December 31, 2005
Angela Plamondon and Roger Plamondon
Angela and Roger were not only the top male and female Harriers, but they were the top two masters in the Run Through Time 5K at UVic tonight. Roger finished 8th overall in 17:45, while Angela was second female finisher in 18:59. Craig Odermatt won the race in 15:51 and Charlene Waldner was the first female in 18:51. There were 350 finishers.
December 26, 2005
Chris Moore and Joanne Lomax
New members, Chris and Joanne, finished second and third overall in the seventh annual Harriers Boxing Day 10 Mile Handicap race today. There were 36 finishers, 24 of which were Prairie Inn Harriers. The race was won by Andrew Weston, of Ottawa, in 1:24:25. Chris ran the fastest time of the day in 1:01:43 while Joanne clocked an excellent 1:29:52. Andrew Weston ran 1:24:25. Handicap results are based on your best performance for 2005. Sheldon Croden was the second male Harrier finisher, while a vastly improved Lara Jones was the second female Harrier. As usual Race Director, Sylvan Smyth, did a great job in hosting the race, handicapping the competitors and overseeing the awards presentations.
December 19, 2005
Jim Finlayson
Jim won the second annual Dave Smart Tribute Beer Mile in a world record time of 5:12. Participants had to run a mile and drink a beer at the start of each of the 4 laps. Jim caps off a tremendous year where he won the Canadian Marathon Championships in Ottawa in April, the Vancouver Half Marathon in May, the Oak Bay Kool Half Marathon in May and the Royal Victoria Marathon in October. Stefan Jacobsen finished second in the Beer Mile in 6:08 and Frontrunners team mate, John Loewen, finished third in 6:09. There were 30 finishers.
December 12, 2005
Gord Christie and Juliette Christie
The new Harriers husband and wife team of Gord and Juliette Christie claimed top master honours in the Stewart Mountain 10 Mile Cross Country Challenge on Saturday. Gord finished 8th overall out of 162 with a time of 1:12:03. Second master was team mate, Gary Duncan, in 1:15:10, and third place went to Michael Lax in 1:15:38. The women's masters race was a closer finish with Juliette recording 1:21:36, edging another new Harrier, Angela Plamondon, by 52 seconds. Angela said, "This is the toughest race I have run in my entire life", following the event. Welcome to Victoria and welcome to the Harriers! It was a clean sweep for the PIH masters ladies as Diane Dennis finished 3rd in 1:26:02, Wendy Davies, 4th, in 1:26:18 and Gwyn Woodson took 5th in 1:26:33. Gord and Juliette were also the top Triple Club masters by both winning the over 40 divisions at the Gunner Shaw and Thetis Relay races. It has been a busy 5 weekends for Gord who posted excellent performances in five consecutive races starting with the Thetis Relay, Lambrick XC, Gunner Shaw, Canadian XC Championships in Vancouver and topping it off with Stewart Mountain. Now that's stamina, consistency, determination and excellence! Why peak for one race when you can run them all very well? Gord certainly did with 5 gold medals in just 30 days from November 11 to December 10.
December 12, 2005
Eric Findlay and Tina Connelly
New members, Eric Findlay and Tina Connelly, made huge impressions by finishing 3rd and 4th overall to nail the top club honours in their first PIH-hosted race at the 2nd Annual Stewart Mountain 10 Mile Cross Country Challenge on Saturday. Teenage sensation, Matt Park, 16, from Oak Bay High School, won the race in 1:05:30. Josh Henderson was second in 1:07:30 and Eric was third in 1:07:48. Early leader, Adam Campbell, was forced to withdraw about the 3 mile point with a badly sprained ankle. Tina finished in 1:08:48 was running second overall for a good portion of the race. She easily outdistanced second place female, Jenny Sprigings, by over 9 minutes. Sprigings time was 1:17:50. Dawn Berg was the third female finisher in 1:18:22. There were 162 finishers at Stewart Mountain, an increase of 65% over the 98 finishers in the inaugural 2004 race. Gunner Shaw XC, Thetis XC Relay and Stewart Mountain XC all experienced record fields this year, partly due to the new sponsorship and involvement of Island Runner. All prizes and food were upgraded and the popular PIH Crew "hoodies" were very much appreciated by the 60+ Harriers volunteers who helped in one or all of the Thetis Lake events.
December 5, 2005
Todd Healy and Herb Phillips
Todd and Herb ran biliiant races within their respective age divisions on Saturday at the Canadian Cross Country Championships at Jericho Beach in Vancouver. Todd, perhaps running the race of his life against the toughest of opposition, placed 4th overall, 3rd in the M40 division, one week after his 40th birthday. His time was 27:28 for 8K and he ran a solid fourth from the gun to the tape, never losing a stride on the top three finishers. Paul McCloy, of Calgary, won the race in 26:55 closely followed by North Vancouver's Rob Lonnergan in 26:56 and Harriers Steve Bachop took third in 26:59. Herb ran 31:19 finishing 36th of 92 master runners. At 65, he was recognized and honoured as the top age-graded master in Canada at the awards ceremonies. Just another of many national records that the ageless, amazing Phillips has established within the last 25 years. The PIH team of Healy, Phillips, Bachop, Richard Lee, Gord Christie and Arturo Huerta won the gold medal in the masters race against some of the best club teams in Canada.
December 5, 2005
Steve Osaduik and Tina Connelly
On Saturday, Tina placed 7th overall to anchor a gold medal PIH team performance in the Senior Women's Canadian Cross Country Championships at Jericho Beach. There were 61 finishers in the 6K race won by Carmen Douma-Hussar, of Guelph, in 20:13. Tina's outstanding performance of 21:06 earned her a spot on the Canadian Team participating in the World Cross Country Championships, April 1, in Japan. Other members of the winning Harriers team included Lucy Smith, Meghan Day, Cheryl Murphy, Nancy Baxendale and Nancy Tinari. Steve Osaduik also placed 7th overall in the senior men's 10K race, in 30:49, running perhaps the strongest cross country race of his life against a star-studded field. He also qualified for the World XCs in Japan on April 2. Of the 92 finishers, Simon Bairu, of Regina, was first to cross the line in 30:04 for his second consecutive win. The PIH team of Steve Osaduik, Eric Kiauka, Jim Finlayson, Kyle Jones, Dave Milne, Jonathan Withey and Bruce Deacon captured the bronze medal in the team competition.
December 5, 2005
Dave Jackson and Kevin Searle
Dave Jackson ran a personal best marathon time by almost five minutes yesterday at the California International Marathon. He finished 6th overall in 2:24:40, despite being slowed by cramps over the last few miles. Dave ran PR's at all distances between 3,000m and the marathon in 2005. Besides the CIM crowning achievement, highlights included a 1:08:26 win at the Shawnigan Lake Half Marathon and running 14:52 for 5,000m and 30:54 for 10,000m on the track. Kevin Searle also had a huge breakthrough with a time of 2:41:08 - a personal best by four minutes. Kevin ran the first half in 1:19:26 in an incredible pack with the top-5 women (four from Russia, one from Poland) and the eventual winner of the M50 division. Kevin finished 4th out of 309 in the M40 division and 28th overall out of 3200 finishers. Both Dave and Kevin are coached by Bruce Deacon.
December 5, 2005
Bertrand Bozek
Bertrand won the 5K Community Race in 17:05 while team mate Sylvan Smyth placed third overall in 18:46 at the Canadian Cross Country Championships at Jericho Beach in Vancouver on Saturday. Second place went to former Harrier, Julian Cooper, now living in Vancouver, in 17:11. Brad Potentier placed 9th, Sandi Heal was 13th and Marie Poirier was 15th to collect the team title for the Harriers.
November 28, 2005
Steve Bachop
Steve Bachop claimed his fourth Gunner Shaw overall victory in the 21st annual event on Saturday and Anne-Marie Madden won the women's race for the 2nd year in a row. Steve's winning time was 33:12. Second place went to team mate at the World Mountain Racing Championships in Anchorage, Ian Hallam, in 33:22, and third place went to new Harrier, Eric Findlay, in 33:36. Only Tom Michell has won more Gunner Shaw races with 5 overall wins. Steve continues to shine at cross country races with a gold medal at the BC XC Championships in White Rock and a silver medal at the Canadian XC Championships in Vancouver. The Gunner Shaw race continues to grow year after year. 382 finishers beat last year's record of 326. The race has grown more than 50% in only 3 years since hitting 252 finishers in 2002.
November 21, 2005
Eric Kiauka
Eric had the best finishing kick as he broke away from a tight pack of five Harriers to capture the gold medal in the inaugural Lambrick Park Open XC Race on Sunday. He won by one second as the top five PIHers finished within 10 seconds of each other. Jim Finlayson claimed second, Dave Milne was third, Kyle Jones took fourth and Bruce Deacon ran fifth of the 45 contestants. All five Harriers, along with Steve Osaduik and Jon Brown, will be our strong senior men's team in the Canadian Cross Counrty Championship on December 3 in Vancouver.
November 14, 2005
David Jackson
Dave had an outstanding cross country run at the 9th Annual Thetis Lake 20K Relay on Remembrance Day. He ran all four laps in the Solo Division to take third place overall of the 156 four-person teams. Dave was not only the leading PIH team of 26 Harriers teams, but he established a solo course record on 1:04:55, three seconds faster than his coach, Bruce Deacon, had run the previous year. Dave has had breakthrough season by running personal bests at 5K, 10K, 15K, 20K and the half marathon. He finished second overall to Jon Brown at the Royal Victoria Half Marathon in 1:08, then ran the identical time to win the Shawnigan Half Marathon three weeks later by over 8 minutes. Dave is in good position to run a personal best at the Sacremento Marathon early in December.
