for the first three hours before the sun peeked out at noon for the balance of the day. Overall Martha manually recorded over 200 individual split times as each of the 35 runners completed their 10K circuit around the lakes. The cold, wet weather forced 9 runners to withdraw from the event as 26 finishers completed the Ultras which was the stage for the 100K National Championship won by Victoria's Evgeny Sotnikov in 8:23:04. The 50 Mile winner was Vanessa Le in 8:07:44, the 50K winner was Darren Tannas in 3:28:19 and the 40K Walk winner was Elizabeth Wilson in 6:54:25. Lions Gate Road Runners' athlete, 70-year-old Jim Swadling from North Vancouver, completely destroyed the M70 Canadian Record by breaking the 50K tape in second place overall of the 16 finishers with a time of 4:17:15. The previous record of 4:48:38 was set in 1995 by Willis Greenaway in Penticton. Jim now holds four National Age Category Records all set at our Elk/Beaver race course including M50 - 3:28:10, M55 - 3:32:39, M65 - 3:51:44, and today's brilliant M70 time of 4:17:15.
May 13, 2017
Andrew Pape-Salmon, Michael Lax and Valerie Bell
The Cumby 23K and 50K Trail Races took place in in Cumberland today and 22 Harriers traveled north to participate with 6 running the long course and 16 completing the short course. Andrew, M40, Michael, M60, and Val, F50, all came away with gold medals on the short course by finishing 6th, 10th and 76th overall of 212 finishers. Their times were 1:58:55, 2:08:08 and 2:38:49. Other Harriers in the short course were Walter Cantwell, 12th OA and 4th M40, Clay Jackson, 31st, Leona Wade, 47th, Louise Wilkin, 69th, Chris Wille, 81st, Larry Nylen, 89th, Katie Clegg, 113th, Sara Pape-Salmon, 115th, Fiona Peters, 129th, Lisa Cantwell, 130th, Colleen Auringer, 148th, Lisa Hoffner 157th, and Kathy Guthrie, 178th. The 50K race winners were Jeremy Clegg, 5:29:50, and Darbykai Standrick; she was second overall in 5:35:04, 6:08:40, while the 23K race winners were Derek Vinge, 1:46:52, and Kristin Clarke, 2:10:59. Harriers Kyle Weagant, 22nd, Charlene Waldner, 28th, Lisa Fehr, 24th, Chris Brower, 29th, Randy Duncan, 43rd, and David Marlor ,55th, all tackled the long course. There were a total of 269 finishers including 57 in the long course and 212 in the short course.
May 7, 2017
Natasha Wodak, Joseph Camilleri and Chris Callendar
Natasha was the first female, placing 12th overall of 6,556 finishers with a sparkling time of 1:12:58 at the BMO Vancouver Half Marathon today; the race was won by Kip Kangogo in 1:06:08 where the first 4 runners were all Kenyans. Joseph won a gold medal in his first-ever marathon in 3:34:52, gun time, and 3:30:45, chip time. He placed 442nd of 3,578 finishers in the BMO Marathon won by Kenyans Daniel Kipkoech, of Lethbridge, AB, and Gladys Jepkech-Tauris, of Eldoret. Joseph has an interesting story about his running career. He was born in Malta and was one of their top runners for the Alpine Athletics Club for 7 years between 1963 and 1969 before immigrating to Canada and becoming a Canadian citizen. He quit running all together on moving to Canada and took up the sport 41 years later in 2010 at the age of 60 shortly before he joined the Harriers. At the age of 67, today he was the first M65 finisher of 47 runners in that age category, he qualified for the Boston Marathon next April, and his future looks bright as a master's runner. Joseph "Crazy Legs" Camilleri is an avid photographer and has taken many excellent group shots of club activities and he is a regular Facebooker by posting photographs and stories. Chris placed second overall of 2,123 finishers in 29:13 in the BMO 8K Road Race. The 8K champions were Robert Brunelle in 29:04 and Courtney McEwan; she was 13th overall in 33:03. The most astonishing aspect of the BMO 8K is the slow pedestrian times in looking at the numbers compared to our own Pioneer 8K. The BMO winner was Robert Brunelle, followed by Chris Callendar and Russ Esau in 29:04, 29:13 and 29:34 of 2,123 finishers while the Harriers Pioneer winner was Lucas Bruchet followed by Justin Kent and Geoff Martinson in 23:24, 24:06 and 24:38 of 492 finishers. The female winner at BMO was Courtney McEwan in 33:03 while the Pioneer winner was Rachel Cliff in 26:51. The Pioneer men's champion was nearly 6 minutes faster than the BMO champion and the Pioneer women's champion was 5 minutes and 12 seconds faster than the BMO champion proving that Pioneer, with 1,631 fewer finishers, was "all quality" and BMO was "all quantity". To put things into perspective, Chris ran 29:13 today at BMO to place 2nd overall and he ran 32 seconds faster at Pioneer in 28:42 to place 25th overall. Another thing that always amazes me about the big Vancouver races is the number of no-shows. Two weeks ago I reported on 6,909 DNSs at the Sun Run while today there were a staggering 2,011 no-shows at the 3 BMO races. The Half Marathon alone had 203 pages of race results recorded by RaceStats with 164 pages of finishers and 39 complete pages of names of people who did not start or finish the race.
