December 26, 2011
Sean Chester and Claire Morgan
Sean topped the men's field in 54:34, breaking his course record of 55:01 set last year, and Claire was the first female in 1:03:25; she was 6th overall of the 33 finishers at the 13th annual Harriers Boxing Day 10 Mile Handicap starting and finishing at the Prairie Inn Neighbourhood Pub.
December 20, 2011
Ken Smythe
It is with extreme sadness that I report that we lost one of our most important, Lifetime club members, Ken Smythe, at the age of 78. Ken's son, Ed, just called and said his Dad passed away at 11:00 pm last night. A service will be forthcoming with details to follow once the family has had a chance to grieve the loss of a tremendous gentleman, husband, father, grandfather, friend and long-time Harrier.
Ken continued to be the ultimate dedicated Prairie Inn Harriers performer right up to the Stewart Mountain race just a week ago. He never missed volunteering at Gunner Shaw, Thetis Relay, Stewart Mountain, Pioneer 8K and our New Year's Day Run for the last 30 years which is unparallelled by anyone else in the club. The Harriers honoured him by creating a "Ken Smythe Dedicated Performance Award" to be presented annually to the hardest worker.
We have lost a mountain of a man; he gave so much and brought such happiness and dedication to the Harriers Team. Ken, I thank you for being such a great friend and such a cherished and valuable club member. You touched so many people in so many ways. I will never forget you.
December 10, 2011
Shane Ruljancich and Claire Morgan
Shane and Claire posted impressive first-ever victories at the 8th Annual Harriers Stewart Mountain 10 Mile Challenge at Thetis Lake Park today. Shane's winning time was 1:02:22 and Claire's was 1:14:15, she was 19th overall of the 156 finishers. Second place went to Stephen Kilshaw in 1:02:34 and Shawn Nelson took third in 1:07:15. The second female was Kate Scallion in 1:17:18 while Joelle McCarty placed third in 1:18:08.
December 4, 2011
Nick Walker and Claire Morgan
Nick and Claire were the race winners in the non-timed Merrython 8K charity run today from the Henderson Recreation Centre today. Their approximate finishing times were 28:30 and 31:00. Other Harriers that ran well at the Merrython included Chris Callendar, Wendy Davies, Marcia Stromsmoe and Les MacNeill.
December 4, 2011
Lucy Smith and Melanie McQuaid
Lucy and Melanie were the top Canadians and placed second and fifth in the women's division today at the 2011 XTERRA Trail Run World Championship Half Marathon at Kualoa Ranch, Kaaawa, Hawaii. Their times were 1:37:46 and 1:47:08. The race champions were Max King, from Bend, Oregon, in 1:21:27 and Morgan Arritola, of Ketchum, Idaho, in 1:33:00. There were 687 finishers including 447 men and 240 women.
December 3, 2011
Gord Christie and Juliette Christie
Gord won the M50 division in 37:29 and Juliette won the F45 division today at the 28th Annual Lions Gate Gunner Shaw 10K Cross Country race at Jericho Park, Vancouver. The overall race champions were Jerry Ziak, 32:42, and Catherine Watkins, 39:27. There were 154 finishers in the 10K race and 33 in the accompanying 5K race for a total of 187.
December 3, 2011
Adam Campbell
Adam ran to an impressive third place overall out of 318 finishers, 253 men and 65 women at the North Face Endurance 50 Mile Championships today in San Francisco, California. His time was 6:34:34. First place went to Mike Wolfe, of Helena, in 6:19:04 while Durango's Dakota Jones placed second in 6:21:512. The top female in the race was Anna Frost, from Dunedin; she was 12th overall in 6:56:07.
November 26, 2011
Mark Bomba, Nancy Baxendale and Cindy Rhodes
Mark (M40), Nancy (F45) and Cindy (F50) all ran away with gold medals today at Jericho Park, the site of the Canadian Cross Country Championships on a muddy and wet race course. Mark won the master's 8K event outright with a time of 27:27 beating 110 finishers to the line. Craig Odermatt placed second in 27:40 and Alberta's Graeme Wilson took third in 27:47. The top three women were Catherine Watkins (F40), 31:32, Rachel Ruus (F35), 31:53 and Sisi Hallam (F40), 32:39. PIHRT won three team titles at the Nationals with Natasha (Wodak) Fraser (5th), Lucy Smith (12th), Sabrina Wilkie (13th) and Erin Burrett (25th) winning the Senior Women's division by collecting 55 points compared to University of Calgary Athletics 91 points on a reverse scoring system. Harriers teams won both the master men's and master women's championships with the team of Mark Bomba, Paddy McCluskey, Norm Tinkham, Paul O'Callaghan, Gord Christie and Mike Moon taking gold over Phsi-Kult Kingston, ON, 34 points to 76 points. On the women's side PIHRT topped Calgary Phoenix Striders 35 points to 42 points. Winning Harriers master women's team members included Sisi Hallam, Nancy Baxendale, Juliette Christie, Cindy Rhodes and Wendy Davies. Cam Levins won the Senior Men's 10K race in 32:04 while Kendra Schaaf won the Senior Women's 7K race in 25:00. There were a total of 499 finishers in Junior (282), Senior (107) and Master (110) Divisions.
November 26, 2011
Jason Loutitt, Shane Ruljancich, Claire Morgan and Melanie McQuaid
Jason and Shane finished 1-2 overall in 35:23 and 35:52 while Claire and Melanie finished 2-3 on the women's side in 41:10 and 42:08 at the Bear Mountain Resort 10K today, billed as one of the toughest 10K courses in Canada. Jasper Blake took third in 36:26 while Care Nelson (formerly Wakely) topped the women's field; she finished 8th overall of the 375 finishers in 39:29. There were 77 finishers in the accompanying half marathon won by Jeremy Clegg, of Nanaimo, in 1:25:51 and Seattle's Krissy Moehl, 5th overall in 50:14. Harriers' Dianne Dennis had a strong race in the half marathon finishing as 3rd female and 17th overall in 1:50:56.
November 19, 2011
Shane Ruljancich, Melanie McQuaid and Sara Lax
Shane and Melanie triumphed as race champions and Sara captured the junior title at the 27th annual Gunner Shaw Cross Country Classic today under cool and clear conditions. Much of the race course was frozen and featured a challenging "new" hill following Puddle #2. There were 297 finishers in the 9.7K run and 6 finishers in the 5K walk for a total of 303 participants. Shane's winning time was 34:57, Melanie's was 41:14 and Sara's was 50:58. Jasper Blake was second overall in 35:13 followed by Shaun Stephens-Whale, from Roberts Bank, in 35:46. Claire Morgan captured silver in the women's race in 42:06 and Kate Scallion took bronze in 42:14. Harriers swept the M50 division with Michael Lax first in 42:06, Larry Nylen second in 43:40 and Gary Duncan third in 44:18.
November 17, 2011
Dylan Wykes and Natasha Wodak
BC Athletics announced the Senior Road Runners of the Year for 2011 and Dylan and Natasha clearly topped all runners in the province. Their awards will be presented at the BC Athletics Annual Awards Banquet in Richmond on Saturday, December 3. Selection is based on the athletes' five best performances at sanctioned events. Dylan was the top BC runner at 5K (14:44), St. Patrick's Day Run, 10K (29:15), Vancouver Sun Run, half marathon (1:04:02 and 1:02:12), McNeill Bay Half and New York City Half and marathon (2:12:57), Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. Natasha won twelve races in 2011 but her top BC rankings came at 5K (16:44), St. Patrick's Day Run, 8K (27:42 and 27:51, Harry's 8K and Pioneer 8K, 10K (34:01 and 34:18), Sun Run and TC10K and half marathon (1:15:27), GoodLife Fitness Victoria Half Marathon.
November 11, 2011
Sean Chester
It came down to a thrilling finish between the two-man Aspire team of Sean Chester and Ben Brzezynski against the two-man Dynamic Duo team of Bruce Deacon and David Jackson to claim the overall victory today at the 15th annual Thetis Lake 20K Relay. The lead changed several times over the four 5K laps with Sean and Bruce going head-to-head on Laps 2 and 4 while Ben and David locked horns by dueling it out on Laps 1 and 3. At the end Team Aspire took the win 1:06:25 to 1:06:50. The Westwood Lions were third in 1:07:45 and collected top Junior Team honours. The top women's team was Ass Kickin' Wives in 1:26:30, the top mixed team was 3 MCs and 1 RN in 1:24:52 and the top solo runner was Stephen Kilshaw, 6th overall, in 1:12:31. The top veteran men's team (0ver-50) was PIH Ol'Fockers in 1:20:00 while the top master men's team (Over-40) was Ironman and 3 Try Athletes in 1:41:00. There were 123 teams to finish the Thetis Lake 20K Relay, comprising over 450 runners.
November 11, 2011
Norm Tinkham, Gord Christie and Juliette Christie
Norm, 29:29, was the first master and fifth overall of 125 finishers at the Remembrance Day 8K Run in Stanley Park, a combined Open and Masters race. Both Gord, 31:15, and Juliette, 34:35, placed second in their age categories by finishing 14th and 34th overall. The race champions were Hibon Ahral Adem in 27:58 and Anne-Marie Madden in 31:15.
October 30, 2011
Shane Ruljancich, Claire Morgan, Gary Duncan and Nancy Baxendale
Shane and Claire were the top Harriers in the Shawnigan-Kinsol Half Marathon today while Gary and Nancy were the top Harriers in the new 10.55K Half-a-Half race also traversing the historic Kinsol Trestle. Shane took the outright victory over team mate Shawn Nelson, 1:15:20 to 1:16:00, while the top master, Hugh Trenchard, placed third in 1:18:47. Claire was the second female overall in 1:27:17; she was 12th overall of the 227 finishers in the half marathon. The female champion was Care Wakely who finished 9th in 1:25:46. The top two Shawnigan Lake residents in the half were also Harriers with Buddy Bhandar finishing in 1:31:54 and Larry Nylen hitting the line in 1:33:52. Holden Gill, of Nanaimo, won the Half-a-Half in 42:19 while Nancy finished a brilliant second overall, only 8 seconds back in 42:27. Gary was 6th overall of the 177 finishers, first in the M50 division, in 45:05. Welcome back to racing, Gary, after a short lay-off due to injury!
October 30, 2011
Ryan Day, Geoff Reid, Natasha Wodak-Fraser and Shauna Skinner
Yes, Natasha recently got married! In Gary Duncan-like fashion, she raced the BC Cross Country Championships well on Saturday and the Seawall race well on Sunday. Ryan, Geoff, Natasha and Shauna were not only the top Harriers today but they also all finished in the top ten overall of the massive field of 935 finishers at the 41st annual James Cunningham 5.9 Mile Seawall Race in Stanley Park. Kevin Friesen won the race in 29:39, Ryan was second in 30:58 and Ynuk Bosse took third in 31:51. Geoff finished 5th in 33:11. The top three women were Natasha, 6th in 33:50, Shauna, 10th in 34:14, and Anne-Marie Madden, 16th in 35:00. There were 462 men and 473 women finishing the race on a cold, wet and windy day in Vancouver.
October 29, 2011
Mark Bomba, Juliette Christie and Natasha Wodak
Mark was the first master male, Juliette was the second master female and Natasha was the third senior female today at the BC Cross Country Championships in Aldergrove. The top three master men in the 8K race were Mark Bomba, 26:53, Craig Odermatt, 27:05, and Mike Murphy, 28:30. There were 50 master men finishers, the largest field of the 13 races. The top three master women were Darcie Montgomery, 32:51, Juliette Christie, 34:03, and Cindy O'Krane, 35:23. Prairie Inn Harriers Racing Team captured a gold medal in the Senior Women's 6K division with a 3rd place finish from Natasha Wodak, 4th Lucy Smith, 8th Sabrina Wilke and 11th Erin Burrett. The top three senior women were Hilary Stellingwerff, 21:35, Jessia Smith, 21:38 and Natasha Wodak, 21:49. Jerry Ziak won the feature 10K Senior Men's race in 31:57. There were 406 runners in the 13 races encompasing 22 age divisions at Aldergrove.
October 23, 2011
Dylan Gant and Meghan Day
Dylan finished first overall in the Hallow's Eve 10K trail race while Meg was top master and tied with her sister-in-law for first female overall in the Hallow's Eve Half Marathon in the North Vancouver Mountains as part of the Run the North Shore Series. Dylan finished the 10K in 42:42, followed by Benoit Gignac in 44:27 and Devin Matthews in 46:21. The top female was Mirabelle Smith in 51:31. There were 117 finishers in the 10K race. Carl Reiley won the half marathon in 1:39:25. Chuck Cosman, of Calgary, took second in 1:39:43 and Vincent Lavallee placed third in 1:47:32. Shane Ruljancich won this event last year in 1:36:05, more than 3 minutes faster than today's winner. Paisley Aiken was top open female in 1:56:40 and Meghan Day had an identical time of 1:56:40 to win the master's division in her very first race as a 40-year old. They were tied for 11th overall of 121 finishers in the half marathon. Brooke Spence was third in 2:01:33.
October 22, 2011
Bebe Reid
Bebe defended her 2010 title with her second consecutive championship at the third annual Harriers Hounds 40 Metre Sand Sprint on the beach of Thetis Lake Park today under pounding rain and cold conditions on a flooded beach. Her winning time was 4.84 seconds compared to last year's course record run of 4.46 seconds. Java Wear, 2008 Champion, placed third in 5.49 seconds, while Harrier newcomer and youngster, Macey Bretschneider, took second in 5.22 seconds. There were 12 dogs in the race with Bebe taking the Top Dog Trophy and Sammi Kendrick claiming the Most Easily Distracted Dog Award for coming in last in 18.51 seconds. 20 spectators enjoyed the event including Ken Smythe celebrating his 78th birthday and his new dog, Brodie, running his first Harriers race and finishing a respectable fourth overall, top male dog, in 5.83 seconds.
October 16, 2011
Dylan Wykes and Dylan Gant
Dylan and Dylan finished 6th and 16th overall out of 4,868 participants in 2:12:57 and 2:25:32 at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon today under windy conditions. The race was won by Kenyan Kenneth Mungara in 2:09:51, his fourth consecutive victory at Scotiabank. The top female was Koren Yal, from Ethiopia, 13th overall in 2:22:43. Other Harriers fairing well in Toronto were Trevor Feeney, 25th overall and 6th in his age division in 2:33:32 and Cathy Noel, 1,234th overall and 32nd in her age division in 3:50:05, good for a 5-minute P.B. Canadians Reid Coolsaet and Eric Gillis both qualified for the 2012 Olympics with impressive performances of 2:10:55 and 2:11:28 to finish 3rd and 4th behind Mungara, 2:09:51, and Ethiopian Shami Abdulahi Dawit, 2:09:51.
October 15, 2011
Mike Arensen, Buddy Bhandar and Nancy Baxendale
Harriers dominated the Goldstream 5K Salmon Run Run today with Mike, Buddy and Nancy placing second, third and fourth overall in 18:10, 18:44 and 18:54. Buddy was the top master and Nancy was both the top female and the top master, almost 3 minutes clear of the second female, Mary Bollen, who finished in 21:35. The race winner was Neil Dawe in 18:04. Simon Pearson finished sixth in 19:36 and Brad Potentier finished eleventh in 20:06; only 5 Harriers in the race and all of them placed within the top-11 of the 90 finishers at Goldstream Park under sunny, cool, and perfect racing conditions.
October 9, 2011
Ryan Day, Natasha Wodak and Kyle Jones
Ryan was the top Canadian, third overall, in the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon today, Natasha won the Half Marathon and Kyle topped the field in the 8K Road Race under ideal racing conditions at the 32nd annual event which boasted 11,417 registrations and 10,046 finishers for an 88% finishing record. The top two finishers in the marathon were both Kenyans. Thomas Omwenga ran a negative split to smash Steve Osaduik's course record of 2:16:49 set in 2006. Omwenga ran 2:14:31 followed by last year's champion, Philip Samoei, who finished in 2:25:29 and Ryan Day who hit the line in 2:26:40 and claimed the BC Championship title. Kenyan Lucy Njeri shattered Val Chowaniec's marathon record of 2:42:32 set 23 years ago with a brilliant performance of 2:37:53, good for 11th overall of the 1,636 marathon finishers. Natasha led a star-studded women's field in the half marathon to break the tape in 1:15:25 with a 2-minute P.B. and a new course record to finish 13th overall of 5,131 finishers in the Half. Second place went to Olympian Kathy Butler, of The Netherlands, in 1:17:58, and Victoria's Marilyn Arsenault took third and was top master in 1:18:01. Kyle's winning time in the 8K was 24:10 while Hilary Stellingwerff led the women's field of 2,440 finishers with a time of 27:59. There were also 839 finishers in the Kid's 1.2K Run. Honourable mention goes to other Harriers finishing in the top three of their age divisions including Buddy Bhandar (2nd, M55) in the Marathon, Logan Roots (1st, M19), Nick Walker (3rd, M25), Shauna Skinner (2nd, F25), Claire Morgan (3rd, F35), Bruce Deacon (2nd, M40), Lucy Smith (3rd, F40), Valerie Bell (2nd, F45), Garth Campbell (3rd, M50), Dianne Dennis (2nd, F50), Wendy Davies (3rd, F50) and David Hoskins (1st, M65) in the Half Marathon. In the 8K Road Race, besides Kyle's gold medal performance in the M25 division, podium Harriers included Amy Schneeberg (2nd, F30), Geoff Reid (2nd, M25), Shannon Thompson (2nd, F30), Sisi Hallam (1st, F40), Melanie McQuaid (1st, F35), Nancy Baxendale (1st, F45), Martha McNeely (1st, F60), Brian Connon (1st, M60), Mike Ellis (1st, M70) and the amazing Maurice Tarrant with another age class record of 41:01 to finish first in the M80 division, winning his category by an unthinkable 34 minutes and 24 seconds over David Tyson. Maurice lowered Jim Sargent's previous M80 course record of 45:29 by almost 4 and a half minutes.