November 7, 2005
Jon Brown
Jon placed 9th overall in the 2005 ING New York City Marathon on Sunday with a time of 2:13:29. The race was won by Kenyan Paul Tergat in 2:09:30. Second place went to Hendrick Ramaala in 2:09:31 and Meb Kefelzighi was third in 2:09:56. Ironically, Jon's PB of 2:09:31 was set in April in the London Marathon, which would have earned him 2nd at NYC yesterday. In the London race he finished 6th overall and beat Tergat, who was 8th, in 2:11:36. The NYC Marathon was Jon's first marathon as a Canadian citizen and he set a National marathon record. He is Canada's lone hope for a medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
November 1, 2005
Meghan Day and Arturo Huerta
Meghan won the 13th annual Creepy Crawl 5K on Sunday and collected $100 prize money as top female in 17:13. She placed 6th overall of the 124 finishers. Arturo was top master, 4th overall, in 16:30. He collected $75 prize money in the Island Runner sponsored event. Phil Nicholls, IR owner, finished 5 seconds behind Meghan and received $50 for second place master. The race was won by Nick Walker in 15:53.
October 31, 2005
Dave Jackson, Kevin Searle and Dianne Dennis
For the second consecutive year, Dave absolutely destroyed the competition at the Shawnigan Lake Half Marathon on Sunday. He posted a 5:50 margin of victory. His time of 1:08:26 equalled his RV Half time and improved on his 2004 Shawnigan winning time by almost 5 minutes! Hugh Trenchard was second in 1:14:16 this year. Kevin Searle, a former Shawnigan winner, topped the master's ranks, finishing 4th overall, in 1:21:10. New member, Dianne Dennis, was the top female master, third female overall, in 1:38:53. There were 243 finishers in the 30th Annual Shawnigan Half Marathon, the longest consecutive running of a half marathon anywhere in B.C.
October 24, 2005
Steve Osaduik, Dave Milne, Jim Finlayson, Bruce Deacon and Steve Bachop
The Prairie Inn Harriers team of Steve (2nd 30:46), Dave (3rd 31:06), Jim (4th 31:10) and Bruce (7th 31:39) won the BC Cross Country Championships senior men's title at White Rock on Saturday. Mark Bomba won the race in 30:45. Steve Bachop was the first finisher in the master's race with a time of 26:21, a 1 minute, 21 second margin of victory over Kelowna's Rory Switzer. 533 runners participated in various age divisions from 10 year olds to masters.
October 17, 2005
Gary Duncan and Sandi Heal
Gary finished first overall with a time of 19 minutes, 3 seconds in the Diabetes Dash 5K yesterday. Sandi won her first race ever, topping the women's field in 21:11. This placed her third overall out of 200 finishers. The event was held at the University of Victoria.
October 10, 2005
Jon Brown, Dave Jackson, Cheryl Murphy, Meghan Day and Nancy Baxendale
Jon and Dave finished 1-2 in the men's race and Cheryl and Meg finished 1-2 in the women's race at the highly competitive Royal Victoria Half Marathon on Sunday. Jon led the field of 3,793 finishers home with a winning time of 1:03:55. Dave ran a 2 minute personal best in 1:08:27. Cheryl's winning time was 1:18:21 while Megan's silver medal performance was 1:20:02. Nancy was top master and third female overall with a P.B. of 1:21:20.
October 10, 2005
Jim Finlayson and Judith Leroy
Jim finished first overall in 2:24:13 and Judith, running her inaugural marathon, was second female, 36th overall, in 2:53:21 in the Royal Victoria Marathon yesterday. There were 1,961 finishers in the 26th annual race. Suzanne Evans, of Vancouver, won the women's division in 2:50:24, a personal best time by over 5 minutes.
October 3, 2005
Carlos Castillo
Carlos finished 12th overall in 28 hours, 24 minutes and 19 seconds at the Haliburton Forest 100 Mile Trail Race in West Guilford, Ontario on October 11. He followed that up one week later with an 8th place finish at the 62K Great Lake Walk at Lake Cowichan in 6:04:52. There were 20 finishers at the Haliburton Forest 100 Miler won by Jeff Simpkins in 18:55:10. There were 322 finishers in the Great Lake Walk, won by Jason Wellard in 4:55:27.
September 26, 2005
Wendy Davies, Cheryl Murphy and Adam Lawrence
Wendy was the top master and won the F45 division at the Juan de Fuca Duathlon on Sunday with a time of 1:21:48. Cheryl was second female, 6th overall, in 1:06:44 and Adam was second in his age division, 10th overall, in 1:08:25. The men's race was won by Kelly Guest in 59:00 with Peter Reid finishing second in 1:01:30. Olympian Samantha McGlone was the top female, 5th overall, in 1:06:38. There were 132 finishers in the JdF Duathlon.
September 26, 2005
Lindsay Pellow
Lindsay finished 21st overall and was first open female, in the Silver Tip 50K trail ultra in the Sunshine Valley near Hope on Saturday. Her time was 5:50:58. The men's winner was Geoffrey Palmer in 4:43:26 and Lorraine Lees was the first female and top master in 5:18:31. There were 33 finishers at Silver Tip, the last race in the BC Ultra Trail Series. Lindsay ran 3 of the 7 races and finished 2nd overall in the final series standings.
September 19, 2005
Jon Brown
Jon finished 8th overall in the highly competitive Great North Half Marathon in England on Sunday with a time of 1:03:04. There were 47,000 finishers in the race won by Etheopian Zersenay Tadesse with a world-best half marathon time of 59:05. Although Jon was suffering from jet lag and lacked sleep for the three days leading up to the race, he ran a credible performance. Tragically, 4 people died during this event.
September 12, 2005
Steve Osaduik
Steve ran stride for stride with Jerry Ziak for 21K of the 21.1K Harbour City Half Marathon in Nanaimo on Sunday before being edged at the finish line by a mere 4 seconds. Jerry's winning time of 1:05:22 and Steve's second place time of 1:05:26 are both personal bests and, more importantly, represented the second and third fastest half marathon times recorded in BC this year. Only Jon Brown's 1:03:57 in Comox stands ahead of them. With Jim Finlayson's second place time at Comox of 1:05:42, that means Harriers have 3 of the 4 best performances in the province, all races included. There were 272 finishers in the Harbour City Half Marathon and another 215 finishers in the accompaning 10K race , won by David Matte in 33:54. Tina Connolly was the top female in the Half in 1:19:07 (10th OA), while Codie Ward was the top female in the 10K in 40:00 (7th OA).
September 12, 2005
Maurice Tarrant
Our amazing Maurice Tarrant just established his 45th Canadian age class record on Saturday with a brilliant time of 6:14 in the Station House Elite Mile race. The previous M75 Canadian Record of 6:39 was held by Jim Pascoe and was set in Oshawa on July 27, 2003. Maurice didn't just shave a fraction of a second off that mark, he plummeted 25 seconds off it. Outstanding. The Elite Mile was won by Eric Finlay in 4:23 and Craig Odermat won the accompanying 3K race in 8:50. There were 76 finishers in the 3K and another 21 in the Mile race for a total of 98. This is a very good start in an inaugural race, which will be moved to early July next year to coincide with the Lavender Festival. It marked the official opening of the Frontrunners Westshore store, located right next to the Station House Pub.
September 12, 2005
Arturo Huerta, Dee Ogden and Herb Phillips
Arturo placed second overall, top master, in 34:56 at the Lands End 10K on Sunday. Dee was second female, first in her age division, 26th overall, in 44:06. The 10K race was won by Partick Donker in 32:59 while Jenny Sprigings was top female in 40:59. There were 111 finishers in the second annual 10K event.
At the age of 65, Herb was not only the top master in the tenth annual Lands End Half Marathon, he was the top Harrier, too, of 17 PIH finishers! Herb's time was 1:24:22 which placed him 11th overall out of the 222 finishers. It was a clean sweep for the Harriers' master men with Rui Batista claiming 2nd, Rob Reid 3rd, Gary Duncan 4th, Buddy Bhandar 5th and Rob Grant 6th. Now that's an impressive group performance led by the oldest master and Canadian age class record-holder in many distances.
September 5, 2005
Dave Reed, Meghan Day and Nancy Baxendale
Dave placed 3rd overall, and was top male master, in 17:23, Meghan was first female, 5th overall, in 17:49, and Nancy was top female master, 9th overall in 18:22, in the eighth annual Harriers Songhees 5K Foot Race yesterday. All three Harriers were named to the Songhees Select Team along with Nick Walker, Todd Healy and Paisley Aiken. They received the coveted SST long sleeve cardinal red t-shirt featuring Molly and Pepsi running on the boardwalk at the gazebo, near the 2K mark on the course. Nick Walker won the race in 16:30 while Todd Healy claimed second place in 16:56. Harriers Bill Scriven, Marcia Stromsmoe, Christine Gilgunn and Robert Bostrom also won their age categories. There were 91 finishers, 32 of which were Harriers.
September 5, 2005
Cameron Heal
Running only his second race ever, Cameron sliced 4 minutes and 5 seconds off his 5K personal best time at the Harriers Songhees 5K Foot Race yesterday. His inaugural race was the Sidney Days 5K in 2004 where he ran 31:02 and, with a little training through a running clinic and a few appearances at Prior Lake on Saturday mornings, he improved his time to 26:57 at Songhees. I am sure that Sandster will be looking over her shoulder for a fast approaching hubby on March 12 next year for the Bazan Bay 5K!
August 29, 2005
Jon Brown and Sandra Bastedo
Both Jon and Sandra captured gold medals on Saturday at the inaugural Cowichan Challenge 10K road race in Duncan. The flat and fast course, designed by Sheron Chrysler and measured accurately by Sylvan Smyth, was the venue for the B.C. Summer Senior Games, for all athletes aged 55 and older. Sandra placed second overall and was top female in the Seniors' 10K race with a time of 44 minutes, 19 seconds. Paul Gowland won in 42:04 while Harriers Marcia Stromsmoe placed 5th in 45:19. The Open race started 15 minutes after the Seniors' race and Jon blistered the new course in 29:47. Second place went to Greg Bennett, of Australia, in 30:39 and Bruce Deacon took 3rd in 31:14. Rounding out the top seven men included Dave Milne 4th in 31:19, Simon Whitfield 5th in 31:48, Nik Southwell 6th in 32:30 and Harriers Patrick Donker 7th in 33:16. What an outstanding men's field! On the women's side, first to finish was Australia's Laura Bennett in 37:59 followed by Lucy Smith in 38:22 and Victoria Fiddick of Duncan was 3rd in 40:11. There were 141 finishers in the Cowichan Challenge 10K.