May 6, 2017
Shane Ruljancich, Patricia Roney, Finn Battersby and Louise Proulx
Shane finished third overall of 138 finishers in 1:12:25, Patricia was the top female and first Harrier, she placed 14th overall in 1:28:35, Finn won the junior M16 title in 1:26:07 and Louise demolished the F50 field of 14 contestants to win her age category by over 11 minutes with a time of 1:40:42 at the Mount Tzouhalem Gutbuster today, Race No. 2 of the Vancouver Island Trail Running Series. Finn placed 13th OA while Louise was the top master, third female OA and placed 28th. The race winner of the long course was Nanaimo's Shelby Drope in 1:09:34 and the winner of the short course was also from Nanaimo, Richard Birks in 36:56. The female champions were Patricia Roney, 1:28:35 on the long course and Alison Bishop, 39:23, on the short course. Several Harriers reached the podium with Gary Duncan, M60, Shane Runjancich, M40, Finn, M16, Patricia, F30, and Louise, F50, Bertrand Bozek, M40, short course, all taking gold, Sonja Yli-Kahila, F30, Andrew Pape-Salmon, M40, Lisa Cantwell, F50, short course, placing second in their respective age divisions and Chris Hamilton, M60, claimed a bronze. Honourable mention goes to Walter Cantwell, M40, and Larry Nylen, M50, who both placed 4th in their age categories. There were 16 Harriers at the event. 10 of which won medals. The combined total of 271 finishers included 138 on the long course and 133 on the short course.
April 30, 2017
Craig Odermatt, Lucy Smith, Edith Price and Brett Scott
Today, while the sun was shining, our master athletes were also shining with four different Harriers winning their age categories at the 28th annual Times Colonist 10K. Odie had an outstanding race as he was the top Harrier, the top master and topped the M45 division by finishing in 33:37 which was 2 seconds faster than his Sun Run time recorded last Sunday. A model of consistency, he was seeded No. 11, he wore Bib No. 11 and he finished 11th overall. Considering other big name masters like Jim Finlayson, Kevin O'Connor, Mark Cryderman and Shane Ruljancich were in the field, Odie indeed topped them all. Lucy, a six-time winner of the TC10K, won the F50 division today in 37:32. Edith was first F65 in 51:14 and Brett was first M60 in 39:52. The race champions were Daniel Kipkoech, from Lethbridge, in 29:57, and Vancouver's Dayna Pidhoresky, in 33:42; she was 13th overall. There were 9,000 registrations for the 2017 TC10K with 7,921 finishers including 7,121 in the run/walk, 5 visually impaired athletes, 54 nordic pole walkers, 9 wheelchairs and 782 in the 1.5K Kid's Family Run. The 7,189 10K finishers today compares to 7,124 finishers in 2016 and 7,724 finishers in 2015. Special recognition goes to Maurice Tarrant, last week's Runner of the Week, for finishing his 28th consecutive TC10K as he has never missed a race since the event started in 1990. Maurice finished second in the M85 division today but he holds five age category course records for the M60, M65, M70, M75 and M80 age divisions.
April 28, 2017
Maurice Tarrant
It was announced this morning in the Times Colonist that lifetime member of the Harriers, Maurice Tarrant, will be enshrined into the Victoria Sports Hall of Fame during the induction ceremonies this fall. He is acknowledged as "the most prolific master runner of all time." I produced a summary of Maurice's achievements two months ago which can be viewed here: Maurice's Achievements. He began running with our club in 1983 and is still active today. Over the past 34 years Maurice has set 70 Canadian Age Class Records and 8 Age Class World Records at various distances from a mile to a half marathon. He is absolutely the finest master ever to sport a Harriers racing uniform. Also being inducted into the Victoria Sports Hall of Fame in 2017 are Wanda Parsons, archery, Diane Cummins, track and field, Alex Nelson and Michael O'Connor, rugby, Rafael Melendez-Duke, track official, Denny Boyd, media, Karen March, paralympian and Victoria O'Keefe's, soccer, in the team category.