October 9, 2011
Jill Hawe
A TNW regular, Jill Hawe, ventured to Chicago today instead of running the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon and chose to run the Bank of America Chicago Marathon instead and she had a great experience. GFVM had 1,629 finishers while BOACM had a whopping 35,725 finishers! Jill finished in 3:44:36 to place 75th of 1,370 in the F45 division; she was 1,029th female of 15,460 women finishing the race. There were 20,265 male finishers. Jill's overall position was 5,265th which meant that over 30,000 runners finished behind her. The Chicago Marathon race champions were Kenyan Moses Mosop in 2:05:37 and Lillya Shobukhova, from Russia, in 2:18:20.
October 1, 2011
Kris Swanson and Richard Knowlton
Two Harriers cracked the top-10 overall at the 20th Annual BMO 2.9K Grouse Grind Mountain Run today in North Vancouver, one of the most difficult, yet most popular, climbing mountain runs in the country. Kris finished 5th in 30:43 and Richard finished 7th in 31:15. Former Harrier, Morgan Titus, finished second in 27:21 to race champion, Joe Gray, who had an outstanding 25:54 clocking. The top female was Vancouver's Stephanie Hamilton; she reached the top in 8th overall position of the 437 finishers, in 32:28.
September 25, 2011
Jim Meadows
It is with sadness that I report that Jim Meadows passed away today at the age of 61. He was a valuable volunteer at the Thetis Lake races for 26 years with his best friend, Doug Gregory. Both Doug and Jim are retired Victoria Firefighters and were good friends with Gunner Shaw before we lost Gunner in a car accident in 1984. They have helped at the race almost every year and often visited with life-time Harrier, Ken Smythe. I can vividly remember Big Jimmy and Doug showing up at Thetis Lake under horrendous conditions in the pounding rain the day before the Gunner Shaw race to help me flag the course. They also manned the only water station for the Stewart Mountain race. Jim was a reliable and dedicated Harriers volunteer with a great sense of humour, he loved life, and he had many friends - he will be missed.
September 24, 2011
Todd Nowack and Hayden Earle
Todd finished first overall, of 224 racers in 10 different divisions including 2-person and 4-preson teams, at the Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race in Cumberland today. The event encompasses kayaking, treking, mountain biking and orienteering including 27 check points. Todd finished in 4 hours, 52 minutes and 2 seconds to win the one-man Enduro Division by almost 13 minutes. Hayden and his partner, Roger MacLeod, topped the 2-man division in 4:58:13, they finished first overall of the twenty 2-man teams and were second overall to Todd's brilliant performance. There were a number of other Harriers at the MOMAR Cumberland event and all of them did extremely well. Adam Lawrence was third in the one-man Enduro in 6:05:19 while Brent Chan finished fifth in that division in 7:09:12. Nick Walker and Eric Findlay finished 4th in the two-man division in 5:32:09, Shane Ruljancich and Garth Campbell were 6th in 6:05:59 and Scott Sheldrake and Dan Leung were 7th in 6:12:47. The top female was Gueneviere Burdett, from Cumberland, in 5:29:36 and the top 2-women team was Amber Zirnhelt and Wendy Ravel in 6:58:53.
September 24, 2011
Sabrina Wilkie and Mark Bomba
Sabrina and Mark were the top Harriers today at the Whistler Spirit Run at Callaghan Valley, Whistler Olympic Park. The men's 8K winner was Vancouver's brilliant master athlete, Kevin O'connor, who broke the tape in 26:31 for the overall victory to lead all Open, University and Master runners. Mark was the second master and sixth overall of 63 male finishers in 29:21. The women's 6K race was won by 21-year-old Madeline MacDonald, from Calgary, in 22:33. Sabrina was fourth to finish in 23:18. There were 63 in the men's race, 73 in the women's race and 40 more runners in the Corporate, Club, School and Family Relays for a total of 176 participants.
September 24, 2011
Melanie McQuaid
Melanie is really beginning to like the state of Utah. Today she won the XTERRA USA Championship triathlon in Ogden/Snowbasin for the fourth year in a row. Mel, a three-time world champion, conquered the challenging course - 1.5-kilometre swim, 30-kilometre mountain bike ride and 12-kilometre trail run - in a time of 2 hours and 43 minutes, a full three minutes ahead of the next closest female finisher. The victory clinched the 2011 XTERRA U.S. Pro Series championship for Melanie; she finished 22nd overall of the 297 finishers today. The men's winner was Nicolas Lebrun in 2:24:26 and of note was Lance Armstrong, who finished fifth overall, in 2:29:25.
September 24, 2011
Dylan Wykes and Natasha Wodak
Reid Coolsaet, of Hamilton, ON, and Dayna Pidhoresky, of Tecumseh, ON, won the 2011 Canadian 10K Championships today in Toronto, held in conjunction with Canada Running Series’ Oasis Zoo Run and the Timex National Road Race Series Finale.
In the men’s 10K race Coolsaet took the Canadian crown for his third Championship title this year and was clocked at 29:33 for the victory. Eric Gillis, of Antigonish, NS, finished second for silver in 29:41 and Oakville’s Giitah Macharia finished with the bronze in 30:13.
The women’s race crowned a new Canadian champion today where Dayna Pidhoresky won the title in 33:44. Megan Brown, of Guelph, and Malindi Elmore, of Kelowna, took silver and bronze respectively in 33:52 and 34:23.
In the Timex National Road Race Series Finale Bevin Kennelly of Regina, SK, won the women’s individual 10K race in 35:16 followed by two Harriers - Natasha Wodak in 35:40 and Shauna Skinner in 36:04. Other Team BC members were Errington's Melissa Ross and Victoria's Care Wakely who finished fifth and sixth in 36:58 and 37:02. Harriers' Dylan Wykes of Vancouver, BC, took the men’s title in 30:19 followed by Vancouver's Jerry Ziak in 31:12 and two more Harriers secured the top men's team title with Langley's Steve Osaduik finishing third in 31:38 and Burnaby's Dylan Gant taking fourth in 32:17.
British Columbia won all three National team titles in the Timex Series Finale; this includes the men’s team, women’s team and overall team (top two men and top two women consisting of Wykes, Ziak, Wodak and Skinner). There were 2,191 finishers at Toronto today including 850 men and 1,341 women. Dylan W. was 4th overall, Steve was 11th, Dylan G. was 13th, Natasha was 37th and Shauna was 42nd of 2,191. A great performance for the five Harriers at the Canadian 10K Road Racing Championships and the Timex National Road Race Series Finale.
September 17, 2011
Antonia Harvey, Larry Nylen and Valerie Bell
Antonia was the top Harrier and the third female finisher at the Mount Frosty 50K Ultramarathon in Manning Park today. She finished in 6:10:38 to place 11th overall of the 58 finishers. Husband Dave Harvey was well up in the field until he took a wrong turn and got seriously lost. He struggled back in 34th place in 7:16:10 suffering from dehydration and blurry vision. Larry and Val were the top Harriers in the shorter 27K Endurance Race with Larry taking 8th position of 64 finishers in 3:22:52; he was second in the M40 division. Val was the top master female and 5th woman to finish in 3:42:38. The race champions were Chris Barth, 5:27:58, and Suzanne Evans, 5:48:16, in the 50K Ultra, Greg Abrahams, 2:48:03, and Carrie Grice, 3:01:56, in the 27K Endurance Race and Mikki Bartel, 1:10:33, and Michael Peters, 1:14:55, in the 13K Lightning Division which had 15 finishers. Race Director, Gottfried Grosser, had the following remarks, "The fourth annual Frosty Mountain Ultra took place on September 17th 2011. With even more racers than the previous year it proved to be a great success. There was a bit of early morning showers but, shortly after the first runners were out, the sun tried to make its way out as well."
September 11, 2011
Sean Nelson and Mark Nelson
The Nelson brothers continued an impressive string of 14 consecutive victories at the Metchosin Days 5K today. Shawn won the race in 15:58 and Mark took silver in 16:13. Third place went to Mike Chandler in 16:27. The top female was Care Wakely, 4th overall, in 17:43 which was 44 seconds faster than her winning time of last year. Mark won the race for the first 11 years but has passed the torch to Shawn who has taken the victory for the last 3 years. There were 153 finishers at the Metchosin Days 5K today which was 22 fewer than last year perhaps due to the new McNeill Bay Half Marathon being staged on the same day.
September 11, 2011
Kris Swanson, Shane Ruljancich and Sonja Yli-Kahila
Four BC athletes, three of which were Prairie Inn Harriers, competed for Team Canada at the World Mountain Running Championships in Tirana, Albania today. Our club helped by raising $3,000 to assist with their travel and accommodation expenses.
In the men’s 12K championship, Kris Swanson placed 58th of 102 finishers, in 1:02:51. Kris had been the top Canadian after 8K, but suffered from heat exhaustion over the final lap and had to be hospitalized immediately after finishing the event. Without the heat exhaustion problems, he was projected to finish in the top 20 with a time of 55 minutes. Not far behind Kris at the finish was Shane Ruljancich in 68th place in 1:05:08. Canada’s top finisher was Alberta’s Adrian Lambert in 1:00:36, good for 37th place. Canada placed 11th of 17 National teams.
In the women’s 8K championship, Melissa Ross, from Errington, was Canada’s first finisher, in 34th place and a time of 47:21. Sonja Yli-Kahila was Canada’s second finisher, in 48th place (53:27), helping Canada to 12th place of 12 National teams. The overall champions were both from the United States for the first time at the World Mountain Running Championships. Max King won the men's race in 52:06 and Kasie Enman won the women's race in 40:39.
Results: http://www.mountainrunning.ca/news.php?id=48
September 11, 2011
Dylan Wykes, Claire Morgan and Graeme McCreath
In his debut Vancouver Island race, Olympic hopeful Harriers' Dylan Wykes ran 21.1 kilometres in one hour, four minutes and two seconds to win the first-ever McNeill Bay Half Marathon in Oak Bay today. Team mate and training partner, Steve Osadiuk, finished second, just over two minutes back with a time of 1:06:11. “The runners were happy, the police seemed happy and that’s what’s important with a first-time race,” Race Director Phil Nicholls said. Local runner Hugh Trenchard won the masters category with a time of one hour, 18 minutes and six seconds. Harriers' Claire Morgan was the top female at one hour, 27 minutes and 59 seconds. Oak Bay’s Kate Soles took second among women, in 91 minutes and 10 seconds. Graeme McCreath ran two hours and six minutes to complete the 21.1 kilometre McNeill Bay Half Marathon. He is blind and relied on running guide Carlos Castillo to help him through the course. Several other Harriers ran very well including Ian Ackroyd, Dylan Gant, Trevor Feeney, Wendy Montgomery, Dianne Dennis, Wendy Davies and Yuki Otsubo who all finished first or second in their respective age categories.
September 10, 2011
Simon Pearson and Louise Proulx
Top Harriers, Simon, had the race of his cycling life and Louise finished second in her age category of 348 riders in that division, ninth female overall, at the second annual Vancouver to Whistler 122K GranFondo today. Simon completed the ride in 3:43:00 to place 145th overall of 7,000 cyclists, 42nd of 731 in the M30 division, and Louise broke the tape in 3:47:51, 217th overall, to take silver in the F50 division with a 4:20 improvement over her Whistler ride of last year. Great performances from other PIH members included Kerry Spearing to take gold in the F19-29 division in 3:57:11 (GranFondo, 122K, Vancouver to Whistler) and Barry Lycett to take gold in the M70-79 division (Medio, 60K, Squamish to Whistler). Other Harriers did very well including Gerry Etcheverry, 3:47:09, Mike Arensen, 3:50:00, and Chris Hamilton, 4:10:23.
September 10, 2011
John Mcmanus
John was the top Harrier and finished second in the M55 age category today at the Subaru Banff Triathlon. He was 24th overall, in 2:20:43, of 226 finishers in the Olympic Distance of a 1.5K swim, 38K bike and 10K run. The race winners were Grant Burwash, from Calgary, in 1:51:44 and Vancouver's Martina Wan in 2:06:40. There were 226 finishers in the Olympic Distance, 119 finishers in the Sprint Distance and 102 finishers in the Super Sprint Distance for a total of 447. The Banff Triathlon is the fifth and final race of the Subaru Western Series featuring events at Shawnigan Lake, Elk Lake, Sooke, Vancouver and Banff.
September 4, 2011
Melanie McQuaid
Melanie notched another Canadian Championship in her belt of many wins at the Sport Chek XTERRA National Championship in Whistler, BC, today. She finished 14th overall of 117 finishers in the 1.5K swim, 30K mountain bike course and 12K mountain trail run in 1:04:02. The overall race winner was Josiah Middaugh, from Vail, CO, in 51:12. Mel is no stranger to winning XTERRA championships for, besides this victory today in Whistler, she has also topped the podium in USA Championships in Las Vegas, NV, Waco, TX, Beaver Creek, CO, Pelham, AB, and Ogden, UT, this year. She has finished second in championship events in Richmond, VA, and Vail, Co. She is a three-time World XTERRA Champion and hopes to extend that streak to four victories at Makena Beach, Maui, Hawaii on October 23 where a sold-out crowd of 550 racers will be competing for $105,000 in prize money.
August 27, 2011
Steve Osaduik
Steve won the 10,000 Metre Invitational track race at Uvic's Centennial Stadium tonight with a splendid time of 30:01. It was the eighth and final event of the 2011 Victoria Track Series. Second place went to James Lander in 31:05 and Vancouver's top master, Kevin O'Connor, ran a brilliant 31:14 to take the bronze of 12 elite starters in the race including Harriers Ian Hallam, Bruce Deacon, Sean Chester and Nick Walker. In the 10,000 Metre "B" event, Mike Chandler took the victory in 34:55 followed by the top female, Gillian Gook, from Vancouver, second overall in 35:25. There were 9 finishers including Harriers Claire Morgan, 37:37, and Shannon Thompson, 37:58. Both recorded PBs. Simon Dejong won the 5,000 Metre Open race in 16:31 and Harriers' Julie Van Veelen was the top female in 19:53. There were 36 participants in the three events including the versatile Hugh Trenchard who was the top master in both the 10,000 Metre race in 35:52 and in the 5,000 Metre race in 17:17.
August 27, 2011
Marcia Stromsmoe
Marcia topped the leaderboard of 114 male and female athletes that participated in the 8-race Victoria Track Series. She scored a remarkable 180 points compared to second place finisher, Mark Jackman, who achieved 120 points and third place Julien Marceau, who notched 116 points. Harriers Christine Thate, 8th with 78 points, Dee Ogden, 9th with 78 points, and Chris Callendar, 10th with 70 points, also cracked the top ten in the overall standings. Club members winning their age divisions in the VTS included Chloe Hegland (F13), Chris Callendar (M30), Dee Ogden (F40), Christine Thate (F50), Gary Duncan (M50) and Marcia Stromsmoe (F60). A special thanks goes to Race Director, Chris Kelsall, for hosting a very successful 8 meets in Victoria over the summer track season.