August 29, 2005
Alana O'Connell and Laura Leno
Alana and Laura produced brilliant results in their first-ever Ironman Canada Triathlon in Penticton yesterday. The event features a 3.8 km swim followed by a 180 km bike ride and finishes with a full 26.2 mile marathon. It was extremely hot for the bike portion and very windy for the run. Both were competing in the F45-49 division and boasted top 20 finishes, where Alana placed 13th and Laura placed 18th of 94 women in their age division. Alana's swim time was 1:25:30, transition 1 was 10:00, bike time was 6:39:54, transition 2 was 7:59 and marathon run time was 4:38:07 for a final finishing time of 12:59:12. She placed 1,036th of the 2,061 finishers. Laura's swim time was 1:21:19, transition 1 was 10:24, bike time was 6:50:13, transition 2 was 8:14 and marathon run time was 4:42:58 for a final finishing time of 13:10:57. She placed 1,116th overall of 2,061 finishers. The race was won by Chris Lieto, of Danville, CA, in 8:33:32 while Karen Holloway, from Richmond, VA, was the top female, 28th overall, in 9:51:31.
August 22, 2005
Dave Jackson and Kevin Searle
Dave finished first overall in 31:36 in the 7th annual Sound and Silence 10K yesterday. There were 174 finishers and the top female was Marilyn Arseneault in 37:55; she was eleventh overall. Kevin was top master, fifth overall, in 36:23.
August 15, 2005
Sandi Begg, Sandi Heal, Judith Leroy and Cheryl Murphy
Sandi and Sandi had outstanding performances at the Cadboro Bay Duathlon on Saturday in their very first attempt at a duathlon. Sandi B. placed 3rd in her age division, 13th overall in 2:48:11, while Sandi H. placed 4th in her age division, 17th overall, in 3:05:35. Judith was top female and 4th overall in the duathlon in 2:27:07. Cheryl was third female overall in the sprint triathlon and won her age division with a time of 1:13:58. She was 7th overall of the 66 finishers. Brent Poulson won the sprint triathlon in 1:05:22, Partick Maguire won the olympic triathlon in 2:33:51 and Hugh Trenchard won the duathlon in 2:07:57.
August 8, 2005
Steve Osaduik and Arturo Huerta
Steve was 1st overall in 24:10 and Arturo was 10th overall, and top master, in 26:54 in the inaugural Fila Rock Solid 8K race in Esquimalt on Sunday. There were 144 finishers. The top female was Jessica Kirkwood in 30:44.
August 8, 2005
Jon Brown
Jon captured 10th place overall in a Kenyan-dominated high performance, international Beach to Beacon 10K race in New England on Sunday. One week later he beat five of those Kenyans who were ahead of him at B-to-B to place 5th in the 33rd annual Falmouth 7 Mile Road Race from Woods Hole to Falmouth Heights, Mass. His time was 32:48. The race was won by Kenyan Gilbert Okari in 31:59.
August 1, 2005
Richard Lee
Richard was fourth overall and top master at the Squamish Days 10K on Sunday with a time of 33:44. There were 150 finishers at Squamish Days. The race was won by Spencer Morrison in 32:41; the top female was Tina Connelly in 35:18. Tina finished 8th overall.
August 1, 2005
Jonathan Withey
Jonathan ran an outstanding leg in the Great Canadian Death Race relay in Grand Cache, Alberta yesterday. He ran the toughest stage consisting of 38K and finishing at 3,500 feet elevation after cresting the rocky mountain summit of 7,000 feet. Jon gained 50 minutes on the leading team and finished his 4th stage a mere 9 seconds behind the leaders. He was quoted as saying after his stage, "This is the toughest race I have run in my life, but I am satisfied with the result!"
August 1, 2005
Jim Sargent
Jim won three gold medals at the World Masters Games in Edmonton and, in doing so, he completely slaughtered the M80 opposition! His first race was 200 metres where he won in 36.75, good for a 7 second margin of victory. Next he won the 400 metre race in 1:27.08; second place was 1:41.92. Finally, Jim won the 800 metre race in 3:35.43, 28 seconds clear of the second place finisher.
August 1, 2005
Ian Hallam
Ian placed 5th overall in the Canmore Challenge 12K mountain race, and is sitting on the bubble to make the Canadian Team for the World Mountain Racing Championships in New Zealand this September. His time was 47:12. There were 126 finishers at the Canmore Challenge, won by Mt. Douglas Gutbuster champion, Jason Loutit in 43:05. Jason went on to win the Calgary Marathon one month later, then October 9 he placed 2nd to Jim Finlayson at the Royal Victoria Marathon.
August 1, 2005
Cheryl Murphy
Cheryl was second female overall at the Self Transcendence Triathlon on Sunday in 2:17:55. The top female was Dawn Berg in 2:13:31 which placed her 7th overall out of the 170 finishers. Rob Hasegawa won the race in 2:10:00. Hugh Trenchard won the accompanying Duathlon in 1:55:00 while Anne-Marie Madden was the top female in 2:14:55. There were 22 finishers in the Duathlon.
July 25, 2005
Sandra Bastedo and Marcia Stromsmoe
Sandra won a gold medal in her age division in the 8K road race at the World Masters Games in Edmonton yesterday. She was 9th overall and won the F60 category by over 4 minutes with a time of 37:52. Marcia was 12th overall in 38:36, good for a silver medal in the F55 division. There were 82 finishers in the women's master's race.
July 25, 2005
Richard Lee and Nancy Tinari
Richard and Nancy were the top masters at the 17th Annual Stanley Park Seawall Summerfast 10K on Saturday in Vancouver directed by former Harrier, Simon Cowell. Richard placed 5th overall of the 318 finishers in 34:14, while Nancy ran 36:12 and was second female. Warren Barker won the men's race in 31:41 and Tina Connelly was the first female, 10th overall, in 35:28. Victorian Phil Nicholls was 9th, first in the M45 division, in 35:13.
July 18, 2005
Dee Ogden and David Jackson
Dee finished 5th in her age division and 14th out of 76 females at Spanish River Half Marathon in Massey, Ontario with a time of 1:47:00 yesterday. She was the only Victorian and Harrier there and placed 60th out of 152 finishers. The race was won by John Graber, of Toronto, in 1:17:16 and the top female was Anne Lamontagne, from Timmins, in 1:35:43. The race started at 6:00 a.m. and it was 24 degrees at that time with extreme humidity making it hard to breathe for all the runners. Dave ran a personal best time of 14:42 at the Canadian T&F Senior Outdoor Championships in Winnipeg, Manitoba on Saturday; he was one second behind team mate, Steve Murenbeeld. Steve was 8th and Dave was 9th. Reid Coolsaet won the race in 13:52. Jerry Ziak placed 4th in 14:07.
July 11, 2005
Wendy Cocksedge
Wendy was second female overall, first in her age division, in 2:04:45 at the Cowichan Challenge Triathlon at Fuller's Lake yesterday. She was 16th overall of the 137 finishers. The race was won by Travis Chater in 1:47:23 while Keren Milkosky was the first female in 2:03:26.
July 11, 2005
Nancy Baxendale and Rob Reid
Nancy was the first female and top master in the Calgary Stampede Half Marathon yesterday. She placed 10th overall out of 1,615 finishers with a time of 1:22:56. Rob placed 7th overall, 1st M50, in 1:22:36. The race was won by Mike Booth in 1:12:56 while Paul McCloy was top master, 2nd overall, in 1:19:00.
July 11, 2005
Mike Lord
Mike placed 8th overall with a time of 5:43:39 in the Knee Knackering North Shore 50K Mountain Run on Saturday. There were 182 finishers and the race was won by Mark Bates in 5:05:40. Suzanne Evans was the top female in 5:45:00; she was 10th overall and exactly three months later would go on to win the Royal Victoria Marathon in 2:50:24, a personal best by over 5 minutes.
July 11, 2005
Kathryn Marks, Gerry Etcheverry and Kevin Searle
Kathryn, Gerry and Kevin all had unique experiences at the Westwood Plateau Gutbuster in Nanaimo on Saturday, the 5th and final race of the Island GB Series. Running her very first race as a Harrier, Kathryn chose the 8.6K course and finished 5th female, 2nd master, 19th OA of 116 finishers. She had to stop to retie a shoe lace part way into the race, then battled her way back to catch the top master, Laura Wyatt of Courtenay, within the last 100 metres. Thinking it was not good etiquette, to outsprint her rival and take the win after trailing for so long, Kathryn gracefully tucked in behind and allowed Laura to capture the master's crown by 3 seconds. Kevin won the master's title in the half marathon, long course in 1:56:33 but he did it in a very unusual way. Near the 2K mark, Kevin went off course and dragged the next 15 or 20 runners with him including the second and third place masters and top female. After going astray for more than 6 minutes, Kevin retraced his steps and rejoined the field completely behind the 116 competitors. He then proceeded to pass all but 4 to finish 5th overall in a very spirited comeback. Royd Burkart won the race in 1:43:37 while Marguerite Masson-Wood was top female in 2:03:09. Gerry had prepared well for the long course and was the leading master when tragedy struck. He was confident for a podium finish but his plans were quickly changed by two females in distress. At the 13K mark, his girlfriend, Louise Proulx, collapsed in exhaustion on the course. She had been ill in the week leading up to the race and completely fainted and lost all energy before dropping on the trail. Later, at almost the same spot, 57 year old Peggy Chambers of Black Creek tripped on a rock and smashed her face badly on the ground causing profuse bleeding. Gerry, being the good samaraton and gentleman that he is, abandoned any plans to continue the race and called for the medical team on his cell phone to attend to these two injured ladies. He physically carried them several hundred metres from the rugged trail to the nearest gravel road and waited 45 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. Although all three of them received a DNF at Westwood, Gerry deserves a badge of honour for going above and beyond the call of care, bravery and kindness. I am sure that Louise and Peggy gave him a big round of thanks.
