Previous Years

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2016

December 26, 2016
Sean Finucane and Shane Ruljancich

Sean emerged as the race handicap time winner while Shane ran the fastest time of the day at the 18th annual Harriers Boxing Day 10-Mile Handicap which attracted 21 registrations and 15 finishers from the Prairie Inn Neighbourhood Pub in Central Saanich today.  Sean ran the 10 mile course in 1:19:04 and Shane covered the same distance in 1:03:43.  The top female was Marcia Stromsmoe in 1:35:31; she finished in 8th position in the handicap-time section and 12th overall in the actual-time section.  There were 13 finishers in the 10 Mile race and an additional 2 finishers in the 5 Mile race won by Martine Janicki in 45:51.

December 10, 2016
Brett Carter, Patricia Roney, Andrew Gregg and Sonja Yli-Kahila

Brett and Patricia were the top male and female Harriers today in the 13th annual Stewart Mountain 10 Mile Cross Country Challenge while Andrew and Sonja were the top Harriers in the accompanying 5 Mile race by finishing 6th and 7th overall of 48 finishers in 43:48 and 44:01.  Sonja was also the second female in the event.  The 5 Mile champions were Tyler Denniston in 36:48 and Jennifer Cameron; she was 4th overall in 43:17.  Brett finished 4th overall in a strong 10 Mile field in 58:36 while Patricia was the first female and finished 15th overall of 121 finishers in 1:10:58.  The 10 Mile race champion was Andrew Russell in 58:03.  Several other Harriers performed well by finishing in the top 3 in their respective age categories.  In the 10 Mile race Shane Ruljancich was 1st M40 in 1:00:03, Andrew Pape-Salmon was 3rd M40 in 1:08:56, Gary Duncan was 2nd M50 in 1:14:47, Megan Stothers was 1st F40 in 1:17:11, Charlene Waldner was 3rd F40 in 1:27:24, and Alan Cook was 3rd M60 in 1:33:27.  In the 5 Mile race Becky Kendrick, 53:18, was 2nd F20 by finishing 32 seconds ahead of her mom, Wendy Davies, 53:50, who was 1st F50 and the husband and wife team of Peggy and Eric Sherwood were 2nd and 3rd in the F60 and M60 age divisions in 1:10:11 and 1:10:31.  A big shout out goes to Gary for managing the registration including merging databases from two different online registration companies as well as managing the race package pick-up and shirt distribution at Phil's store, 2:18Run, on Friday night and to Elaine and Andrew Galbraith for marking the course in 6" of fresh snow on Friday morning and managing the loyal team of route marshals to keep everyone on course during the event.  The inclement weather and slushy conditions today saw 52 DNSs with a total of 169 finishers compared to last year's mark of 194 finishers in the pouring rain.

December 3, 2016
Leona Wade

Leona was the lone Harrier to make the trip to Vancouver to participate in the 33rd annual Gunner Shaw Cross Country race at Jericho Park hosted by Lions Gate Road Runners today.  She had a good race by placing 72nd overall of 129 finishers and was second in the F35 age category with a time of 50:20.  Unfortunately, due to the low club turnout, Lions Gate swept all three categories of the Inter-club Challenge with the Harriers.  The event experienced some last minute difficulties as the Vancouver Police would not allow organizers to use the standard race course and the Jericho Sailing Centre was not available for registration, food, awards, and shower facilities.  Lions Gate volunteers quickly marked a new route in the morning and were still able to get the race going under trying conditions for the event director and all of the marshals.  There were a total of 178 finishers including 129 in the 10K and 49 in the accompanying 5K.  The 10K race winners were Tom Ekstrand, in 35:24, and Nelly Amenyogbe; she was 13th overall in 40:15.  The 5K winners were Ben Paetzel, in 17:51, and Olivia Willett; she was 4th overall in 18:47.

December 3, 2016
Natasha Wodak

Natasha won the Barbados Half Marathon this morning a mere 12 hours after finishing third by a fraction of a second in a 10K photo finish with Tonya Nero, of Trinidad and Tobago and Lanni Marchant, Canada's top marathoner.  Their 10K times were 36:36.  In the accompanying Half Marathon Natasha reversed the tables with a Tasha-Tonya-Lanni 1-2-3 finish in 1:25:27, 1:25:36 and 1:26:09.  Julius Koskei won the Half Marathon in 1:12:37.  The 10K champion was Jean Habararema in 31:28 and he followed his 10K victory the next day by winning the Barbados Marathon in 2:36:14.  There were 344 finishers in the Half Marathon and 294 in the 10K.  Barbados Race Weekend also had a 5K and a one mile race for a total of approximately 1,300 finishers in the 5 events.

November 26, 2016
Meghan Stothers, Andrew Pape-Salmon and Gary Duncan

Meghan and Andrew emerged as the top masters today while Garry topped the veteran's division at the 32nd annual Gunner Shaw Cross Country Classic run on the muddy, rooty and rocky trails of Thetis Lake Park.  Andrew was 11th overall of 201 finishers in 40:52, Gary was 27th in 44:25 and Meghan, running her first race as a Harrier, was 41st in 47:04.  Other club members reaching the podium were Brett Carter, second M30 in 37:07, and Joseph Camilleri, second M60 in 51:55.  The first three men in the race were Shaun Stephens-Whale, a member of the Canadian Mountain Running Team with a winning time of 34:50, Andrew Russell, an accomplished triathlete, placed second in 35:11, and Hamish Babin, the top junior in the event, was third in 36:23.  The first three women were Elsabet Lapointe, 20th OA in 43:16, Lindsey Chamberlain, 23rd in 43:42, and Julia Tschanz, 28th in 44:36.  Lions Gate Road Runners brought nine club members to the race with former Victorian and former Harrier, Andre Gerard, winning the M60 age category by placing 63rd in 51:10.  Andre was Gunner Shaw's closest training partner and wrote a fitting tribute to Gunner when we lost him in a car accident in 1984.  You can read Andre's story here   http://pih.bc.ca/race/2-uncategorised/52-gunner-shaw-the-man In the 32 years of the event, proceeds of more than $320,000 have been contributed to Harriers Foundation projects including several scholarships, bursaries, athletes' travel, youth programs, medical research and charitable community initiatives.

November 26, 2016
Tyler Dozzi

After impressive victories at the BC Cross Country Championships in Nanaimo and at the BC High School Cross Country Championships in Kelowna earlier this month, Tyler capped off a tremendous November by claiming a Canadian Cross Country Championship title in Kingston, ON, today by defeating 211 Youth boys, 15, 16 and 17 years old, with a winning time of 18:50.  Second and third places went to two Ontario runners with Josua Desouza placing second in 18:59 and Max Turek taking third in 19:06.  Team Ontario placed first and Team BC was second in the inter-provincial Youth competition.  Tyler's team mates, Angus Brown, 28th in 19:42, and Kalum Delaney, 34th in 19:46, also ran great races.  The Senior Men's champion was Ross Proudfoot while Sasha Gollish was the Senior Women's champion.  Vancouver athletes Lucas Bruchet and Rachel Cliff, both placed second in the senior division.  Vancouver's Jerry Ziak won the master's 8K in 25:47, followed by former Harrier, Graham Cocksedge, in 26:06.  Last year's champion, Craig Odermatt, was second M45 and placed 6th overall of 173 finishers in 27:35.  The women ran in the same race and the first over-40 master also topped the F50 division with Liz Maguire finishing 68th overall in a very deep and competitive field; her time was 31:20.  There were a total of 953 finishers in Youth, Junior, Senior, Master and Community Divisions at the National Championships in Kingston today.

November 19, 2016
Natasha Wodak and Liam Stanley

Natasha was named the Senior Female Road Runner of the Year and Liam was named the Para-Athletics Athlete of the Year at the annual BC Athletics Award Ceremony held in Richmond tonight.  Natasha was also nominated for Senior Female Track and Field Athlete of the Year for her Canadian 10,000 metre best time of 31:53 for 2016 where she is ranked #1 in B.C., #1 in Canada and #48 in the World.  She also ran an excellent 10,000 metre race at the Olympics at Rio de Janeiro.  Her road race 10K time of 33:51 ranked her #1 in B.C. and #2 in Canada for 2016 and her 8K road time of 25:58 ranked her #1 in both B.C. and Canada.  Liam also participated in the Rio Para-Olympics where he came home with a silver medal in the 1,500 metre event.  This year he set Canadian Records for both 1,500m and 800m distances with times of 4:13.51 and 2:03.19.  His times also ranked Liam second in the World in the T37 Division.

November 19, 2016
Jim Finlayson, Patricia Roney and Shane Ruljancich

Jim and Patricia were the race champions at the 11th annual Bear Mountain 10K today while Shane won the accompanying Half Marathon on the concrete pathways of Bear Mountain Golf Resort.  The 10K course has earned the notoriety as "Canada's Most Challenging 10K" because of three distinct hills on the course, which have been named Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear, as well as the many rolling hills throughout the rest of the run. Participants also run across bridges, past a waterfall and, at one point, go through a 30 metre long tunnel before finishing next to the fountain in front of the Westin Bear Mountain Resort.  The popular 10K distance attracted 363 finishers and the Half Marathon had 46 finishers plus 2 Half Marathon teams.  The first three men in the 10K were Jim Finlayson, 36:15, Matthew Thompson, 36:30, and Theo Jankowski, 38:27, while the first three women were Patricia Roney, 10th OA in 41:34, Elsabet Lapointe, 15th in 43:31, and Lauren Welgush, 17th in 44:26.  Harriers' Rob Reid finished 30th in 47:03 to win the M60 age category.  Shane's winning time in the Half Marathon was 1:24:25 followed by Felipe Eldora, 1:26:40, and Tatsuya Hatachi, 1:29:13.  The first three women were Ruby Walser, Dianne Dennis and Brittany Carey finishing 8th, 10th and 13th in 1:42:58, 1:46:16 and 1:49:00.  The total of 417 finishers today was 6 more than last year's mark of 411.

November 11, 2016
Bruce Deacon and Kalum Delaney

Coach Bruce Deacon registered 8 teams from his Harriers Youth Training Program and they completely dominated the 20th annual Thetis Lake 20K Relay on the trails of Thetis Lake Park today, Remembrance Day.  The Junior Mixed team named The Young and the Breathless finished 1st in the Under-20 division in 1:17:24, the Junior Women's team, The Harriettes, finished 1st in their division in 1:18:36, the Junior Men's teams finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in their division with the winning team of The Best Pace Scenario taking the overall race championship title in 1:04:00.  Second overall of the 98 finishing 4-person teams was The Perfect Puppers in 1:04:12 while the other Junior Men's teams, Meme Team and Thetis Thunder, were 4th and 5th overall in 1:07:25 and 1:07:43.  Only one Senior Men's team, Frontrunners Athletic Club, put a blemish in a clean sweep of the Junior Men's Harriers teams as Frontrunners finished 3rd overall in 1:06:43.  Bruce also ran on a Family Team and his team of Thetis Can't Defeat Us finished 1st of 13 Family Teams in 1:14:20.  The individual runner-of-the day had to be Kalum Delaney for the unique accomplishment of him defeating his own team!  Kalum ran Stage 1 for The Perfect Puppers and they continued to lead the race until the final stage.  Kalum then switched teams and ran Stage 4 for the Best Pace Scenario.  He passed his Perfect Puppers team mate to claim the race victory for the Scenario.  Kalum's 5K stage times of 15:02 and 15:51 were perhaps the event's fastest of the 350+ runners today.  The host club registered 23 Prairie Inn Harriers teams in various Junior, Senior, Master, Veteran, Family and Solo divisions and achieved victories in their respective age divisions by winning 8 of the 18 race categories.  As usual, there were some very unique and colourful team names in the event including Supercalirunningliciousexpialadocious, The Young and the Breathless, The Old and the Restless, Mud, Sweat and Mental-Pause, Relay Tight Genes, Scrambled Legs and Achin' and Premature Acceleration.  A race report and photo album can be found here http://victoriasportsnews.com/youth-served-at-20th-annual-thetis-lake-relays/

November 5, 2016
Tyler Dozzi

Tyler continued his string of outstanding cross country victories by dominating the field to claim his third consecutive championship title within the past 10 days.  Last Saturday he won the BC Cross Country Youth Championship in Nanaimo and three days earlier he won the Vancouver Island High School Boys Championship at Beaver Lake.  Today, he demolished the 222 finishers at the BC High School Cross Country Championships in Kelowna with a winning time of 24:23.  Second place went to Thomas Nobbs, of Point Grey, in 24:56, and third place went to Roberto Playo-Mazzone, of St. George's, in 25:06.  The Harriers Youth Team placed 3 runners in the top ten with Kalum Delaney finishing 8th and Angus Brown finishing 10th.  Others running well in the Senior Boy's race were Vlad Lyesin, 17th, Matthew Thibodeau, 19th, Malcolm Harrison, 27th, Jack Stanley, 29th, Jack Cooper, 31st, Evan Wills, 32nd, Robbie Deacon, 43rd, and JJ Carr-Cannings, 44th.  The winner of the Senior Girls race was Vernon's Hannah Bennison, in 17:50, while her younger sister, Mia Bennison, won the Junior Girls race in 19:04.  Logan McDonald, of Sardis, won the Junior Boys race in 17:09.  Harriers Joe Robertson, 7th, Findlay Day, 9th, Michael Barber, 16th, and Liam Dwyer, 20th, all ran well in the Junior Boys race while Justine Stecko, 6th, Bridget Mateyko, 31st, Chrissa Tromp, 41st, and Bridget Cameron, 42nd, all ran well in the Senior Girls race.  There were 222 Senior Boys, 202 Junior Boys, 223 Senior Girls and 197 Junior Girls for a total of 844 finishers at the BC Championship races in Kelowna today.

October 23, 2016
Gary Duncan

Claiming a gold medal yesterday at the BCXC Championships in Nanaimo, Gary notched another back-to-back M55 gold medal performance today and was the top Harrier in the 10K race at Beaver Lake Park at the 5th and final MEC Series event, the Grand Banana, which also offered races of 5K and Half Marathon.  Gary's time was 41:11 and he placed 13th overall of 230 finishers in the most popular distance of the three races.  The 10K winners were former Harrier, Aaron Holmgren now living in Nanaimo, in 34:48, and Claire Clarke, in 41:30.  The 5K Grand Banana was won by Matthew Winkler, in 17:14, and Olivia Willett, in 19:21.  Leigh Sunderland and Dawn Wilson placed 1-2 in the F55 age category of the 5K to place 27th and 28th overall of 128 finishers.  In the Half Marathon, the race champions were Andrew McCartney, in 1:16:33, and Karen Thibodeau, in 1:28:29.  The top Harrier in the Half was Will Boothman who placed 6th overall of 135 finishers to win the M45 age category and he was the top master.  Joseph Camilleri, M60, and Marcia Stromsmoe, F65, also claimed gold medals in their age divisions.  The total of 493 finishers today was an increase of 158 over last year's mark of 335 and wrapped up a very successful MEC Series which boasted huge increases in virtually every single event this year starting in January at Lochside School and finishing today at Beaver Lake.