August 21, 2011
Simon Whitfield, Kyle Jones, Kyla Coates and Alexandra Coates
Simon and Kyle placed 1-2 while Kyla and Alexandra were 5th and 8th overall (3rd place and 4th place Canadians) at the 29th annual Pusher Mitchell Apple Triathlon in Kelowna today, the official Canadian Olympic Distance Triathlon Championships. There were 40 elite male finishers and 26 elite female finishers from 13 countries including 40 Canadians and 18 Americans. In a classic mentor against student battle, Simon emerged with the gold medal and Kyle settled for silver for the third consecutive year at the Nationals in Kelowna. It is almost uncanny how the wily veteran Simon, 36, can steal a victory from the up-and-coming triathlon star Kyle, 26, by pounding out a final great 10K run after the twosome leave the final transition a mere few seconds apart. In fact, in three years at the Canadian Championships, there has only been 42 seconds separating the two training partners and best friends. Today, Simon won by 24 seconds, 1:54:12 to 1:54:36. Last year it was a dead heat at 1:55:41 with Simon nipping the tape first. The previous year saw an 18 second difference, 1:53:32 for Simon and 1:53:50 for Kyle. Third place went to USA's Gregory Billington in 1:54:46. Canadians Sarah-Anne Brault and Paula Findlay were first and second in the women's race in 2:04:41 and 2:05:35. Americans Lindsey Jerdonek and Annie Warner were third and fourth in 2:06:03 and 2:06:46. Kyla was fifth in 2:09:10 and Alexandra was eighth in 2:11:20.
August 21, 2011
Ryan Day and Shane Ruljancich
Ryan was second overall in 2:35:09 and Shane finished eighth overall in 2:47:18 of 598 finishers at the Intact Canadian Derby Edmonton Marathon today. The race champions were Jacob Mengich, from Edmonton, in 2:23:33 and Banff's Ellie Greenwood, seventh overall, in 2:47:17. There were 598 finishers in the marathon, 1,422 in the half marathon and 570 in the 10K race for a total of 2,590 finishers at Edmonton. The durable and talented 41-year-old Lisa Harvey, from Calgary, won the 10K race on Saturday in 37:01, she was 11th overall of 570 finishers, and followed it up with a master's victory, third place female performance, in the half marathon on Sunday with an excellent time of 1:21:42. Lisa won the F40 division by a staggering 18+ minutes in the half! Ryan and Shane both qualified for the Boston Marathon next April while Lisa will travel to Victoria to compete in the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Half Marathon in October accompanied by her legendary husband, Paul McCloy. Paul finished seventh overall in the Edmonton 10K today with a time of 36:29.
August 14, 2011
Paul O'Callaghan and Claire Morgan
Both the coach and the athlete shone today in Esquimalt. Paul boasted a third place overall performance of 256 finishers in 35:46 at the CFB Navy 10K, an event won by local Services elite runner, Ryan McKenzie, in 32:45. Paul's margin of victory was 3:15 over the second place master Brent Morrow, from Edmonton, who finished in 39:01. Claire, coached by Aspire Running founder, Paul O'Callaghan, was the top female and finished eighth overall in 38:24. She was in a closer battle to take the victory over runner-up Kate Scallion who hit the line 25 seconds later in 38:49. Kirsten Arensen had a strong race to attain the top Services female in 41:21 and finish as third female overall. Wendy Davies was the top master female in 44:45. There were 146 men and 110 women in the race through the hilly streets of Esquimalt.
August 14, 2011
Ken Smythe
Ken once again opened up his beautiful lakefront home for the annual Harriers summer run/hike and BBQ, the social event of the summer for our club. About 80 members and families attended with runs and walks scheduled on the Galloping Goose, at Royal Roads and a visit to the new Westshore Heights development. A special thanks goes to Ken, as a tremendous host, to Susan for buying the food and refreshments, to Sara for coordinating the social aspects and organizing the recycling, to Bryan for the BBQing, and to all those that attended. Many helped with the set-up and clean-up. Claire Morgan ran the CFB Esquimalt Navy 10K today, won it, then continued running along the Galloping Goose to Ken's house to meet her family there. She offered these kind remarks also reflected by others who attended:
"Hooray for summer BBQs! The rain and clouds stayed away, with the weather gods slathering on lots of sun and a bit of wind to cool us off. The lake was inviting (if slightly refreshing), particularly for those who had run this morning. The food - as always - was eclectic and interesting, but most of all delicious!
Thanks Ken for hosting this fabulous day, and to Sara and other organizers for your work to make it happen and to boost the recycling efforts and reduce our landfill contribution."
August 13, 2011
Julie Van Veelen
In workmanlike, ironwoman, Gary-Duncan fashion, Julie captured two gold medals and a bronze at VTS #7 at Oak Bay Track tonight. She won the 400m open section in 1:16 and followed it up with a bronze in the 800m section in 2:47. Perhaps Julie's highlight of the night was leading the 3,000m open section to finish first overall and breaking the tape of 7 men and women in 11:43. Second place, and top male, in the 3,000m was Mark Jackman in 11:48. There were 23 Harriers of the 38 finishers in 4 different divisions at VTS #7. The eighth and final meet takes place on August 27th under the lights of Centennial Stadium at UVic with an elite field for a 10,000 metre event and an open 5,000 metre race.
August 8, 2011
Robert Bostrom
Robert Bostrom, one of the founding members of the Thursday Morning Gang, died on August 8, 2011 at the age of 78. Robert was born June 17, 1933 and was instrumental in choosing the name for the TMG and was the designer of the first mug that is presented to members as they reach a decade. Robert was a member of the Prairie Inn Harriers for 15 years and competed for the club in 47 Island Series Races, ran on the Mellow Fellows Road Relay teams and participated in several B.C. Senior Games. Robert was also a valuable volunteer with the Harriers as he helped at the three Thetis Lake races, TC10K, Royal Victoria Marathon and with the Prairie Inn Pioneer 8K.
August 7, 2011
Stephen Kilshaw, Lucy Smith, Kirsten Arensen and Fawn Whiting
Stephen was third professional male in 1:59:46 and Lucy was third professional female in 2:20:09 in the "Chase" Olympic Distance (1,500m swim, 40K bike, 10K run) Division at the Subaru Sooke International Triathlon today. This unique event starts the professional women 15 minutes ahead of the men and the first to finish is the champion collecting some of the $15,000 offered in prize money. Victoria's Brent McMahon won the event by passing Amanda Stevens, from Boulder, CO, on the run to hit the tape in 1:54:40. Amanda finished second 4:08 behind Brent. Kirsten and Fawn placed 1-2 in the women's division of the Olympic Distance Open Division race in 2:34:43 and 2:40:09; they were 11th and 18th overall of the 98 finishers. The Olympic Open Division was won by Victoria's Sam Mercier in 2:28:37. A total of 344 triathletes finished in 4 different divisions including a Half Iron Distance (1.9K swim, 90K bike, 20K run) and a Sprint Distance (500m swim, 20K bike, 5K run).
August 6, 2011
Kris Swanson
Look up the definition of "consistency" in a dictionary, and you might just see a picture of Harriers' Kris Swanson winning the Emperor's Challenge.
The 29-year-old Victoria based runner won for the twelfth time in thirteen races with a time of 1:24:52, edging out his Canadian Mountain Running Team teammate Adrian Lambert of Edmonton, who finished with 1:27:43.
"I like this course - it's one of my favourite of all the Emperor's Challenge courses over the years," he said. "It suits me - I like the tundra at the top and the soft moss, the rocks - and I just like the technical stuff."
Despite an ominously rainy start to the day, weather was fairly good for the 20-kilometre half marathon, aside from a bitingly cold wind and some freezing rain at the summit. Despite that setback, many local people in the race improved their times significantly from previous years.
Kris, who was raised in Tumbler Ridge, didn't set a new record this year, but capped off his running season with the win before taking the rest of August off. On September 11, both runners, along with Harriers club mates Shane Ruljancich and Sonja Yli-Kahila, will take part in the Mountain Running World Championships in Albania.
For his part, Lambert, 26, was full of praise for the race and the volunteers who make it happen each year.
"I've never actually been to Tumbler Ridge before - Kris called it 'paradise' - and it's amazing," he said. "My only complaint was the wind at the top, but I've heard this was a better year than normal. I'm not necessarily the best at my footing - Kris just sort of dances down rocks and little technical sections, and he put on a lot of ground on me in that part," added Lambert. "Then on the downhill at the end - I feel like I can relax a bit, and just let the legs turn over."
Dawson Creek's Fiona Benson was blazingly fast on the downhill section, setting a new women's record time of 1:43:40 and placing seventh overall. Fort St. John's Steve Sadownik finished third overall with a time of 1:35:23
The race reached its maximum of 800 entrants several weeks before last Saturday. A total of 656 people started the race, and all but 12 finished. The final runner crossed the line in 4:51:21.
August 6, 2011
Julie Van Veelen and Gary Duncan
Julie was the top female in the 400m Open Race and the top female in the 1,500m Open Race while Gary took silver in the 5,000m B Section of VTS #6 tonight at Oak Bay Track. Julie was 4th overall in 1:15 in the 400m and 13th overall in the 1,500m in 5:41. Gary, nursing a stress fracture in the groin area, showed great courage to run 20:07 in the 5,000m placing second overall to race champion Brett McCullough who won in 17:48. Claire Morgan had a strong 5,000m race in 17:53 and Dee Ogden topped the F40 division while Marcia Stromsmoe won the F60 division. 36 athletes, including 19 Harriers, competed in 5 different races tonight.
August 6, 2011
Jeremy Watts
The extra mileage in training and his leadership at TNWs has vaulted Jeremy into a serious contender in trail and mountain racing. Today, he placed second overall to Pitt Meadows' John Graham in the Sport Course of the Five Peaks race at Mount Seymour in North Vancouver. Their times were 27:29 and 28:45. Rob Barber, from Surrey, took third in 29:08. The top female was Brenda Stratton, from Pitt Meadows, in 33:00. The Five Peaks Enduro Division was won by Roberts Creek's Shaun Stephen-Whale in 40:33 while the top female was Anna Frost, from New Zealand, in 51:12. There were 103 finishers on the Sport Course and 124 finishers on the Enduro Course for a total of 227 competitors at Seymour Five Peaks.
August 1, 2011
Jim Sargent
It is with extreme sadness that the Harriers lost their oldest active member today, Jim Sargent. Survived by his three children, Solveig Brickenden (Dal), Stig Sargent (Irene) and Kristina Bird (Greg) and grandchildren, Stefan, Christopher, Dominique, Devon, Alia, Gene and James; Jim died on August 1, 2011. Jim was predeceased by his loving wife, Ann Marie in 2001.
His illustrious career began with the Kings Own Scottish Borders in 1941. In 1948 he married Ann Marie and the following year served in Korea and Palestine. In 1954 Jim brought his family to Ontario, Canada and served in the Canadian Armed Forces as a master bassoonist and band librarian. In 1964, he moved the family to Victoria to work in the Armed Forces School of Music. Further careers included teaching in Victoria/Sooke School Districts, accounting in Dockyard until retirement. His greatest joy though, came from his running career spanning from his early 60′s to mid 80′s. His list of achievements include twice completing the England Coast to Coast Walk, several Royal Victoria Marathons until age 75, an inspirational member of the Prairie Inn Harriers, at age 80, won 2 gold and 2 silvers at the 2003 Chilliwack Senior Games. The following year Jim set the Canadian M8084 record in the 8K. He is the M8589 Canadian age group record hold at 5K, 8K and 10K road distances. His abbreviated life story was included in the book “Super Seniors”.
July 31, 2011
Richard Knowlton, Monique Moore, Kirsten Arensen and Farisha Arensen
Richard and Monique were the top Harriers today at the 32nd Annual Self Transcendence Triathlon at Elk Lake while Kirsten took gold in the F35 division and Farisha placed second overall and was the top female in the 14-15 Youth Division which involved a 500m swim, a 10K cycle and a 4K run. The senior triathlon was a 1.5K swim, 40K bike and 10K run. Richard was second overall in 2:06:40 to race champion Ben Cotter who finished in 2:00:12. The top female was Brittany Cooper in 2:25:40 closely followed by Monique in 2:26:05. They were 21st and 22nd overall. Kirsten was 5th female and 41st overall in 2:30:59. Sandy Mullen won the F50 division in 2:40:20, Laura Leno won the F55 division in 2:35:08 and John McManus won the M55 division in 2:27:12, all strong performances. Last year the event attracted 220 finishers compared to 196 this year.
July 31, 2011
Mike Arensen and Fawn Whiting
Mike placed third overall in 2:17:20 and Fawn was the female champion and seventh overall in 2:22:10 at the 21st annual Self Transcendence Duathlon held in conjunction with the triathlon. The Duathlon involved a 5K run, 40K bike and 10K run. The race winner was Christopher Drozda, from Vancouver, in 2:08:11. Julie Van Veelen had a strong race finishing only 30 seconds behind Fawn to take gold in the F30 division and finish eighth overall. There were 39 finishers in the duathlon.
July 31, 2011
Ian Hallam and Sisi Hallam
Ian finished second overall in 33:28 and Sisi was the second master and fifth female in 39:55 at the Squamish Days 10K today, a fast, flat and popular race course. The race champions were Seattle's Joshua Ricardi in 32:41 and Victoria's Marilyn Arsenault in 36:06; nice to see a successful return to racing for Marilyn after a more than a year on the sidelines with a serious injury. Harriers' Herb Phillips topped the M70 division by more than twelve and a half minutes to finish 33rd of the 216 finishers at Squamish in 40:17.
July 23, 2011
Shawn Nelson, Andrew Pape-Salmon, Claire Morgan and Antonia Harvey
At the Gutbuster Series which wrapped up today at Mt. Washington, Shawn and Andrew placed first and second in the men's division with 79 points and 71 points and Claire and Antonia placed second and third in the women's division with 57 points and 49 points. The top female was Kaylee Beales with 65 points. There were 59 women and 47 men for a total of 106 participants that ran at least one of the four races. Seven men and four women ran all four events. Valerie and Andrew were the top masters and Garth, Gary and Larry had a strong Series to place 1-2-3 for the M50 category in all four races. PIH won the club competition with 1,027 points followed by CVRR with 538 points and Westwood Running Club took third place with 458 points. There were 40 clubs participating.
July 23, 2011
Shawn Nelson, Andrew Pape-Salmon and Valerie Bell
Shawn nipped Shaun Stephens-Whale by one second today, 26:20 to 26:21, to capture the race victory and the Series championship at Mountain Washington Gutbuster, the fourth and final race of the Series starting in Duncan with Mt. Tzouhalem and continuing to Nanaimo with Westwood Lake and then to Ladysmith for Holland Creek. Andrew finished Mt. Washington in third place overall in 29:00; he was the top master. Val was also the first master finished in 40:57; she was the ninth female overall. There were 94 finishers compared to 98 from last year.
July 17, 2011
Colin Dignum
Colin proved that he is not only a fast master, he is a strong climber, too! Fresh off setting a new Canadian and Provincial M45 5,000 metre record of 15:22 at VTS #4 on June 18, today he placed second overall to Shaun Stephens-Whale, of Roberts Creek, at the 10 mile "Seek the Peak" race from Ambleside Park in North Vancouver towards the summit of Grouse Mountain. Their times were 1:24:18 and 1:25:51 and they beat all of the 4-person relay teams in the process. The top female was Jackie Spencer in 1:46:43, she was 23rd overall of 238 solo finishers. Add 24 relay teams into the mix and you end up with 334 crazy mountain runners surging 16K up Grouse Mountain "Seeking the Peak". They all found it, but not without a struggle, as the final contestant finished in 4:05:00.
July 16, 2011
Shane Ruljancich
Shane won the inaugural 2011 Mount Finlayson Madness, an event where runners and hikers attempt to climb up and down Mt. Finlayson as many times as they can in 12 hours. Shane did 14 repeats in 12 hours followed by team mate Hayden Earle who summitted 10 times and both Enrico Murr and Trevor Prior reached the top 9 times. Shane's effort is approximately 5,600 metres of elevation climbed up and down, and also about 56K of distance traveled! The top female was Krista Kitson who achieved 5 ascents and descents. The weather was quite miserable to start with a hard rain coming down for the first 4 hours. It then brightened up until just after 6:00 pm when more rain started for 30 minutes, but this clearly did not deter everyone from coming out and raising funds for charity. There were 49 participants in all, the majority of whom hiked more than once. The total number of hikes done was 162. The average number of hikes done was slightly over 4. The number of times participants collectively reached the height of Mount Everest in 12 hours was about 7.7 times!