July 4, 2005
Ken Bonner
Long-time Harrier and a seasoned veteran runner, Ken Bonner, biked away from the field of 83 cyclists with an amazing victory of over 8 hours in the Cascade 1,200 Kilometre Randonneur race in Washington last weekend (yes, that's 720 miles of difficult riding). His time was 74 hours, 21 minutes. Second place went to 27 year old Chris Raysdale, of Seattle, in 82:35 while Charles Breer, 42, from St. Paul, MN, placed third in 82:36. The top female was Jennifer Flenner, of Ridgecrest, CA, in 84 hours, 33 minutes. The race climbed through several mountain passes of over 5,000 feet and the riders faced much rain and heavy winds in their 4 days in the saddle. There were 74 finishers in the 1,200K race and another 9 finishers in the "short course" 1,000K race won by Charles White, of Raliegh, NC, in 62 hours, 20 minutes. The majority of the cyclists were from the United States with only 8 Canadians entered, 2 from British Columbia and 6 from Alberta. At 62, Ken was one of the oldest competitors in the field. He is a grizzled veteran of over 120 marathons and placed third in the M60 division of the Island Series this year, 1 point behind Nanaimo's Bill Hollingshead, and 7 points behind Harriers team mate, Rob Grant. Ken is definately the best 62 year old ultra distance rider/runner in the club!
July 1, 2005
David Jackson and Kevin Searle
Dave won the Sidney Days 5K today in 15:39 and Kevin was top master, 5th overall, in 17:50. Second place in the race went to Kenyan Ased Said in 17:04 and Sean Chester claimed the bronze medal in 17:25. Lucy Smith was the top female in 18:04, good for 6th overall of the 174 finishers. Second place female was Catherine Gill, of Nanaimo, in 19:01 while Christine Ridenour placed third in 21:13. Strong performances were also recorded by Harriers Rui Batista, 8th OA, 3rd M40, in 18:12, Andrew Green, 10th OA, 5th M40, in 18:54, John Catterall, 13th OA in 19:02 and Steven Shelford 15th OA in 19:09. Anita Carter was 4th F40 in 22:30 and Sandy Mullen was 5th F40 in 22:31. There were 174 in the 5K race and an additional 26 in the 2K Kid's Run for a total of 200 finishers.
July 1, 2005
Darren Skuja and Mike Stone
Darren finished 5th overall, top master, in 4:33 and Mike finished 4th overall in 4:29 at the eleventh annual Fifth Street Mile in downtown Courtenay today. The race winner was Chris Gordon with a new course record of 4:14, closely followed by Neil Holm in 4:16. Robin Poirier, running in bare feet on pavement, took the bronze in 4:27. Second master, behind Skuj, was Keith Wakelin in 4:40 and the top female was Kathy Rung in 5:11. George Beiber was the oldest contestant, at 86, and he ran under 10 minutes. Wow! For Mike it was a tremendous comeback performance after two full years of nagging injuries. His training has perked up substantially under Skuj's experienced coaching at the TNW North workouts. For Darren, it was a very fast finish to pick up 3 or 4 more positions and a gutty effort after a long hot bath and too many glasses of wine the night before causuing a few dry heaves prior to the race start. All in all, the Fifth Street Mile was an outstanding event with some outstanding performances.
July 1, 2005
Bruce Deacon and Cathy Noel
Bruce and Cathy share the unique distinction of not only claiming the top Harriers honours in the inaugural HBC Run for Canada today, but both played prominent roles in the 2004 Royal Victoria Marathon on October 10 as well. Bruce won the race with a splendid time of 2:21:07 while Cathy staged the event in her capacity as General Manager and Race Director. The top runner and the top organizing committee member for the RVM where the top PIHers in the HBC today. Bruce finished 4th overall, 2nd of 57 in his M30 age division, in 32:22. Cathy finished 318th overall, 31st of 82 in her F30 age division, in 58:35. It was her first competitive race. The overall winners, Simon Whitfield and Kris Gemmell, finished in a dead heat for first place in 31:05. The top female was Carolyn Murray who finished 7th overall in 35:29. There were 280 men and 247 women for a total of 527 finishers in the 10K race. An additional 150 participated in the 3K Family Walk and 47 children ran the 1K Kid's Run.
June 27, 2005
Steve Osaduik and Bruce Deacon
Steve ran a personal best of 1:05:49 and placed 5th overall out of 3,020 finishers at the Scotiabank Half Marathon in Vancouver on Sunday, a race stacked with male and female elite athletes. Only four Kenyans were ahead of him as Steve was a mere 54 seconds behind the winner. Bruce ran a gutsy effort to claim 6th place overall, 1st in his M35 age division, with a great time of 1:06:58. The race was won by Kenyan Giitah MacHaria in 1:04:55. Harriers Todd Howard, 1:11:51, 11th overall, Richard Lee, 1:14:19, 19th overall, 2nd master and Rui Batista, 1:23:44, 48th overall, 6th master also had excellent performances at the Scotiabank Half.
June 27, 2005
Steve Bachop, Arturo Huerta, Meghan Day and Nancy Baxendale
The top Harriers were Steve Bachop and Meghan Day in the 21st Annual Twilight Shuffle 4 Miler on a warm Wednesday night in Chemainus. Steve finished 3rd overall in 21:37 while Meg finished 10th overall in 23:40. She was the first female. There were 692 finishers in the popular summer event. Arturo and Nancy were the top masters at the Twilight Shuffle finishing in 21:43 and 23:58 respectively. Arturo finished a brilliant 4th overall while Nancy nailed a 4 mile personal best and claimed 13th overall, second female to Meghan. The race was won by Nik Southwell in 20:37. Mike Lord had a good race, too, finishing 6th overall in 22:36.
June 27, 2005
Nancy Baxendale and Nancy Tinari
New member, Nancy Tinari, had a super run at the Scotiabank Half Marathon on Sunday to finish as top master, 3rd female with a time of 1:19:24. Nancy Baxendale also won a gold medal in her F40 division and recorded a personal best time of 1:21:56. She was 6th female overall, out of the 1,678 women finishers. There were 1,342 men finishers for a total of 3,020. It was Nancy's 5th personal best time in a variety of distances over the last 6 months. The top woman in the race was Russian transplant Lioudmila Kortchaguina who finished 19th overall in 1:14:32.
June 27, 2005
Debbie Scott, Sabina Reska and Ludovic Clavier
Debbie and Sabina captained the Harriers team to a first place finish and a record distance covered in the Easter Seals 24 Hour Relay on the weekend. The team was composed of 12 regular members doing a cycle of running about every 4 hours and 15 drop-in Harriers that ran a lap or two to keep the regulars legs fresh. The previous course record of 75 laps or 285K, set by Debbie's and Sabina's PIH team in 2004, was smashed by the 2005 team. The final count was 88 laps or 335K, 50K farther than the previous record. The second place team in the relay ran 280K. Deb and Sabina stayed up the entire 24 hours meticulously charting every lap and making sure the sequence of runners kept flowing smoothly. Ludovic Clavier was the hero of the team, by not only being the fastest runner, but also he ran the most laps, covering 42 kilometres in total, a full marathon. Ludo did his regular rotation on the team and ran from 1:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. so that some of his team mates could get some well deserved sleep. His average lap time for 3.8K was 15 minutes. Kudos to Ludo and kudos to Carlos Castillo who ran from 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. More importantly than winning the event was the fact that the PIH raised over $14,000 in pledges, fourth highest of the 86 fundraising teams! Last year we raised $4,500. This money will help send seven underprivileged children to Easter Seals Summer Camp at Shawnigan Lake.
June 27, 2005
Dave Jackson
Dave recorded four personal best performances in track meets over a three week period in the Pacific Northwest. Starting in Seattle, he ran 14:53 for 5,000 metres on June 1. He followed that up with 8:31 for 3,000 in Richmond on June 12 and nailed another P.B. of 30:53 for 10,000 metres on June 17 in Abbotsford. Last Sunday, June 26, he placed 4th overall in the B.C. Track and Field Championships in Burnaby by running 5,000 metres in 14:50 which qualified him for the Canadian Championships being staged in Winnipeg on July 15. Dave is being coached by Bruce Deacon and has really stepped up his short speed. A 2:28 matathoner while living in Toronto, Dave has put more quality into his weekly training and is now turning in some outstanding track times for middle distances.
June 20, 2005
Marcia Stromsmoe and Anita Carter
Marcia and Anita were the top two Harriers at the Do it for Dad 8K Prostate Run at Royal Roads on Sunday. Marcia finished 21st overall, 1st of 10 in the F50 division, with a time of 38:45. Anita was 24th overall, 3rd of 24 in the F40 division, in 39:16. The race was won by Sean Chester in 29:49 while the top female was Adrienne Stedford in 36:30. There were 194 finishers in the 8K run and 206 in the accompaning 3K walk for a total of 400 participants. Harriers John Woodall and Les MacNeill both had strong runs with John finishing 3rd in the M60 division in 42:27 and Les finishing in the same division in 43:14.
June 20, 2005
Lindsay Pellow
Lindsay improved her time and position immensely at the second annual 23.2 rugged Kusam Klimb mountain race in Sayward on Saturday. Last year she finished in 3:45:04 and was 3rd female and 22nd overall out of 132 finishers. This year she finished in 3:27:40 and was 5th female and 26th overall out of 199 finishers. That is an improvement of 17 minutes, 24 seconds. She stepped up her pace from 9:42 per kilometre in 2004 to 8:57 per kilometre in 2005 on a very demanding and challenging course. Andrew Hallam, of Singapore, won the race last year in 2:51:19 and Kevin Vallely, from North Vancouver, won it this year in 2:32:17. The top female in 2004 was Harriers' Claire Townsend in 3:05:41 and the top female in 2005 was Marguerite Masson, from Courtenay, in 3:05:40.