October 29, 2016
Tyler Dozzi

For the second consecutive championship race within 3 days of each other, 17 year-old Tyler won the BC Championships in the Youth Division where his time of 16:43 for 6 kilometres easily topped the field of 54 finishers today at Beban Park in Namaimo.  On Wednesday Tyler won the Vancouver Island Championship for Senior High School boys with a margin of victory of just over one minute.  Today's win was by 36 seconds which is very decisive in a top calibre field of young athletes.  The BC Cross Country Championships were comprised of 10 different races attracting 489 finishers from 9 and 10 year-olds through Midget, Youth  Junior, Senior and Master age categories.  The feature races were Race 4 which included Junior, Senior and Master Women running 6K and Race 5 which included Junior, Senior and Master Men running 8K.  Several Harriers reached the podium in their respective divisions with Craig Odermatt, M45, Gary Duncan, M55, Wendy Davies, F55, and Tyler Dozzi, M17, all claiming gold medals.  Silver medals were achieved by Bruce Deacon, M50, Gord Christie, M55, Liam Dwyer, M14, and Christine Thate, F55.  The Junior, Senior and Master men's champions were Nickolas Colyn, 25:00, Ross Proudfoot, 24:10, and Jerry Ziak, 25:39, while the Junior, Senior and Master women's champions were Hannah Bennison, 20:59, Lisa Brooking, 20:17, and Darcie Montgomery, 24:44.  The Harriers Youth Team rented a bus and transported 26 athletes, 2 coaches and several parents to and from Nanaimo in a very successful team-building experience.  All Youth Team members ran well today against some of the best runners in the province.

October 26, 2016
Tyler Dozzi, Joe Robertson, Alisa Lyesina and Justine Stecko

The PIH Youth Team, coached by Bruce Deacon, was out in full force today at the Vancouver Island Cross Country Championships at Beaver Lake Park in the pouring rain and all 27 Youth Team Harriers ran extremely well.  There were 4 different races with Junior Boys, Junior Girls and Senior Girls all running 4.5K and Senior Boys running 6.7K with each athlete representing their respective school.  The two boy's races were particularly exciting with PIH athletes finishing 1-2-3 in both races.  Even more impressive, of 93 finishers, Harriers boasted 8 of the top 10 Senior Boys finishers, 6 of the top 10 of 90 Junior Boys finishers, 3 of the top 10 of 98 Senior Girls finishers and 1st and 3rd overall of the 90 Junior Girls finishers.  Tyler Dozzi, Oak Bay, won the Senior Boys race in 22:01, followed by PIH team mates Angus Brown, SLS, in 22:04, and Kalem Delaney, Reynolds, in 22:08.  Joe Robertson, Oak Bay, won the Junior Boys race in 14:42, followed by PIH team mates Liam Dwyer, Mount Douglas, in 14:51, and Findlay Day, Oak Bay, in 15:02.  Alisa Lyesina, Oak Bay, won the Junior Girls race in 17:15 and Harriers team mate and new member, Danielle Leipoldt, Pacific Christian, placed third overall in 17:41.  In the Senior Girls race, the winner was Nanaimo's Desirae Ridenour, CSS, for the third consecutive year in 15:41.  Harriers' Justine Stecko, Oak Bay, fought a courageous battle to finish second overall in 16:03 and her team mates Bridget Cameron, Ecole Victor-Brodeur, and Bridget Mateyko, Saint Andrews, finished 6th and 8th overall in 17:43 and 17:51.

October 23, 2016
Gary Duncan and Sandy Mullen

In an extremely strong master men's field where 11 of the top 12 male finishers were in the M40, M50 or M60 age categories, Gary was our top Harrier and finished 5th overall in 1:29:37 while Sandy was our top female Harrier in 1:44:55 to win the F50 division and place 16th overall of the 64 finishers today at the Cowichan Autumn Classic Half Marathon in Duncan.  The first three men were Victoria's Chad Johnston with a winning time of 1:26:23, followed by Jude Farmer, from Pender Island, in 1:28:50, and former Harrier Roger Plamondon, of Chemainus, was third in 1:29:15.  The first three women were Kaley Strachan, Malahat, 7th OA in 1:35:39, Janelle Williamson, Nanaimo, 10th OA in 1:39:18, and Lisanne Naeth, 11th OA in 1:39:32.  Harriers' Matthias Schoeck had a good race by finishing 8th overall to place 3rd in the M40 division in 1:36:43.  The Cowichan Autumn Classic also offered a 10K race which attracted 209 finishers including 41 men and 168 women.  The shorter race was won by Victoria's Matthew Winkler in 36:23 while the first female was Victoria's Amanda Johnston and she finished 9th overall in 46:00.  Harriers' Christine Thate was 27th F50 in 1:19:53.

October 22, 2016
Andrew Pape-Salmon, Larry Nylen, Patricia Roney and Aoibhe Glynn

The Vancouver Island Trail Running Series wrapped up today with the sixth and final race featuring a new venue on Salt Spring Island starting and finishing at Burgoyne Bay and traveling up and over the summit of Mount Maxwell.  The long course had 122 registrations and 72 finishers and the short course had 101 registrations and 65 finishers.  Andrew collected a bronze medal in the M40 division by finishing in 1:40:58 and Larry collected a bronze medal in the M50 division by finishing in 2:01:03.  The top three men were Mike Haponiuk, 1:28:41, Jonathan Behnke, 1:33:33, and Geoff Large, 1:39:24, and the top three women were Holland Gidney, 1:49:12, Loni Martineau, 1:57:00, and Alex Gillett, 2:00:05.  Other Harriers completing the Burgoyne Bay long course were Charlene Waldner, 9th F40 in 2:26:07, Fiona Peters, 12th F40 in 2:29:30, Valerie Bell, 6th F50 in 2:43:07, and Tammy Miles, 21st F40 in 3:42:42.  New member, Patricia Roney, was the first female and finished 4th overall in 1:11:38 and team mate Aoibhe Glynn (Ee-Fah) was the second female and finished 5th overall in 1:12:58.  The male short course winner was Nanaimo's Shelby Drope in 1:00:10.  Honourable mention for ROTW goes to two Harriers that won their respective age categories with Bertrand Bozek topping the M40 field in 1:13:58 and Paul Birney topping the M60 age category in 1:28:54.  Other Harriers finishing the short course included David Kuitumen, 5th M20 in 1:29:18, Dee Ogden, 5th F40 in 1:43:03, and Kathleen Kane, 4th F60 in 2:44:55.

October 22, 2016
Geoff Martinson

 The Vancouver Rock 'n Roll James Cunningham Seawall 10K, celebrated its 46th year today, featuring a race course along one of Canada’s most scenic runner-friendly routes. Two of the province’s very best runners won the men’s and women’s titles with Rachel Cliff, one of the nation’s fastest 5,000 metre runners, winning the women's race in 35:18, and Harriers' Geoff Martinson, our club's 2015 Most Valuable Runner, winning the men’s race in 30:22.  Both victories were decisive with Rachel winning by almost 3 minutes and Geoff winning by just over a minute.  Christian Gravel was second in 31:34 and John Corbit finished third, two seconds back in 31:36.  Meg Lewis-Schneider was the second female in 38:07 followed by Lucy Browning who placed third in 38:25.  There were 3,071 finishers in the event held in Stanley Park.  On the following day 5,268 finishers ran the Vancouver Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon which celebrated its second year with Turner Wiley, 1:07:55, and Jane Murage, 1:18:06, emerging as race champions.

October 16, 2016
Claire Morgan and Shannon Coutts

Claire and Shannon were the top two masters and placed 4th and 6th overall in the women's field at the inaugural Tripleshot 45K Cross Fondo Cycling Race today traveling through the trails of Bear Mountain Park, Goldstream Park, Thetis Lake Park, Hartland Bike Park, Francis King Park and Goodwin Farm adjacent to Westoby Road.  Their times were 2:32:50 for Claire and 2:49:45 for Shannon.  The top three men on the long course Fondo were Clayton Hiltz, 2:10:25, Curtis Schlossberger, 2:13:40, and Scott Mitchell, 2:13:52, while the first three women finished within 4 seconds of each other and placed 8th, 9th and 10th overall.  Katie Button topped the women's field in 2:25:18, Emilly Johnston placed second in 2:25:22 and Mical Dyck took third in 2:25:22.  In the shorter 20K race, the winners were Kurt Innes in 1:33:06 and Heather Ranson in 1:49:54.  Besides Claire and Shannon, there were 4 other Harriers in the 45K race and all rode very well.  Doug Doyle was 5th M50 in 2:31:51, Bertrand Bozek was 8th M40 in 2:38:54, Rui Batista was 9th M50 in 2:56:15 while riding a single-gear bike and Brent Chan was 20th M40 in 3:32:25.  There were 97 finishers in the 45K and 23 finishers in the 20K for a total of 120.

October 15, 2016
Sandy Auburn

Today was Sandy's Celebration of Life at Sand's Funeral Chapel in Colwood and a very large contingent of family and friends including many Harriers from the present and past were in attendance.  Her life was enjoyed with fond memories, music, art, photographs, a slide show of her life and tributes from family and friends.  We are all better people for letting her come into our lives.  Sandy was a long time Harrier of 30 years since joining the club in 1986.  She left us on August 26, 2016 at the age of 59 after a one and one half year struggle with pancreatic cancer.  Sandy was a very good runner in the Island Race Series, she was a Thetis Lake regular on Saturday mornings and she was a loyal, avid member of the Hellions women's team in many Haney to Harrison and Vancouver Island Road Relays.  The Hellions were always laughing, having fun and were the liveliest team; they were the envy of the hundreds of runners competing in many team events.  Following her years of racing, Sandy turned to volunteering and was an extremely helpful club member at races such as Gunner Shaw, Thetis Lake Relay, Stewart Mountain, Pioneer 8K and the Elk/Beaver Ultras.  You could always count on her to undertake an important job which she did well with no complaints and offered a big smile to everyone.  As a Race Director for 35 years, I will think of Sandy dearly as she never missed helping and running the Gunner Shaw race for 31 consecutive years.  She particularly loved working as part of the Hot Chocolate Crew with one of her best friends, Ken Smythe.  Besides her large and close family, Sandy will be missed many other Harriers including some of her closest running friends, Alana O'Connell, Anita Carter, Marg Melvin, Marilyn McCrimmon, Sandi Berry, Linda Gibson, Bev Marsh, Helena Watling, Cynthia Reid, Leona Winstone, Gloria Green, Pam Smith, Jill Williams and all the rest of her Hellions team mates and their spouses.  A friendship was created in 1986 and it is still flourishing three decades later.  We have Sandy to thank for this as she leaves us with much laughter, a generous heart, wonderful stories and lasting memories while she was a Harrier.

October 15, 2016
Abby Nylen

Abby claimed her second consecutive HHSS victory today at the ninth annual Harriers Hounds 40 Metre Sand Sprint on the main beach of Thetis Lake Park.  She blitzed the race course in 4.84 seconds closely followed by Bebe Reid in 4.94 seconds and Indy Weagant took third place in 5.29 seconds.  Abby wins the Molly Reid Top Dog of the Year Award and joins three other two-time winners of the event including Java Wear (2008 and 2013), Bebe Reid (2010 and 2011) and Roo Kersen (2012 and 2014).  Molly Reid won the race in 2009 and, when she passed away in 2012, the Top Dog Trophy was introduced and dedicated to the race champion in her name.

October 9, 2016
Jim Finlayson and Shane Ruljancich

Jim and Shane were the top two masters finishing 1st and 2nd in the M40 age category of the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Half Marathon today.  Jim was 3rd overall of 2,820 finishers in 1:11:01 and Shane was 6th overall in 1:16:35.  Kenyan Paul Kimugul won the race for the second consecutive year in 1:07:19 and Vancouver's Rob Watson placed 2nd in 1:09:55.  The top three women were Jane Murage, Kenya, in 1:17:25, Maria Zambrano, Calgary, in 1:18:45 and Christine Overbeck-Crawford, Portland, in 1:20:13.  They placed 9th, 15th and 16th overall.  Harriers reaching the podium included Cheryl Nicholls, 3rd F45 in 1:25:55, Kyle Weagant, 3rd M35 in 1:24:37, and Joseph Camilleri, 1st M65 in 1:34:52.  The top three men in the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon were Daniel Kipkoech, recording his third consecutive victory in 2:20:32 followed by Bryan Andrews, Vancouver, in 2:28:59, and James Desalvo, Winthrop, in 2:35:05.  The top three women in the marathon were Sabrina Wilkie, Vancouver, making her debut at this distance and finishing 6th overall in 2:45:54, Eva Vail, Portland, 9th overall in 2:47:31, and Andrea Lee, Black Creek, 24th overall in 2:56:54.  The lone Harrier finisher in the marathon was Peggy Sherwood who finished 2nd in the F65 age category in 6:11:57.  Hat's off to Terry Slater who is the only runner of 54,994 finishers to complete all 37 Victoria Marathons.  He was 504th overall in 4:09:34 to place 7th in the M65 division.  Harriers' Ken Bonner had completed 36 consecutive Victoria Marathons but could not compete today due to and arthritic hip.  He joined the GoodLife Fitness Cycling Team and accompanied the Marathon Champion, Daniel Kipkoech, from start to finish.  This keeps Ken's streak in tact where he will now be a Lead Cyclist for the next 37 years!  The winning team in the new Marathon 5-person Relay event was VanRun in 3:01:00.  There were 21 finishing teams and 1,101 individuals finishing the marathon today.  The combined total of marathon finishers, 1,101, half marathon finishers, 2,820, 8K finishers, 2,294, and Kid's Run finishers, 750, was 6,865.  This was 201 more than last year's mark of 6,664.