July 16, 2011
Natasha Wodak
Natasha continued her dominance on the Lower Mainland race circuit by claiming another victory today at the 23rd annual Summerfast 10K held in Stanley Park. She was 9th overall of the 319 finishers in 35:22. The second female was Rachel Ruus in 36:51 and Anne-Marie Madden took third in 37:03. The top three men were Jerry Ziak, 31:47, Nicolas Jirot, 32:09, and Jake Woloshyn, 32:12. The Summerfast 10K is Race #9 of 11 in the Lower Mainland Series and is hosted by Vancouver Falcons Athletic Club. Results http://www.racedaytiming.ca/summerfast10k2011.html
July 16, 2011
Louise Proulx, Shannon Coutts and Chris Hamilton
Louise finished first of 117 riders in the F50 division in 3:48:43, Shannon finished first of 91 in the F40 division in 3:49:27 and Chris finished fourteenth of 274 in the M50 division in 3:46:33 today at the inaugural RBC 115K Kelowna GranFondo race which featured 1,138 cyclists, 803 men and 335 women. Louise was the sixth female to finish and Shannon was eighth. Overall Chris was 105th of 1,138, Louise was 118th and Shannon was 125th, all very strong performances from the three Harriers. Shannon won her age class by 7 minutes and Louise topped her age class by 8 minutes. The race winners were Chris McNeil, 3:06:31, and Krista Rawlings, 3:35:28. Of interest, former Vancouver Canuck, Trevor Linden, placed 9th in the M40 division in 3:17:55; he was 27th overall. Linden also participated in the Whistler GranFono and the Tour de Victoria where he placed well in both events. Full Kelowna results are here http://rbcgranfondokelowna.com/sites/rbcgranfondokelowna.com/files/GFK2011-Overall_Results.pdf
July 10, 2011
Kyle Jones
After many attempts, Kyle finally beat his best friend and training partner, Simon Whitfield, at a major triathlon. He finished fourth overall in 1:47:06, narrowly missing the podium by 12 seconds today, at the Edmonton ITU Triathlon World Cup for elite men. The top three finishers were Bevan Docherty, of New Zealand, in 1:46:47, Aurelien Lescure, from France, in 1:46:49, and USA's Hunter Kemper, in 1:46:54. Simon finished sixth in 1:47:21 after being knocked to the ground during his bike-to-run transition. There were 75 starters and 66 finishers in the international event. Results http://www.triathlon.org/results/results/2011_edmonton_itu_triathlon_world_cup/5983/
July 10, 2011
Jim Finlayson and Natasha Wodak
The 2011 Timex BC Road Running Series, that started in January with the Prairie Inn Pioneer 8K, concluded today at the Kelowna Midsummer 8K. The 15 series races produced some close contests, some excellent performances, and almost 55,000 total finishers.
Points were awarded based on performance, with an athletes’ five best performances counting in the final rankings. Only BC Athletics Junior, Senior, Masters, and Road & Trail members are eligible for series awards. The top four athletes, men and women, receive prize money and an invitation to represent BC at the Timex National Series Finale in Toronto in September, to be held in conjunction with the 2011 Canadian 10K Road Running Championship. The next three athletes receive Timex merchandise.
The men’s competition was extremely close. Harriers featured three of the top four men and two of the top four women. Jim Finlayson (Victoria), David Jackson (Abbotsford), and Jeremiah Ziak (Vancouver) had demonstrated how closely matched they were all season by finishing within one second of each other at the Vancouver Sun Run. In the end Finlayson came out on top with 4,421 points, with Jackson second with 4,405 points, and Ziak right behind in third with 4,403 points. Kevin Friesen (Burnaby) completed the top four with 4,288 points.
By contrast, Harriers' Natasha Wodak (Port Moody) was a class apart in the women’s competition, scoring almost identical to Finlayson with 4,420 points. It was much closer for the remaining places. Shauna Skinner (Vancouver) was consistent throughout the series to take second with 4,253 points. Melissa Ross (Errington) showed continued improvement, particularly towards the end of the series, to take third with 4,206 points and Care Wakely (Victoria) completed the top four with 4,170 points.
July 10, 2011
Bertrand Bozek, Dianne Dennis and Cindy Bachop
Bertrand and Dianne were the top Harriers in the Cowichan Challenge Triathlon today, an event at Fuller's Lake featuring a 1K swim, 34K bike and 9K run. Bertrand was 8th overall in 1:57:41 and Dianne was 6th female in 2:16:33. The race winners were Stefan Jacobsen in 1:44:14 and Christina Stoehr in 2:11:43. Cindy was third female, in 1:14:16, to place first in her age class and 11th overall in the Sprint Division (500m swim, 17K bike and 5K run). The Sprint Division winners were Erik Evans, in 1:01:01 and Tania Pollock, in 1:11:58. There were 90 finishers in the main race and 71 in the sprint race for a total of 161 at the Cowichan Challenge Triathlon.
July 9, 2011
Kris Swanson, Shane Ruljancich and Andrew Pape-Salmon
At Canmore, AB, today Harriers Kris and Shane secured a trip to the World Championships in Albania! They had a super race, handily taking second and fifth places overall, securing a spot on the Canadian National Team. Andrew also had a great race taking first master; he was 10th overall in 1:03:13. The top five men were all named to Team Canada to represent our country at the Worlds. They included James Gosselin, from Timmins, 56:11, Kris Swanson, 56:32, Edmontonians Mark Volmer, 59:15, and Adrian Lambert, 59:35, and Shane Ruljancich, 59:37. The men's course was 14.5K and the women's course was 9.2K. The top three women were Danielle Kabush, 42:21, Micah Medinski, 42:27, and Magi Scallion, 42:42. The Harriers ladies ran well and saw Sonja Yli-Kahila capture third place in her category, 12th overall in 48:12, and Sara Pape-Salmon was fifth in her age group, 23rd overall in 1:00:11, finishing in the middle of the pack. There were 32 finishers in the men's race, 41 in the women's race and another 16 finishers in the 3.9K all-comers race for a total of 89 participants at the 11th annual Canmore Challenge. For the first time in Albanians sports history there will be an international event which will occur this fall. The world championships will visit Albania and will take place in the capital city Tirana, hosting the 27th annual World Mountain Running Championships. The event date is September 11, 2011.
July 9, 2011
Julien Marceau and Keith Mills
Julien won the 400 metre open race in 61 seconds and Keith placed second in the 3,000 metre open race in 9:30 at VTS#5 staged at Centennial Stadium tonight. In workmanlike fashion, Gary Duncan and Chris Callendar ran three races including the 400, 800 and 3,000 metre events and placed very well in all three. Other Harriers running well on the track included Dee Ogden who was top master in the 400 metres, Marcia Stromsmoe who won the F60 division in the 400 and 3,000 metre races and Christine Thate who took gold in the F50 division of the 3,000. There were 63 competitors in 7 different races.
July 9, 2011
Jason Loutitt
Jason placed second of 131 participants in the IAU Trail World Championships in Connemara, Ireland today with a blazing finish where he gained 10 minutes on the leader and race winner Erik Clavery, from France, and only fell 1:25 short of the victory. The 70K trail race featured some of the most treacherous, swampy and steep conditions on this planet. The results are here http://ie.trumin.com/online/event.ctrl?cmd=result&event=1713462471 and Jason's report follows. Next up for him are the 100K World Championships in Winchoten, The Netherlands, and the Commonwealth Ultramarathon Championships in Wales. Both events are in September.
"You truly know it's real racing when it's so steep that you have to grab at hunks of grass and mud while ascending, or even better not having any traction on the muddy grass as you try to make it back down the mountain and are forced to think slip and slide. It was wild and I'm sure the mountain goats were telling each other that is not how it's done. This was Ben Baun Mountain and although the course profile said 7 hundred and some odd metres, it was a reminder to get up in the alpine at home as I am a runner without practice as far as this race is concerned. Again, perhaps I should be thinking slip and slide. Add to Ben Baun, the smaller double ascent of Diamond Head Mountain and since the rare sunny day made an appearance, it actually was alot easier than if there had been a downpour. I couldn't imagine the carnage if it had been raining. The overall mixture of terrain was incredible and my new enlightening word was 'bog'. Thought I kind of knew what it meant but I describe it as eneven grass fields soaked up to 3 feet deep and mixed with both mud and clumps of grass, or just sheer hell. I was thinking while racing in it 'don't steal my shoe and especially not the one with the chip on it'. Funny though as one of the bogs was where I got back into second place and picked up the pace from 64klm until the 70klm finish with a pretty fast kick at the end to almost win the world championships. As the race unfolded I went for it and was reminded of the descending talent of European runners when on the first descent of Diamond head, I was passed briefly for the only time until past halfway by two Norwegian runners. I kept the lesson in mind and took my descents easier to ensure I didn't over pound the legs as they would be working like dogs in those bogs. Just after the halfway turnaround point, I was then passed for the lead. The return back over Ben Baun was where I ended up also getting passed by an Italian and another French runner. These were the two runners who I passed bog style and at this point I pushed enough so I knew that I could hold on to my spot and maybe catch back up to the leader. I closed the gap from 10min down to 1 min at the finish line. Thats how bad I floundered from 44-60k but if another klm was added to the end of the race, the results might of been different. The global TV race coverage and interview time that I had was over 2.5 hrs in total and I sure look forward to the coverage to come out in 3 months. I have never run with a camera in my face for so much and there were some even on the mountain filming and passing you as you were trying to descend. This is not just another learning experience that comes from racing as it is now the top one so far for inspiring my running future. After all, our only choice when it comes down to it is to inspire ourselves to get inspiring! Having the support from my main sponsors The North Face and Vega was incredible. My other sponsors also were a big part in helping me get to that finish line. My thanks also goes out to the Prairie Inn Harriers, Petzyl, Cameco, Bikram Yoga Vancouver and my work. I laced up my SingleTrack shoes with confidence, wore the Flight Series clothing with pride, drank Vega Sport throughout the race and knew that the power of those who believe in me was in my corner. Namaste and thanks! Jason"
July 9, 2011
Adam Campbell
Adam was second overall to race champion, Aaron Heidt, at the 23rd annual Knee Knackering 50K North Shore Trail Race in North Vancouver today. Their times were 4:53:06 and 5:06:48. Oliver Utting took third in 5:15:52. The top three women were Louise Oram, in 5:41:19, Lisa Polizzi, in 5:41:24, and Suzanne Evans, in 5:58:33. They placed 10th , 11th and 15th overall of the 198 finishers. The final runner crossed the line in 9:56:26 in one of the most challenging ultra trail events on the Baden Powell Trail from Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove.
July 3, 2011
Richard Knowlton and Julie Van Veelen
Richard and Julie were the top Harriers at the Subaru Vancouver International Triathlon today with times of 4:38:47 and 5:04:20. The race champions were Scott Curry, from Chilliwack, in 4:02:09 and Vancouver's Rachel McBride in 4:18:12. There were 217 finishers in the Half Ironman distance, 230 finishers in the Sprint distance and another 52 in the Kid's Run for a total of 499 participants. Richard improved his overall position from 28th last year (4:41:45) to 22nd this year (4:38:47). Julie did even better by leaping up from 98th overall last year to 66th this year to claim a silver medal in the F30 division. Her time improved from 5:21:10 in 2010 to 5:04:20 in 2011 due to huge improvements in the bike and swim portions of the event.
July 3, 2011
Bertrand Bozek, Kirsten Arensen and Farisha Arensen
Bertrand was the top master and finished fourth overall in 1:00:41 at the Triathlon of Compassion in Esquimalt today. It is a short distance event comprised of a 500 metre swim, 19 kilometre ride and 5 kilometre run. Kirsten was second female, 14th overall, in 1:06:27 and Farisha was first girl in the youth race, second overall, in 24:27. The winners of the adult race were Brent Limbeek in 58:40 and Pam Shatzko in 1:06:10. Erik Evans won the youth race in 23:14. There were 146 finishers plus 6 teams in the adult race and 16 finishers in the youth race.
July 1, 2011
Sean Chester and Elaine Galbraith
Sean topped the field for a second consecutive year and Elaine continued her trend of nailing 5K P.B.s at the 24th annual Sidney Days 5K today. Sean's unofficial time was 17:04 and Elaine's was 24:06, however there were 6 or 7 athletes that had the incorrect time recorded from their bib chip and a 17-second adjustment is needed. Both Sean and Elaine were part of that group so, with corrections, their new times should be 16:47 and 23:49. Sean ran a blistering 15:23 last year and Elaine lowered her personal best from 24:23 at Bazan Bay to 24:03 at the Twilight Shuffle to 23:49 today at Sidney Days. She was second in the F40 division. One of Canada's finest 1,500 metre runners, Gary Barber, placed third overall to top the master's field in 17:57 while Gary's son, Michael, convincingly won the 2K Kids Run in 8:49. Second place in the 5K was Kevin Searle's son, Ian, who ran 17:30 this year compared to his dad's 16:37 of last year. The first female in the 5K was under 15 years old with Desirae Ridenour claiming the crown in 18:39; she was 4th overall of the 146 finishers. There were another 26 runners in the Kids Run and 6 more in the 5K Walk for a total of 181 participants. Last year the event attracted 203 finishers.
July 1, 2011
Norm Tinkham
Our Maple Ridge Harrier, Norm Tinkham, placed fourth overall and won the master's division, at the age of 47, by over a minute today at the Pitt Meadows Canada Day 8K. His time was 28:22. The race champions were Mission's Jeremiah Johnston, in 25:28, and Soraiya Abdulla, from Maple Ridge, in 32:48. There were 162 finishers at the Pitt Meadows 8K.
June 26, 2011
Shawn Nelson, Claire Morgan and Andrew Pape-Salmon
Sean won the Ladysmith Gutbuster 16K long course race today in 1:10:15, Andrew was the first master and fourth overall in 1:17:42 and Claire was second female and first F30 in 1:26:08. The female champion was Care Wakely in 1:17:49; she was fifth of the 84 long course finishers which included 16 Harriers. The strong M50 trio of Garth Campbell, Gary Duncan and Larry Nylen once again swept their age category in convincing style recording times of 1:21:26, 1:26:00 and 1:29:13. Shelby Drope, of Nanaimo, won the 9K short course in 38:23 while Davita Burraves topped the women's field in 47:07. There were 67 finishers including Brandon Willson, first M15, and Austin Willson, 3rd M15, in the short course.
June 26, 2011
Natasha Wodak and Dylan Wykes
Dylan was fourth overall of 3,955 finishers in 1:04:35 while Natasha was the third female in 1:17:24 at the 13th annual Scotiabank Vancouver Half Marathon today. Lethbridge’s resident Kenyan, Kip Kangogo, 1:03:22, and Washington State’s Ruth Perkins, 1:16:14, both ran canny, intelligent races this morning to claim victory in front of a record field of 4,815 registrations. Another 1,396 ran the companion 5K race for a grand total of over 6,200 participants. Equally impressive, more than $600,000 was raised for some 40 — mostly local — charities in the Scotiabank Group Charity Challenge. Weather conditions were also ideal for the runners, as they took off at 7:00 am from UBC on one of the world’s most-scenic courses down to Stanley Park: 12 degrees, a little cloud, and hardly a breath of wind. Second place in the men's field went to Toronto's Matt Loiselle in 1:03:47 while Rob Watson, of Guelph, claimed third in 1:04:20. The top three women finished 12th, 13th and 14th overall with Ruth Perkins first in 1:16:14, Kate Vaughan second in 1:16:24, and Natasha Wodak third in 1:17:14.
June 26, 2011
Gerry Etcheverry
Gerry finished 12th of 208 in the M50 age category and 199th overall of 2,804 finishers at Ironman Coeur d'Alene today. His time was 10:44:20. Gerry improved in many areas from his last Ironman Coeur d'Alene in 2008 where he recorded a time of 10:36:32. His swim improved from 1:06:51 to 1:06:09 and he showed a huge improvement on the bike from 5:27:00 to 5:16:07. He also improved both of his transition times swim-to-bike from 5:22 to 5:07 and bike-to-run from 3:40 to 2:31. He struggled a little with the marathon run this year finishing in 4:14:26 compared to 3:53:39 in 2008. All in all, it was a great effort for Basqueman who I am sure is very pleased with his effort where he finished in the top 7% of the field today, at the age of 51.
June 19, 2011
Paddy McCluskey, Richard Knowlton and Julie Van Veelen
Paddy placed fourth overall and was second master in 4:15:00 in the Half Iron Distance while Julie was the third female finisher in 1:11:43 in the Sprint Distance at the 14th annual Saunders Subaru Victoria Triathlon, formerly the New Balance Half Ironman. Richard ran a personal best finishing 9th overall, second in the M30 division, in 4:19:04. He was 38th after the 1.9K swim, 13th after the 88K bike portion and moved past 4 more competitors on the 21K run to finish ninth. Adam O'Meara won the Half Iron in 3:58:09 and the top female was Victoria's Sara Gross in 4:28:27. The winner of the Sprint race was Robert Johnson, from Chilliwack, in 59:35 and Vancouver's Martina Wan was the top female in 1:06:26; she was 11th overall and Julie was 22nd. There were 338 finishers in the Half Iron Distance and 219 finishers in the Sprint Distance for a total of 557. This was 31 fewer than last year's mark of 588 finishers.