June 20, 2005
Isao Hirayama, Bill Scriven and Bob Janicki
Isao, Bill and Bob, all preparing for the Ironman Canada National Triathlon Championships in Penticton on August 28, showed huge improvements with their finishing times, compared to the same race last year, in the New Balance Half Ironman on Sunday. Isao finished in 4:50:48, 52nd overall, 15th of 64 in the M30 division compared to 5:17:58 in 2004, 157th overall. This is an improvement of 27 minutes, 10 seconds and 105 positions. Bob finished in 5:01:40, 82nd overall, 6th of 43 in the M45 division compared to 5:14:46 in 2004, 141st overall. This is an improvement of 13 minutes, 6 seconds and 59 positions. Bill finished in 5:27:51, 171st overall, 2nd of 5 in the M60 division compared to 5:47:57 in 2004, 288th overall. This is an improvement of 20 minutes, 6 seconds and 117 positions. The top male was Scott Curry, from Calgary, in 4:06:00 while the top female was Victoria's Charlene Waldner hitting the tape in 4:36:14. There were 337 men, 214 women and 51 teams (153 athletes) for a total of 704 finishers in the New Balance Half Ironman.
June 13, 2005
Claire Townsend and Kevin Searle
Claire and Kevin both had sparkling races at the Mount Doug Gutbuster race on Saturday. Mt. Doug attracted 88 finishers in the 12K long course and another 66 finishers in the 5K short course for a total of 154 participants, up 3 from the 151 in 2004. Claire added to her string of victories at Stewart Mountain and Mount Tzouhalem by finishing first at Mt. Doug in 1:07:32 to claim 13th position overall. She finished 2nd in the Royal Roads Gutbuster in April and assured herself of a lock as the Series Champion for 2005. Kevin ran the best cross country race of his life, winning the master's division and finishing 10th overall in 1:04:30. It was the very first time that he has beaten arch rival Myron Knippshild, from CeeVacs, who finished 14th in 1:07:38. Jason Loutitt, of Canmore, Alberta, won the race in 53:01. The Mount Doug 12K Gutbuster was one of four 'consideration races' in North America to name a Canadian Team to participate in the World Mountain Racing Championships in Wellington, New Zealand this September. It is likely that the top 2 finishers on Saturday, Jason Loititt and Phil Villeneuve, both from Canmore, will make the national team.
June 6, 2005
Carlos Castillo, Cheryl Murphy and Chad DePol
Carlos walked away with the victory at the 40 Mile Gold River to Tahsis Great Walk on Saturday. He finished with a time of 5:51:50 to beat second place finisher Reverand Kevin Eby who followed about 3 minutes behind. There were about 330 walkers and runners, down from the record number of 806 finishers in 2001. Carlos also won the event last year with a time of 5:47:00. The Gold River to Tahsis 63.5K course record of 4:30:00 is jointly held by Steve King (1984) and Steve Royer (2001).
Cheryl was the female winner of the 19th Annual Panorama Classic Triathlon on Sunday. She finished 16th overall out of 289 finishers including 10 Harriers. Cheryl had the 12th fastest 8K run time of 29:03. Her 500 metre swim was 8:17 and her 30K cycle was 52:26 for a final finishing time of 1:29:46. Kelly Guest won the triathlon in 1:16:17. He won the bike portion by a staggering 5 minutes and was the fastest 8K runner by 40 seconds.
Chad just registered for the Panorama Duathlon one hour before the event on a whim because his girlfriend was doing the tri. He blazed his way through the first 2.5K run in 7:18, cranked his way through the 30K ride in 55:36 then sprinted his way through the second run of 8K run in 28:46 for a final finishing time of 1:31:40, good for second place overall. Not bad for a last minute decision! Chad was 24th of 289 finishers. Nick Hastie won the duathlon in 1:23:41 and finished 7th overall. Harriers Wendy Cocksedge and Rintje Raap collected silver medals in their respective age classes in the triathlon.
May 30, 2005
Rob Leather and Anita Carter
Rob and Anita were the top two club members at the Firefighter's 10.2K race at Beaver Lake on Sunday. Rob finished 5th overall, 2nd in his weight division, with a time of 38:01. Anita ran 46:09, was 4th female, and 2nd in her weight division of the 181 finishers. There were 13 Harriers in the race, won by Nik Southwell in 33:14 and Rebecca Chisholm in 40:33. Club members Rui Batista (40:06) and Gary Duncan (40:42) were the top two masters had there been age divisions.
May 30, 2005
Leah Pells and Bruce Deacon
Both Leah and Bruce were the second Canadians finished in the National 10K Road Race Championships in Ottawa on Saturday. Bruce finished 13th overall in 30:55 while Leah finished 59th overall, 7th female, top master, in 34:39. Jeremy Deere (30:15) and Lisa Harvey (33:53) were crowned Canadian 10K Champions. The race was dominated by high performance Kenyans with George Kirwa Misoi winning in 28:55 and Grace Momanyi winning the women's race in 31:28. There were 5,678 finishers in the 10K race including very strong Canadian and International divisions. In the accompanying 5K National Championship race, which featured 4,735 finishers, Kevin Sullivan was first to hit the tape in 14:36.
May 30, 2005
Jim Finlayson and Wendy Montgomery
Jim ran a personal marathon best by about 60 seconds in 2:18:20 and Wendy narrowly missed her P.R. by 30 seconds in 3:04:04 as the Harriers team walked away with a brilliant second place finish, and $9,000 prize money, in the "Fastest City in Canada" team competition. Danny Kassap (landed immigrant from the Congo) and Lioudmila Kortchaguina (landed immigrant from Russia) were the top team from Toronto in 4:59, Jim and Wendy from Victoria were second in 5:22 and the Montreal pair of Louis-Phillipe Garnier and Tina Kader claimed third in 5:23 in a unique format where they add the top male and top female from the same club/city to form a national team championship across the country. The ING Run for Something Better Program offers $55,000 in prize money to be given to the top eight teams for use in their city to assist under-privileged children with athletics programs. Jim, who finished 7th overall, was crowned as Canadian Champion at the National Capital Marathon in Ottawa on Sunday as the six runners ahead of him were all Kenyans. Wendy was 15th female overall, 9th Canadian and 5th in her F35 age division. A great effort by two great Harriers! There were 3,307 finishers in the marathon won by Kenyan David Cheruiyot in 2:14:20. Lidia Vasilevskaia won the women's race in 2:31:25.
May 30, 2005
Ian Hallam, Mike Lord and Claire Townsend
Ian placed 4th overall in 1:38:51, Mike was 11th in 1:44:49 and Claire was second female in 1:58:21, 38th overall of the 344 finishers, in the physically demanding Half Knacker 25K run on the rubbly Baden Powell Trail in North Vancouver on Sunday. The two winners, Colin Dignum, of West Vancouver, (1:35:03) and Katrina Blanch, of Vancouver, (1:53:25) both have the unique honour of previously winning the Royal Victoria Marathon. Dignum won the RVM in 2000 in 2:26 while Blanch won it in 2001 with a time of 2:57. Fifth place finisher at the Half Knacker and top master, Kevin Titus, (1:39:49) has also won the RVM in 1993 with an incredible 2:19, the second fastest time ever recorded in the 25 year history of the Victoria marathon. For Claire, Ian and Mike, their hard work and dedication at the TNWs and, in particular, their stellar trail training sessions set them in good stead for an outstanding Half Knacker 25K race. They have also be excelling at the Island Gutbuster Series this year.
May 23, 2005
Erik MacKinnon
Erik captained the PIH Gong Show to a second place finish in the Vancouver Island Relay on Saturday. Despite four cancellations within the last week, he recruited one more runner and three on the team ran double stages. Erik ran the two longest stages of 15.8K and 14.5K and placed 2nd and 6th respectively on his stages. Other double stage runners were Anthony Estey and Buddy Bhandar while Gary Duncan, Sylvan Smyth, Claire Townsend and Wendy Davies ran singles. Unfortunately, the rules called for a minimum of 8 runners per team and a maximum of 10. On finishing, the Race Director disqualified PIH for only having 7 runners. Docs Blues, of Courtenay, won the 121.6K event in a time of 8:07:04. PIH finished second in 8:15:54 while Beauty and the 9 Beasts, of Nanaimo, claimed third in 8:24:58. There were two ultrarunners running the entire 121.6K distance. Matt Sessions finished first in 12:04:49 and Harriers Carlos Castillo finished second in 13:22:04.
May 16, 2005
Lisa Lynam and Adam Lawrence
Lisa finished first in her age class, 25th overall out of 136 finishers and was fourth female at the 3rd Annual Sooke Spring Sprint Triathlon on Sunday. Her time was 1:11:09. Adam finished 22nd overall with a time of 1:10:32 good for a bronze medal in the M35 division. He was the 8th fastest on the bike segment. The race was won by Colin Jenkins in 58:42 and the top female, Lauren Groves, finished 8th overall in 1:06:21.
May 16, 2005
Jim Finlayson, Todd Howard, Cheryl Murphy and Claire Townsend
The inaugural Oak Bay KOOL Half Marathon and Relay took place on Sunday and Harriers men swept the top two spots while Harriers women took two of the top three positions. Jim won the race in 1:07:34 and Todd placed second in 1:09:58. This was just two weeks after Jim had won the Vancouver International Half Marathon in 1:05:50 and Todd placed 4th overall in 1:10:07. There were 6,590 finishers in the Vancouver Half Marathon. Cheryl bested the women's field in 1:20:09, five full minutes ahead of second place finisher Marilyn Arsenault. Clare was the third female to hit the tape in 1:27:40, running a personal best half marathon by two and a half minutes. There were 351 finishers in the Oak Bay Half and another 272 on 68 teams in the accompaning Asics Relay. The Harriers team of Arturo Huerta, Dave Jackson, Chris Kelsall and Karen Lawless finished 3rd overall, second in the open men division, while Gary Duncan (2 stages) and Steven Shelford joined the Asics representative, Jill Lawson, and finished 5th overall and 3rd in the corporate division.