October 9, 2016
Tyler Dozzi, Justine Secko and Bruce Deacon

Two members of the PIH Youth Team claimed gold medals in their respective age categories at the GoodLife Fitness 8K Road Race today in perfect running conditions with Tyler finishing 4th overall of 2,294 finishers in 25:31 to win the M16 division and Justine finishing 26th overall in 29:32 to win the F16 division. Coach, Bruce Deacon, was 6th overall in 26:27 to win the M45 division.  Harriers Boy's Youth Team members had a tremendous race finishing first in the team competition as Tyler Dozzi, Jack Stanley, Angus Brown and Vlad Lyesin were 1-2-3-4 in the M16 age category.  The 8K Road Race attracted the most club members and 14 Harriers reached the podium including Tyler Dozzi, 1st M16, Jack Stanley, 2nd M16, Angus Brown, 3rd M16, Bruce Deacon, 1st M45, Craig Odermatt, 2nd M45, Gary Duncan, 1st M50, John Woodall, 1st M80, Bridget Cameron, 2nd F15, Maddie Perry, 3rd F15, Justine Stecko, 1st F16, Julie Van Veelen, 2nd F35, Leigh Sunderland, 3rd F55, Marcia Stromsmoe, 3rd F65 and Maree Kennell, 1st F70.  The top three men in the 8K were Trevor Hofhauer, Calgary, in 24:38, Brandon Laan, London, in 25:16, and Mark Wilkie, Vancouver, in 25:16, while the top three women were Lindsay Carson, of Whitehorse, with her third consecutive GoodLife 8K victory in 27:35 followed by Justine Stecko, Victoria, in 29:32, and Lindsay Drake, Portland, in 29:44.  The 2,294 finishers was 58 less than last year's total of 2,352.

September 30, October 1, and October 2, 2016
Louise Proulx and Chris Hamilton

Louise was the 2nd female and finished 8th overall in 15 hours, 27 minutes and 26 seconds while Chris was 7th male and 9th overall in 15:38:54 of 34 starters and 32 finishers at the grueling 4th annual Intrepid Okanagan Three Stage Cycling Race held in the Penticton/Kelowna/Vernon area on September 30, October 1 and October 2 finishing today.  Riders averaged more than 150 kilometres per day over mountainous terrain and their times for the 3 days were combined to determine their finishing position.  Their team, Prairie Inn Harriers, easily won the Mixed Open Division by 5 hours and 22 minutes over There Go the Macs from Vancouver who finished in 20:50:58.  Louise and Chris also improved their time by an incredible one hour and 12 minutes from their last Intrepid Okanagan race in 2014 which placed them 25th and 26th overall of 65 finishers.  The 2016 race champions were Sam Mottram, from West Vancouver, in 14:22:08, and Surrey's Isabella Bertold; she was 7th overall in 15:21:31.  The Intrepid website boasts an epic three-stage ride with 80 participants, over 400 kilometres of difficult cycling with numerous infinite memories, adventure, camaraderie and inclusiveness.  The three routes are kept secret and only released on the evening before each ride and the total elevation gain is 7,000 metres.  It is not a cheap event to enter with early registration fees of $2,200 per person to late entry fees of $2,450 each.  Registration includes all meals and three nights of accommodation at Predator Ridge Resort where participants are treated to a spa, yoga, golf, a wine tour and a zip line ride.  Care must be taken to zip BEFORE drinking the wine and I am sure that Louise and Chris earned a glass to toast to their performance over the past 3 days against elite riders from Canada, Japan, United States and the United Kingdom.

September 25, 2016
Geoff Martinson

One week after his third place finish at the Provincial 10K Road Race Championship, the Vancouver Eastside 10K, Geoff emerged as race champion of 43 finishers in the Vancouver Spirit Run 8K cross country race held today at Jericho Beach Park in Vancouver.  In a very competitive Senior Men's field the first three finishers were Geoff, 26:47, Ryan Brockerfield, 27:06, and Jeff Archer, 27:31.  Rachel Cliff won the Senior Women's 6K race in 26:47, Charlie Dannatt topped the Senior High School Boy's 5K event in 17:14 and Olivia Willett finished first in the Senior High School Girl's 4K race in 15:25.  The Vancouver Spirit Run featured nine separate races encompassing 302 finishers which other categories included a 4x1K Relay, Junior High School 3K, Elementary School 10-12 2K, Elementary School 5-9 2K and a 1K Family Division.  Jericho Beach Park has also been the venue for many National Cross Country Championship races and is the site for the PIH vs. LGRR inter-club Challenge on the even-numbered years.

September 17, 2016
Geoff Martinson, Natasha Wodak and Craig Odermatt

Geoff was the third male overall in 30:43, Natasha was the third female in 33:42 and Craig was second to Kevin O'Connor in the M45 age category, they placed 22nd and 23rd of 1,843 finishers in 33:52 and 34:08 at the third annual Eastside 10K today under pouring rain and cold conditions.  The event was a BC 10K Championship and was Race #11 of 12 in the BC Super Series.  The 12th BCSS race is the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon on October 9 and the first race was the Harriers Pioneer 8K on January 10. Both male and female Eastside race champions were from Ontario with Olympian Eric Gillis, of Guelph, winning the men's race in 30:16 and London's Leslie Sexton winning the women's race in 33:17.  The second place runners were both from British Columbia and captured the BC Championship 10K Road Race crown.  They were Vancouver's Dayna Pidhoresky in 33:35 and Vancouver's Justin Kent in 30:26.  For Geoff, he has reached a different podium position in each of the three years by finishing 3rd in 2016, 1st in 2015 and 2nd in 2014 with times of 29:32, 30:30 and 30:43.  Natasha won the race last year in 33:03 and Craig was 2nd M45 again last year in 33:52.  There were 982 female and 1,843 male finishers in the championship event which was also one of the Canada Run Series.

September 11, 2016
Matt Priestley and Nikolas Krusekopf

Matt and Nikolas were the top Harriers by finishing 3rd and 14th overall of 133 finishers at the 19th annual Metchosin Days 5K today.  Their times were 19:08 and 22:10 with Matt finishing 2nd in the M30 age category to race champion, Shawn Nelson, and Nikolas winning the Under 12 age category by over a minute ahead of Jaluhca Grooms who finished 22nd in 23:18.  The parents of Nikolas, husband and wife Harriers team of Charles and Frances Krusekopf, finished 3rd in the M50 division in 24:04 and 4th in the F40 division in 25:43.  Other Harriers running well today included Dee Ogden, 3rd F40 in 24:41, Marcia Stromsmoe, 1st F60 in 26:14, Garth Ball, 3rd M60 in 29:07, and Maree Kennell, 2nd F60 in 29:30.  Shawn's winning time was 15:57 and the female race champion, Beth Venables, finished 6th overall in 20:02 to also win the F40 master's title.  The Nelson brothers, with Mark winning for the first 11 years and Shawn winning for the next 5 years, dominated the race until 2014 when a new champion, Jericho O'Connell, broke the tape in 16:20. Shawn regained his position atop the podium with victories last year and this year to increase his winning total to 7 races at Metchosin Days.  I have announced at many local races and the worst fear for an announcer is to mispronounce a finisher's name.  I am certainly glad that I was not announcing at Metchosin today when the 55th person crossed the line!  Her name was Onintsoa Ramananandroniaina.  Other challenging names included Juan Duego Cardona Diaz, Esperanza Salas Strus, Katja Lemermeyer, Cash Vandenboomen and Kian Kavehzad.

September 11, 2016
Liam Stanley

Prairie Inn Harriers Youth Team member and Team Canada member Liam earned a hard fought silver medal at the Paralympics in the T37 class today by finishing second overall in the 1,500 metre race, a mere 4 seconds behind Ireland's gold medalist and world record holder, Michael McKillop.  Their times were 4:12.11 and 4:16.73.  Madjiek Djemai, from Algeria, claimed the bronze by finishing third in 4:20.43.  Liam suffered a stroke at birth and was left with the right side of his body paralyzed.  This has never stopped him from excelling at a variety of sports including basketball, soccer and track and field.  Coach Bruce Deacon, a two-time Olympian in the marathon, made a plan with Liam that if Team Canada did not qualify for soccer, Liam's primary sport, he would focus on athletics and bump up his track training in preparation for Rio de Janeiro.  The switch paid off handsomely in silver.  Liam qualified for the Paralympics by finishing second overall at the Canadian Championships for able-bodied athletes in Edmonton where he ran 4:16.57.  He also ran a stellar P.B. of 4:13.51 at the BC High School Championships in Nanaimo this year.

September 10, 2016
Shane Ruljancich, Andrew Pape-Salmon, Shannon Coutts and Heather Bretschneider

Shane ran a six minute P.B. to place second overall, Andrew was third overall, Shannon was the sixth female and top Harrier in the 28K race while Heather was the fourth female and top Harrier in the 50K race at the third annual Finlayson Arm Ultras today staged on the rugged trails of Goldstream Park, Gowlland Tod Park and Mount Work Park under sunny and hot conditions.  The top runner in the 28K was Vancouver's Cody Callon with a winning time of 2:44:42 to set a new course record by over 14 minutes.  Shane was second to finish and was the top master in 2:53:41 and Andrew followed in third place in 3:12:21.  The first female was also last year's winner, Kaylee Beales; she was sixth overall in 3:27:40.  Shannon was 19th overall of 89 finishers in 4:03:43.  Valerie Bell was first F50 and 22nd overall in 4:11:07.  The 50K race champions were Dean Perez, from Manila, in 5:58:02 setting a new course record, and Vancouver's Darbykai Sandrick winning for a second consecutive year with another new course record of 6:29:53 lowering her previous mark by 25 minutes.  Other Harriers in the 50K included Chris Wille, 28th in 8:28:38, Andrew Barclay, 47th in 9:15:49, Leona Wade, 49th in 9:23:20, and Mark Ritchie, 63rd in 10:43:03.  Former Harrier and a seasoned veteran of over 150 ultras, Moe "The Eagle" Beaulieu, was the final runner to finish the 50K as he finished in 11:59:59 to get under the cut-off point by one second. Moe was also the oldest competitor at age 72.  There were 89 finishers in the 28K and 82 finishers in the 50K for a total of 171.

September 4, 2016
Chris Callendar, Gary Duncan and Binder Kelsall

Chris was the top Harrier in the 15K, Gary topped our club members in the 10K and Binder was first Harrier in the 5K of the MEC Best Getter, Race #4 of 5 in the Series, held today starting on Harbour Road near the old Princess Mary Restaurant and traveling north on the Galloping Goose Regional Trail to Swan Lake and back.  The 15K race champion was Adam Buzinsky with a winning time of 55:18 followed by Chris in second place in 58:55 and Kashi Tanaka took third in 59:28.  The first female was Liz Anjos, she was 8th overall of 94 finishers in 1:02:48.  There were 8 Harriers in the 15K and all of them ran well.  Bill Boothman was 1st M45 in 1:02:32, Jeff Beddoes, 2nd M55 in 1:12:38, Rob Grant, 2nd M60 in 1:12:58, Grace Boothman, 1st F16 in 1:24:06, Shell Harvey, 1:29:14, and Stefan Lehmann, 1:44:07.  There were 110 finishers in the 10K won by Simon Widmann, M20, 39:31, and Julie Tschanz, F25, 39:38, she finished second overall.  Gary was 4th overall and 1st M55 in 40:19.  Other PIH runners in the 10K were Roy Styffe, 1st M50 in 43:11, Joseph Camilleri, 1st M60 in 43:23, and Peggy Sherwood, 4th F60 in 1:24:36.  The 5K race had 151 finishers including 4 Harriers.  The winner was Aaron Ahi, a steeplechaser from Calgary, in 16:23, exactly one minute faster than his winning time from last year.  Binder was also top female for the second straight year by finishing 15th overall in 20:48, she was 1st in the F45 age category.  Barbara Ranney-Graf was 1st F50 in 21:35 and Kathleen Kane was 1st F60 in 39:35.  The total of 355 finishers in the three races was 65 more than last year's mark of 290.

September 4, 2016
Erin Burrett

Erin, F30, repeated as female champion at the Kelowna Wine Country Half Marathon today by finishing 4th overall of 798 individual finishers with a time of 1:16:36.  Last year she was 5th OA in 1:15:43 of 765 finishers to win the women's race.  The top three men were Kelowna's Brad Bickley, M25, 1st in 1:11:13, Scott Jensen, M40, of Calgary, second in 1:15:51 and Oroville's Chad Portwood , M30, third in 1:16:15.  In the women's division, Kelowna's Malindi Elmore, F35, took second place in 1:19:26 for 5th overall and Allison Blackmore, of Calgary, F50,  was third in 1:23:53  Relay teams of 6 runners or 2 runners could also compete with 49 teams finishing comprised of over 280 runners.  The top three teams were the Staggering Brunettes, a female team which finished in 1:42:47, second place team was a men's team called Painted Rock On, in 1:43:23, while another female team, Sour Grapes, took third in 1:45:43.  The 1,092 finishers today including individuals and relay team members was 38 fewer than last year's total of 1,130.  The event which has a limit of 2,400 runners is fairly expensive to register with entry fees of $139 for individuals, $129 for 6-person teams and $199 for 2-person teams.

September 3, 2016
Shane Ruljancich and Sonja Yli-Kahila

Shane was the overall race champion and Sonja was the third female overall after a long lay-off from running to start a family, both were top Harriers, at the inaugural Caledonia Brewery Mount Doug Ascent One Mile Uphill Road Race from the bottom of Churchill Road to the lookout at the summit of Mount Douglas.  Shane finished in 7:32 and Sonja was 10th overall of 26 finishers in 10:34, she was second in the F30 age category.  Second place went to Matthew Winkler in 8:17 while Andre Erlank placed third in 8:45.  On the women's side, the winner was Beth Venables, 5th overall in 9:27.  She was followed by Yana Hempler, first F20 in 10:30, and Sonja claimed third just 4 seconds back.  There were 10 Harriers in the race and all of them reached the podium in their respective age divisions.  Julien Marceau was 4th OA and 1st M30 in 8:55, Gary Duncan was 5th OA and 1st M50 in 9:02, and Brent Scott was 8th OA and 1st M60 in 10:14.  The PIH ladies also collected medals with Dee Ogden placing 1st in the F40 division in 13:15, Christine Thate winning the F50 division in 17:59 and Marcia Stromsmoe, Joanne Cowan and Susan Jones placing 1-2-3 in the F60 division in 14:49, 15:03 and 18:14.  The Mount Doug Ascent Road Race was event #4 of 6 in the Christie-Phoenix Victoria Run Series.  Races 1, 2 and 3 were held on the track, Race 4 was on the road and Races 5 and 6 will be cross country events on the trails of Beaver Lake Park.