June 19, 2011
Gary Duncan and Wendy Davies
Gary was second overall and Wendy was the top female and ninth overall at the Canada Safeway Do it For Dad 8K trail race at Royal Roads on Father's Day. There were over 500 participants and 150 volunteers and the event raised more than $85,000 for prostate cancer research. The race winner was Michael Bergeron in 35:23, Gary's time was 35:32, and Sebastian Harper took third in 35:37. The leading trio, who exchanged positions several times during the race, were over four minutes ahead of the next runner. Wendy's winning time was 41:53, well ahead of Chelsea Henderson, second in 43:32, and third Danielle Hubbard in 45:15. Two outstanding performances by two outstanding PIH 50+ runners.
June 18, 2011
Jim Finlayson and Natasha Wodak
Jim placed second overall to Jerry Ziak, 14:51 to 14:55, and Natasha won the women's race in 17:07; she was 17th overall of 521 finishers at the Longest Day 5K in Vancouver today. Third place went to Harriers' David Jackson in 14:58 while Melissa Ross was second female in 17:18 and Catherine Watkins placed third in 17:31. The Longest Day 5K, hosted by UBC Thunderbirds, is Race #14 of 15 in the Timex BC Series.
June 18, 2011
Claire Morgan and Colin Dignum
Claire was the top female in the 5,000 metre open race in 17:56 and Colin set a new 5,000 metre M45 Canadian Record of 15:22 at the VTS Meet #4 at Centennial Stadium tonight. He finished third overall and was top master in the race. The previous national M45 record was 15:27 and the previous provincial M45 record was 15:38. Helly Visser, 77, of Vancouver, set a F75 world record in the mile, lowering the previous W.R. by an astonishing 10 seconds in recording a time of 7:47. Ian Perriman won the 400 metre open race in 57.2, Maggie Hanlon won the 400 metre women's event in 57.8, Shane Ruljancich won the open mile in 4:38, Laurence Coogan won the 5,000 metre open in 16:40 and Trevor O'Brien won the 5,000 metre elite race in 14:53. There were 42 participants in 5 events.
June 14, 2011
Sean Chester, Logan Roots, Lucy Smith and Camie Bentham
Sean and Logan were 1-2 overall and Lucy and Camie were 1-2 in the female division of the 27th annual Twilight Shuffle 5K tonight in Chemainus. Sean's time was 15:50, Logan's was 16:51, Lucy's was 17:38 and Camie's was 20:14. Lucy was 5th overall of the 328 finishers and Camie was 20th. The top masters were also Harriers with Lucy winning the women's prize and Kevin Searle taking the men's prize in 18:04. Mike Lord, 6th, Gary Duncan, 10th, Hayden Earle, 12th, David Hoskins, 15th, and Valerie Bell, 25th, also had strong performances. Elaine Galbraith ran a personal best of 24:03 to finish 73rd and lower her P.R. set at Bazan Bay by 20 seconds. Unfortunately, the race is declining in participants from its record year of 2004 where it had 733 finishers. In the last 3 years the Twilight Shuffle has been dwindling with 557, 552 and 328 finishers. Race Director, Phil Nicholls, is considering moving the venue to the Greater Victoria area in 2012. He is excited about hosting the new McNeil Bay Half Marathon in Oak Bay on September 11, replacing the outgoing Lands End Half Marathon that was held for 15 years in North Saanich.
June 12, 2011
Steve Bachop
Steve placed fourth overall, third in the Masters B category, in 2:31:55, at the 2011 TNA Westside Cycling Classic today held at Pacific Spirit Park near UBC. He averaged 37.3 kph for the 94.5 kilometre race. The winner was Bob Welbourn in 2:29:42; there were 32 finishers in this elite cycling race.
June 12, 2011
Shawn Nelson and Jeff Hunt
Shawn was the race champion in 1:18:23 and Jeff placed third overall in 3:12:46 at the Edge to Edge Half Marathon and Marathon today running from Tofino to Ucluelet with some difficult hills and sand stretches along the way. Second place overall in the half marathon with an incredible performance was the top female, Care Wakely, in 1:23:09. The E2E marathon champions were Judd Levirs in 2:47:47 and Tanis Ridout in 3:33:54. At Edge to Edge there were 126 finishers in the marathon, 250 finishers in the half marathon and 320 finishers comprising 64 teams in the marathon relay for a total of 696 participants.
June 12, 2011
Jim Finlayson and Amy Schneeberg
Jim and Amy were the top Harriers and Jim finished first overall in 30:47 while Amy was second female in 37:44, only 12 seconds behind the winner, Rachel Ruus, who was the top female and 18th overall in 37:32 at the Sandcastle City Classic 10K today in White Rock. Harriers' Herb Phillips dominated the M70 age class once again by placing 36th of 258 finishers in 39:52 to win his division by over 6 minutes. The Sandcastle Classic 10K, hosted by Semiahmoo Sunrunners, was Race #13 of 15 in the Times BC Series.
June 11, 2011
Kyle Jones
WELHAI, China — Kyle collected his third gold medal in as many weeks at the ITU Triathlon Premium Asian Cup in China today. He posted a winning time of two hours, three seconds and was followed by Ireland’s Gavin Noble in 2:00:48 and Victoria’s Brent McMahon, who won his third straight bronze medal, in 2:01:03.
“It was a very similar race to last week with Brent and I coming out of the water with a lead group of four,” Jones said. “We rode together in a group of six on the bike, and I was first out onto the run after a really good transition. I ran controlled for the first five kilometres, and then picked up the pace and opened a 45 second gap.”
The three-week winning streak began with Jones’ first career ITU victory at the Pan American Cup in Ixtara, Mexico, and was followed by victory in the Asian Cup on Amakusa, Japan.
“Overall I’m very happy with the last three weeks. The goal was to improve my ranking and I scored maximum points, so mission accomplished.” said Jones. “I was also able to gain a lot of confidence and I feel this trip has helped me improve my preparation leading into races, which is going to help me for the rest of the season.”
Jones, 26, and McMahon, 30, will next see action in a July 10 World Cup race in Edmonton.
June 5, 2011
Richard Knowlton, Kirsten Arensen and Wendy Davies
Richard finished third overall out of 83 finishers in 1:30:51 and Kirsten was second female in 1:38:31 at the 2nd annual Team X Panorama Triathlon today in Central Saanich. The Triathlon race champions were Rob Hasagawa in 1:25:02 and Sarah Baker in 1:33:32. Wendy was second female in the accompanying Panorama Duathlon finishing in 1:51:51. The race had 15 finishers and the Duathlon race champions were Sean Kato in 1:30:10 and Melanie Suave in 1:42:47.
June 5, 2011
Chris Callendar
Chris finished first overall of 339 finishers at the North Olympic Discovery Marathon today with a time of 2:59:47. His splits were relatively even with 1:29:30 for the first half of the race and 1:30:17 for the second half. Second place went to Adam Read in 3:04:26 and the top female, Tanaya Gallager, placed third overall in 3:05:17. There were 339 finishers in the marathon, 48 in the marathon walk, 1,057 in the half marathon, 222 in the 10K, and 123 in the 5K for a total of 1,789 finishers. The North Olympic Discovery Marathon and Half Marathon takes place on a unique point to point course that incorporates the beautiful Olympic Discovery Trail with stunning views of the Olympic Mountains and a five mile finishing stretch along the shores of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This rails to trails course is a wide, mixed/hard surface trail. The race is organized by the Port Angeles Marathon Association - a group of accomplished amateur athletes. The marathon starts at Carrie Blake Park in Sequim and the half marathon starts half way between Sequim and Port Angeles at the Agnew Soccer Fields. Both races finish at city pier in downtown Port Angeles.
June 4, 2011
Sean Chester, Simon Pearson and Marcia Stromsmoe
At VTS # 3 tonight, Sean finished second in the 1,500 metre men's race in 4:19, Simon finished second in the 800 metre open race in 2:27 and Marcia won her age division in ironwomanlike fashion in the 400 metre, 1:34, 800 metre, 3:24, and 1,500 metre races in 6:38. Jeanette Van Den Bulk won the 400 metre event in 59:10, Jim Barwise won the 800 metre open race in 2:23, Ryan McKenzie won the 1,500 metre men's event in 4:05 and Riley McQueen won the 1,500 metre open race in 4:45. A total of 37 runners participated in the four events.
June 4, 2011
Jim Finlayson and Kristina Rody
Jim was first overall in 1:09:25 and Kristina was second female, and ninth overall of 723 finishers, in 1:22:54 at the inaugural Whistler Half Marathon today. The popular event sold out very quickly and extended their limit by another 100 runners only to sell out within a few hours. Next year, organizers are hoping to set their cap at 1,500 participants. Care Wakely was the top female, seventh overall in 1:21:04, and Edward McCarthy was runner-up to Jim in 1:12:52. Harriers Sean Nelson (4th), Geoff Reid (5th) and Amy Schneeberg (11th overall) also had excellent races at the new Whistler Half Marathon.
June 4, 2011
Colin Dignum and Juliette Christie
Colin placed third overall in 4:30 and Juliette was the second female in 5:23 at the Ambleside Masters Mile in West Vancouver today. The race winner was Kevin O'Connor in 4:24 and the top female was Karyn Mitchell in 5:18. Other Harriers running well included Gord Christie, 4:55, and Herb Phillips, 5:25. There were 120 finishers at the Ambleside Masters Mile, one of the most popular and most competitive over-40 races of its type in Canada.
May 29, 2011
Steve Osaduik and Kevin Friesen
Steve and Kevin placed 1-2 today at the Shaughnessy 8K in Vancouver today with times of 24:56 and 25:24. The top two females were Louisa Lobigs, from Montreal, in 28:52 and Victoria's Care Wakely, in 29:09. There were 320 finishers at Shaughnessy, Race #12 of 15 in the Timex BC Series.
May 29, 2011
Shawn Nelson, Claire Morgan and Andrew Pape-Salmon
Shawn and Claire were the race champions at the Westwood Lake Gutbuster Half Marathon today in Nanaimo with winning times of 1:47:51 and 2:04:47. Andrew placed third overall and was the top master in 1:51:37; this was his highest finish to date in a Gutbuster race. There were 66 finishers in the long course and another 90 finishers in the 12K short course won by Port Alberni's Royd Burkart in 1:04:55.
May 29, 2011
Paddy McCluskey
Paddy was second overall and top master today at the Subaru Shawnigan Lake International Triathlon, Race #1 of a 5-race Series. His time was 2:17:33 in the Olympic Distance event (1.5K swim, 44K bike and 10K run). Killam Nathan won the Olympic Distance race in 2:11:08, O'Meara won the Half Ironman Distance in 4:03:36 and Doug Lewis won the Sprint Division in 1:01:36. There were 84 finishers in the Half Ironman, 115 finishers in the Olympic Distance, 97 finishers in the Sprint Division and 33 finishers in the Kid's Race for a total of 329.
May 29, 2011
Jason Loutitt, David Jackson and Natasha Wodak
At the 47th annual Scotiabank Calgary Marathon, Half Marathon and 10K Road Race today, Jason won the marathon in 2:33:03, David was third overall in the half marathon in 1:09:14 and Natasha was the top female in the 10K, 12th overall of 2,268 finishers in 34:37. The winner of the half marathon was Willy Kimosop in 1:09:00 and the winner of the 10K was Kip Kangogo in 30:07. There were 758 finishers in the marathon, 2,966 in the half marathon, 2,268 in the 10K and 1,395 in the 5K for a total of 7,387 at Calgary.
May 28, 2011
Todd Nowack
Todd finished first overall of all the solo, 2-person and 4-person teams, with a total of 121 competitors, today at the inaugural Burnaby Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race, an event encompassing kayaking, biking, orienteering, trekking and running over 7 different stages. His winning time was 4:25:00. Harriers' Shane Ruljancich was third overall in 4:33:55. Brent Chan and Sarah Newman took third in the mixed 2-person team division in 5:36:53, Hayden Earle and Scott Sheldrake were 4th in the 2-man division in 5:08:33 and Ian Skelton and Keith Skelton were 11th in the 2-man division in 6:06:13. It was a very tough race for Todd, in his own words he described the race as follows, "I literally was about to collapse. I don't mean this lightly nor am I trying to be overly dramatic. Mentally and physically, I was at the end. I had never suffered this hard in any other race and my body was about to shut down on me.
I entered the finish chute and, for the first time in a MOMAR, I turned my run into a walk, gave a pathetic little fist pump, and didn't crack even the slightest smile. Gary was at the finish line trying to get that great photo, but it just did not happen. I walked a bit away from the finish chute after a zombie finish photo, decidedly crashed on the ground and didn't move for over 10 minutes. Not sure how I came from not racing, to racing, to winning other than I dug into a place that I didn't know existed. Regardless, I'll take it!"
May 28, 2011
Melanie McQuaid, Simon Whitfield and Louise Proulx
Melanie and Simon were the top Harriers and placed 54th and 55th in the 12K Oak Bay Waterfront Time Trial of the inaugural Tour de Victoria 140K and 90K cycling event. They did the 90K route and averaged 36.3 kph and finished the 12K time trial in 19:49 and 19:50. There were about 1,200 riders involved including former Vancouver Canuck Trevor Linden. 23 Harriers rode in the Tour today. Louise had an impressive 3.6K Hill Climb Time Trial on Munns Road and placed 5th in the female division in 12:14 (17.7 kph). She was the top Harrier in the climbing time trial. The top overall hill climbers were Ryder Hesjedal in 7:32 (28.7 kph) and Erinne Willock in 9:29 (22.8 kph).
May 28, 2011
Adam Campbell
Adam placed second overall today in the Run the North Shore Iron Knee 25K trail run in 1:44:43. The race was won by Shaun Stephens-Whale in 1:39:53 while Mark Bennett claimed third in 1:46:53. The top female was Michelle Mark in 2:04:56; she was19th overall. There were 182 finishers at the Iron Knee.
May 22, 2011
Stephen Kilshaw and Paddy McCluskey
Stephen was first overall in 58:25 and Paddy was fourth overall and second master in 1:05:08 at the 1st Annual Team X Juan de Fuca Triathlon today. There were 92 finishers in the triathlon and another 7 finishers in the accompanying duathlon.
May 21, 2011
Shane Ruljancich and Claire Morgan
Shane and Claire were the winners of the Kilted Mile at Topaz Park today, part of the 74th annual Victoria Highland Games Festival. Shane's winning time was 5:03.3 and Claire finished fifth overall of the 18 finishers in 6:17.9. Fourteen of the 18 finishers were Harriers including the top five with Shane first in 5:03.3, Nick Walker second, 5:06.4, Mark Nelson third, 5:06.6, Gary Duncan fourth, 5:54.8 and Claire was fifth in 6:17.9. She was also on the winning team in the tug-of-war contest and was bitten by a dog while at the festival. Second place female in the Kilted Mile was Dee Ogden in 7:01.9 and Elaine Galbraith took third in 7:38.9. The top male and female received $100 each with second place receiving $75 and third won $50 each. Many Harriers won gold medals in their age divisions in unique 15-year categories. There was a boisterous crowd cheering the kilted runners on and the only missing element to whoo hoo up the contestants' spirits while on the course was Sandster who was the third female at the event two years ago.
May 15, 2011
Lucy Smith
Lucy was the top master and second female overall at the Toronto GoodLife Fitness Half Marathon today in 1:21:19. She was 22nd overall of the 4,066 half marathon finishers including 1,813 men and 2,253 women. The top two men were Kenyans Elivd Lagat and Douglas Wakiihuri in 1:10:39 and 1:14:09 and the top female was Jane Cullis, from Toronto, in 1:16:43. There were 1,296 finishers in the marathon, 4,066 in the half marathon, 2,135 in the 5K, 180 in the half marathon walk and 300 in the marathon relay for a total of 7,977 finishers at the GoodLife Fitness Toronto Marathon. In comparison, the 2010 GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon attracted 11,811 finishers.
May 15, 2011
Jim Finlayson, Logan Roots and Claire Morgan
Jim was the second male, Claire was the third female and Logan was the top junior and fourth overall of 773 finishers at the 7th annual Oak Bay KOOL Half Marathon today under pouring rain and cold conditions. Kenyan Gilbert Kiptoo reversed the roles today beating Jim 1:06:50 to 1:07:57. Last year Jim beat Gilbert 1:07:05 to 1:08:59. In the seven years of Peninsula Runners hosting this race, Jim has won the event five times and finished second twice; he holds the course record of 1:06:45 set in 2007. Adam O'Meara took third place in 1:14:52. Care Wakely, 10th overall today, won the women's race in 1:22:05 compared to her winning time of 1:23:40 last year. Sara Gross placed second in 1:23:17 and Claire finished third in 1:24:27 and was 20th overall. She lowered her P.B. from the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon by 1 minute and 52 seconds. Logan continued his impressive streak of top-5 performances this year by winning the M19 division in 1:16:14. Harriers also running personal bests at Oak Bay were Ian Ackroyd, 1:20:42, Jeff Hunt, 1:23:41 and Julien Marceau, 1:26:58. Despite the horrendously wet and cold conditions, the Oak Bay KOOL Half Marathon attracted 773 finishers and 356 more ran in the Asics Ekiden Relay for a total of 1,129 participants. This is 218 more than the previous record high total of 911 set in 2010.