May 16, 2005
Doug Doyle
Doug finished third overall in 4:57:32 in a very competitive field at the Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race in Ucuelet on Saturday. He recorded the two fastest mountain bike splits of the 17 individuals and 70 teams participating. The event included two kayak stages, two mountain bike stages and two treks. Dave Norona, of North Vancouver, won the race in 4:29:55 and Nanaimo Frontrunners' Norm Thibault finished second in 4:56:22. The top female was Ina Ervin, of North Vancouver, in 6:17:33 while the top team was Nanaimo Helly Hansen in 4:40:30 comprised of Sean Lunny and Denis Fontaine.
May 16, 2005
Bruce Deacon, Leah Pells and Nancy Baxendale
Bruce finished seventh overall in 1:09:15, Leah was fourth female in 1:17:02 and Nancy took sixth place in 1:22:57 at the Mizuno Canadian Half Marathon Championships in Edmonton. Leah and Nancy placed 1-2 in the master's division of the race which included 22 elite runners from across Canada and featured 443 finishers. Mark Bomba won the race in 1:06:47 and the top female was Aster Demissie in 1:14:24. She finished 14th overall while Leah was 18th and Nancy was 25th. The World Half Marathon Championships will be held on this identical Edmonton course in September.
May 9, 2005
Lindsay Pellow
Lindsay ran this year's 50k at the Elk/Beaver Ultras on Saturday. She ran a fabulous time of 4:27:52. Despite a few pit stops she still managed to shave 18.5 minutes off her 2004 time of 4:46:23. She was third female and second open female. She was 9th overall out of 17 finishers. Amazing!!!
May 9, 2005
Graham Cocksedge and Claire Townsend
The incredible mountain running duo of Graham and Claire claimed yet another victory in the Island Gutbuster Series by topping the men's and women's fields at Mt. Tzouhalem in Duncan on Saturday. That is five wins out of a possible six atempts so far for these two tough trail Harriers. Graham won his third straight GB race and took a stranglehold on the Series. He moved into the number one position to be selected for the Canadian Team to participate in the World Mountain Racing Championships in New Zealand in September. Race #4 at Mount Douglas will be a tough consideration race for him to achieve a national nomintion at the worlds. He won the Mt. Tzouhalem 15K race in 58:38 edging Harriers team mate, Ian Hallam, who finished second in 1:01:15. Claire was the first female in 1:11:21, finishing 2 minutes and 30 seconds ahead of second place Erica Milligan, of Victoria, who ran 1:13:51. This earned Claire 14th position overall of the 95 finishers. It was Graham's third victory as he has won the Stewart Mountain and Royal Roads events and it was Claire's second victory as she won the Stewart Mountain race and finished second at Royal Roads. Look for these two Harriers to collect top mountain racing honours in 2005 and a possible trip to Wellington, NZ.
May 2, 2005
Ken Bonner
Prodigious endurance cyclist Ken Bonner was named masters athlete of the year ahead of swimmer Grant Hall and the Wiley's Angels women's softball team at the annual Greater Victoria Athlete of the Year ceremonies at the Princess Mary Restaurant on Saturday night. Ken has not only won a great deal of long distance bike races, but continues to excel in his running by claiming the bronze medal behind Rob Grant and Bill Hollingstead in the 2005 M60 division of the Island Race Series. Ken ran Pioneer, Mill Bay, Cedar, Hatley Castle, Bazan Bay and Comox Half and collected five first place finishes out of six races. He is a seasoned grizzled veteran of over 120 marathons in a Harriers singlet and continues to be an inspiration in both cycling and running in the Greater Victoria area and on the national scene.
May 2, 2005
Erik MacKinnon
Erik has been training hard for the Vancouver International Marathon, held on Sunday, and wanted to qualify for Boston. His qualifying time needed to be under 3:10:59. Erik's chip time was 3:10:06. He had an amazing story of coming down the last stretch before the finish line and seeing the race clock time.
May 2, 2005
Dave Reed and Karen Lawless
Dave and Karen were not only top Harriers at the Oceanside 10K on Sunday, but were top masters in the race as well. Dave was 7th overall in 35:04 and Karen was 6th female overall in 41:06. Both won the BBB's for the first time and quenched their thirst on the happy bus ride south from Parksville.
May 2, 2005
Carol Elliott and Daphne Panter
Carol kicked it up a notch this year and lowered her 10K time significantly since the start of the Series. Mill Bay - 51:15, Sooke - 49:47, TC 10K - 49:14, and then Oceanside - 49:06. She was 4th in her age category for Oceanside and received 5th place in the Series standings. Daphne moved up to a new age category this year and claimed her first 1st place medal at Oceanside since starting the Series in 2003. She claimed 4th place in her age category for the Series standings.
April 25, 2005
Mike Lord
Mega-mileage-guy lately, Mike, took on the TC 10K on Sunday and ran a blazing 34:37. Mike's most recent 10K PB had been 35:40 only recently posted three weeks ago at the Sooke River race. He was very close to his 1997 10K PR of 34:18. He figures Sunday's run was a PR since 1997 was almost a lifetime ago. Mike has been preparing for the Half Knacker 25k on May 29. Looks like he's well on his way to have a great race there too. He will run the E/B 50K in preparation.
April 25, 2005
Claire Townsend
The last time Claire ran the TC 10K was in 1997. That year she ran 49:52. Her most recent 10K PR was run at the 2004 Mill Bay 10k in 39:52. She ran 38:49 at Sunday's race, taking a mega 1:03 off her time. Spectacular work Claire!! She was first in the F30 category, and 11th female overall. Her hard work at the TNWs are paying huge dividends in 2005.
April 18, 2005
Steve Osaduik, Jim Finlayson, Jon Brown
Steve clocked a new PR of 30:09 at the Sun Run good for 8th overall. Jim had his fastest 10K in many years and finished FOURTH in 29:39! Jon scored a 2:09:31 Personal Best at the London Marathon. Steve and Jim had outstanding performances at the TC 10K the following week with a 1-2 finish. Steve charged across the line in 30:00 flat, another PR, and Jim was right behind in 30:04. It was an amazing sight to see them finish so close together as Harriers claimed the top two spots in the 10,000+ race. Steve was 7 seconds ahead of the 50,000+ Sun Run winner, Mike Power, of Australia, and 12 seconds ahead of the favourite Kenyan runner, Abraham Kosgei, who finished in 30:12.
April 18, 2005
Maurice Tarrant, Sandra Bastedo and Jim Sargent
THREE 15K Canadian records fell at the Merville 15K on Sunday with brilliant performances from Maurice, Sandra and Jim. Maurice lowered the old M75 record of 1:11:13, set in 1999, by an outstanding 5 minutes, 47 seconds with a new record time of 1:05:26. Sandra clipped 3 minutes, 44 seconds off the old F60 record of 1:11:15, set in 1991, with an incredible 1:07:31. Jim ran 1:30:24 to set a new M80 15K national mark. Marcia Stromsmoe set a F55 course record in 1:08:07, narrowly missing the Canadian Record of 1:07:15 by a mere 52 seconds.
April 18, 2005
Buddy Bhandar and Wendy Cocksedge
Buddy and Wendy earned their first BBB's at the Merville 15k on Sunday. Buddy was 22nd overall with his time of 59:29 and earned first place in his age category. Wendy was the women's winner and earned her first 2005 women's win with her time of 59:57. She was 25th overall out of the 252 finishers.
April 11, 2005
Sandy Stewart
Making the return to the racing scene has proved to be quite eventful for Sandy. He ran a great race the Royal Roads GutBuster long course on Saturday. Sandy left before the awards were given out, but as they begun, his name was called and he ended up winning the top master female spot. Organizers quickly realized they needed to make a correction because of the yelling from the crowd. They moved Louise up to first place and Wendy up to second. Sandy would have been third master male, but Buddy won his spot temporarily while organizers worked things out. To top it all off, his name was called for a draw prize before the festivites were finished. Sandy was 9th overall in 59:57.
April 11, 2005
Graham Cocksedge and Louise Proulx
For the second consecutive Gutbuster race this year, Graham was the first runner home and Louise topped the master women's category on the 11.7K long course on Saturday at Royal Roads. Graham, a Harrier who lives in Maple Ridge, won the inaugural Stewart Mountain 15K Gutbuster on March 12 with a time of 57:00, 49 seconds ahead of Nanaimo's runner-up, Stefan Jacobsen. At Royal Roads, Graham also bested second place finisher Stefan by 2 minutes, 34 seconds with a winning time of 48:33. There were 107 Stewart Mountain finishers and 92 Royal Roads finishers on the long courses. Louise also accomplished the double by claiming a gold medal at Stewart Mountain in 1:20:30 and followed it up with a master's victory at Royal Roads in 1:07:55. She finished 3 minutes, 35 seconds ahead of second place Sheron Chrysler, of CeeVacs, at Stewart Mountain and 4:23 ahead of team mate, Wendy Davies, who claimed the master's silver medal at Royal Roads. These were the first two races for Louise. She joined the club about 6 weeks ago and has become a regular at all mountain runs, Saturdays trail runs at Thetis Lake and the Tuesday night workouts. Look for an excellent performance in the F45 division for Louise in her first road race, the TC10K in two weeks.
April 4, 2005
Leah Pells
Leah continues to dominate both the overall and the master women's field in every race she enters this year. She made it a clean sweep by winning the North Shore CU Spring Forward 5K at Stanley Park in Vancouver on Saturday. It was her fourth consecutive victory following wins at the Harriers Pioneer 8K, First Half Half Marathon in Vancouver and the Henry Weinhard's St. Paddy's Day 3.5 miler in Seattle. Leah finished the Spring Forward 5K in 16:36 and beat 5,000 metre specialist, Emilie Mondor, by 12 seconds. She was 15th overall out of 253 finishers and set a master's course record.