April 23, 2017
Geoff Martinson, Craig Odermatt and Michael Lax
Geoff finished second overall of 32,859 finishers with a time of 29:46 at the 33rd annual Vancouver Sun Run today and was only 7 seconds behind the race winner. The Sun Run champion was Joseph Gray of Seattle in 29:39. Ironically, Geoff and Joseph also had a classic battle at the Harriers Pioneer 8K in 2013 where Geoff emerged with the victory by almost a minute as their times were 23:43 and 24:20. Craig won the M45 age category by finishing 45th overall in 33:39 and Michael was second of 503 runners in the M60 division in 40:30. The M60 age category was won by Surrey's Dave Fish in 38:32. The top female in the race was Karolina Jarzynska-Nadolska, from Poland, in 33:30; she was 40th overall. Harriers' Natasha Wodak placed 55th in 34:08 after a 8 month layoff die to injuries. She was the 5th female finisher and is a 2-time Sun Run champion. What amazes me the most about this event, which happens every year, is the amount of no-shows. The race results show 39,768 participants yet only 32,859 runners finished. That means 6,909 registrants either did not start, did not finish or fell off the Burrard Street Bridge and were swept out to sea! Even greater was the loss of their entry fees totaling $393,813 in profit for the race organizers. The entry fees were $57 per person and $70 on race day. There were 975 pages of results and 180 pages were DNSs, DNFs or runners floating somewhere in the ocean.
April 14, 2017
Steve Osaduik and Sonja Yli-Kahila
Steve and Sonja were the top club members placing 5th and 48th overall of 235 finishers including 14 Harriers at the 10th annual Fletcher's Challenge trail race in Nanaimo today. Steve's time was 1:17:46 while the race winners were Travis Pirozzini in 1:07:18 and Cheryl Davies, both of Nanaimo. Cheryl was 15th overall in 1:24:33. Steve is perhaps the greatest high performance athlete ever to wear a club uniform. His achievements include winning the Royal Victoria Marathon 3 times, the TC10K 3 times, the Island Race Series 6 times with over 30 overall victories and the Pioneer 8K 6 times. I produced a profile of him 9 years ago which is attached here; Steve Osaduik Resume. Sonja finished 4th in the F30-39 age category in 1:39:25. Gary Duncan had a good race finishing in 1:27:08 to place 19th OA, 5th in the M40-99 division, at the age of 59. Other Harriers included Andrew Pape-Salmon, second master about a minute behind Nanaimo's Justin Mark, Sara Pape-Salmon, Paul Birney, Kathleen Birney, Charlene Waldner, Dan Stefanson, Shell Harvey, Sean Finucane, Colleen Auringer, Lois Woolley and Dawn Wilson. Dawn had an unfortunate accident during the event where she fell through a wooden bridge and was rushed to the Nanaimo Regional Hospital for 8 stitches to her shin. In true Harrier fashion, Dawn was at Thetis Lake at 8:00 am the next morning for a one hour walk of the trails!
April 9, 2017
Shane Ruljancich, Maree Kennell and John Woodall
Shane finished second to Campbell River's Mark Cryderman in the M40 division at the Cedar 12K today, the 8th and final race of the Vancouver Island Race Series. Shane placed 5th OA in 42:29 and Mark was third in 41:18. The top male in the race was Nick Walker, 40:24, to secure the Series title and the top female was Melissa Ross, 21st OA in 48:09, also capturing the Series title on the women's side. Meanwhile, Harriers' Maree and John had brilliant performances all year long by setting course records in the F75 and M85 age categories in virtually every single event they ran. This was evident at Cedar today where Maree sliced 8 minutes off Briggete Killat's course record by finishing in 1:16:35 and John chopped 7 minutes off Maurice Tarrant's course record by finishing in 1:15:47. The race was hosted by Bastion Running Club and featured 262 finishers which was 111 fewer than last year's total of 373. Prairie Inn Harriers once again won the top club title of 66 registered teams for the 32nd time in the 35 years since the Series began in 1982.
April 8, 2017
Andrew Pape-Salmon, Finn Battersby, Kelly Campo and Bertrand Bozek
Andrew, winner of the Dave Reed Trail Runner of the Year in 2016, was the top master and placed 6th overall of 85 finishers while Finn, winner of the Bob Reid Bright Shining Light Award in 2016, placed 10th overall to capture the M19 age category on the 21.1K long course of the Cobble Hill Gutbuster today, Race No. 1 of 6 in the Vancouver Island Trail Running Series. Their times were 2:04:02 and 2:17:17. Both Kelly and Bertrand took silver medals in the F40 and M40 divisions on the Cobble Hill short course with Bertrand finishing 4th overall of 147 finishers in 1:14:14 and Kelly finishing 14th OA and she was the 3rd female to the line in 1:21:47. There were 11 Harriers in both races with Brent Scott winning the M50 age category and Valerie Bell winning the F50 age category on the long course. The race champions were Nanaimo's Travis Pirozzini, 1:44:47, and Jolien Verdegem, 8th OA in 2:14:15 on the long course and Richard Birks, 1:08:56, and Alison Bishop, 6th OA in 1:15:34 on the short course. The total of 232 finishers today was a complete event sell-out and boasted 21 more finishers than last year's mark of 211 which was the highest total of finishers in the 16 year history of the Gutbuster Series.