August 21, 2016
Garth Campbell and Claire Townsend

On the same day as our club picnic, two high performance Harriers were shining at the 6th annual Ryder Hesjedal Tour de Victoria as they claimed cycling honours by finishing as the top Harriers and both won their respective age categories.  They rode the longest option, the Harbour Air 140K Epic race, with Garth finishing 17th overall of 608 finishers in 4:04:38.  He won the M55 division by 4 seconds over Vancouver's Ken Phillips.  Claire finished 25th overall in 4:04:54 to win the F40 division and she was the second female behind winner, Megan Rathwell, who finished in 4:04:41.  The male champion was Arturo Saurez, from Vancouver, in 3:52:36.  Other Harriers in the Harbour Air 140K Epic were Melanie McQuaid, 2nd F40 and 4th female in 4:16:54 and Julie Van Veelen, 2nd F35 in 4:44:47.  The Trek Legend 90K race was won by Victoria's Kevin Laidman in 2:52:53 and the top female was Colleen Gray-Hewett from North Vancouver; she was 20th overall in 3:18:50.  Harriers' Barry Lycett won the M75 age category by finishing 200th overall in 4:18:08 and there were 415 finishers in the Trek Legend 90K race.  The shortest race was the Christie-Phoenix 45K Challenge from Sidney to Victoria which featured 246 finishers.  The race winners were Vancouver's Jas Fredette in 1:23:33 and the top female was Victoria's Hillerie Denning; she was 6th overall in 1:33:31.  Harriers' Dee Ogden was 2nd F45 in 1:53:11.  With the three different distances there was a total of 1,269 finishers at the Tour de Victoria today.

August 14, 2016
Will Boothman, Jordan Cheung, Sandy Mullen and Leona Wade

Will, M45, Jordan, M16, Sandy, F55, won gold medals in their respective age categories while Leona took a silver in the F35 division at the MEC Sprint Triathlon at Central Saanich today featuring a record number of 121 finishers.  Will was 10th overall in 1:14:08 and recorded the fastest run of 20:05, Jordan was 12th in 1:14:50, Leona was 33rd in 1:21:57 and Sandy was 34th in 1:22:48.  The race winners were Alexander Walker in 1:08:44 and Brianna Brandon, 5th OA in 1:10:44.  The second annual sprint event was comprised of a 500 metre swim at the Panorama Leisure Centre, a 20K cycle and a 5K run on the roads of Central Saanich.

August 13, 2016
Andrew Pape-Salmon, Finn Battersby, Gary Duncan and Bertrand Bozek

Andrew, Finn and Gary finished 8th, 9th and 10th overall of 76 finishers on the 14K long course today at the Mount Washington Ascent, Race #5 of 6 in the Vancouver Island Trail Running Series.  Their times were 1:33:12, 1:35:17 and 1:35:26 where Gary won the M50 division, Finn won the U19 division and Andrew placed 2nd in the M40 division.  Bertrand was 17th overall of 78 finishers to claim 2nd place in the M40 age division on the 8K short course with a time of 1:08:17.  The race champions were Travis Chater, 1:23:39, and Cheryl Davies, 1:39:29 on the long course, and Edward Cunningham, 51:56, and Patricia Roney, 58:41, on the short course.  Other Harriers running well were Kaitlyn Van Der Werff placing 3rd in the F20 division on the long course in 2:11:20, Dee Ogden, 8th F40 in 1:21:11, and Kathleen Kane, 3rd in the F60 division in 1:59:03, on the short course.  The 228 registrations and 154 finishers were both records for Mount Washington.  The Trail Running Series wraps up on October 22 with the 6th and final race at Burgoyne Bay on Salt Spring Island.

August 12, 2016
Natasha Wodak

On a world stage at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro today, Natasha ran a seasonal best of 31:53.14, just 12 seconds off her P.B. and Canadian Record of 31:41.59 which she set last year in California.  Her time placed her an amazing 22nd of 37 starters in the 10,000 Metre event which was completely dominated by East Africans with Ethiopians placing 1st, 3rd and 8th and Kenyans taking 2nd, 4th and 5th.  Sports broadcasters are claiming that this was the greatest race in Olympic history where the winner slaughtered the world record, set an area record and the rest of the runners established 8 national records and 18 personal best performances.  The winner, Alamz Ayana, ran 29:17.49 to break the previous world mark of 29:31.78.  Her second half split was also substantially below the world record time for the 5,000 metre race.  Vivian Cheruiyot placed second in 29:32.53 and Tirunesh Dibaba was third in 29:42.56.  A big shout out goes to Molly Huddle, who finished 6th overall and set a new American Record of 30:13.17, and also to Natasha's team mate, Lanni Marchant, who finished 25th overall with a season best time of 32:04.21.  Just 46 hours later Lanni ran the marathon in 2:33:08 to place 24th as top Canadian in a huge field of 157 starters and 155 finishers.  The marathon winner was Kenyan Jemina Sumgong in 2:24:04.  Before Natasha left for the Olympics, she and a tattoo done on her wrist saying, "Be Strong".  Today, Lanni and Natasha were both certainly strong as they did Canada proud at the Olympic Games with the best races of their lives!

August 7, 2016
Colleen Auringer

Colleen was the only Harrier to participate at the 5th annual Brickyard Beast 10K Road Race on Gabriola Island today and performed admirably by winning the F49-58 age category in 59:30 to place 29th of 77 finishers; she was 11th of 43 females in the race.  The event featured a new route, an ‘out and back’ loop starting and finishing at the beautiful Gabriola Golf and Country Club.  The dreaded Beast Hill was still included and the race boasts to be one of the toughest 10K road runs in Canada where finishers are referred to as "Beast Slayers".  The winners were Jordan Brietzke, of Victoria, in 36:00, and Melissa Ross, of Errington, in 40:55.  Melissa was third overall this year after winning the race outright last year in 39:27.  Besides finishers from 9 different Vancouver Island cities, it was amazing to look through the results and see that 27 cities were represented from all over the world.  Participants from BC included Vancouver, Burnaby, Chilliwack, Surrey, Summerland, Trail, Prince George and Kelowna while other Canadian participants came from Calgary, AB, Morinville, AB, Toronto, ON, and Elmsdale, NS.  Farther afield visitors joined the 77 finishers from Boston, MA, Rye, NY, Strathmore, Mariland, Askoy, Norway, Gloucester, England. and Bradford England.

August 6, 2016
Bertrand Bozek, Jordan Cheung, Will Boothman and John McManus

Bertrand placed 2nd in the M45 age category and Harriers Youth Team member, Jordan Cheung, placed 3rd in the M16-19 age category in the Sprint Division of the 37th Annual Self-Transcendence Triathlon at Elk Lake today, Canada's longest running triathlon.  Bertrand placed 9th overall in 1:10:08 and Jordan finished in 1:21:14.  The Sprint Division had 111 finishers and the winners were Patrick Howell, 1:01:57, and Nina Daurergne, she was 15th OA in 1:15:25.  Will and John tackled the longer course in the Olympic Division with Will winning the M50 age category in 2:37:41 and John claiming 2nd place in the M60 age category in 2:35:17.  They placed 23rd and 28th overall of the 105 finishers.  The Olympic Distance winners were David Trill, 2:11:40, and Barbara Rober, 2:22:54.  Besides the two triathlon distances, there was a duathlon and two relay events totaling 285 finishers, down 94 from last year's total of 379 finishers.

August 1, 2016
Craig Odermatt

Craig was the top master and placed third overall of 101 finishers at the Nautical Days 4 Miler today with a time of 21:10.  The race champion was CVRR's Derek Vinge in 20:46, followed by Robin Poirier, second in 21:06.  The top three ladies were Carolyn Coffin, 13th overall in 26:16, Natalie Caldwell-Waluk, 20th OA in 27:38, and Fiona McQuillan, top master and 30th OA in 28:31.  The race is hosted by the Comox Valley Road Runners every year on BC Day as part of Comox Nautical Days celebrations.  The event claims the record of being the longest continuously held race in British Columbia and this year was the 47^th continuous year that the race has been held.

July 31, 2016
Natasha Wodak

Natasha placed second overall and was the top female at the Squamish Days 8K Road Race today, Race #10 of the 11-race Lifestages Lower Mainland Road Running Series.  Her time was 25:58, only the second time that she has dipped under 26 minutes and her performance sets her in good standing for a debut at the 10,000 Metre event at the Olympics in Rio on August 12.  The overall winner at Squamish was Tristin Simpson in 25:38 while Stephen Ptucha was third in 28:38, James Newby took fourth in 28:59 and Victoria's Marilyn Arsenault was the top master and placed fifth in 29:46.  The third female was Olivia Willett, F18, she was 13th OA in 31:37.  Harriers Binder Kelsall placed 4th in the F45 division in 33:15.  There were 136 registrations and 122 finishers including 67 women and 55 men.

July 23, 2016
Michael Lax

Michael ran on a M55 men's relay team comprised of three Comox Valley Road Runners and they set a Canadian M55 Record for 800 Metres by posting a time of 10:15.02, the previous National Record was 11:51.12 so they lowered the mark by 46 seconds.  The track meet was staged tonight at UVic's Centennial Stadium and it was Meet #3 of the Christie Phoenix Insurance Victoria Run Series.  The team splits ware Keith Wakelin, 2:34, Wayne Crowe, 2:40, Michael Lax, 2:31, and Danny Keyes, 2:29.  Michael joins Harriers team mates Garth Campbell and Kevin Searle, who set a M50 Canadian 800 Metre Record of 9:24.5 at the VRS track meet on May 13, 2011.  Other Harriers competing tonight were Gary Duncan in the Mile, 3,000 Metres and 400 Metres, Marcia Stromsmoe in the Mile and 3,000 Metres, Chris Callendar in the 800 Metres and Christine Thate in the 3,000 Metres, all of them ran well in their respective heats.  The meet drew 59 participants in 6 different races.

July 16, 2016
Gary Duncan, Valerie Bell and Bertrand Bozek

Gary captured a gold medal in the M50 division and Val collected a silver medal in the F50 division on the long course while Bertrand was the top master winning the M40 division on the short course today at the Ladysmith Holland Creek Gutbuster, Race #4 of 6 in the Vancouver Island Trail Running Series.  Gary finished 13th overall of 113 long course finishers in 1:26:27 and Val was 48th in 1:43:16.  Bertrand placed 6th overall of 106 short course finishers in 44:40.  Will Boothman also reached the podium in the M50 division of the long course by finishing third in 1:30:46.  Larry Nylen and Jeff Beddoes placed 8th and 10th of 15 finishers in the M50 division in 1:37:17 and 1:47:09.  The race champions were Shawn Nelson, 1:11:06, and Kaylee Beales, 1:27:52, on the long course and Cory Ramstead, 42:51, and Lindsey Chamberlain, 43:38, on the short course.  The race saw a large increase in finishers this year with 219 compared to last year's total of 116.

July 16, 2016
Natasha Wodak

Natasha ran a personal best of 4:20.06 for 1,500 metres to place third as some of Canada’s best runners chose Nanaimo’s Rotary Bowl stadium for a star-studded match race.  The men’s and women’s 1,500-metre finals today at the B.C. Athletics Championship Jamboree ended up being a bit of a who’s who of elite runners, with three Olympians and others who were close to making Team Canada.  Olympians Natasha Wodak, Chris Winter and Lucas Bruchet all ran the 1,500m, though they’re going to Rio de Janeiro for different events – Wodak is a 10,000m competitor, Winter runs the 3,000m steeplechase and Bruchet will race the 5,000m.  "We all come together at the 1,500 and we’re able to have a really good race," said Winter. "I don’t think anyone here was taking it too seriously, and that’s not a bad thing, I think everyone was looking for just a good, competitive race and wanted to run hard and it was fun that way.  Winter was fifth in his race, with Bruchet 10th.  Justin Kent won in three minutes, 48.77 seconds, with Cameron Proceviat second and Cole Peterson third.  Former Olympian Jessica Smith won the women’s final in 4:19.71, with Fiona Benson runner-up in 4:19.89.  Wodak placed third in 4:20.06 and enjoyed the opportunity to race against some of her former university teammates. "We would never race each other any other time. They’re 800 girls, I’m a 10K girl. So it was really fun," she said.

July 11, 2016
Natasha Wodak, Geoff Martinson and Liam Stanley

Natasha and Geoff both placed fifth in highly-competitive men's and women's 5,000 metre track races at Foote Field in Edmonton while Liam won the 800 metre Junior Para Ambulatory title as part of the Canadian T&F Championships and Selection Trials for the Rio Olympics and Paralympics.  Natasha's time was 16:23.56 and Geoff's was 14:10.15 while Liam finished in 2:06.23.  The 5,000m winners were Mohammed Ahmed and Andrea Seccafien in 14:00.93 and 16:00.42 and there were 21 finishers in the men's race and 17 finishers in the women's race.  Natasha's Asics team mates Rachel Cliff and Lanni Marchant placed fourth and sixth in 16:10.98 and 16:40.14.  Geoff didn't make the Canadian qualifying time standard to participate in the Olympics but Natasha did for 10,000 metres where she ran to a Canadian Record of 31:41 last year in California.  Liam is on the bubble as to whether he will be selected to the Paralympic Team Canada.  Today, the Canadian Olympic Committee and Athletics Canada named the 65 athletes nominated to represent Team Canada in athletics at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games from August 5 to 21.  The athletes earned their spots at the Canadian Championships and Selection Trials which took place July 7-10 in Edmonton, Alberta.  At Rio, Canada expects to field a team of approximately 315 athletes.  Runners representing Team Canada in the longer events include Reid Coolsaet, Eric Gillis, Krista Duchene and Lanni Marchant in the marathon and Mohammed Ahmed, Natasha Wodak and Lanni Marchant in the 10,000 metre race.  Yes, Lanni is the first women in Canadian history to run both the 10,000 metres and the marathon; the events are a mere 48 hours apart.  Good luck to all Canadian athletes at Rio de Jeneiro next month.

July 3, 2016
Bertrand Bozek, Caleigh Bachop and Cindy Bachop

Bertrand placed second overall and was the top master at the Cowichan Challenge Triathlon today held near the Fuller's Lake area in Chemainus.  His time was 59:46 in the Sprint Division, a little over a minute behind race champion Hugo Van Rooyen who hit the tape in 58:33.  Daughter Caleigh and wife Cindy were in the spotlight today while dad and husband and exceptional runner/cyclist, Steve Bachop, provided encouragement and support at the event.  Caleigh finished 9th overall in 1:13:06 and was first in the F20 age division while Cindy finished 19th overall in 1:19:25 and was first in the F50 age division.  The top female in the Sprint Division was Robyn Zinkan; she was 6th overall in 1:07:49.  The winners of the Main Division were Derek Vinge and former-Harrier, Fawn Whiting.  Their times were 1:49:16 and 1:54:00 which had 62 finishers and there were also 8 teams in the Main Division.  The winners of the Splash Division, comprised of 12 and 13 year-olds, were Gage Zanette and Mya Smith in 11:42 and 13:42.  There was a total of 134 finishers in all four divisions today compared to 188 finishers at the Cowichan Challenge last year.

June 26, 2016
Dan Stefanson and Christine Thate

Dan was the overall race champion in 18:52 and Christine took a silver medal in the F50 age category in 36:28 at the 32nd annual Twilight Shuffle 5K tonight held on Ring Road at the University of Victoria.  The top female was Kylyn Athey; she placed second overall in 20:20. Unfortunately, there was an all-time low number of 34 finishers including 2 Harriers at the event after being hosted on Dallas Road last year and drawing 97 finishers including 20 Harriers recording the second lowest total ever.  In its glory years, the early 2000's, the Twilight Shuffle attracted between 700 and 800 finishers and in excess of 50 Harriers.  Although club member, club sponsor and Race Director, Phil Nicholls, remains optimistic for the 2017 event, I can't see him going to the effort and expense to keep the event alive for a 33rd year with a dwindling interest from the running community.  For the first 30 years the race was staged in Chemainus before moving to Victoria in 2015.  In the final 2014 Chemainus 5K Shuffle, club member, Bruce Deacon, at 48-years-old emerged as the race champion in 16:13.  He was top Harrier, top runner overall and top master.  The following paragraph is a bit of Twilight Shuffle history that I produced in 2014 after the last race held in Chemainus.

"To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the event, Race Director Phil Nicholls, offered many extra special touches for all race participants. An attractive light emerald green race shirt featuring a new eagle graphic was enjoyed by all. Long sleeve, dark forest green logo'd technical shirts were given to race volunteers. Glass mugs etched with the new eagle logo were presented to the first open and first master male and female in the race and all participants received a large water bottle with the race logo, a Rudy pair of socks, a Zoot iPhone case and a Rudy pen. The Twilight Shuffle has a rich history of attracting many top-calibre runners over the 30 years including course record holder, Ryan McKenzie, who ran 14:23 to nip Cam Levins by 3 seconds in 2009. From 1985 to 2007 (for the first 23 years) the out-and-back course was 4 Miles, rather than 5 Kilometres, and Harriers won the event for the first six consecutive years. Phil Nicholls won the 4 Miler in 1985 and 1986 in 21:36 and 20:59, Bob Reid won in 1987, 20:53, Tom Michell won in 1988, 19:53, and Gary Barber won in 1989 and 1990 in 19:49 and 19:28. Jody Ooms and Steve Osauik boast the most Twilight Shuffle victories with 4 while Sheron Chrysler and Lucy Smith also have 4 overall wins on the women's side. Lucy currently holds the 5K course record of 16:49 set in 2009 while Liz Jones set the 4 Mile course record of 21:42 in 1993. In 2002 Kenyan Enok Keeter and Harriers Bruce Deacon finished 1-2 and blistered to a 4 Mile course record of 18:31 and 19:09 with their race pace averaging 4:38 and 4:47 per mile. The highest number of finishers at the Twilight Shuffle is 733 in 2004 while the lowest number of finishers is 141 in 2013.  Over the 30 years of the event Prairie Inn Harriers club members, male and female, have emerged as race champions 31 times with 12 female victories and 19 male victories.  On the master's over-40 side, Nancy Baxendale has won the division 6 times and Kevin Searle has won the division 3 times."

June 26, 2016
Dee Ogden, Gary Duncan and Marcia Stromsmoe

Harriers masters were dominant today at MEC#3 - The Tape Buster held at Royal Roads as Dee was first in the F45 division of the 5K race in 26:51, Gary was first in the M55 division of the 10K race in 42:08 and Marcia was first in the F60 division of the half marathon in 2:01:28.  The 5K had 132 finishers and the race winners were Carlos Lesser in 17:02 and Patricia Roney in 22:28.  The 10K had 160 finishers and the race winners were Theo Jankowski in 38:11 and Allison Fryer in 45:01.  The half marathon had 88 finishers and the race winners were Adam Buzinsky in 1:22:27 and Rachel Thorley in 1:34:35.  The total of 380 finishers was more than double last year's mark of 161 as the popularity of MEC races has increased by leaps and bounds this year.  MEC#1 attracted 482 finishers, MEC#2 had 308 finishers and MEC#3 featured 380 finishers today for a total of 1,170 so far.  The two remaining events are MEC#4 on September 4 and MEC#5 on October 30 and are sure to draw another 600 finishers for a huge record year.

June 26, 2016
Jim Finlayson

Over 6,500 people took part in the 18^th annual Vancouver Scotiabank Half Marathon and 5K today. The event raised more than $860,000 and counting for 81 local charities through the Scotiabank Charity Challenge. This amount is a significant contribution to the $50 million raised nationally in the lifetime of the Scotiabank Charity Challenge since its inception in 2003.  Race day saw momentous victories on a sunny Vancouver morning as runners brought their best to the scenic course, stretching from UBC to Stanley Park. Kenyan-born Kip Kangogo, of Lethbridge, Alberta, owned today’s race, as he has since his Canadian debut in 2009, leading the men’s pack and winning his fifth Scotiabank Vancouver Half Marathon in eight years with a time of 01:07:03. Kenya’s Pius Kipsang Korir followed in second place in 1:04:28, with Kangogo’s fellow Kenyan Canadian, Willy Kimosop in third place for the men’s event with a time of 1:08:11.  Behind the three Kenyans was 46-year-old Harrier Jim Finlayson who finished fourth overall and was top master in 1:10:30.  Second place master, Jerry Ziak, who just turned 40 last weekend, finished sixth overall in 1:10:46.  The female winner was Andriana Nelson, from Boulder, CO; she was 11th overall of 3,481 half marathon finishers.

June 25, 2016
Natasha Wodak and Geoff Martinson

Natasha took second place of 8 finishers in the women's race in 33:29 while Geoff placed 7th of 25 finishers in 30:12 in an extremely deep and talented men's race at the Canadian 10,000 Metre Championships held in Guelph, ON, today as part of the Speed River Inferno Track and Field Meet.  The race champions were Eric Gillis in 29:00 and Rachel Hannah in 33:05.  Natasha currently holds the fastest 10,000m qualify time by establishing a Canadian Record of 31:41 set last year at the Payton Jordan Meet in California and this excellent time has qualified her for the 2016 Olympics in Rio in August.

June 19, 2016
Gary Duncan, Paul Siluch and Richard Hunt

Gary and Paul finished first and second overall to top the M50 age division at the Father's Day 10K today on the trails of the Interurban Technical Park near Camosun College.  Their times were 41:16 and 41:28 and the top female, Jennifer Tough, placed third overall in 46:11, about 5 minutes back of the two leading Harriers.  There were 34 finishers on the long course.  Richard ran the 5K Father's Day race and was second of 6 runners in the M70 age division with a time of 36:04.  The 5K winners were Dave Letkeman, 22:07, and Kelly Brubachen, 25:55, she was 3rd overall of 157 short course finishers.  The event, sponsored by Raymond James, raises money for prostate cancer research.  The 191 finishers today was 75 less than the number of finishers in the 2015 event.

June 19, 2016
Mark Ritchie, Dan Jacklin, Kirsten Arensen and Jordan Cheung

Mark and Dan placed first and third of 26 runners in the M45-54 age category in 38:57 and 39:56 at the Navy 10K in Esquimalt today while Jordan finished second in the M16-24 age category in the accompanying Navy 5K race in 18:42.  Mark was 6th overall of 231 10K finishers and Dan was 11th.  Jordan, a member of the Harriers Youth Team, was 6th overall of 241 5K finishers.  The 10K race winners were Nicholas Lightbody, 35:52, and Sara Kelly, 40:41, she was 14th overall.  Harriers Kirsten Arensen was 34th overall in 44:39, she was first of 22 in the F35-44 age category.  The 5K race winners were Lucas Kenward, 19:26, and Cheryl Lindsay, 21:41.  The total of 472 finishers was down slightly from last year's mark of 536.

June 18, 2016
Chris Brower, Katie Clegg and Kaitlyn Van Der Werff

Chris finished first in the F50 division at the 12th annual Kusam Klimb, a 13.8 mile extreme mountain run today near Sayward. This is a race that climbs 5,000 feet and is billed, "Are You Tough Enough?".  Chris was 60th overall of 487 finishers and was first of 54 in her age category with a time of 3:34:34  Katie was 6th of 75 in the F30 division in 3:39:11 and Kaitlyn had a terrific run finishing 6th of 35 in the F20 division in 3:43:50.  Big sister and big brother, Elaine and Andrew Galbraith, made the trip to northern Vancouver Island with Kaitlyn and finished 193rd and 196th overall in 5:03:16 and 5:03:36.  The race winners were Yann Bernaquez, 2:27:05, and Sandra Jensen, 2:57:12, she was 13th overall.  The 487 finishers today was 42 fewer than last year's record total of 529.

June 12, 2016
Kim Shortreed, Finn Battersby, Gary Duncan and Bertrand Bozek

Kim, M40, Finn, M19, and Gary, M50, all collected gold medals on the long course while Bertrand placed first in the M40 division on the short course at the Western Speedway Gutbuster today, Race No. 3 of 6 in the Vancouver Island Trail Run Series.  The event drew 174 registrations and 115 finishers including 55 finishers on the long course and 60 finishers on the short course.  The long course winners were Shelby Drope, from Bastion Nanaimo, in 37:21, and Lindsey Chamberlain, from Lifesport Victoria, in 43:39; she was 5th overall.  Kim was 4th in 42:27, Finn was 8th in 43:54 and Gary was 12th in 46:09.  Harriers Clay Jackson was 21st, Lisa Fehr was second F40 and 27th OA while Fiona Peters finished 31st and Wendy Davies was 33rd.  The short course winners were Peterson Perrin and Jessica Loughead in 22:30 and 27:23.  Bertrand was 7th OA in 25:03 and Dee Ogden was 5th F40 in 33:11.  Next up in the Series is Holland Creek in Ladysmith, followed by Mount Washington and the final event is a new venue, Burgoyne Bay on Salt Spring Island.

June 12, 2016
Shane Ruljancich and Garth Campbell

Shane was the fastest runner and Garth was the second fastest cyclist of 43 teams in the Subaru Ironman 70.3 Victoria event at Beaver Lake today attracting 1,482 finishers including 567 women and 909 men plus 129 more participants on 43 teams in the relay.  Their swimmer was Heather Sinnott who finished the 1.9K swim in third place in 20:43.  Their team was called Team Tri Hards and they hit the finishers' tape in 4:10:09.  The second team was Nutricia in 4:33:20 and Two Spring Chickens and Some Old Balls placed third in 4:49:10.  Shane ran 21.1 kilometres in 1:17:40 and Garth cycled 90 kilometres in 2:28:44.  The individual winners won an entry into the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Mooloolaba, Australia later this year.  The race champions were Taylor Reid in 3:49:10 and Heather Wurtele in 4:13:06.

June 10, 2016
Craig Odermatt

Apart from the unexpected appearance of a vehicle as the race was about to start, the BlueShore Financial Longest Day 5K Road Race went very much to plan at UBC on Friday evening. It was the 8th race of the BC Super Series.  The forecast thunder showers never materialized. The new course proved to be fast. The race favourites emerged the winners and the post race barbeque and entertainment was as good as ever.  At 46-years-old, Craig continued his remarkable string of performances this year by placing second overall to race winner, Jerry Ziak, running his final race before turning 40 and winning in 15:47. Canadian Masters Cross Country champion, Craig, made the trip over from Victoria to finish second in 16:19 and Kirill Solovyev completed the podium in 16:36.  The race was notable for the performances of masters, or soon to be masters. Catherine Watkins missed her PB by a single second in winning the women's race in 16:55.  Not far behind, Robyn Mildren out-sprinted Sabrina Wilkie for second, clocking 17:19 and 17:20 respectively.  The accompanying 10K race champions were Andy Owens, in 34:52, and Ellen Chappell, in 39:17.  There were 715 finishers in the 5K including 310 men and 405 women and 408 finishers in the 10K including 206 men and 202 women.

June 5, 2016
Cathy Noel

For the fifth consecutive year Cathy directed the very successful Goddess Run today, a ladies-only event with three races offering courses of 5K, 10K and 15K with the 15K race replacing the Half Marathon distance held in the previous four years.  It was a hot and sunny day in Langford as Sophie Mallory emerged as the 5K champion in 23:00, Jessica Loughead won the 10K in 45:09 and Kate Van Buskirk took the 15K victory in 1:01:00.  There were a total of 1,259 finishers including 609 in the 5K, 482 in the 10K and 168 in the 15K.  The event encompasses three days of special touches for the ladies besides the three Sunday races with Friday and Saturday activities at the Westin Bear Mountain Resort.  These include a Race Expo with 28 exhibitors, a popular outdoor Music Concert, Yoga at Sunset, a Speaker's Breakfast, an evening Bathrobe Run and Pearl Putting on the golf course.  More importantly, over the past five years the Goddess Run has raised several hundreds of thousands of dollars in pledges to support its three key charities, the Women's Transition House, KidSport Active Girls and the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre.

June 4, 2016
Gary Duncan and Marcia Stromsmoe

Gary and Marcia both collected three gold medals within their M50 and F60 age categories and placed very well overall in three consecutive track races at Meet #2 of the Christie Phoenix Victoria Run Series tonight at Centennial Stadium.  Running three different distances with only 5 to 10 minutes rest between races, Gary won the 3,000m open race in 11:21 and followed it up with a second place overall in the 1,500m in 5:34 and finally took 8th OA in the 800m event.  Marcia was second female in the 3,000m in 14:59, first female in the 1,500m in 7:07 and placed 13th OA in the 800m race.  There were a total of 69 finishers spread over 8 different races including a blazing fast 3,00m elite race to begin the evening.  Three Vancouverites took the top three spots with Lucas Bruchet winning in 8:05, Theo Hunt placing second in 8:30 and Deon Clifford taking third in 8:30.  Just to prove how fast the first three were running, the Vancouver Island Race Series Champion, Adam O'Meara, was fourth in 9:20.

June 4, 2016
Jim Finlayson and David Jackson

Jim and David completely destroyed their respective fields today at Whistler with convincing victories.  Jim won the Whistler Half Marathon with a 9 minute, 30 second lead over second place Pete Simmon.  Their times were 1:12:12 and 1:21:47.  James Newby finished third in 1:22:31 and the top female was 47-year-old Marilyn Arsenault, also from Victoria; she was 8th overall of 840 finishers with a time of 1:25:40.  Heather Dart was second female; she was over 6 minutes back of Marilyn in 1:31:55.  It was Jim's and Marilyn's second consecutive victory at the Whistler Half.  David topped the field of 168 finishers in the Whistler 5K with a winning time of 15:48.  Second place went to Andy Owens in 17:14 and Chris Bowen placed third in 18:16.  The top 5K female was Katie Engel; she was 5th overall in 19:55.  There was also a 10K race with 481 finishers where females finished first and second overall with Vancouver's Robyn Mildred winning in 39:04 and Victoria's Catrin Jones was runner-up in 40:23.  The top male, Harrison Almrud, was 18-years-old and he finished third in 43:04.  The popular early-summer event attracted 1,489 finishers in the three distances offered today.