April 4, 2005
Garfield Saunders
Garfield earned his first ever 1st place category finish at yesterday's Sooke River 10K. Also, for the first time ever, he beat Steve Baker and Mike Ellis in his age division. The crowd went wild in the Harriers cheering section as Garfield's name was called to receive his gold medal. He ran a gutsy 43:38 which is his fastest Island Series 10K time since the Port Alberni Paper Chase in 1999. It was 2 minutes and 3 seconds faster than he ran last year on the Sooke River course. Garfield smoked the race in a pair of recently acquired Jon Brown shoes.
April 4, 2005
Chad DePol
Chad's been around the local running scene for years and years and yesterday he was the top Harrier finisher in the Sooke 10k. He won the BBB's for the first time in a long time. It's been great to see him getting back into running again; that's partly due to some encouragement from some close friends and family. Chad was 8th overall in 35:31 and 5th in his age category.
March 21, 2005
Nancy Baxendale
Nancy had an outstanding race at the Comox Half Marathon on Sunday. She was not only the top female overall to collect the coveted BBBs, but recorded a personal best half marathon time of 1:22:08. This was a master's course record and the first time a female master has won the race outright. She finished 22nd overall out of 476 finishers. It was ther first victory over team mate, Joan McGrath, who finished 3 seconds behind in 1:22:11. Nancy's point total of 814 was her best effort in many years in the Island Race Series.
March 21, 2005
Jon Brown and Jim Finlayson
Jon and Jim both ran world class performances by breaking the open men's course record by over four minutes at the Comox Half Marathon. Jon finished in 1:03:57 while Jim ran a personal best half of 1:05:42 to claim second place and assure a the Harriers 1-2 finish. Jon is preparing for London Marathon in April and Jim is preparing for the National Capital Marathon in Ottawa in May. Based on their magnificent times at Comox, they BOTH may be in for a personal best marathon time within the next few months.
March 14, 2005
Richard Lee and Joan McGrath
Both Richard and Joan were top masters Harriers at the Bazan Bay 5K on Sunday and collected the BBBs at BB. There were 882 finishers in the race, a record high for the 23 years of any race in the Island Series. David Milne was the top male in 14:43 and Katie Vermeulen was the top female in 16:46. Richard finished 12th overall in 15:44 while Joan finished 46th overall in 17:41, good for a new F40 course record.
March 14, 2005
Maurice Tarrant, Jim Sargent and Sandra Bastedo
Two Canadian Records and three B.C. Records were set at Bazan Bay by the dynamic veteran trio of Maurice, Jim and Sandra. Maurice's time of 20:42 eclipsed the B.C. M75 Record held by Arthur Taylor of 23:43 and lowered the Canadian Record of 22:08, set in 1998. Jim ran 27:55 to nail a new Canadian M80 mark by 21 seconds while Sandra dropped her own B.C. F60 Record from 21:28 to 21:02. She only missed the Canadian 5K Record by 25 seconds.
March 14, 2005
Cheryl Murphy
Cheryl proved a worthy first-time winner of the BBBs at Bazan Bay by clipping team mate Meghan Day by 7 seconds for her first-ever victory over Meghan, a perennial winner of the Buds and many of the Series races. Cheryl's time of 17:20 placed her as 4th female, behind Katie Vermeulen, Lauren Groves and Nancy Tinari and earned her 43rd spot overall out of a record 882 finishers.
March 14, 2005
Buddy Bhandar
Buddy had an outstanding race at Bazan Bay, one day after a solid third place masters effort at the Stewart Mountain Gutbuster 15K race at Thetis Lake Park. At Bazan, he recorded his highest points total ever, 725, at an Island Series race and won the M50 division for the first time in 17:57, two seconds faster than Shawnigan Lake team mate Nancy Baxendale. His great work at the TNWs are transforming into gold, silver and bronze medal age class performances in all races he enters. Buddy is a prime candidate for both the Most Improved Runner and Harriers Rookie of the Year.
March 7, 2005
Claire Townsend and Graham Cocksedge
Claire and Graham claimed first place overall in the male and female divisions at the inaugural Stewart Mountain 15K Gutbuster on Saturday at Thetis Lake Park. Graham's time of 57:00 edged Nanaimo's, Stefan Jacobsen, by 49 seconds while Claire finished 18th overall of 107 finishers in 1:11:43. Second place female was TWC's Carol Tickner in 1:12:56.
February 28, 2005
Theresa Price
Theresa Price ran an excellent race at Hatley on Sunday in 39:01 - that's a PR for her. She was 2nd in her new age category (F16-19), top junior female Harrier, and took 4:11 off last year's Hatley time.
February 28, 2005
Robbie Cracknell, Steve Osaduik and Joan McGrath
At the Hatley Castle 8K Robbie PR'd and broke his own course record (M01-15) set in 2004 (30:51) by an amazing 1 minute, 36 seconds with his finishing time of 29:15. He also beat his 2005 Pioneer time today by 53 seconds on a MUCH more difficult 8K course! How does he do it? It was his first ever sub 30 minute 8K. He finished 16th overall out of 447 finishers and he was the 6th club member to hit the line of 80 Harriers finishers. His 742 points was his second highest total of ten races in the Island Series over the last two years, only 8 points behind his brilliant run at Mill Bay where he ran 36 and change and scored a career high of 750 points.
At Hatley both the male and female race winners were Harriers with Steve Osaduik and Joan McGrath claiming the honours. Joan, 42, was whisked from the stage before the trophies were handed out to head for the 1:00 p.m. ferry, but her 30:04 was the top female time and, for the first time ever, a master female won at Hatley. Joan finished 25th overall out of 447. She beat 23 year old runner-up, Jessica Kirkwood, by 33 seconds and finished 1 minute and 25 seconds ahead of multi-time Canadian team member, Stephanie Mills, who took the bronze medal in 31:29. Joan's 810 points scored second to Steve Osaduik's 841 points and she was a staggering 23 points ahead of second place overall finisher, Travis Chater, who collected 787 points for his time of 27:15.
Steve won the race in 25:31 and scored 841 points averaging a pace of 5:08 per mile on a gravelly, hilly, tough course. He simply dominated from start to finish. It was his third consecutive Series win after nailing good races at Mill Bay and Cedar. He beat second place finisher, Travis Chater, by 1 minute, 44 seconds and clipped third place Nanaimo mate, David Matte, by 1 minute, 53 seconds. With a good run at Bazan Bay, Steve is poised to win his fourth Island Series title within the last five years. Simply outstanding longevity and consistant first place finishes in over 30 races during that remarkable span.
February 28, 2005
Marcia Stromsmoe, Sandra Bastedo, Maurice Tarrant and Jim Sargent
Marcia Stromsmoe beat the course record for her age class by 23 seconds but was second to Mary Ann Hartley who broke the record by 1:22. Both are outstanding ladies who had excellent runs in the F55 division. Marcia was the 33rd Harrier out of 80 to finish and she was 148th of 447 overall finsihers with a super time of 36:48 earning her 661 points. A group of three Harriers all took minutes off course records today. The famous threesome consisted of Sandra Bastedo (F60), Maurice Tarrant (M75) and Jim Sargent M80). Sandra took 2:23 off the old course record with her time of 36:49. The old record was set in 2004 by Cheryl Wood. Sandra finished 149th overall and earned 660 points for her effort. Maurice took 2:22 off the course record with his time of 37:59. The old record was held by Henry Kennedy set in 1999. Jim broke his own course record of 50:00, set in 2004, by 2:39 with his time of 47:21. Outstanding work by these four very tallented master athletes!!
February 21, 2005
Steve Wilson
Steve was the only PIH rep that ran the low key Victoria Track and Field Club Cross Country Challenge held at Beaver Lake on Sunday. He ended up 4th in his age category after doing a little more than the course offered. The plan was to do 8.3km. Steve figured he did 8.5km after going off course by missing the small loop near the end of the route. A young girl passed him and pointed him back the right way. He was treated to a bunch of ankle deep mud bogs! Yeah!!
February 21, 2005
Leah Pells, Richard Lee, Joan McGrath and Jack Miller
All four ran the "First Half" Half last Sunday in Vancouver. Richard was 10th overall with his time of 1:14:11. He was 2nd in his age class M40-44. Leah was the top female with her time of 1:15:25. She was 14th overall and was top master female in the race. Joan ran a fabulous time of 1:19:52. She was 38th overall and 6th female. She was 2nd in her age category F40-44. Jack ran 1:20:57, was 1st in the M55-59 category and 47th overall.
February 14, 2005
Steve Osaduik, Meghan Day, Kevin Searle, Karen Lawless and Robbie Cracknell
Steve stole the show with his first place finish at the Cedar 12k race on Sunday. His time was 37:56. Meghan churned out a gutsy run with her time of 44:03. She was first in her age category (F30-34), and 21st overall. Kevin Searle and Karen Lawless were our top masters in the race. Kevin ran 44:13, was 23rd overall and placed 4th in his age category. Karen ran 49:23, taking 1:51 off last year's time. She was 3rd master female in the race and first in her age category. Robbie was the top junior in the race and finished in 47:23. He was 46th overall out of the 404 finishers and first in his age category. All received the coveted BBB's.
February 14, 2005
Maurice Tarrant and Jim Sargent
Maurice continues to smash course records and did it again at the Cedar 12k on Sunday. The old record was held by Arthur Taylor and set in 2003 with a time of 1:01:26. Maurice ran 53:45, taking 7:41 off the record. Jim ran a PR with his time of 1:11:59. He took 1:37 off last year's time. Both of these gents are outstanding veterans.
February 14, 2005
Marcia Stromsmoe, Wilf Dreher, Les MacNeill, Mike Emerson and Eileen Carroll
Excellent performances from these 5 Thursday Morning regulars on Sunday at Cedar. Marcia PR'd by 30 seconds with her time of 54:13. Wilf, for the first time ever, cracked the 600 mark (under the old scorng system) with his PR time of 55:50. He took 1:24 off last year's time. Les MacNeill is making big strides with his running. He ran a PR time of 59:30, an improvement of 2:45 over last year's time. Les achieved a point score of 563, the highest since returning to the Series in 2003. Mike Emerson PR'd by 2:51 with his time of 1:02:08. Eileen Carroll ran 2:24 faster this year at Cedar with her time of 1:12:29.