April 8, 2017
Jordan Cheung and Gary Duncan
Jordan, a member of the Harriers Youth Team, led 360 finishers from the start until being caught at the line by race winner Greg Garner as both runners hit the finish in 18 minutes, 43 seconds at the LifeMark Health Esquimalt 5K today. Gary worked up to 3rd overall mid-race before sliding back to 6th OA finishing in 19:10 and topping the M50-59 age category, 20 seconds ahead of 2nd M50 Bruce Schlatter who was 7th OA in 19:30. Harriers' Roy Styffe took third in the M50 division in 21:27. The top female in the race was Mel Russell, 13th OA in 21:15.
April 8, 2017
Natasha Wodak
Harriers' Olympian Natasha, also the Canadian 10,000m record holder and 8K road race Canadian record holder of 25:28 set at the Harriers Pioneer 8K three years ago, was back in action after battling injury for the better part of the past seven months. The Race Roster Spring Run-Off, which is more notable for its 8K event even though there is also a 5K event, was her first race since September, 2016. The Vancouver resident who traveled to Toronto for the race won the 8K in 27:53, almost a minute ahead of masters' star Lioudmila Kortchaguina, 28:43, and Madeline Yungblut placed third in 29:25. Natasha was 23rd overall of 1,859 finishers including 963 women and 896 men. Tristan Woodfine, of the Speed River Team in Guelph, took the race out hard but was forced to stop to retie his shoelace. The pit stop meant Woodfine was a considerable distance back at the one mile mark though he was leading by the halfway point of the race and cruised to a 24:14 clocking to claim the overall victory. The Spring Run-Off is Toronto’s oldest continuously-held road race and celebrated its 40th edition today.
April 2, 2017
Shane Ruljancich and Charlene Waldner
The Port Alberni Paper Chase 10K returned to the Vancouver Island Race Series today after a 15 year absence and was held under sunny skies. The Paper Chase was staged for 20 consecutive years from 1983 to 2002 and always produced stunning results even though the race course was quite hilly and challenging. Paul McCloy and Ulla Hansen (Marquette) set the respectable course records of 29:44 and 33:40 established in 1987 and 1988. Yours truly also ran two of his best 10K road times of 33:07 and 33:15 at Port Alberni in those two years. Today's race champions were Dusty Spiller, of Duncan, in 33:17, and Yanna Debelic, of Nanaimo, in 41:43. Shane and Charlene were the first male and female Harriers, both masters, as Shane finished 5th overall in 35:11 while Charlene was 39th overall of 243 finishers in 44:36. There were 12 Harriers in the race with Gary Duncan, M60, Brian Connon, M70, and Maree Kennell, F75, all winning their age categories while Shane, M40, Charlene, F45, and Marcia Stromsmoe, F65, finished second in their respective age division. The top masters in the race were Mark Cryderman, from Campbell River, he was third overall in 34:08, and Nanaimo's Yanna Debelic, F45, she was 20th overall.
March 19, 2017
Gary Duncan, Dawn Wilson and Leigh Sunderland
MEC Race No. 2, The Pace Setter, was held in Thetis Lake Park today and featured a total of 523 finishers including 249 in the 10K race and 274 in the 5K race. There were 13 Prairie Inn Harriers competing with Gary emerging as the top club member by finishing 15th overall in the 10K in 50:45 and winning the M55 division while Dawn and Leigh were 1-2 in the F55 division on the 5K course. Other Harriers gold medalists included Chris Callendar, M30, and Marcia Stromsmoe, F65, in the 5K, and Wendy Davies, F55, in the 10K. The long course race champions were Andrew McCartney, 42:38, and Adele Lay, 50:41. There were 8 Edmonton Harriers youth team members visiting Victoria and all of them ran extremely well with Brandon Vail, 18 years old, winning the 5K event in 20:19 and team mate, Sadie Sigfstead, 13, topping the women's field by finishing 8th overall in 21:53. Edmonton Harrier Derek Usbko, 16, was 3rd overall in the 5K in 21:31.