May 14, 2011
Chris Callendar, Gord Christie, Kevin Searle and Garth Campbell
Chris won the Mixed Open 800 metre race in 2:14, Gord won the Mixed Open 1,500 metre race in 4:49, and both Kevin and Garth teamed up with Peter Holmes and Mark Pinckard to set a new M50 800 Metre Relay Canadian Record of 9:24 at the Q's Victoria Track Series Meet #1 at UVic tonight. The event attracted 53 finishers in 7 different races ranging from 400 metres to 1,500 metres. The first meet of 2011 proved to be very exciting with a Canadian Record (pending ratification), sprint finishes and a windless, dry evening at the University of Victoria’s Centennial Stadium.
Canadian Record: In the 4 x 800m relay, the men’s 50-59 age-group record previously was 9:39, it is now 9:24.74, thanks to the fast feet of Kevin Searle of Shawnigan Lake, Peter Holmes, Garth Campbell and Mark Pinckard of Victoria, BC. Searle lead the relay off with a 2:18, Campbell in 2:32, Holmes ran 2:24 and Pinkard nailed an impressive 2:10 in front of a very boisterous crowd who cheered them onto the record from beginning to end.
May 8, 2011
Natasha Wodak
Natasha had an outstanding race today placing third overall out of 233 finishers and destroying the women's field by almost two minutes over the second female. Her time for the Mothers' Day 5K Spring Classic at Mundy Park, Coquitlam, was 17:06. The race winner was Victoria's Matt Sharpe in 15:59 followed by Tom Mitchie, of Kelowna in 16:30. Our M70 Harrier, Herb Phillips, had another great performance by notching a 19:30 to finish 25th overall and win his age division by a staggering 12 minutes! The Mothers' Day 5K Spring Classic was hosted by Phoenix Running Club and is Race #11 in the Timex BC Race Series.
May 8, 2011
Mike Arensen
Mike topped the field at the Sound and Silence 10K today on the roads of Central Saanich with a time of 38:15. Second place went to Sean Windrum in 41:22 while Dave Divers took third in 44:32. The top female was Nicole Bates-Eamer in 45:25; she was fifth overall of the 81 finishers in the 10K. Steven Bell and Carol Cooper led the 15 finishers in the 5K Walk in 35:51 and 49:54. The race is losing its appeal as attendance was only 96 today, down 66 runners from last year's total of 160 and 94 down from the previous year's total of 190.
May 7, 2011
Shane Ruljancich and Shannon Coutts
Shane was the 13K race champion and Shann was the 7K race champion at the Mt. Tzouhalem Gutbuster today, Race #1 of a four-race Frontrunners Trail Series presented by the North Face. Other events will be held at Westood Lake, Nanaimo, on May 29, at Holland Creek, Ladysmith, on June 26 and the final one will be held at Mount Washington, Courtenay, on July 23. Shane's winning time for the long course was 59:52. He was followed by Harriers team mates Shawn Nelson in 1:00:31 and Andrew Pape-Salmon, top master, in 1:04:14. Harriers' Logan Roots placed fourth and he was the top junior in 1:05:56. The first three women in the long course were Care Wakely, 1:08:08, Claire Morgan, 1:14:08, and Jessalyn O'Donnell, in 1:14:20. Harriers Garth Campbell, Gary Duncan and Larry Nylen placed 1-2-3 in the M50 Division. Haven Ullstrom won the short course race in 36:53, Trevor Marc was second in 37:31 and Delisle Martin took third in 40:20. Shannon placed fifth overall in 43:53 and was both the top female and the top master. Second place went to Shelagh German in 50:09 and Patti McMullen was third in 50:17. There were 92 finishers in the long course and 56 in the short course for a total of 148 finishers. Last year the race attracted 98 finishers in the long course and 73 in the short course for a total of 171.
May 7, 2011
Jason Loutitt, Adam Campbell, Audrey Stibbe and Darren Froese
Jason won the 100K race in 7:28:25, Darren won the 50K race in 3:51:37 while Adam and Audrey won the feature 50 Mile National Championship race in 5:44:00 and 8:24:19 at the 24th annual Island Runner Elk/Beaver Ultras today under ideal conditions, hosted by the Prairie Inn Harriers and directed by Carlos Castillo. Adam's time was a course record, lowering Peter Holubar's mark of 6:08:50 set 16 years ago in 1995. Audrey finished fourth overall of the 9 finishers in the 50 Mile Division and was the top female and the top master. The top female in the 100K was Suzanne Johnson in 10:38:40 and the top female in the 50K was Suzy VanDyck in 4:13:12. Sukhdeep Saini and Doris Lim won the 26.2 Mile First-Timers Marathon in 3:49:19 and 4:24:35 and Sheena Shaw won the 25 Mile Walk in 6:25:08. There were 10 starters and 7 finishers in the 100K Division, 10 starters and 9 finishers in the 50 Mile, 31 starters and 30 finishers in the popular 50K, 8 starters and 6 finishers in the marathon and 2 starters and 2 finishers in the 25 Mile Walk for a total of 61 starters and 54 finishers at Elk/Beaver. Another 11 of the 72 registrations did not start the race.
May 3, 2011
Mark Bomba
The Trinity Western track and field and cross country teams took a huge leap forward Friday with the announcement that former Canadian champion long-distance runner Mark Bomba of the Prairie Inn Harriers will assist the Spartans as the team’s Endurance Director.
Bomba comes to Trinity Western with an extensive background as both an athlete and a coach and will no doubt help to develop the Spartans middle distance and cross country runners into competitive racers on the national scene.
As an athlete, he was the national champion in both the 10,000 metre distance and half marathon distance in 2005 while also winning the Canadian cross country title in 2000. He competed in the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in 2005, the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in 2001 and 2003 and the Chiba Ekiden Relay in 2002 and 2004. To go along with all that, he was also the 1993 NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) national champion in the 1500 metre event while competing for Simon Fraser University.
Most recently, Bomba was ranked as the top masters (over-40) 10km runner in Canada.
May 1, 2011
Simon Whitfield and Natasha Wodak
Willy Kimosop of Kenya and two-time Olympic triathlon medalist Simon Whitfield waged an exciting two-man duel for nine pulsing kilometres Sunday morning through the sunny streets of Victoria. It was Kimosop who prevailed in the 22nd Times Colonist 10K, heading a parade of 13,096 registrations, in 30 minutes and 24 seconds. Harriers' Simon Whitfield was a whisker behind in 30:28, followed by third-place finisher Matt Clout of Victoria in 30:44. There were 10,218 finishers at the TC10K, 398 less than last year's record total of 10,616. Karolina Jarzynska of Poznan, who has qualified to represent Poland in the marathon next summer at the London Olympics, successfully defended her 2010 women’s TC 10K title by winning again Sunday in 32:56; this was 29 seconds faster than her winning time of last year of 33:35. Harriers' Natasha Wodak, of Port Moody, also improved by 59 seconds over last year's time and was the second woman across, in 34:18, and Kenyan Lucy Njeri of Toronto was third in 34:53. Natasha turned the tables on Lucy as Njeri had beaten her by 18 seconds at the Sun Run two weeks earlier. There were many brilliant performances by Harriers at the TC10K including personal bests by Dylan Gant, 31:51, Jeff Phillips, 32:32, Shane Ruljancich, 32:43, Logan Roots, 34:20, Andrew Pape-Salmon, 35:19, Shauna Skinner, 36:04, Ian Ackroyd, 36:10, Garth Campbell, 36:18, Mike Arensen, 37:23, Claire Morgan, 37:26, Scott Holland, 38:14, Yuki Otsubo, 38:39, Ian Skelton, 39:30, David Hoskins, 39:35, Kirsten Arensen, 40:07, Sonja Yli-Kahila, 40:40, and Valerie Bell, 41:02. In a huge-numbers, highly competitive race, TEN Harriers won their age categories including Logan Roots (M19), Dylan Gant (M25), Simon Whitfield (M35), David Hoskins (M60), John Cliff (M65), John Woodall (M75), Maurice Tarrant (M80), Alexandra Coates (F20), Claire Morgan (F35) and Marcia Stromsmoe (F60). Several other Harriers also occupied second and third positions within their respective age divisions. The new loop course featured slightly faster times this year compared to last year's out-and-back course from Cook and Dallas to the cemetery and back.
May 1, 2011
Jim Finlayson and David Jackson
Jim and David finished third and fourth overall at the BMO Vancouver Half Marathon today in 1:07:00 and 1:07:15 respectively under ideal sunny and cool conditions. Kenyans Kibet Rutto and Tibor Vegh were first and second in 1:06:32 and 1:06:58. Ironically, Jim and David finished third and fourth at the same event last year in 1:07:16 and 1:07:23. The top female was Emily Tallen, from Kingston, in 1:16:04. Portland's Carre Heineck was second in 1:19:19 and Catherine Watkins, of Vancouver, took third 1:21:33. Harriers' Trevor Feeney was 12th overall in 1:14:42. There were 6,522 finishers in the half marathon, the most popular distance of the four races offered on BMO Marathon Sunday.
May 1, 2011
Dylan Wykes
Dylan ran 5,000 metre and 10,000 metre personal bests of 13:43 and 28:12 on back-to-back weekends at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational at Stanford University in California and at the historic Hayward Field Oregon Relays in Eugene. The first race was the 5,000 metre event in Eugene on April 23 where Dylan ran in a pack for 11 1/2 laps before unleashing a brilliant final lap to finish second of 18 elite runners. The race winner Bedan Karoki led by over 200 metres for most of the race but Dylan closed to within 5 seconds at the line. You can view the race here. http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?do=videos&year=2011&folder_id=1742&event_id=26&pg=1&offset=3#video Dylan's 10,000 metre P.R. was in Stanford, CA, on May 1 where he finished 23rd in an elite field of 35 runners. Bedan Karoki also won the 10,000 metre race in 27:13.
May 1, 2011
Buddy Bhandar, Kristina Rody and Juliette Christie
Buddy was the top Harrier, first of 119 in the M55 division, and 76th overall of 3,341 finishers today at the BMO Vancouver Marathon. Buddy's time was 3:04:23. The race was won by Benard Onsare in 2:19:59; he was the bronze medalist at the 2010 GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon. The top female at BMO was Kelowna's Keddi-Anne Sherbino in 2:43:30, she was 16th overall. Kristina and Juliette finished second and fourth in the women's division of the BMO 8K Road Race in 29:36 and 30:20. They were 10th and 12th overall of the 914 finishers. Juliette was top master. The 8K race was won by Burnaby's Colin Wallace in 25:49 and the top female was Amy Kirkham, from Vancouver, in 29:32. There were 3,341 finishers in the marathon, 6,522 finishers in the half marathon, 914 finishers in the 8K and 959 finishers in the Kid's Run for a total of 11,716 on BMO Marathon race weekend.
April 30, 2011
Melanie McQuaid
Harriers' Melanie McQuaid made an impressive ITU debut and was crowned the first ITU Cross Triathlon World Champion today in Extremadura, Spain. Melanie overcame adversity when her bike was lost while traveling to Spain. She was forced to race on a borrowed bike for today’s championships but didn’t let that stop her from powering to her first ever ITU World Championship, adding to her three XTERRA world titles. American Shonny Vanlandingham was second across the line for silver. Teammate Emma Garrard took the bronze, completing a North American sweep of the women’s podium.
In all, 25 women from 11 countries tackled the course, set at “The Ring”, an International Innovation Centre for outdoor sports in Extremadura. Mel’s Canadian teammate Christine Jeffrey led the women out of the 1K swim. She held a significant lead over the favourites, with the fastest swim split by 1 minute, 46-second margin. McQuaid trailed by over two and a half minutes after the swim. But once on the 20K mountain bike course, McQuaid made her move and surged to the lead. Garrard followed in second place while Jeffrey dropped to third. Vanlandingham, who was second last out of the water, sizzled on the bike, recording the fastest bike split as the only woman to bike under an hour. McQuaid had the second fastest bike split, more than enough to propel her to the lead.
Off the bike and out onto the 6K cross country run, McQuaid continued to lead the field. Behind her, Vanlandingham worked her way into the silver medal position with Garrard just behind her in third. Even a 15-second penalty wasn’t enough to stall McQuaid in her unstoppable march to victory. The Canadian never looked back enroute to her first career ITU World Championship, stopping the clock at 1 hour, 43 minutes, 2 seconds, a comfortable 23 seconds ahead of Vanlandingham and 41 seconds ahead of Garrard.
April 22, 2011
Adam Campbell, Valerie Bell and Gary Duncan
At Fletcher's Challenge 11K Trail Run in Nanaimo today, Good Friday, Adam was the race champion in 46:47, Gary topped the M50 division to finish ninth overall in 55:29 and Val was the top Harrier and second master finisher in 1:12:06. The top female was Kaylee Beales in 1:00:00; there were 67 finishers. The following in an account of Gary's experience at Fletcher's Challenge:
"[Chihuahua] all soft and springy was just one of the amazing new trails at Westwood Lake we ran today in the Runners of Compassion (Nanaimo Chapter) organized n'th annual Fletcher's Challenge race in memory of Gavin Fletcher "a well known sports columnist, a member of ROC, a husband and father" "who died at too young an age".
11K of running bliss on mainly nice fast flowy single track through the trees and over the ridge on a wonderful sunny day. Some of the trails would be familiar to Gutbuster participants but there several new trails and connections. Several creek crossings and traverses, some gnarly rocky climb, some babyhead and steep descents, roots, puddles and mud. A true Harrier delight.
There was also a 6K family walk around the lake, an easter egg hunt for the kids, a most delicious assortment of probably 50 kinds of home made cookies and treats, lots and lots of draw prizes, professional timing by Race Day and many friendly volunteers around the course and at the finish area.
At least 8 Harriers were in attendance, Adam Campbell, Gary Duncan, Valerie Bell, Rachel Moore, Elaine, Andrew & Charlie Galbraith, and Kathleen Birney. Just 67 finishers, so plenty of room for more. Plan on it for next year. A Good Friday tradition.
Not surprisingly Adam won the race (46:47) but he had some competition in Joel de Schiffert and Westwood's own Shelby Drope. Teammate Byron Trajan dropped out early with shins still suffering from Sooke, but Travis Pirozinni had a strong race. Adam also donated a couple pairs of new Salomon XR Crossmax Guidance trail shoes of which I had the good fortune to win one. One draw prize was a pole dancing party for you and ten friends.
I wasn't racing to extreme being somewhat cautious to not aggravate the leg and was reeling in course designer Norm Thibault and holding off a young guy who kept closing behind on the gnarly downs when my shoe was sucked half off in a mud puddle after Chihuahua. Took a bit to get it back on and they had a good lead after we came down a steep trail with barb wire at the bottom. Caught Craig by the end but not Norm. Valerie was also 2nd master. Kaylee Beales was top woman in exactly 1 hour."
April 17, 2011
Shane Ruljancich, Keith Mills, Logan Roots and Nancy Baxendale
The Island Highway re-opened just in time to allow up-Island athletes to attend the Sooke River 10K, after being closed overnight due to an accident on the Malahat. Late arrivals were accommodated with a second start.
Shane Ruljancich scored his first-ever victory in a Frontrunners Island Race Series event after competing in 34 races since his first one, the Pioneer 8K on January 15, 2006, by winning at Sooke in 33:01. Nick Walker was half a minute back in 33:35, with Harriers' Keith Mills completing the podium a similar distance behind in 34:03. This was Keith's highest-ever finish in an Island Series race. Logan finished fifth overall, top junior, with an impressive personal best of 34:41, good for 784 points. This was 2 minutes, 9 seconds faster than his time at Sooke River last year.
No surprises in the women's race, as Care Wakely comfortably won her third race of the 2011 Series in 37:42. Triathlete Sara Gross was some distance back in second in 39:14, with top master Nancy Baxendale, of the Harriers, placing third in 40:32. This was Nancy's fifth and qualifying race where she secured the top master spot while competing in the F50 division, beating all of the F40 and F45 runners for the master's title.
April 17, 2011
Sean Chester and Claire Morgan
Sean and Claire were the top Harriers in the final Island Series standings following the Sooke River 10K today which was the concluding race of the eight race 2011 Frontrunners Island Race Series that started with the Prairie Inn Pioneer 8K on January 9. A total of 303 individuals ran the minimum races required to qualify for series awards, with 77 of those completing all eight races.