May 29, 2016
Chris Callendar, Will Boothman and Rob Reid

Chris finished first overall in the Oak Bay 10K today while Will and Rob were the top Harriers age class runners in the accompanying Oak Bay Half Marathon.  Chris's winning time was 36:55; he was followed by Eric Wilson in second place in 37:48 and Kashi Tanaka took third in 38:30.  Elizabeth Waywell topped the women's 10K field; she was 11th overall in 41:44.  The race winners in the Oak Bay Half Marathon were Jordan Brietzke, 1:16:57, and Andrea Lee, exactly 8 minutes back in 1:24:57, she was 8th overall of 564 finishers.  Will finished 11th overall in 1:27:13 to place 4th in the M40 age category, while Rob was 67th OA and 2nd in the M60 age division in 1:39:31.  John Catterall also had a strong run finishing 31st OA, 5th M50, in 1:33:27.  There were 564 finishers in the Half Marathon, 366 in the 10K and 224 in the Half Marathon Relay for a total of 1,154.  This was 223 more finishers than last year's mark of 931.  The top Relay team of 56 Half Marathon teams was Split Second finishing in 1:16:15 which was 42 seconds ahead of the individual race champion, Jordan Brietzke.

May 28, 2016
Natasha Wodak and Craig Odermatt

Natasha was the second Canadian female to finish and Craig won his age category in Ottawa today as part of Team BC at the Canadian 10K Road Race Championships.  The top three Canadian women were Lanni Marchant, 33:28, Natasha Wodak, 33:51 and Rachel Hannah, 34:36 and they placed 4th, 6th and 7th in a tremendously competitive international field with the top three women representing Kenya and Ethiopia.  Peres Jepchirchir was the top female finishing in 31:29; she was 13th overall of the 10,492 finishers including 6,211 women and 4,281 men.  Craig placed 46th overall in 33:54 to win the M45 age division.  The top three Canadian men were Reid Coolsaet, 30:19, Vancouver's Kevin Friesen, 30:31 and Pier-Olivier Lafamme, 30:45.  They finished 8th, 9th and 10th overall.  The race champion was Mohammed Ziani in 28:37.  The Tamarak Ottawa Race Weekend is one of the largest events in Canada frequently attracting over 50,000 finishers in six different events including a marathon, half marathon, 10K, 5K, 2K and a Kid's Run.

May 28, 2016
Kirsten Ramsay

New member, Kirsten Ramsay, had an impressive debut to trail racing by winning the F19 age category and she showed a respectable placing as 9th female finisher at the Survival of the Fittest 13K in Squamish today.  She finished the rugged trail course in 1:27:41.  Kirsten is a UVic Student and a first-year Harrier joining the club from Lacombe, Alberta.  The Survival of the Fittest 13K race champions were A.J. Ballou, in 1:06:16, and Dawn Hartz; she placed 10th overall in 1:18:38.  The race was hosted by Ridgeline Events and featured over 100 registrations with 81 finishers.  Here is Kirsten's account of her race, "My 13K, 700-metre gain trail race in Garibaldi Park went really well today!  It poured with rain the whole time but it was beautiful; we were on the cycling/hiking trails the whole time.  I surprised myself by finishing in 23rd position out of 99 starters with a time of 1:27.  I was also the ninth female.  I think I am now addicted to trail races as I had an absolute blast and did a lot better than I thought I would!"  Michael Lax runs with Kirsten once a week and offered these comments, "Kirsten is a naturally gifted runner, very strong, and an absolutely delightful person.  What really strikes me about her is her attitude, she once said to me, 'There's no such thing as a bad run.'  This is an amazing observation and statement from a 19-year old!"

May 21, 22, 2016
Larry Nylen, Lisa Cantwell, Valerie Bell and Louise Proulx

Larry and Lisa were the top male and female Harriers in the 50K race while Val and Louise were the top Harriers and placed first and third of 21 women in the F50 division of the 25K race at the Sun Mountain Ultras today near Winthrop, Washington.  Sun Mountain offers four distances including 100K, 50 Miles and 50K on Saturday, then a 25K and and a 1K Kids Run on Sunday.  A total of 10 Harriers made the trip and all of them ran well.  Larry placed 31st overall of 148 finishers in the 50K; he was second of 10 runners in his M50 age category in 5:24:43.  Lisa was 80th OA, fourth of 14 in the F50 category, in 6:19:12.  Other Harriers conquering the 50K were Andrew Barclay, 6:09:36, Chris Hamilton, 6:47:27, Elaine Galbraith, 6:56:49, and Andrew Galbraith, 7:34:53.  Elaine's time was a 23 minute improvement over her last 50K race there in 2014.  Val was 29th overall of 213 finishers in the 25K, 8th female, in 2:22:46.  Louise finished in 2:50:40 to claim F50 bronze while Colleen Auringer placed 6th of 21 in the F50 category in 3:01:50.  The lone Harrier in the 50 Mile race was Kyle Weagant who placed 45th of 86 finishers in 9:14:32.  The race winners were Olin Berger, from Seattle, in the 100K with a time of 8:36:16, Spokane's Benjamin Bucklin in the 50 Mile in 6:26:21, Matt Zuchetto, of Spokane, 3:56:07 in the 50K and Seattle's Keith Laverty, 1:38:47 in the 25K.  There were 546 finishers at Sun Mountain including 59 in the 100K, 86 in the 50 Mile, 148 in the 50K, 213 in the popular 25K and 40 in the Kid's 1K.

May 20, 2016
Natasha Wodak

After suffering through a stress fracture for the past four months with little or no running, Natasha rebounded nicely in California tonight with a breakthrough 5,000 Metre race qualifying her for the Canadian Team at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro this summer.  The meet had men's and women's races of 800m, 1,500m, 5,000m and a 3,000m steeplechase.  Natasha placed 10th overall at the Hoka One One Middle Distance Classic Track Meet in Eagle Rock, CA, with a time of 15:37.  The Olympic Canadian qualifying standard is 15:40 and the women's Olympic Record is 15:24.  The Hoka One One Classic female 5,000m winner was American Andrea Seccafien in 15:17.  Vancouver's Rachel Cliff placed 13th in 15:45 and missed the Canadian standard by 5 seconds.

May 14, 2016
Colin Dignum, Gary Duncan and Marcia Stromsmoe

Colin set a Provincial and a National age class record in the men's 50-54 division at the Victoria Run Series tonight at Centennial Stadium while Gary and Marcia each collected three gold medals at Meet No. 1 of the six-race series which includes three track meets, one Mount Douglas ascent run and two cross country races at Beaver Lake Park.  Colin's 3,000 Metre time of 9:18.80 erased the 9:32.04 M50 B.C. mark of Herb Phillips set set 24 years ago in Bellingham, WA.  Colin also destroyed David Guss's Canadian record, lowering it by 25 seconds as Guss previously set the M50 record of 9:43.03 in Calgary in 2013.  Gary won M50 gold medals in the 800 Metre race, 2nd overall in 2:46, he placed 3rd overall for 1,500 Metres in 5:34, and was 2nd overall for 3,000 Metres in 11:50.  Marcia won the F60 division in the 800 Metre race, 1,500 Metre race and 3,000 Metre race with times of 3:37, 7:07 and 15:19.  The fastest runners of the night were Carlos Lesser, 8:55 for 3,000 Metres, Will Russell, 4:03 for 1,500 Metres, and Matthew Winkler, 1:59 for 800 Metres.  There were a total of 69 finishers in 6 separate races including three 800m events, two 3,000m events and one 1,500m event.

May 7, 2016
Andrew Pape-Salmon, Kim Shortreed (Webb), Heather Afford and Paul Birney

Andrew and Kim were second and third overall and were the top two masters of 122 finishers in the 13K long course, Heather was the top Harrier and collected a gold medal in the short course and Paul won his first silver medal in his first-ever race at the Mt. Tzouhalem Gutbuster in Duncan today, Race No. 2 of the six-event Vancouver Island Trail Running Series.  Andrew finished as runner-up to the long course winner, Shelby Drope, of Nanaimo and Kim was only 21 seconds behind Andrew.  Their times were 1:05:12, 1:13:46 and 1:14:07.  The long course female winner was Cheryl Davies in 1:25:11.  Heather placed 11th overall of 82 finishers in the 7K short course with a time of 45:16.  She won the F30 age category and was second female overall behind race winner Adrienne Hollings who finished 8th overall in 44:33.  The male short course winner was Matthew Winkler in 37:50.  Paul placed second in the M60 division of the short course and was 41st overall in 57:15.  There were 20 Harriers at Mt. Tzouhalem and many of them ran very well.  Besides Andrew's M40 gold, Kim's M40 silver, Heather's F30 gold and Paul's M60 silver medals, six other club members reached the podium in their respective age categories. On the long course, Finn Battersby, M19, and Gary Duncan, M50, claimed silver medals while Londyn Lewis, M19, and Kyle Weagant, M30, took bronze medals.  On the short course Bertrand Bozek, M40, and Lisa Cantwell, F50, both placed third. Narrowly missing the podium in fourth place were Kathleen Birney, F50, Wendy Davies, F50, and Kathleen Kane, F60, while Larry Nylen, M50, and Dee Ogden, F40, both placed fifth in their division.  There were 122 long course finishers today and 82 short course finishers for a total of 204.  This was 76 more than last year's total of 128 and is a good sign that the Trail Running Series is growing in interest level and participation rate.

May 1, 2016
Jim Finlayson and Chris Callendar

For the third consecutive Sunday Jim reached the top of the masters' podium with an excellent performance at the BMO Vancouver Half Marathon today proving that he is one of the very best 40+ runners in Canada.  Against strong opposition he claimed victories at the Sun Run two weeks ago, at the TC10K last weekend and in today's win he was 9th overall of 7,130 finishers in 1:09:43.  Seven of the top ten men were Kenyans.  Chris placed first overall of 1,936 finishers in the accompanying BMO 8K race with a winning time of 28:32.  In the feature event, the 45th annual BMO Vancouver International Marathon, the race champions were Daniel Kipkoech, 2:21:04, and Hirut Guangul, 2:39:52.  There were 4,878 registrations, 3,872 starters and 3,772 finishers in the marathon.  The Half Marathon champions were Paul Kimugul, 1:05:01, and Jane Murage, 1:14:41 and it attracted 8,594 registrations, 7,181 starters and 7,130 finishers.  The 8K champions placed first and second overall with Chris Calendar breaking the tape in 28:32 just over a minute ahead of 40-year-old Lindsay Carswell who finished in 29:38. She not only placed second overall, she was the top open female and top master of all the 40+ men and women in the race. There were 2,302 registrations, 1,950 starters and 1,936 finishers in the 8K.  The Marathon Relay had 99 finishing teams which involved another 500 runners.

April 24, 2016
Jim Finlayson, Craig Odermatt, Lucy Smith and Nancy Baxendale

Today was a day for Harriers master athletes to shine at the 27th annual Times Colonist 10K, Canada's second largest 10K event, and shine they did!  From the M40 to the M85 age categories, the club boasted 10 podium finishes including 6 gold medals, 3 silver medals and 1 bronze medal.  Jim, Craig, Lucy and Nancy not only won their categories, they completely destroyed the opposition in their respective age divisions.  Jim finished 11th overall of 7,122 finishers in 32:07 to win the M40 category by 1 minute and 15 seconds while Craig topped the M45 category by over 2 minutes with a time of 33:43 to place 23rd overall.  Nancy finished 111th overall in 39:34 to win the F50 division by 4 and a half minutes while Lucy had a remarkable race finishing 44th overall in 35:59 to win the F45 category by an astonishing 7 minutes.  In races where a few seconds are the norm between first and second place, these lop-sided wins are almost unheard of in local high participation events.  In today's race only 6 seconds separated the top two men, Daniel Kipkoech and Christopher Cheruiyot, who finished in 29:42 and 29:48, while only 2 seconds separated the top two women, Jane Murage and Emily Setlak, who finished in 33:45 and 33:47 to place 24th and 25th overall.  Seven of the top ten men were Kenyans and Jane, also a Kenyan, won the TC10K for her fourth consecutive year.  Other Harriers masters that ran well to place in the top three in their age categories were Brent Scott, 1st M60, Maurice Tarrant, 1st M85, Gary Duncan, 2nd M55, Rob Reid, 2nd M60, John Woodall, 2nd M80, and John Catterall, 3rd M55. The Harriers Race Walking Team also claimed five medals in the Competitive Walk with Kathleen Kane, F60, and P.E. Rodriguez Ruah, F40, collecting gold medals, Anna Fodchuk, F55, winning a silver medal and bronze medals were won by Kathryn Cook, F55, and John Gray, M75. There were 9,474 registrations and 8,207 finishers today for a finishing percentage rate of 87%.  This included 7,122 finishers in the 10K Run and Walk, 52 in the Nordic Pole Walk, 91 in the Competitive Race Walk, 936 in the Kid's 1.5K Family Run, 3 in the Visually Impaired Run and 3 in the Wheelchair Division won by Michelle Stillwell in 33:22. The 8,207 finishers was 27 more than last year's mark of 8,180 but well shy of the overall record of 10,616 finishers established in 2010.

April 24, 2016
Dan Jacklin, Kristy Petovello and Andrew Pape-Salmon

Dan ran on a first place team in the Military Division, Kristy canoed on a second place team in the Missing Members Division and Andrew ran on a third place team in the Open Men's Division at the 34th annual Royal LePage Snow to Surf Adventure Relay on Mount Washington and in the Courtenay area today.  There were 109 teams registered and 88 teams to finish the event in 17 different divisions ranging from Junior Men, Women and Mixed to Great Grand Masters Men, Women and Mixed depending on age.  The relay features Alpine Skiing, Snow Shoeing, Nordic Skiing, Trail Running, Road Running, Kayaking, Canoeing, Road Riding and Mountain Biking.  Andrew's team, Ski and Surf Shop Tsunami, had a great race finishing third overall of 88 teams and they were third of 19 Open Men's teams in 6 hours, 27 minutes and 32 seconds. Dan's team, Joint Patrol 2, finished 11th overall and first of 6 Military teams in 6:59:30 and Kristy's team, Ledger Ligers, were 52nd overall and second of 4 Missing Members teams in 7:52:53.  Other Harriers participating on Kristy's team were Aoibhe Glynn, who ran both 6K and 8.5K stages, and David Kuitunen, who did the 12K Mountain Bike stage while Kristy canoed 5K as her legs were still hurting from the Boston Marathon which she ran on Monday.  The overall winning team was the Island Honda Banzai in 6:17:26 participating in the Open Men's Division and the final team to finish was Undertrained and Overconfident participating in the Missing Members Division in 8:43:50.  My favourite team name came from the Great Grand Masters Men's Division that had a combined age of 621 years old and finished in 8:23:16.  They were called the Paddlers, Pedalers and Piddlers.