March 19, 2017
Michael Angrove and Nancy Baxendale
For the second consecutive Island Series race, Michael was the top male Harrier by placing 12th overall of 347 finishers including 12 Harriers at the Comox Valley Half Marathon today held under bright, sunny skies. Michael was second M30 finishing in 1:22:14. Nancy was the top female Harrier and set a new F55 course record of 1:32:59 to place 40th overall. The race champions were Dusty Spiller, Duncan, in 1:15:23, and Melissa Ross, Nanaimo, 19th overall in 1:24:52. Of the 12 Harriers, quality prevailed in all age categories, as 10 club members reached the podium. First place went to Gary Duncan (M60), Brian Connon (M70), Meghan Stothers (F50), Nancy Baxendale (F55) and Maree Kennell (F75). Second place was awarded to Michael Angrove (M30), Marcia Stromsmoe (F65), Charlene Waldner (F45) and Diane Dennis (F55) while Mark Shier took third inthe M60 division. It should be noted that both Gary and race winner, Melissa Ross, were running back-to-back races after performing very well at the St. Patrick's Day 5K yesterday in Vancouver.
March 18, 2017
Geoff Martinson, Craig Odermatt and Gary Duncan
Geoff was third overall in a photo finish where the top three men finished less than one second apart with times of 14:00, 14:00 and 14:01, Craig was 32nd overall to place second to Kevin O'Connor in the M45 age category in 16:32 and Gary was also second in his M55 division to Mark Bennett in 19:03 at the St. Patrick's Day 5K held on a cool, chilly morning today in Stanley Park, Vancouver. Ross Proudfoot, Guelph, ON, and Vancouver's Dayna Pidhoresky were the race winners in 14:00 and 16:28. There were 1,206 finishers including 510 men and 696 women. Pioneer's 8K race champion, Lucas Bruchet, from Burnaby, took second by a fraction of a second place as the photo finish, when enlarged several times, revealed that he had lost to Proudfoot by a mere 10 centimetres while Geoff was 2 strides back. The second female overall was Trinity Western's Regan Yee in 16:34 and Rebecca Bassett, from SMU, was third in 16:49. Victoria's Hilary Stellingwerff was fourth female overall in 17:01.
March 12, 2017
Michael Angrove and Leona Wade
When an Island Series race has to be postponed for any reason, it usually leads to a reduced participation at the event. Such was the case when the Sooke River 10K was cancelled due to snow on February 5 and rescheduled five weeks later to March 12, the Sunday between Bazan Bay 5K and the Comox Valley Half Marathon. Although Sooke River Road was flooded, the Victoria Marathon Society staged a successful 17th annual 10K event today with Nick Walker, 33:51, and Julia Tschanz, 20th overall in 39:37, emerging as race champions. It was Nick's second consecutive victory at Sooke River. Participation fell 94 runners from 356 finishers last year to today's total of 262 due to the postponement. Eleven Harriers finished with medals including Michael Angrove, 8th overall in 37:55, and Leona Wade, 37th overall in 45:00, who were our top club members. Gold medals went to Maree Kennell (F75), Gary Duncan (M60), Brian Connon (M70) and John Woodall (M85) with both Maree and John setting new course records. Silver medals were achieved by Leona Wade (F35), Marcia Stromsmoe (F65), Kyle Weagant (M35), John Catterall (M55) and Rob Grant (M70) while bronze medals went to Michael Angrove (M30) and Will Boothman (M50). The excellent performances by 23 Harriers at the race propelled the club's lead in the team competition to 2,342 points over second place Comox Valley Road Runners with 1,292 points and third place CeeVacs Road Runners with 1,274 points. To date there are 63 teams registered for the Vancouver Island Race Series. Look for the VMS to establish a new venue and race course for 2018 in a different municipality.
March 5, 2017
Shane Ruljancich, Lucy Smith and Danielle Liepholdt
Shane was the top Harrier and the top master today finishing 10th overall of 524 finishers with a time of 16:17 at the Bazan Bay 5K, race no. 4 of 8 in the Island Series. Lucy won the F50 age category and set a new course record of 18:24. Danielle won the F15 age category in 20:43 and was the top female Harrier on the Youth Team. The boys Youth Team had a close and exciting finish in the M16 division with Michael Barber, Cooper Langard and Jack Boden finishing 28th, 29th and 30th overall 17:19, 17:19 and 17:29. There were 40 PIH members in the race and 8 won gold medals in their age categories, 2 took silver and 4 collected a bronze. First place Harriers were Shane Ruljancich (M40), Craig Odermatt (M45), Gary Duncan (M60), Brian Connon (M70), John Woodall (M85), Danielle Liepholdt (F15), Lucy Smith (F50 and Maree Kennell (F75). Second in their division were Rob Grant (M70) and Marcia Stromsmoe (F65) while third place performances were achieved by Chris Callendar (M35), Kate Brooks (F15), Sonja Yli-Kahila (F35) and Binder Kelsall (F45). The race winners were Joshua Kozelj, of the Vikes, in 15:17, and Alison Hooper, she was 20th overall in 17:01. The 524 finishers was 28 fewer than last year's total of 552.