In the overall standing, Sean Chester placed first, averaging 839.0 points. Top master Craig Odermatt improved one place on 2010 for second with an 829.2 point average and Harriers' Shane Ruljancich was third with 820.0 points. The women’s final standings saw Care Wakely avenge last year’s second place, turning the tables on Melissa Ross. Both athletes showed the progress they are making, improving their point averages to 824.8 and 819.4 respectively. Claire Morgan again placed third, but also improved on her 2010 point score with a 784.6 average. Eleven Harriers won their age category including Robyn Noel (F15), Sonja Yli-Kahila (F30), Claire Morgan (F35), Nancy Baxendale (F50), Logan Roots (M19), Sean Chester (M25), Shane Ruljancich (M35), Garth Campbell (M50), Jack Meredith (M60), John Woodall (M75) and the legendary Maurice Tarrant (M80). PIH won the club competition with 5,126 points, followed by CVRR with 2,792 points and Bastion with 2,731 points.
April 17, 2011
Melanie McQuaid
Melanie picked up two XTERRA victories on two consecutive weekends earning $1,800.00 USD for each race. In Las Vegas, NV, she won the XT West Championship in 2:32:29 on April 10 and in Waco, TX, she won the XT South Central Championship in 2:20:31 on April 17. She was 22nd of 210 finishers in Las Vegas and 16th of 144 finishers in Waco. Josaih Middaugh won the West Championship in 2:13:39 and Conrad Stoltz won the South Central Championship in 2:05:35.The full schedule is as follows:
April 10 – XTERRA West Championship (Lake Las Vegas, NV)
April 17 – XTERRA South Central Championship (Cameron Park - Waco, TX)
May 15 - XTERRA Pacific Championship (Santa Cruz, CA)
May 22 – XTERRA Southeast Championship (Oak Mountain State Park – Pelham, AL)
June 12 – XTERRA East Championship (Brown’s Island – Richmond, VA)
July 16 – XTERRA Mountain Championship (Beaver Creek Resort – Avon, CO)
September 24 – XTERRA USA Championship (Snowbasin Resort – Ogden, UT)
For Pros: The top 15 pros at each championship event are awarded points based on overall pro finish. Pros count their best five-of-six scores plus the points they get (or don’t get) at the XTERRA USA Championship in Utah. Thus, the final point total combines the best five scores in the first six races, plus the USA Championship race points. He/she with the most points in the end is declared the U.S. Pro Series Champ. The U.S. Series will dish out $143,000 in prize money: $10,500 at each regional championship race, $20,000 at the USA Championship, and $60,000 to the top overall points scorers in the Series. Note: The XTERRA World Championship on Oct. 23 in Maui is a stand-alone event worth $100,000.
April 17, 2011
Dylan Wykes, Natasha Wodack and Lucy Smith
The 2011 BC 10K Championship was held in conjunction with the Vancouver Sun Run, and was open to all Junior, Senior, Master, and Road & Trail members of BC Athletics.
Harriers' Dylan Wykes, who finished second overall behind Eric Gillis of Ontario, won the men’s BC Championship in 29:15. PIH team mates David Jackson just edged Jim Finlayson for second, 30:27 to 30:28. A new wave of talented Canadian male distance runners made another breakthrough Sunday. Eric Gillis of Guelph, Ont., became the first homegrown Canuck in 13 years to win the prestigious Vancouver Sun Run 10K, outkicking Kenya native Kip Kangogo coming off the Cambie street bridge to cross the finish line in 29 minutes, six seconds.
Kangogo, who now lives and trains in Lethbridge, won the 2010 Sun Run by three seconds over Gillis to become the 14th Kenyan in 17 years to win the race. On Sunday, Kangogo had to settle for third when he was edged at the line in a photo finish by a hard-charging Dylan Wykes, a Kingston, Ont. native now living and training in Vancouver. Both were timed in 29:15.
Natasha Wodak added to the 5K (Dave Reed) and 8K (Pioneer) Championships that she won earlier in the year. Her third place overall, behind Kenyan Lucy Njeri, and Albertan Paula Findlay, was also a personal best of 34:01. Gillian Gook earned championship silver in 35:21, just ahead of top master Harriers' Lucy Smith (35:26). There were 38,804 finishers at the Sun Run today, 1,058 less than last year's total of 39,862. In 2009 the event attracted 42,588 finishers and the record year was 2008 where the race saw 44,166 finishers.
April 9, 2011
Jason Loutitt
Jason placed second overall in 5 hours, 59 minutes and 55 seconds at the American River 50 Mile Endurance Trail Race today in Sacremento, California. The winner was Dave Mackey, from Boulder, CO, in 5:55:37 while Nick Clark, of Fort Collins, CO, took third in 6:00:08. The top three women were Banff's Ellie Greenwood, 6:25:43, Kami Semick, of Bend, OR, 6:34:37, and Jennifer Pfeifer, from El Dorado Hills, CA, in 7:07:09. There were 426 finishers at the American River 50 Miler with the final runner hitting the line in 12:54:46. This is one of the largest ultras in North America, second largest 50 Miler in the United States, and features a tremendous and difficult 1,000 foot climb over the final 2.5 miles.
April 3, 2011
Sean Chester, Dianne Dennis and Ian Ackroyd
Sean won his third Series race of 2011, Dianne was the top female and the F50 division winner and Ian achieved his highest-ever finishing position at the Merville 15K today, Race #7 of the Frontrunners Island Race Series. Sean all but locked up the Series Championship unless team mate Jim Finlayson, with 3 victories and one second place performance, decides to run Sooke River rather than the Sun Run on April 17 which is unlikely. Sean finished in 50:11 followed by Nick Walker in 51:02 and Shawn Nelson in 51:08. The top three women were Dianne Dennis in 1:02:35, Tiffany Chapman in 1:04:22 and Angela Plamondon in 1:04:41. Ian had a brilliant race finishing in tenth place overall in 55:18 to claim the bronze medal in the M45 division. This was his highest-ever finishing position compared to 22nd at the Comox Half and 23rd at Cobble Hill. He also achieved his highest-ever points of the seven races to date, 756 points, and his highest-ever category position of third place. There were 332 finishers at Merville, including 32 Harriers, up 59 from last year's total of 273 finishers.
April 3, 2011
Herb Phillips
BC runners have historically performed well at the Carlsbad 5K in southern California, venue of many of the world’s fastest 5K road races. The current Canadian best of 13:36 was run there in 1986 by Paul Williams and Lynn Williams and Angela Chalmers were victorious in the elite races. Marilyn Arsenault won the master's championship last year over 1,437 other masters, finishing in 17:16.
Lenore Montgomery and Herb Phillips have also been frequent age group winners at Carlsbad, and this year was no exception. Now in the F8084 age group, Lenore ran 29:16 (29:41 gun time), the fastest known 5K by anyone of her age. While Herb won the M7074 division in 18:49 out of 31 M70s, primarily Americans with a few Mexicans and Japanese in the mix. He was the top Canadian of 1,516 finishers in the masters' 40+ category and placed 99th in that division putting 1,417 mainly younger master runners behind him while at the age of 70! Herb achieved a 93.6% age-graded rating and ran a pace of 6:04 per mile.
April 3, 2011
Geoff Reid, Amy Schneeberg and Tina Connelly
Geoff and Amy were the top Harriers and Tina won the masters' crown at the BC Half Marathon Championship from Gibsons to Sechelt at the April Fool's Half Marathon on the Sunshine Coast today. Kevin O'Connor won the race and was top master in a blistering time of 1:09:59. He was followed by VFAC team mate, David Palermo in 1:11:30, while Geoff took the bronze, second in his age division, in 1:13:21. Amy was second female overall and first in her age category in 1:22:56. The top female was Kelowna's Keddi-Anne Sherbino in 1:18:03 and Gillian Clayton was third in 1:24:20. After 2 long years of injuries, Tina returned to racing with a convincing 1:46 margin of victory over Helen Ritchie 1:24:36 to 1:26:22; she was 29th overall. There were 480 finishers at the April Fool's Half Marathon, a BC Championship Road Race. Next up is the BC 10K Championships in two weeks to be held in conjunction with the Sun Run on April 17.
March 27, 2011
Natasha Wodak
Harriers' Natasha Wodak collected her second BC Championship of 2011, adding the 5K title to her 8K victory in January, while Victoria's Matt Clout successfully defended his 2010 title. The 2011 BC 5K Championship was held in conjunction with the Dave Reed 5K, hosted by the Vancouver Falcons, and was also race #8 in the Timex BC Road Race Series, and race #3 in the Lower Mainland Road Running Series.
Wodak led from the gun, in her third race around the seawall in three weeks, finishing in 16:53. Some distance back, Harriers' team mate Shauna Skinner had to work hard to beat BC high school cross country champion Tanya Humeniuk, 17:38 to 17:41. As a youth, Humeniuk was not eligible for Championship prizing, in which third place went to Harriers' Amy Schneeberg in 17:54.
Clout also led from the start, and was unpressed for the win. Nevertheless he was 4 seconds quicker than last year, clocking 15:02. Behind him, triathlete Andrew McCartney held off David Palermo for second, 15:38 to 15:39. McCartney ducked under Triathlon Canada’s competition standard, while Palermo picked up a personal best and second place in the championship. Rowan Forseth rounded out the championship placing in 15:44.
The race remembers Dave Reed, and in his honour the top age-graded performance was the Dave Reed Memorial Trophy. This produced an extremely close outcome with Jim Swadling’s 18:25 at age 64 judged to be marginally better than Cindy Rhodes’ 19:34 at age 54. Third on age grading was 70 year old PIH's Herb Phillips, who clocked 19:37.
March 20, 2011
Simon Whitfield, Jon Brown, Jen MacLean and Dianne Dennis
In a rare appearance at an Island Series event, Simon debuted at a half marathon distance with a brilliant 1:06:23 victory today at the Comox Valley Half Marathon, Race #6 of the Frontrunners Island Series. Second place went to Harriers team mate, Jim Finlayson, 3 seconds back in 1:06:26, and Jerry Ziak, of Vancouver, took third in 1:06:36. In his first race since turning 40 last month, Jon topped the masters' field by finishing fifth overall in 1:07:37, just 2 seconds behind team mate Kyle Jones. Jon currently coaches Simon, Jim and Kyle. Vancouver's Graeme Wilson was the second master in 1:10:59 and Craig Odermatt took third in 1:11:19. The top three women were Harriers' Jen MacLean in 1:21:49, closely followed by Care Wakely in 1:21:52 and Melissa Ross placed third in 1:24:01. Dianne topped the F50 division and was 10th female overall with a personal best time of 1:33:39, a 2:16 improvement over her last run at this race. There were 510 finishers at the Comox Valley Half Marathon today compared to a record high of 601 last year.
March 20, 2011
David Jackson, Richard Lee and Natasha Wodak
In a surprise upset, Abbotsford’s David Jackson of the Harriers, outran defending champion and pre-race favourite Kenyan Willy Kimosop at the fifth annual Harry’s Spring Run-Off Vancouver 8K. In the women’s race, last year’s winner Malindi Elmore once again had no close competition, easily besting the field by nearly a minute. Richard Lee, coach to most of the high performance Lower Mainland Harriers, had a good race winning the M45 category and finishing 20th overall in 29:31. Getting the 2011 Canada Running Series off to a fast start, Jackson and Elmore led over 1,150 runners around the world famous Stanley Park Seawall under beautiful blue skies – rare and welcome sunshine in an unusually cold and damp West Coast spring. Spirits were further lifted by the record $200,000+ raised for prostate cancer research at Vancouver General Hospital.
Jackson and Kimosop broke away from the crowd right from the start. Only Langley’s Harrier Steve Osadiuk was able to go after them, shadowing the pair by about 5 seconds as they circled Lost Lagoon and headed out around the seawall. Osaduik caught up at 5k and for the next couple of kilometres the trio stayed together, exchanging the lead several times. Then Jackson made his move. “I didn’t want it to come down to a sprint against those guys,” said Jackson. “I don’t have that kind of speed – I have to go early.” And go he did, opening up a 7 second gap over Kimosop over the final 800 metres, with Osadiuk a further 5 seconds back at the finish.
Jackson, who is coached by previous Harry’s winner Jon Brown, was very happy with his time of 24:19. “That was 50 seconds faster than I ran here last year – and a personal best for me,” he said. “This bodes well for next month at the Sun Run.”
In contrast the women’s repeat victory posed no problem for Elmore, whose 26:43 clocking went unchallenged. The $1000 first prize made a nice belated birthday present for the 2010 Sun Run champion, who turned 31 a week ago.
Behind Elmore, Port Moody’s Harrier Natasha Wodak and Calgary’s Lisa Harvey ran together for the first kilometre before Harvey dropped back. Wodak went on to achieve a personal best by 12 seconds. Vancouver’s Gillian Gook overtook a struggling Harvey to claim third spot.
Harvey did manage to recapture the Masters title that she gave up last year, while hanging on to fourth spot. On the men’s side, Vancouver’s Kevin O’Connor also earned a fourth place overall finish while taking the Masters title.
For many people, the highlight of the day was the record $200,000+ raised for prostate cancer research – exceeding the fundraising target by $50,000. Founded in 1998, the Vancouver Prostate Centre at VGH has become Canada’s leading — and one of the world’s foremost — prostate cancer research and treatment centres. Over 2,500 patients are seen annually by the Vancouver Prostate Centre.
March 19, 2011
Keith Mills and Lucy Smith
Keith topped the field of 516 finishers today with an excellent time of 16:18 at the Lifemark Health Esquimalt 5K, a race right in his back yard as he resides and works in Esquimalt. Coming back after injuries Keith's margin of victory was a comfortable 42 seconds over Ian Perriman who finished in 17:00 followed by the top master Felipe Edora in 17:15. Lucy was the first female and top master in 17:28 to finish sixth overall. The second female was Karen Simmons in 19:06 and Caryss Pinches took third in 21:02.
March 12, 2011
Shane Ruljancich and Sonja Yli-Kahila
Shane and Sonja were the only two runners from Victoria at the Dirty Duo 25K Trail Run at the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve in North Vancouver today. Shane won the race outright by over 9 minutes finishing in 2:03:49. Vancouver's David Smith was second in 2:12:13 and Ross Greenwood, of North Vancouver, placed third in 2:16:04. Sonja was the fifth female finisher and 20th overall of the 94 finishers. The top three females were Louise Oram, 2:28:19, Jen Segger, 2:29:24, and Darbykai Standrick, 2:29:53. They were 11th, 12th and 13th overall. The 25K run (94 finishers) was the most popular of the six events offered at the Dirty Duo including a 15K trail run (72 finishers), a 50K trail run (36 finishers), a 30K bike (33 finishers), a 25K bike/run solo (10 finishers) and a 25K bike/run relay (28 finishers) for a total of 273 participants.
March 12, 2011
Dylan Wykes and Natasha Wodak
Despite slightly cool and windy weather, a sold out field participated in the 2011 BMO St. Patrick’s Day 5k. The race had it’s strongest field ever — battling it out for the $1,700 in prize money sponsored by Bank of Montreal. Harriers' Dylan Wykes, the current course record holder and winner from 2010, was back to defend his title which he wasn’t giving up as he was the first to cross the mile for the Running Room cash bonus and then continued on to cross the finish line in a winning time of 14:43. On the women’s side our second place finisher from 2010, Harriers' Natasha Wodak, took home the Running Room mile cash bonus and the win for the women in16:52; she was 28th of the 985 finishers. The overall depth of the field was the strongest ever with 28 runners posting a sub-17 minute 5k time and 16 women under 19 minutes, securing the 2011 BMO St Patrick’s Day 5k as one of the fastest and most competitive 5k races in the Lower Mainland. Harriers' David Jackson was second in 14:52.6, Matt Clout third in 14:52.8, Jim Finlayson fourth in 14:52.9, Steve Osaduik sixth in 15:14 and Sean Chester eleventh in 15:42. Ruth Perkins, of Puyallup, was second female in 17:17, Bremerton's Sarna Becker was third in 17:36 and Harriers' Sabrina Wilkie was fourth in 17:44.
It wasn’t all about fast times as the bulk of the race consisted of hundreds of runners and walkers dressed in green with some great costumes. All there to not only take part in the Granville Island Brewing after party but also raising funds for the Canadian Diabetes Association. The event raised over $14,000 for the Canadian Diabetes Association.