April 18, 2016
Mike Arensen and Kirsten Arensen

Mike and Kirsten were the top male and female club members of 8 Harriers that traveled to Massachusetts today to run the historic 120th edition of the famous Boston Marathon.  Mike finished in 3:15:38 and was 3,983rd of 26,639 finishers; he was 3,524th among the men and 441st in his age category.  Kristen finished in 3:37:04 and was 9,852nd overall, 2,677th female and 1,380th in her age division.  Other Harriers conquering Boston today included Mike Angrove, 3:17:46, Nathan Kamell, 3:24:03, Lisa Fehr, 3:55:11, Louise Hodgson-Jones, 4:16:35, Lisa Cantwell, 4:24:33, and Kristy Petovello, 5:51:25.  The race winners were both Ethiopians with Lemi Berhanu Hayle taking the men's crown in 2:12:45 and Atsede Baysa winning the women's race in 2:29:19.  There were 30,741 registrations, 27,491 starters and 26,639 finishers for a 97% finishing rate.  This represents athletes from 81 different countries.  Due to the Boston bombings in 2013, 500 police officers provided security throughout the entire race course witnessed by over one million spectators scattered along the route from Hopkinton to Boston in near perfect racing conditions today. The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon hosted by several cities in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is always held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, inspired by the success of the first modern-day marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics, the Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual marathon and ranks as one of the world's best-known road racing events.

April 17, 2016
Geoff Martinson and Jim Finlayson

Geoff placed fourth overall with a fast 29:26 today and Jim was the top master in 31:12 at the largest 10K field in North America, the Vancouver Sun Run, featuring 35,060 finishers.  Guelph's top marathoner and Rio-bound, Eric Gillis, won the race in 28:52 followed by Kenyans Christopher Cheruiyot in 29:03 and Paul Kimugul in 29:16.  The second place male master was Jeremy Deere, from Calgary, in 31:25, and Vancouver's Oliver Utting took third in 31:33.  The top three women in the Sun Run were Lanni Marchant, from Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 32:16, with Kenyans Risper Gesabwa and Jane Murage placing second and third in 32:21 and 33:27.  Lanni is also bound for the Olympics to represent Canada at both the 10,000 Metres and the Marathon, 16 hours later in the schedule.  The top three masters women were Catherine Watkins, 34:47, Marie Zambrano, 35:01, and Marilyn Arsenault, 35:56.  Several Harriers ran very well today at the Sun Run including Craig Odermatt, 1st M45 in 33:41, Logan Roots, 9th M24 in 32:35, Jason Loutitt, 4th M40 in 32:47 one day after winning the 5 Peaks Enduro Mountain Race, Michael Lax, 7th M60 in 39:32, and Camie Bentham, 8th F45 in 42:32.  What always continues to amaze people about this huge-field event is the tremendous amount of no-shows every year.  There were 41,137 registrations including 22,156 women and 18,961 men and only 35,060 finishers which means that 6,077 runners did not start or finish the race.  Considering they paid the regular entry fee of $56.00 each, this translates into $340,312 profit to the host committee from DNSs alone before adding in the profit from the 35,060 runners and walkers who actually did finish the race.  Simply astonishing.

April 16, 2016
Jason Loutitt

Our Squamish Harrier, Jason Loutitt, came away as the race champion today at the 5 Peaks Mountain Race at Alice Lake, just north of Squamish.  Jason topped the 235 finishers in the 13K Enduro Division with a winning time of 54:18.  Second place went to Red Deer's Patrick Nesbitt in 56:15 while Vancouver's Benoit Gignac took third in 57:14.  The top female in the Enduro Division was Laura O'Driscoll, from Squamish; she placed 22nd overall in 1:08:43.  The winners of the 8.5K Sport Division were Mike Foston, 46:35, and 18-yeat-old Katie Weaver, 49:03.  They finished first and second overall of 214 Sport Division finishers.  With 21 in the Kid's Run, the three distances at 5 Peaks attracted 470 finishers to kick-off 6 races in the British Columbia Series.  Jason has recently renewed his PIH and BC Athletics memberships and has an ambitious racing schedule within the next 2 weeks where he plans to run four major races in 15 days and place well in the master's division in all of them.  Besides today's overall victory, he will run the Sun Run tomorrow, the Times Colonist 10K next Sunday and the BMO Vancouver Marathon the following week.

April 10, 2016
Erin Burrett

Erin finished 12th in the women's field with a new personal best time of 2:37:50 at the 58th annual Rotterdam Marathon today despite running on blistered feet for 27 kilometres.  This was only her second marathon following her 2:39:17 victory where she debuted at the 2015 GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon.  Rotterdam attracts a very large and competitive field every year and the flat and fast race course always produces quality times.  There were 12,796 finishers today and the race winners were Kenyan Marius Kipserem, 2:06:11, and Ethiopian Leterbrhan Haylay Gebreslasea, 2:26:15.  Here is Erin's account of the race and foot problems, "Well to be honest it wasn't what I was looking for thanks to some super awesome blisters that started at 15K. They tried to defeat me and while they did ultimately slow me (omg corners) I am proud to have fought through and kept my never dnf'ing streak alive. Still a P.B. and a new experience to race overseas. I will get my goal as I live to fight another day. Oh, the new P.B. is 2:37:50 apparently. Can someone please give me new feet so I can tour Amsterdam tomorrow? Thanks for all your support especially those who live tracked."

April 9, 2016
Shane Ruljancich, Shannon Coutts, Heather Afford and Nancy Baxendale

Shane and Shannon were the top male and female Harriers in the 21K long course while both Heather and Nancy won their age categories in the 12K short course at the inaugural and challenging Cobble Hill Gutbuster today featuring a sell-out crowd of 261 registrations and 211 finishers.  The Vancouver Island Trail Running Series has expanded to 6 races in 2016 with future events to be staged at Mt. Tzouhalem, Western Speedway, Ladysmith's Holland Creek, Mt. Washington and Burgoyne Bay on Salt Spring Island where the course will summit Mount Maxwell with spectacular views.  Shane finished second overall to win the M40 division in 1:49:15 and Shannon was the 6th female and placed 4th in the F40 age category in 2:36:38; she was 28th of 87 finishers on the 21K long course.  Nancy won the F50 division by placing a remarkable 6th overall of 124 short course finishers in 1:16:36.  She was the first female finisher almost 2 1/2 minutes ahead of F20 winner, Brittany Brooks who was the second female to cross the finish line.  Heather was 22nd overall and 4th female by winning the F30 division in 1:25:40.  The race winners on the long course were Derek Vinge, 1:48:42, and Lindsey Chamberlain, 12th OA in 2:16:16, while the short course winners were Matthew Winkler, 1:08:51, and Nancy Baxendale, 1:16:36.  Several other Harriers ran well at Cobble Hill today including Andrew Pape-Salmon, 3rd M40, and Larry Nylen, 3rd M50, on the long course.  The popular short course featured Harriers achievers Brent Scott, 1st M60, Valerie Bell, 2nd F50, Lara Wear, 3rd F40, Kathleen Kane, 4th F60, and Kathleen Birney, 10th F50.  The Gutbuster Series started in 2002 and enters its 15th year in 2016.  Today's total of 211 finishers is the highest mark in several years of many GB races and served as a successful and promising start to the rugged mountain trail running Vancouver Island Series.

April 9, 2016
Chris Callendar and Dee Ogden

Chris and Dee were the top male and female Harriers today at the 9th annual LifeMark Esquimalt 5K on a race course that takes you through the beautiful parks of Saxe Point, Fleming Beach and Maccaulay Point.  Chris finished 4th overall of 486 finishers to win the M30 category in 17:33 and Dee was 4th F40 of 69 women in that age category finishing in 24:40.  Gary Duncan, still coming back from injury, squeaked out an M50 age class victory by a slim 4 seconds over Bruce Schlatter.  Their times were 20:07 and 20:11 and there were 18 men in the M50 division.  Both race winners were in the 20-29 age category with Carlos Lesser breaking the tape in 16:07 and Yana Hempler topping the women's field by finishing 25th overall in 21:07.  The 486 finishers was 56 more than last year's total of 430.

April 3, 2016
Michael Lax, Leona Wade, Craig Odermatt and Nancy Baxendale

Michael and Leona were the top male and female Harriers in today's race while Craig and Nancy were the top masters and top male and female Harriers in the Series as the 35th annual Vancouver Island Race Series wrapped up today at the Sooke River 10K hosted for the final time by the Island Road Racers.  Michael won the M60 age category by placing 21st overall of 356 finishers at Sooke River in 39:20 and Leona placed third in her F35 age category and was 55th OA in 43:51.  She was the only Harrier to complete all 7 Series races.  Craig placed third of all male and female age classes in the Series to win the M45 division with 814.0 points and Nancy was 11th overall to win the F55 division with 759.3 points.  The Sooke River 10K race winners were Nick Walker, M30, in 33:23, and Lemlem Ogbasilassie, F25, 8th overall in 37:02.  The Series race winners were Adam O'Meara, M30, and Jen Millar, F35, who placed first and second of 303 runners that qualified by running a minimum of 4 of 7 races.  Their point totals were 824.3 and 819.8.  Several Harriers won gold medals by finishing first in their respective age categories at the 2016 Series including Kyle Weagant, M35, Shane Ruljancich, M40, Craig Odermatt, M45, John Woodall, M80, Nancy Baxendale, F55, and Edith Price, F65.  Comox Valley Road Runners was the top club in 2016 with 2,335 points followed by Prairie Inn Harriers with 2,074 points and CeeVacs Road Runners placed third with 1,764 points out of 79 teams/clubs in the Vancouver Island Race Series.  The highest point-getters for the Harriers were John Woodall and Edith Price as they won their age category six times in six races to each achieve 120 points.  The Series ended on a positive note by Sooke River seeing 356 finishers cross the line which was an improvement of 53 over last year's total of 303.  It was the only race to post a positive number as the other six races saw a small average drop of 35 finishers this year over last year.

March 25, 2016
Gary Duncan, Wendy Davies, Heather Afford and John Catterall

Gary and Wendy collected gold medals in the M55 and F55 age categories while Heather and John took silver medals in the F25 and M55 age categories today on the muddy trails of Thetis Lake Park at MEC #2 - The Pace Setter.  The event offered two distances of races - 5 kilometres and 10 kilometres.  Welcome back Gary after a month-long injury with little or no running; he placed 10th overall in the 5K in 25:38 and was the second place master, just 23 seconds behind M40 Luis Soto who finished 9th in 25:15.  Heather also ran the 5K and was the third female to finish, 20th overall in 27:28.  Wendy was 81st overall in the 10K in 1:07:39 and John was 57th in the 10K in 1:04:23.  The 5K race champions were Matthew Winkler, 21:43, and Maria Walsh, 6th OA in 24:12, and the 10K race champions were Adam Buzinsky, 43:36, and Kathryn Drew, 6th OA in 49:01.  There were 146 finishers in the 5K and 162 finishers in the 10K for a total of 308 including 8 Harriers.  This was a big jump of 128 finishers over last year's total of 180 finishers at the MEC Pace Setter two events.

March 25, 2016
Shane Ruljancich, Andrew Pape-Salmon and Finn Battersby

In a unique event that features only three age categories, Harriers claimed a gold medal and a silver medal in two divisions with Andrew finishing second in the M40-99 division in 1:21:59 and Finn finishing first the M01-16 division in 1:33:31. They were 9th and 37th overall of 191 finishers. Shane was the top Harrier finishing 4th overall and 4th in the M17-39 division in 1:15:05.  The 9th Annual Fletcher's Challenge took place today in Nanaimo. The trail race is point to point and is approximately 15K in length which features some of Nanaimo's best trails in the Mount Benson area. Five buses transported the runners to a mystery location for the start of the event. Race winners were Victoria's Shaun Stephens-Whale in 1:10:10 and Vancouver's Darbykai Standrick, 15th overall in 1:24:47.  There were 10 Harriers in the race and, besides Shane's, Andrew's and Finn's fine performances, strong runs were also achieved by Kyle Weagant, 11th, Matt Priestley, 12th, Jeremy Lawrence, 18th, Dan Jacklin, 24th, Keith Battersby, 53rd, Dan Stefanson, 82nd, and Kathleen Birney, 160th.

March 20, 2016
Kyle Weagant and Leona Wade

Kyle and Leona were the top Harriers today at the Comox Valley RV Half Marathon, Race No. 6 of 7 in the Vancouver Island Race Series held under favourable conditions.  Kyle placed 4th overall of 422 finishers in 1:17:14 to win the M35 age category of 26 runners in that division.  Leona was the 6th female to finish and was second of 41 runners in the F35 division with a personal best time of 1:36:20.  There were 10 Harriers at the Comox Half won by Adam O'Meara in 1:12:28.  Nick Walker took second place in 1:12:41 and Derek Vinge finished third in 1:13:46.  The top three women were Jen Millar, 1:24:14, Melissa Ross, 1:25:38, and Julie Robichaud, 1:26:38.  The 422 finishers was 37 less than last year's total of 459.

March 20, 2016
David Jackson

Our Abbotsford Harrier, David Jackson, completely destroyed the opposition by wining the Golden Ears Half Marathon in Pitt Meadows today.  His time of 1:12:34 was more that 12 and a half minutes ahead of the local second place finisher, Chase Slater from Pitt Meadows, who crossed the line in 1:25:06.  The top female was Rachel Spinelli of Maple Ridge; she was 6th overall in 1:41:34.  The accompanying Golden Ears 10K race was won by Langley's Rob Durrant in 41:06 and the top female was Cheryl Lindsay, from Surrey, finishing 5th overall in 45:49.  There were 67 finishers in the Half Marathon and another 66 finishers in the 10K for a total of 133.

March 19, 2016
Craig Odermatt and Bruce Deacon

Craig and Bruce finished first and third in the masters category and 7th and 12th overall of 962 finishers today at the Vancouver Modo Spring Run-Off 8K, Race No. 4 of 12 in the BC Super Series.  Their times were 26:41 and 27:05 with Kevin O'Connor taking the silver medal in the masters ranks by finishing 11th OA, just 5 seconds ahead of Bruce in 27:00.  The three talented masters compete in the M45 age category and they beat all of the M40 masters by a good margin as first place Stephen Ptucha was over one and a half minutes back in 28:41 to place 21st overall.  The top three men were Calgary's Trevor Hofbauer, 23:48, Rob Watson, 24:10, and Kevin Friesen, 24:28, and the top three women were Rachel Cliff, 26:41, Dayna Pidhoresky, 28:00, and Neasa Coll, 29:44.  Of the 962 finishers today, 436 were men and 526 were women.  In 2015 the event attracted 1,268 finishers.

March 12, 2016
Brett Carter

New member, Brett Carter, was the lone Harrier and had a strong race placing 5th of 100 in the M30 age category and 48th of 1,405 finishers at the BC Road Race Championship BMO St. Patrick's Day 5K today in Stanley Park.  His time was 16:59.  The top three men were all from Vancouver with Lucas Bruchet winning in 14:22 followed by Chris Winter, 14:34, and Justin Kent, 14:34 while the top three women were also from Vancouver with Rachel Cliff winning in 16:05 followed by Dayna Pidhoresky, 16:40, and Erica Digby, 16:51.  Both Bruchet and Cliff set new course records.  Of the 1,405 finishers, 593 were men and 812 were women.  Last year the event featured 1,652 finishers.

March 6, 2016
Jim Finlayson, Nancy Baxendale and Maurice Tarrant

Jim and Nancy were the top male and female Harriers today and Nancy set a new course record at the Bazan Bay 5K, Race No. 5 of 7 in the Vancouver Island Race Series.  Jim finished fourth overall of 552 finishers in 15:31 and was the top master and Nancy finished 86th OA in 19:27; she was the second master to Marilyn Arsenault and lowered Susan Gordon's F55 course record by 33 seconds.  Maurice established his tenth single-age WORLD record in a time of 32:23.  He now holds 5K road race world records for ages 76, 78, 79, 81 and 86 year-olds.  Other Harriers collecting gold medals at Bazan Bay in their age categories were Craig Odermatt, M45, John Woodall, M80, and Edith Price, F65.  There were 38 PIH finishers.  The men's race was very close with only two seconds separating first and second place and the third runner was 8 seconds back.  All three were high performance triathletes with Matt Sharpe taking the victory in 15:18, Brent McMahon, 15:20, placing second and Adam O'Meara taking third in 15:28.  The top three women were Hilary Stellengwerff, 16:53, Emily Setlack, 17:00, and Kate Van Buskirk, 17:05.  The 552 finishers today was 66 less than last year's total of 618.

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February 26, 2016
38 Harriers Award Winners for 2015

The Prairie Inn Harriers held their annual Awards Ceremony tonight at the Cedar Hill Golf Club banquet room and the following list shows the 2015 award winners:

PERPETUAL AWARDS

Gunner Shaw Most Valuable Runner –  Geoff Martinson, Natasha Wodak

Robin Pearson Most Improved Runner – Colleen Auringer, Roy Styffe                                                                                           

Alex Marshall Master of the Year –  Jim Finlayson, Craig Odermatt, Lucy Smith                                                               

Maurice Tarrant and Rosamund Dashwood Veterans of the Year –  John Woodall, Maree Kennell                                                                                        

Ken Smythe Dedicated Performance Award – Garfield Saunders, Mike Emerson                                                                               

John Thipthorpe Durability Award – Gary Duncan                                                                                                                       

Susan Reid Most Consistent Harrier – Maree Kennell, Chris Callendar

Stewart Fall Under-20 Junior of the Year – Taylor Lyman                                                                                      

Bruce Deacon Under-16 Junior of the Year – Kalum Delaney                                                                                   

Bob Reid Bright Shining Light Award (Rookie of the Year) – Matt Priestly, Kyle Weagant, Aoibhe Glynn                                                                                                 

Dave Reed Trail Runner of the Year – Shane Ruljancich, Heather Bretschneider

Harriers Members’ Choice High Achievement Award – Bob Reid                                                                                                              

Harriers Cyclist of the Year – Garth Campbell, Claire Morgan

 Island Race Series Runner of the Year - Craig Odermatt, Claire Morgan                                                                                                                     

Molly Reid Top Dog of the Year – Abby Nylen                                                                                                                          

NON-PERPETUAL AWARDS

Harriers Fittest Couple – Larry Nylen, Valerie Bell                                                                  

Excellence in Club Leadership – Andrew Pape-Salmon                                                                                                                      

Excellence in Volunteering – Kristy Petovello                                                                                  

Harriers Lifetime Membership Award – Mike Emerson

Canadian Lifetime Achievement Award - Maurice Tarrant                                                                                                                 

Top Age-Graded Runner of the Year– Nancy Baxendale

Harriers Photographs of the Year - Walter Cantwell, John McKay, Doug Bakewell, Chris Hamilton

Detailed descriptions of each winner's achievements and highlights for 2015  are available by clicking on "About", then click on "Harriers Annual Awards", then scroll down to find the individual's name for their description.

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February 21, 2016
Shane Ruljancich and Kyle Weagant

Shane and Kyle were the top two Harriers today placing fourth and tenth overall of 393 finishers at the Hatley Castle 8K, Race No. 4 of 7 in the Vancouver Island Race Series.  Shane was the top master in 27:40 while Kyle topped the M35 age category in 29:07.  The first two finishers were UVic Vikes with Olivier Collin breaking the tape in 25:07 and Ryan Cassidy taking second in 25:53.  Canadian Mountain Race team member Shaun Stephens-Whale placed third in 27:19.  The top three women featured two off-Islanders with Vancouver's Chantelle Groenewould winning; she was 13th OA in 29:21, Victoria's Jen Millar placed second in 30:24 and Kate Scallion, from Halifax, took third in 32:10.  As the Series passes the midway point, Shane has won two gold medals and two silver medals in four races and Kyle has three gold medals in three races.  Other Harriers running very well today and collecting their fourth gold medal in four races included Edith Price (F65) and John Woodall (M80).  The 393 finishers today was 85 fewer than last year's total of 478.

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February 14, 2016
Logan Roots, Erin Burrett and Jim Finlayson

Logan, Erin and Jim all won their respective age categories at the Vancouver First Half Half Marathon today despite cold, rainy and windy conditions.  The event is hosted by Pacific Road Runners and is Race No. 2 of the BC Super Series which kicked off five weeks ago with the Harriers Pioneer 8K.  Logan ran a personal best time of 1:09:39 to place fifth overall of 2,014 finishers; he was first in the M20 age division, while Erin ran 1:16:30 to finish as third female and first in the F30 age division.  Jim won the M45 age division in 1:10:27 and placed seventh overall.  The top three men were Eric Gillis, from Guelph, in 1:05:46, Pioneer champion Rob Watson placed second in 1:07:39 and Kingston's Kevin Coffey took third in 1:08:21.  Dayna Pidhoresky won the women's race; she was 19th OA in 1:15:11, Brantford's Krista Duchene finished second, 25th OA in 1:16:20, and Erin Burrett was third, 26th OA in 1:16:30.  The popular First Half Half has a limit of 2,000 registrations and usually sells out within a day or two after online registration opens.

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February 7, 2016
Craig Odermatt, Nancy Baxendale, Edith Price and John Woodall

Harriers master athletes continued to dominate as Craig, Nancy, Edith and John all claimed gold medals in their respective age categories at the Cedar 12K today, Race No. 3 of the Vancouver Island Race Series.  Craig, M45, finished 6th overall in 40:14 and was first of 21 runners in his age division and Nancy, F55,  finished 45th overall in 49:45 and was first of 20 runners in her age division.  Edith topped the F65 division in 1:01:14 and John topped the M80 division in 1:13:28.  The first three men were all from UVic with Forrest Simpson winning the race in 37:57 followed by team mates Olivier Collin second in 38:06 and Jackson Bocksnick third in 38:54.  The top three women were Lauren Babineau, 45:52, Melissa Ross, 46:22, and Jill Ramstead, 48:03.  Craig's time of 40:14 was a new M45 course record and Nancy's time of 49:45 was also a new F55 course record.  There were 373 finishers at Cedar compared to 382 finishers last year.

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January 24, 2016
Jim Finlayson and Jonathan Toombs

A high performance master and a high performance Youth Team member both had stellar races at the Cobble Hill 10K today with Jim, 43, winning and Jonathan, 20, close behind finishing as runner-up.  Their times were 33:02 and 33:14.  Shawn Wilyman, third place in 33:17, prevented a clean PIH 1-2-3 sweep as Craig Odermatt took fourth in 33:31.  The top female was Jen Millar, 37:28, followed by Lauren Babineau, 37:32, and Sonja Futehally, 39:25.  There were 487 finishers at Cobble Hill today including 25 Harriers.  Other club members winning their age category besides Jim, M40, Jonathan, M20, and Craig, M45, were Kyle Weagant, M35, Nancy Baxendale, F55, Edith Price, F65, and John Woodall, M80.

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January 24, 2016
Justine Stecko, Taylor Lyman, Jack Stanley and Bridget Mateyko

Despite horrendous weather conditions in New York City today where over two feet (57 cm.) of snow fell overnight, 11 members of the Harriers Youth Team, Coach Bruce Deacon and four parents made the trip to compete at the New Balance Games in the historic Armory Indoor Track.  Due to severe travel restrictions, organizers were forced to shorten the amount of races to 16 including 6 in the Elite/Pro Division and 10 in the High School Varsity Division.  Justine and Taylor won gold medals, Jack took a silver and Bridget claimed a bronze while the other 7 Harriers all performed admirably at the highly competitive Indoor Games.  Justine won the High School Girls 2 Mile race in 11:31 and Bridget was third in 12:19.  Taylor won the 600 Metre race in 1:20.69 of 38 finishers and Jack placed second in the High School Boys 2 Mile race in 9:24.  Other Youth Team members included Kalum Delaney, Joe Robertson and Liam Dwyer placing 6th, 8th and 10th in the 2 Mile race, Jack Cooper, Robbie Deacon and Vlad Lyesin, 13th, 30th and 34th of 40 finishers in the 1,000 Metre race and Michael Barber was 14th in the 600 Metre race.

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January 17, 2016
Natasha Wodak and Erin Burrett

Two of our high performance female Harriers, one from Vancouver and the other from Nanaimo, traveled to the United States today and both recorded personal best times at distinctly different distance events.  One week after her Pioneer 8K victory, Natasha was in Seattle where she posted a one mile P.B. of 4:42.24 in finishing third at the University of Washington Preview indoor track meet.  Two hours later she nailed another P.B. with a fifth place 9:12 performance in the 3,000 metre race.  Three months after her outstanding victory with a 2:39 performance at the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon, Erin was in Houston, TX, where she set a half marathon P.B. today of 1:14:49 at the highly competitive Chevron Houston Half Marathon.  There were 14,166 finishers in the half and Erin placed 90th overall, 30th female and first in the F30-34 age category.  Pioneer race champion, Rob Watson, was the top Canadian placing 21st overall in 1:03:58.

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January 17, 2016
Gary Duncan and Paul O'Callaghan

Gary was the top Harrier in the 10K race and Paul was the top Harrier in the accompanying 5K race at the MEC Lochside Rust Buster today, the first event of a five-race Series.  Gary placed 12th overall of 263 finishers and won the M55 division in 40:17 while Paul placed 8th of 219 finishers and won the M50 division in 18:25.  The 10K race winners were Andrew McCartney, 34:31, and Rebekah Campbell, 40:41, and the 5K winners were Connor Foreman, 16:04, and Lauren Babineau, 18:14.  Despite the poor weather with heavy rain and strong winds the total of participants took a huge jump with 482 finishers compared to last year's mark of 195 for an increase of 287.

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January 12, 2016
Geoff Martinson

Lanni Marchant, of London, Ont., and Geoff Martinson, of Vancouver, B.C., have been selected for the 2016 NACAC Road Race Cup taking place in San Juan, Puerto Rico February 28, 2016 at the World's Best 10K, an IAAF Gold Label event. Marchant, of the London Western Track and Field Club, had the top Canadian 10km time in 2015 of 31:49 achieved at the Canadian 10km Championships in Ottawa, Ont., on May 23. One-week later she also won the Canadian Half Marathon Championships in Calgary with an impressive altitude time of 1:12:17. Her third national road title in 2015 came at the Canadian Marathon Championships in Toronto on October 18 in a time of 2:28:09, the second fastest Canadian time ever. Marchant owns the Canadian women’s marathon record of 2:28:00. Marchant trains in Tennessee, Kenya and Ontario under her long-time coach Dave Mills.  Martinson, of the Prairie Inn Harriers Racing Club, was selected by virtue of his time of 29:32, ranked third in Canada in 2015, achieved en route to winning the Eastside 10k in Vancouver on September 19. Geoff also set a 5km road personal best and established the 2015 Canadian leading time of 13:56 in San Jose, California at the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot on November 26. Geoff trains with BC Endurance Project (BCEP) under coach Richard Lee.

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January 10, 2016
John Woodall

Eighty-three year old John Woodall of Victoria broke the single age world record for the eight kilometre distance during the Prairie Inn Harriers Pioneer 8K road race today.  He completed the race in the time of 48:40 and in doing so, he finished in 431^st position out of 524 runners. All but one of the runners behind him were younger.  Asked how it feels to take a world record Woodall told Victoria Sports News, "It is a completely overwhelming sensation, especially at my age and considering the many years I have been running. "The fact that I ran the 'World Single Age Record' at the age of eighty-three in my own club's race, on home turf, surrounded by many people that I know made it very special," shared Woodall.

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January 10, 2016
Craig Odermatt, Natasha Wodak, Shane Ruljancich and Liam Dwyer

Craig and Natasha were the top male and female Harriers finishing 8th and 12th overall while Shane and Liam also won gold medals in their respective age categories at the 37th annual Harriers Pioneer 8K today.  It was a star-studded field with the top three men finishing under 24 minutes.  Rob Watson, 23:47, Chris Winter, 23:55, and Brandon Lord, 23:56, all from Vancouver, led the 524 finishers home to claim the top three spots.  The top three women were Natasha Wodak, 26:31, Rachel Cliff, 27:10, and Lucy Smith, 28:27.  Shane was running his first race as a master and he won the M40 division by almost a minute over Mark Cryderman; their times were 26:36 and 27:24 and they finished 13th and 20th overall.  Liam ran the fastest M0115 time in 37 years of the Pioneer to set a new age division course record of 29:24.  Besides Natasha, F35, Shane, M40,  and Liam, M15, collecting gold medals in their age categories, other Harriers also recorded a first place finish including Jack Stanley, M19, Kyle Weagant, M35, Lucy Smith, F45, Nancy Baxendale, F55, John Woodall, M80 and new member Edith Price, F65.

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January 1, 2016
Doug Noel

Doug was closest to zero on the clock as he finished the 20th annual Harriers New Year's Day Memorial Run/Walk just 1 second off his predicted time and won a box of Christmas cookies for his effort. About 40 Harriers and friends did the run and enjoyed hot chocolate and cookies following their run or walk. They donated 400 dollars to the Harriers Foundation to assist with future foundation projects. The temperature was favourable and conditions were perfect to start the new 2016 year off with some physical exercise at Beaver and Elk Lakes.

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