February 24, 2017
37 Award Winners for 2016
The Prairie Inn Harriers held their annual Awards Ceremony tonight at the Cedar Hill Golf Club banquet room and the following list shows the 37 award winners for 2016:
PERPETUAL AWARDS
Gunner Shaw Most Valuable Runner – Jim Finlayson and Natasha Wodak
Robin Pearson Most Improved Runner – Paul Birney
Alex Marshall Master of the Year (40+) – Shane Ruljancich, Craig Odermatt and Nancy Baxendale
Maurice Tarrant and Rosamund Dashwood Veterans of the Year (60+) – John Woodall, Mark Shier, Maree Kennell and Marcia Stromsmoe
Ken Smythe Dedicated Performance Award – Gary Duncan, Shane Ruljancich and Heather Afford
John Thipthorpe Durability Award – Gary Duncan and Katie Clegg
Susan Reid Most Consistent Harrier – Jeff Beddoes and Peggy Sherwood
Stewart Fall Under-20 Junior of the Year – Liam Stanley and Justine Stecko
Bruce Deacon Under-16 Junior of the Year – Liam Dwyer and Alisa Lyesina
Bob Reid Bright Shining Light Award (Rookie of the Year) – Finn Battersby and Edith Price
Dave Reed Trail Runner of the Year – Andrew Pape-Salmon and Lisa Cantwell
Sandy Auburn High Achievement Award – Susan Norrington
Harriers Cyclist of the Year – Garth Campbell and Claire Morgan
Island Race Series Runner of the Year - Kyle Weagant and Nancy Baxendale
Glenn Jaques Race Walker of the Year - Kathleen Kane
Molly Reid Top Dog of the Year – Abby Nylen
NON-PERPETUAL AWARDS
Harriers Fittest Couple – Brett Carter and Magdalena Bazalova-Carter
Excellence in Club Leadership – Elaine Galbraith
Excellence in Volunteering – Mike Emerson and Leigh Sunderland
Detailed descriptions of each winner's achievements and highlights for 2016 are available by clicking on "About", then click on "Harriers Annual Awards", then scroll down to find the individual's name for their description.
February 22, 2017
Tyler Dozzi
Tyler was selected as the top Youth cross country runner in the province as BC Athletics announced their winners today for all age categories. The runners will receive their awards at the BC Athletics Track & Field Jamboree in Coquitlam on the weekend of July 14 - 16, 2017. The following is a list of athletes' names, clubs and coaches.
Youth Girls - Hannah Bennison, Okanagan Athletics, Malindi Elmore, Youth Boys - Tyler Dozzi, Prairie Inn Harriers, Bruce Deacon, Junior Girls - Veronika Fagan, UBC Okanagan, Colin Wallace, Junior Boys - Nickolas Colyn, Langley Mustangs, Mark Bomba, Rachel Cliff, Vancouver Thunderbirds, Richard Lee, Lucas Bruchet, Vancouver Thunderbirds, Richard Lee (both Rachel and Lucas are the 2017 Pioneer 8K champions), Master Women - Nicki Haugan and Masters Men - Jerry Ziak.
February 19, 2017
Chris Callendar and Brittany Therrien
Chris and Brittany were the top male and female Harriers at the Hatley Castle 8K held at Royal Roads today, Race No. 3 of 8 in the Vancouver Island Race Series. They finished 17th and 23rd overall of 369 finishers with times of 30:17 and 31:13. Chris was 3rd of 18 in the M35 age category and Brittany was 1st of 9 in the F25 age category and was third female overall of 187 women in the event. The race champions were Nick Walker, breaking the tape in 27:45, and Gina Slaby, 14th overall in 29:48. Nick is the Hatley Castle Race Director and Gina, from Seabeck, WA, is the current world record holder for 100 Miles on the track with a time of 13:45:49. There were 30 Harriers in the race and eleven of them reached the podium including first place finishes for Amy Perry (F15), Brittany Therrien (F25), Maree Kennell (F75), Gary Duncan (M60), John Woodall (M85), second place finishes for Catherine Davies (F50) and Rob Grant (M70) and third place finishes for Binder Kelsall (F45), Marcia Stromsmoe (F65), Chris Callendar (M35) and Shell Harvey (M65). PIH extended their points lead in the club standings with a total of 1,585 points compared to CVRR's total of 877 points in second place while CeeVacs is third with 787 points.. The 369 finishers today was 24 fewer than last year's mark of 393.