February 14, 2005
Helena Watling
Helena ran the "First Half" Half Marathon in Vancouver on Sunday. Her time was 1:33:22. She was 29th out of 1117 females, and 4th in her age category. Other Harriers running the event included Binder Kelsall, and Hellions Linda Gibson, Marilyn McCrimmon and Marg Melvin.
February 14, 2005
Cheryl Murphy, Claire Townsend, Sandi Heal and Dee Ogden
TNW regulars Cheryl, Claire, Sandi and Dee all had excellent races on Sunday at the Cedar 12k. Cheryl ran 44:44 and improved on her time by 1:08. She finished with her highest point score ever since 1995 - 749 (under the old scoring system). She was third female overall and 1st in her age category. Claire rocked the course today with her PR time of 48:05. She was 6th female overall and 3rd in her age category. She also achieved her highest point score since starting the Series - 697 (under the old scoring system). Sandi PR'd by 7:18 with her time of 51:28. She was 22nd female overall and 7th in her age category. She achieved her highest point score since starting the series - 651 (under the old scoring system). Dee had an excellent run with her time of 53:04. She took 3:47 off last year's time, was 26th female overall, and 4th in her age category (her highest placing ever).
February 14, 2005
Buddy Bhandar, Karl Benn and Graeme Benn
Buddy had an excellent run on Sunday. He PR'd with his time of 48:51, taking 1:12 off last year's time. Buddy received his first bronze medal since starting the Series in 2000. Father and son, Karl and Graeme, both PR'd at the race. Karl took 1:03 and Graeme took 1:51 off last year's times. Graeme was 2nd in his age category, M16-19, and cracked the 700 mark for the first time (under the old scoring system).
February 7, 2005
Lindsay Pellow & Carlos Castillo
Lindsay ran the Brass Monkey 52km event in Powell River this weekend around Inland Lake (a.k.a. Loon Lake) with Harriers Carlos Castillo, Rob Smith, and Dan Fraser. Her longest race to date had been 50k. She was the only female finisher in the race and placed 3rd overall out of 7. When she ran the E/B 50k in May 2004, her time was 4:46:23. She ran the 52k yesterday in 4:41:00!!! That would put her in a position to run the 50k in 4:30:12. She increased her pace from 9:13/mile to 8:42/mile. She ran consistently with her 13k splits at 1:08:50, 1:11:25, 1:10:10, and 1:10:35. She finished only 9:45 behind 2nd place finisher Carlos Castillo. Carlos finished in a time of 4:31:15 and had lap splits of 1:06:30, 1:09:32, 1:10:13, and 1:05! Whooooooooo!
January 31, 2005
Steve Osaduik, Meghan Day and Joan McGrath
Mill Bay 10K - Overall victories. Steve ran a fabulous time of 31:00, claiming 1st place overall. He was first in his age category of M25-29 and claimed the BBB's for top male Harrier. Meghan Day ran an amazing time of 35:19. She claimed 1st female and 25th overall, 1st in her age category F30-34, and the coveted BBB's for top female Harrier. Joan McGrath, a new Harrier, claimed top Master female in the Mill Bay 10k with her time of 36:52. She was 4th female, second Harrier female, and 39th overall. Joan was the 2003 female winner of the Royal Victoria Marathon and placed 2nd overall, top master, in both 2002 and 2004.
January 31, 2005
Robbie Cracknell, Karen Lawless, Dee Ogden and Sandi Heal
Mill Bay 10K - Significant PR's. Robbie had a HUGE PR with his time of 36:44 and hit a high point score of 750. He beat last year's time by 1:57, and also beat his PR time set at the 2004 TC10K by 44 seconds. He was 1st in his age category M01-15 and rocketted to 34th overall. He came blazing in to the finish line following Rob Reid and Michael Lord. Karen ran a BIG PR with her time of 39:52. She broke her best Series time of 40:03 set in 2000 at the Port Alberni Paper Chase 10k and lowered her all-time P.B. set 5 years ago at the TC10K by 3 seconds. She was 1st in her age category F45-49, crossing the line with John Catterall. She was 14th female, 3rd master finisher behind Joan McGrath and Nancy Baxendale and 89th overall. Dee ran a HUMUNGOUS PR time of 43:39, shaving 1:26 off her 2004 TC10K time of 45:05! She was on cloud-nine after she passed through the finish chute. Dee was 7th in her age category F35-39 and achieved her highest point score of 631 since starting the Series in 2003. Sandi smashed her 10K PB set at the 1991 TC 10k by 33 seconds and improved on her 2004 Mill Bay time by 2:43. She was 25th female and 147th overall, claiming 6th place in her age category F30-34. Dee and Sandi also showed huge improvements at the Pioneer 8K and have become regular training partners on Sundays.
January 31, 2005
Rob Reid and Dave Younger
Mill Bay 10K - Rob finished 1st and Dave finished 3rd in their first ever Series race as 50 year olds. Rob's time was 36:39, good for 32nd overall. Dave's time was 38:30 good for 59th overall. Dave hasn't run an Island Series race since 1995! Back then, he was running for the Harriers. Dave ran 32:29 in the 1991 TC10K when he was in the M35-39 category. He placed 1st in his age category M40-44 for the 7 Island Series races that he ran in 1994. He ran on the 1998 Island Road Relay Team: PIH – Hermanators and on the 1998 & 1999 H2H team: PIH Master Blasters. Dave won the Gunner Shaw Most Valuable Runner of the Year award in 1991 and 1994. Rob won it in 1996. Rob Reid has won 3 series races outright; the 1988 Victoria 1/2 Marathon, 1993 Cedar 15K, and the 1996 Dallas Road Dash 10K. Rob even ran on Dave's 1998 H2H Team. They were 4th overall that year. Dave has run on many successful master men's PIH teams and was a regular and a leader with the lunch bunch at the YMCA for the noon runs for 6 or 7 years.
January 31, 2005
Maurice Tarrant
Mill Bay 10K - Maurice set a new Canadian age class record with his time of 43:47. The previous mark was set by 44:33 Kurt Gelbhaar on Nov. 1st, 1998 in Hamilton, ON. Maurice was 1st in his age category M75-79 and 187th overall. Maurice received a standing ovation during the awards ceremony for his achievement. He shaved 46 seconds off the record!!
January 23, 2005
Rob Reid and Garfield Saunders
Rob celebrated his 50th birthday amongst family and friends at the Laurel Point Inn on Saturday night. Many roasted Rob with words of inspiration, gratitude, and humor. There were about 200 at the party and the live auction raised over $4,000 which was donated to the Asian Relief Fund. Among the memorabilia items were a 100th Anniversary Boston Marathon jacket and an original United Kingdom racing singlet worn and signed by Jon Brown in his 2:12:26, fourth place finish at the Olympics in Athens last year. Brown also finished fourth at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, a mere 7 seconds off the podium.
Garfield was only one of two people who ran four Harrier runs in 4 consecutive days this week; Thursday Morning Group, Friday at Mt. Doug, Saturday at Thetis Lake, and Sunday at Eagle Lake/Hartland trails. He has been steadily improving in speed partially due to his attendance at TNW's. Evidence of that improvement began to be seen at last week's Pioneer 8k. He hadn't participated in any Series races in 2 years but pulled off a great effort for a bronze medal in his age division with a time of 36:58. This time was only one second off his 2003 Pioneer time. Look for great things from this guy in 2005!
January 17, 2005
Maurice Tarrant
Maurice beat an all time 8k record for men 75+ with his time at the Pioneer 8k of 35:41. The previous best Canadian 8k time was set in 1993 by Cyril Tobias on Oct 10 in Victoria in a time of 45:06. That’s a difference of almost 10 minutes!! He moved into a new age class this year and was the only one in this group (M75-79) at the Pioneer 8k; he achieved 601 points on race day. Maurice was honoured at the Annual Prairie Inn Harriers awards night in early January with a new perpetual award named after him, the “Maurice Tarrant Male Veteran of the Year Award”.
He still holds records that haven’t been touched yet:
for M55+:
5 km - 16:54 – April 1998 in Victoria /
8 km - 27:49 - Jan 1987 /
15 km - 53:35 - Jan 1988 in Nanaimo /
20 km - 1:12:54 – Mar 1989 in Comox
and for M60+:
5 mile - 30:12 – 1993 in Victoria and 20km - 1:15:46 – 1990 in Courtenay.
January 10, 2005
Doug Doyle and Lisa Lynam
Doug and Lisa were the only two hearty souls who braved the deep snow and treacherous road conditions to complete the scheduled mountain run up Mt. Manuel Quimper in the Sooke Hills. They were rewarded with excellent winter running conditions and panoramic views of Greater Victoria and the Olympic Peninsula.
January 3, 2005
Dan Fraser
Dan was the first across the line at 0:00 for the Harriers Memorial Day 10k Predicted Time Run on New Year's Day. Perfectly paced, Dan was followed by Lindsay's dad, Bruce Pellow, who was runner-up to Dan at the clock. Dan is a resilient guy who loves to run. He is a regular at TNW's and Saturday morning Thetis/Prior Lake runs.
January 3, 2005
Claire Townsend and Gary Duncan
For the second year in a row Claire and Gary ran an incredible "Quadzilla" - four races in 18 hours. They started with the Run Through Time 5k on New Year's eve at UVic where both ran 19 minutes. Then on New Year's Day they ran the Running Room Resolution 8.4k Run at 8:30 a.m., the Harriers Memorial Predicted Time 10k Run at 10:00 a.m. and the YMCA New Year's Day 10k Run at noon. Claire was first overall at the YMCA run after running a PR the night before at the Run Through Time! That's a total of about 35k for each of them.