March 6, 2011
Jim Finlayson, Jeremy Lawrence, Jen MacLean and Sisi Hallam
The fifth race of the Frontrunners Island Race Series and the third race in the Timex BC Road Race Series, the Bazan Bay 5K, always produces fast and furious races, and this year was no exception. The cap of 800 participants was reached the day before the race, leaving many last minute prognosticators disappointed as they could not register on race day. Some high performance Harriers that were turned away included Paddy McCluskey and Lucy Smith, the club's top masters in 2010.
The early pace was set by Sean Chester and Matt Clout, with Jim Finlayson and Steve Osaduik sitting in behind. Finlayson and Chester had each won two races in the Series, but Chester eventually paid for his brave efforts, fading to fifth place at the finish. Meanwhile Finlayson had to work all the way to the finish to secure another victory, beating out Harriers team mate Steve Osaduik by one second, 14:58 to 14:59. Matt Clout, of Island Road Racers, was three seconds back in his first race of the year.
In contrast, the women’s race was never in doubt. Paula Findlay, ITU Triathlon World Champion from Edmonton, making her first appearance in an Island Race Series event, dominated from the start. Findlay finished 28th overall, in 16:33, 23 seconds outside Lucy Smith’s course record. A much closer race took place behind for the places, with Jen MacLean persevering in 17:17 over Harriers team mates, Sabrina Wilkie (17:22) and Shauna Skinner (17:24). It was Jen's first race of the year after missing most of last year due to injuries.
Jeremy Lawrence and Sisi Hallam continue to blister the road series with personal bests in most of the 5 races completed to date. Jeremy has seen his time improve at Bazan Bay from 19:12 three years ago to 18:19 last year to 17:20 today, a 59 second improvement. Sisi finished strongly in 19:03, passing three females in the final 10 metres, one of which was in her F40 age category. This enabled Sisi to be crowned at top master in the race over Lifesport's Lisa Rogers who finished 2 seconds behind. Sisi took four years off racing to raise a family and saw her time improve at Bazan Bay by over a minute from 20:12 in 2007 to 19:03 in 2011. There were 900 registrations at Bazan Bay and 742 finishers, 83 of which were Prairie Inn Harriers. Six women and six men from the club won their age divisions including Sabrina Wilkie (F25), Jen MacLean (F30), Claire Morgan (F35), Sisi Hallam (F40), Valerie Bell (F45), Nancy Baxendale (F50), Steve Osaduik (M30), Jim Finlayson (M35), Kevin Searle (M50), Herb Phillips (M70), John Woodall (M75) and Maurice Tarrant (M80).
March 6, 2011
Cathy Noel
Cathy ran an outstanding 33rd Annual Napa Valley Marathon in California today establishing a 23-minute personal best and qualifying her for the Boston Marathon in 2012, a race she hopes to run in 3:45. Cathy improved her time from 4:18:31 at the Toronto GoodLife Fitness Marathon last fall to 3:55:27 at Napa Valley Marathon today. She was 177th female and 23rd in the F45 division. There were 1,755 finishers. Chris Mocko, of Palo Alto, won the race in 2:27:02 and the top female, Camille Herron, placed 8th overall in 2:42:20.
February 25, 2011
46 Annual Award Winners
Congratulations are in order to all 46 award winners for 2010 and to the 100-plus in attendance tonight to acknowledge and celebrate with our top athletes and our top volunteers for the club. The complete list of winners' names and write-ups are available by clicking "Annual Awards" under "PIH People" on the side bar.
February 20, 2011
Sean Chester, Shane Ruljancich and Logan Roots
Sean won the Hatley Castle 8K today in 26:58, Race #4 in the Frontrunners Island Series. This was his second victory, including Cobble Hill, coupled with a second place finish at Pioneer and a third place finish at Cedar. He is now in the driver's seat to capture the 2011 Series title. The challenging, hilly and half-gravel course featured a new finish section which included more distance and added about 30 seconds to most of the times compared to previous years. Most of the competitors did not like the change as a narrow trail section was quite muddy and slippery with only 250 metres to go. Shane was first in his age category and second overall in 27:27. This is a big improvement from his fourth place finish in 2009 in 27:56 on an easier and shorter course. Logan was the top junior and leaped up to fifth overall today in 28:54, his highest finish ever in an Island Series race. Last year he placed 16th in 29:31. The top male master was Andrew Pape-Salmon who finished 11th overall of the 465 finishers in 29:40.
February 20, 2011
Claire Morgan, Sisi Hallam and Robyn Noel
Claire was first in her age category and second overall in the women's division in 32:46, a big move forward from her 33:11 fifth place finish last year at Hatley Castle. Care Wakely won the women's race in 31:08. Sisi came third and was the top master in 33:15 winning the F40 division of 28 finishers by about a minute. Robyn, 12, literally ran away from her pacer dad, Doug, to capture the F15 division in 43:52. Doug finished 43 places back in 46:06. Robyn's sister, Taylor, ran with pacer mom, Cathy, and they finished together in 52:59 for Taylor to place 3rd in the F15 division at the age of 10. There were 465 finishers at Hatley Castle, 3 more than last year and 20 more that the previous year.
February 19, 2011
Norm Tinkham
A seasoned runner on the roads, Maple Ridge's Norm took to the slopes today and won the master's division of the Whistler Yeti 10K Snow Shoe race in 1:17:22. He was third overall of 40 finishers in the Enduro Division won by Shaun Stephens-Whale, of Roberts Bank, in 1:07:54. Daniel Ribi won the 5K Sport Race in 38:29 and Daryl Wood won the 5K Duathlon Race, which includes cross country skiing, in 42:10. There were 30 finishers in the Sport division and 10 in the Duathlon for a total of 80 today. The Yeti at Whistler was Race #2 of a four-race Series including Mt. Washington, Grouse Mountain and Cypress Bowl.
February 13, 2011
Dylan Wykes, David Jackson and Dylan Gant
Dylan, David and Dylan placed first, second and fifth overall of 2,108 finishers at the sold-out First Half Half Marathon in Vancouver today when all contestants got a break in the weather and were able to run a decent-conditions race sandwiched between an otherwise rainy and windy weekend. The First Half Half Marathon, organized by Pacific Roadrunners, was Race #3 in the Timex BC Series. Dylan Wykes lowered Ryan Haden's course record of 1:04:44 by 5 seconds with an outstanding performance of 1:04:39. This accompanies his California International Marathon victory of 2:12:39 in Sacramento on December 5. David out-dueled Jerry Ziak 1:06:58 to 1:09:00 for second and third places, Oliver Utting took fourth in 1:09:49 and Dylan Gant nailed a personal best time of 1:10:30 to finish fifth. The top three females were Ellie Greenwood, of Banff in 1:18:49, Lisa Harvey, of Calgary in 1:21:02, and Pauline McLean, also of Calgary in 1:21:31, making it a clean Alberta 1-2-3 sweep. Harriers' Norm Tinkham won the M45 division in 1:18:24 and Fawn Whiting placed fourth in the F25 division in 1:28:02. There were 833 men and 1,185 women finishing the event which is usually capped at 2,000. Look to see these club members and many other high performance Harriers from the Lower Mainland toeing the line for the Bazan Bay 5K on March 6 which promises to be the most competitive race in the 2011 Frontrunners Island Race Series.
February 6, 2011
Jim Finlayson and Binder Kelsall
Jim recorded his sixth overall Cedar victory with a new course record and Binder won the F40 division with her first-ever age class victory and her highest points achieved at a Series event today at the Cedar 12K, Race #3 in the Frontrunners Island Race Series. Jim finished in 37:11, lowering Steve Osaduik's previous course record of 37:23 set in 2004. It was also 19 seconds faster than Jim's first victory at Cedar, twelve years ago in 2000 which was the first year when Cedar switched from a 15K race course to a 12K race course. Binder improved in the F40 division from 6th of 33 at Pioneer, to 3rd of 31 at Cobble Hill, to 1st of 30 at Cedar. Second finisher in the race was Rejean Chiasson, a Brooks-sponsored athlete, in 39:00 and Harriers' Sean Chester claimed third in 39:41. The top female was Care Wakely in 45:17 followed by Melissa Ross in 45:32 and Harriers' Claire Morgan in 47:02. Besides Jim (M35) and Binder (F40) winning their age divisions, eight other Harriers took gold in their age classes including Claire Morgan (F35), Angela Plamondon (F45), Nancy Baxendale (F50), Brandon Willson (M15), Logan Roots (M19), Garth Campbell (M50), John Woodall (M75) and Maurice Tarrant (M80). There were 478 finishers at Cedar today, 6 fewer than last year's total of 484. There were 56 Harriers in the race where PIH continues to lead the standings over Bastion Running Club and Comox Valley Road Runners.
January 30, 2011
Shawn Nelson
Shawn not only runs road races, cross country races and mountain races well, but today he added an outstanding snow shoe race victory to his impressive list of wins by topping the field of 51 finishers at the 10th annual Yeti 10K (two laps) Snow Shoe Race at Mount Washington. His winning time was 48:02. Second place went to Team Prostyle's Justin Mark in 49:06 and Harriers' Eric Findlay claimed third in 49:21. The top female was Tamsin Anstey, in 51:06, followed by Care Wakely, in 52:06, and Bobbie Taylor, in 56:33.
In the more popular Yeti 5K (one lap) race, Ming Kang was the top Harrier, finishing seventh overall of 142 finishers in 29:31. The race winner was Steve Spiers in 25:25 and the top female was Nancy Fedoruk in 29:24. There were nine Harriers in the 5K race including Ming Kang (5th in his M20 age division), Heather Bretchneider (10th F20), Kathleen Birney (2nd F50), Nathan Kamell (16th M20), Louise Proulx (4th F50), Erica Kang (13th F20), Chris Hamilton (4th M50), Deb Hopkins (42nd F20) and Simon Pearson (23rd M20). All 11 Harriers had fun today in the snow!
January 30, 2011
David Jackson and Sabrina Wilkie
David was the overall winner and Sabrina finished one second behind the female winner, Anne-Marie Madden, at the Steveston Icebreaker 8K today in Richmond, Race #1 in the Lower Mainland Series and Race #2 in the Timex BC Series. David's time was 24:44 and he was followed by Jerry Ziak in 24:52 and Sabrina's husband, Mark Wilkie, in 25:06. Four of the top six finishers were Harriers with Steve Osaduik, 4th in 25:23, Dylan Gant, 5th in 25:30 and Geoff Reid, 6th in 26:02. Four of the top five women were also Harriers with Anne-Marie Madden, of Vancouver Falcons, first in 28:41, Sabrina Wilkie, 2nd in 28:42, Shauna Skinner, 3rd in 28:46, Erin Burrett, 4th in 29:31, and Amy Schneeberg, 5th in 29:36. Master runners Colin Dignum ran 28:39 and Herb Phillips finished in 31:47. There were 270 finishers at the Steveston 8K.
January 23, 2011
Sean Chester, Logan Roots, Nancy Baxendale and Sisi Hallam
Sean collected his first-ever victory in an Island Series event, Logan was the top junior and 9th overall of 560 finishers, Nancy was top master and Sisi won the F40 division for her first time today at the Cobble Hill 10K, Race #2 in the Frontrunners Island Race Series. Sean's winning time was 32:24, ten seconds faster than his third place finish of last year. Second place went to Craig Odermatt, top master in 32:48, and Harriers' Shane Ruljancich took third in 33:30. The top female was ORCA's Melissa Ross in 37:10 closely followed by Care Wakely, of Frontrunners Westshore, in 37:20, and Team X's Sarah Baker was third in 38:21. There were 56 Harriers at Cobble Hill and 10 of them won their age categories including Logan Roots (M19), Sean Chester (M25), Shane Ruljancich (M35), Brian Connon (M65), John Woodall (M75), Maurice Tarrant (M80), Sonja Yli-Kahila (F30), Sisi Hallam (F40), Angela Plamondon (F45) and Nancy Baxendale (F50). Some excellent personal best accomplishments were achieved today by Garth Campbell (36:34), Ian Ackroyd (36:53), Sisi Hallam (40:20), Sonja Yli-Kahila (40:49) and Larry Nylen (41:45). There were 560 finishers at Cobble Hill compared to 563 finishers last year.
January 23, 2011
David Hoskins
65-year old David topped the M60 division by more than 10 minutes today with an outstanding 1:29:27 performance at the Carlsbad Half Marathon in southern California. He was an incredible 96th overall of 7,018 finishers. The race winners were both from Kenya with Wesley Korir winning the men's race in 1:02:46 and Jane Kibii winning the women's race in 1:12:33. David was ranked 14th overall in the age-graded standings with a performance factor of 85.02%. It is his second consecutive M60 victory at Carlsbad where he enjoys visiting his daughter and her husband in sunny southern California.
January 15, 2011
Jason Loutitt
Jason had a very strong performance in Hawaii today winning the H.U.R.T. 100 Mile Trail race by almost an hour. His finishing time was 22:27:35. Second place went to 47 year-old Paul Hopwood, of Kihei, in 23:26:32, while Lahaina's Jeff Sanders took third in 26:50:00. The top female, Hannah Roberts from Honolulu, was sixth overall in 29:22:00. Jason was the only Canadian from the west coast; three other Canadians from Ontario were in the field and finished 22nd, 23rd and 27th in 35:10:02, 35:10:09 and 35:24:37. There were 111 starters and 32 finishers in the 100 Mile race and another 79 starters and 43 finishers in the accompanying 100K race. Many participants were forced to drop out before the 36-hour cut-off time. The final finisher was Mark Tanaka in 35:54:21. The difficult course is described as follows:
"There is over 24,935 feet of elevation gain and loss over the course of 100 miles. The gain comes in short sections no more than 2.1 miles at a time. There are very few sections where you can run with consistent stride for more than a few hundred yards at a time. This course requires that you pay close attention to your footing at
all times. The downhills are much worse!
There are a total of 20 stream crossings, two per lap, prior to the Paradise Park aid station and prior to the Nuuanu aid station. If the river is high due to rain, we may forego the stream crossing. Expect wet feet every time you enter and leave the Jackass Ginger (Nuuanu) aid station.
The trail is composed of a moderately packed dirt surface with lots of roots and rocks, which are very slippery when wet. At night there will be dew, which makes this trail extremely slippery. If it rains (which it will), there will be plenty of mud."
January 9, 2011
Jim Finlayson and Natasha Wodak
Jim and Tash were crowned as Pioneer 8K Champions and as BC 8K Road Racing Champions today at the 32nd annual Prairie Inn Pioneer 8K race held under cool and crisp 2-degree conditions in Central Saanich. Jim's winning time was 24:45 and Natasha's was 27:57. Second place in the men's division went to Harriers' Sean Chester in 25:10 and Pacific Athletics' Trevor O'Brien finished third in 25:43. Frontrunners Westshore's Care Wakely took second in the women's division in 29:04 and Vancouver's Sabrina Wilkie was third in 29:10. The top three men and women received $300/$200/$100 in prize money from the Harriers and $200/$100/$50 from BC Athletics for the BC Championship event. The top masters in the race were Craig Odermatt and Nancy Baxendale who received $100 each and the top juniors were Marc Christin and Alison Hooper who received $50 each. Besides Jim (M35) and Natasha (F30) winning their age divisions, ten other Harriers topped their age classes including Sean Chester (M25), Colin Dignum (M45), Garth Campbell (M50), David Hoskins (M65), Herb Phillips (M70), John Woodall (M75), Maurice Tarrant (M80), Claire Morgan (F35), Angela Plamondon (F45) and Nancy Baxendale (F50). 85 Harriers finished the race and 75 more Harriers volunteered at the race. There were 725 registrations and 647 finishers at Pioneer. The Prairie Inn Pioneer 8K was the official BC 8K Road Racing Championships for juniors, seniors and masters divisions and kicked off both the 8-race Frontrunners Island Race Series and the 15-race Timex BC Road Running Series.
January 1, 2011
Eugene Leduc and Tim Johnson
Eugene, on his 51st birthday, and Tim were closest to their predicted times at the 15th annual Harriers New Year's Day Memorial 10K Run today at Beaver Lake under beautiful sunny, but cool, sub-zero conditions. I would hate to do the Polar Bear Swim at 2:00 pm today with a skim of ice on Elk and Beaver Lakes! The clock is set in a count-down mode at one hour and runners leave when they think they can finish closest to zero based on their training pace, then the clock starts counting back up again. Eugene hit the clock precisely at zero and won a nice assorted fruit platter which he shared with the 75 participants. Tim hit the clock at one second, meaning he was only one second sooner than his predicted time and received a box of chocolate-covered biscuits as runner-up. The 75 runners all finished within a 6-minute span. A special thanks to Ken Smythe, Karen Hughes, Art Beck, Susan Norrington and John McKay for providing the hot chocolate, chicken soup, cookies and home made-candies after the run - much appreciated. Club members and friends donated $1,632.00 to the Harriers Foundation. Thank you, and Happy New Year to all!