February 10, 2017
Ulla Hansen (Marquette)
Ulla was inducted into the University of Victoria Sports Hall of Fame yesterday, a well deserved honour for a tremendous athlete. She is an 8-time champion of the Harriers Pioneer 8K and has won both the Times Colonist 10K and the Royal Victoria 8K Road Race 4 times each. She still holds the RV8K overall course record of 26:24 set 26 years ago in 1991. Ulla won the Canadian 10K Road Race championship 3 times. Currently, she is the High Performance Athlete Director for the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon, Victoria International Track Classic and TC10K and she does an excellent job of managing elite athletes in all three major Victoria events. Since joining the Harriers as a master, Ulla has won several races in the Vancouver Island Race Series where she still holds many age class records in various divisions on a number of race courses. A full list of her amazing accomplishments while at UVic can be viewed at this link: http://victoriasportsnews.com/ulla-hansen-included-in-uvic/
February 4, 2017
Cordel Tromp, Alisa Lyesina and Matthew Thibodeau
Led by Coach Bruce Deacon with several parents accompanying their children, 18 members of the PIH Youth Team traveled to Seattle today to compete at the University of Washington High School Invitational Track and Field Meet at Dempsey Indoor Stadium. Cordel, Alisa and Matt came away with gold medals while three other Harriers won silver medals and two more claimed bronze. There were literally hundreds of top calibre athletes competing from a wide range of schools and clubs from British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California. The results alone generated 35 pages of data with events ranging from 60 metres to 3,000 metres on the track, relays and a host of field events. Several sections here held in many of the popular distances such as 400m, 800m, 3,000m and One Mile and the athletes were seeded in each section based on their current personal best times. Cordel won her 400m race in 1:04, Alisa won her 800m race in 2:22 and Matthew won his 800m race in 1:59. Chrissa Tromp was second in the One Mile race in 5:51, Tyler Dozzi took silvers in both the 800m race in 1:59 and the One Mile race in 4:18 and Robbie Deacon was second in the One Mile race in 4:39. Completing the podium performances were Kalum Delaney, third in the 3,000m in 9:04 and Evan Wills, third in his section of the 3,000m in 9:39. Other PIH Youth Team members also ran well with Justine Stecko, 6th in the 3,000m, while Jack Cooper, Robbie Deacon and Malcolm Harrison finishing 6th, 7th and 9th in the 800m race. Cooper Langard, Vlad Lyesin and Jack Cooper finished 5th, 9th and 11th in the One Mile event. Besides Kalum Delaney and Evan Wills third place finishes, there were five other team mates in the 3,000m sections including Liam Dwyer, 7th, Jack Amos, 8th, Findlay Day, 10th, Joe Robertson, 12th and Jack Boden, 13th.
January 22, 2017
Craig Odermatt, Shane Ruljancich, Maree Kennell and John Woodall
Craig and Shane finished 3rd and 4th overall, both winning their age categories while Maree and John completely destroyed the course record for their respective age divisions at the Cobble Hill 10K today, Race No. 2 of the Island Series. The race champions were Jevin Monds, from Edmonton, in 33:31, and Nanaimo's Erin Burrett, 7th overall in 34:59. Craig ran 34:08 to top the M45 division and Shane ran 34:27 to top the M40 division. Maree finished in 1:01:43 to break the F75 age category record by 13 minutes and John ran 1:02:34 to lower the M85 record by 10 minutes. Besides Craig, Shane, Maree and John claiming gold medals in their age classes, 7 other Harriers topped their divisions including Maddie Perry (F15), Erin Burrett (F35), Binder Kelsall (F45), Jacob Unger (M15), Liam Stanley (M20), Gary Duncan (M60) and Brian Connon (M70). There were 424 finishers including 27 Harriers at Cobble Hill today compared to 488 finishers last year.
January 15, 2017
Craig Odermatt
After his fine performance at the Harriers Pioneer 8K last Sunday, Craig decided to take some time off with a holiday in Maui. While relaxing in Lahaina today he noticed a race called the Maui Oceanfront Marathon was about to be held. Although the distance was only 15K, Americans consider any race over 10 kilometres to be a "marathon". Quickly he registered and blew away the field by finishing first overall in 53:24. Second place went to Ludlow North, of Lapointe, Wisconsin, thirteen minutes back in 1:06:20, while Winnipeg's Keith Mozdzen finished third in 1:11:25, nearly 18 minutes behind Craig. The top female was Kathleen Kenney, of Kehei, Hawaii; she placed 7th overall in 1:15:12. There were 102 finishers including 34 Canadians at the Maui Oceanfront "Mini" Marathon 15K.
January 15, 2017
Chris Callendar, Patricia Roney, Sean Conway and Gary Duncan
Chris and Patricia were the top male and female Harriers in the 5K race while Sean and Gary were the top Harriers in the 10K race at the MEC #1 Rust Buster starting and finishing at Lochside School today. Chris placed second overall of 285 finishers in 18:10 and Patricia was the first female and placed 5th overall in 19:12. The 5K race champion was Matthew Winkler in 17:09 and the 10K race champions were Andrew McCartney, 35:07, and Julia Tschanz, 7th overall of 220 finishers in 38:45. Sean placed 5th overall and won the M30 age category in 38:26 and Gary finished first in the M55 age category and 11th overall in 39:30. A couple of old-time Harriers returned to racing after many years off and finished 1-2 in the M60-99 division. Brian Connon, 70-years-old and a Harriers member for 32 years returned to racing after a 3.5 year absence to win the M60 age category in 44:51 while Rob Grant, 71-years-old and a Harriers member for 26 years was second M60 in 47:22 after an absence from racing for 7 and 1/2 years. Today's total of 505 finishers was 22 more than last year's record of 483.
January 8, 2017
Geoff Martinson, Bruce Deacon and Gary Duncan
Two-time winner, Geoff was the top Harrier finisher while Bruce and Gary entered new age categories and topped their divisions today at the 38th annual Harriers Pioneer 8K run under cool, but favourable racing conditions. Immediately after the last runner finished at 12:30 pm, it started to snow but the roads were clear and dry for the popular event which kicks off the 2017 Island Race Series and the British Columbia Super Series. The BC Endurance Project Team, coached by former Pioneer winner Richard Lee, showcased their superior running talents by claiming the top 5 positions overall on the men's side and boasted the top female on the women's side. The Pioneer race champions were Lucas Bruchet, Vancouver, in 23:34, and Rachel Cliff, Vancouver, 11th overall in 26:51. Second place went to Justin Kent, of Burnaby, in 24:04, and Geoff Martinson, from Vancouver, placed third in 24:38. The second and third females were both from Victoria with Hilary Stellingwerff finishing second in 27:51 and Jen Millar taking third in 29:21. Bruce was the top master in 27:09 and Gary was first in the M60 age category in 31:33. Bruce turned 50 on December 5, 2016 and Gary will turn 60 on October 23, 2017. As the Series eligibility date for all age categories is December 31, 2017, Gary will have the benefit of running the entire Series as a 59-year-old while in the M60 division. There were a total of 492 finishers today evenly split with 246 men and 246 women. Of the 492 finishers, 62 were Harriers including 18 Youth Team members and all of them ran very well. Twelve Harriers won their age divisions including Aimee Perry (F15), Trevor Neil (M15), Geoff Martinson (M30), Chris Callendar (M35), Shane Ruljancich (M40),Craig Odermatt (M45), Bruce Deacon (M50), Gary Duncan (M60), Joseph Camilleri (M65), Rob Grant (M70), Maree Kennell (F75) and John Woodall (M85). Ten Harriers placed second in their respective age categories while 5 others were third. The second race in the Island Series is the Cobble Hill 10K on January 22. Congratulations to Race Director, Kathleen Birney, and her team of more than 40 race volunteers, for staging a very successful event.
January 1, 2017
John McManus and Sandy Auburn
John finished with only 10 seconds on the clock to win the 21st annual Harriers Memorial 10K Predicted Time Run at Beaver Lake Park today among 75 other club members. For his efforts John was awarded a box of Belgian Biscuits which he shared with his PIH team mates before retiring to eat more cookies and drink hot chocolate at the Beaver Lake Picnic Shelter. Event Director, Bob Reid, announced that a new Sandy Auburn Bursary will be established at Camosun College to honour a 30-year Harrier, Sandy, who had participated and volunteered at the Gunner Shaw Classic race for 30 consecutive years, at the Thetis Lake Relay for 20 years and at the Stewart Mountain Challenge for 10 years. She passed away in August from pancreatic cancer but will never be forgotten. Sandy was an active member of the Prairie Inn Hellions team which was formed in 1986 to participate in the inaugural Vancouver Island Road Relay from Courtenay to Victoria. Her name, along with ultramarathoner Al Howie who we also lost in 2016, were both added to the Memorial Bench plaque of 23 Harriers and the participants today donated $3,750.00 to start the new Sandy Auburn Bursary with a goal of raising $10,000.00 to be given to Camosun College on January 1, 2018. Donations from next year's New Year's Day Run will be topped up by proceeds from the Gunner Shaw, Thetis Relay and Stewart Mountain events to assure that the club will meet its target. We sincerely thank all Harriers for their generosity and support of PIH's eighth scholarship and bursary at UVic or Camosun where we have contributed $150,000.00 to these two educational institutes since 1984. Several students will benefit from the club initiatives. Thank you, Harriers!
