2015

Previous Years

December 26, 2015
Shane Ruljancich
Shane ran the fastest time of 58:30 today at the 17th annual Harriers Boxing Day 10-Mile Handicap but had to settle for fourth position based on a staggered start where the slowest runners start first and the fastest runners start last determined by their handicapped race times for 2015. Shane was the final runner to start and he passed 14 runners but couldn't catch the top three comprised of Curtis Deardon, Anthony Jeffrey and top female, Amy Deardon. Several other Harriers had good performances including Race Director Gary Duncan, Will Boothman, Jeff Beddoes and Garth Ball.

December 13, 2015
Kyle Weagant, Chris Elliott and Larry Nylen
Kyle was the race champion, Chris placed third overall and Larry took a bronze medal of 40 men in the M50 division today at the Deception Pass 25K, a rugged trail race in Oak Harbor, Washington. Kyle's winning time was 2:12:56. Second place went to Seattle's Adam Hewey in 2:14:40 while Chris's third place finishing time was 2:23:51. The top female was Ilse Mittendorf, from Anacortes, who placed fourth overall in 2:24:00 and she was also the top master. Larry was 46th overall in 2:55:55. There were 227 finishers at the Deception Pass 25K including 138 men and 89 women.

December 12, 2015
Logan Roots, Shane Ruljancich, Kristy Petovello and Grace Boothman
Logan repeated as Stewart Mountain 10 Mile Champion with a strong winning time of 1:11:58, while former-champion, Shane, 1:13:58, finished second overall of 138 finishers at the 12th annual event to complete the Thetis Lake Triple Series including the Gunner Shaw 10K Classic and the Thetis Lake 20K Relay.  Third place in the 10 Mile race went to Nanaimo's Yann Bernaquez in 1:14:28 while Victoria's Patricia Roney was the top female and 23rd overall in 1:30:09.  The 10 Mile course appeared to be about 2 kilometres longer using the new Lightning Trail off the regular Bellamy Trail.  Kristy, one of the three Race Organizers along with Claire Morgan and Elaine Galbraith, had a terrific 5 Mile race by finishing 5th overall out of 56 finishers in 44:37.  She was 3 1/2 minutes ahead of the second place female, Camila Kuljis, who crossed the line in 48:07.  Grace earned her first-ever gold medal as a Harrier by winning the F01-19 division in 53:47 for an excellent placement of 13th overall and 5th female.  The top three men in the 5 Mile race were Shawn Wilyman, 34:52, Matthew Thomson, 37:03, and Harriers' Chris Callendar, 39:49.  Race conditions were perfect with deep muddy puddles during the race and cold, pouring rain throughout the day!  There were 138 finishers in the 10 Mile race and another 56 in the 5 Mile race for a total of 194 today.  This was 4 more than the 190 finishers from last year.

December 5, 2015
Natasha Wodak, Geoff Martinson and Craig Odermatt
Natasha, Geoff and Craig all capped off their outstanding racing year by achieving five major titles at the annual BC Athletics Awards Ceremony held in Richmond tonight.  Natasha came away as a triple-winner by being named as Runner of the Year in Track & Field, Cross Country and Road Racing.  No other athlete, male or female, has won all three awards in the same year.  She set a Canadian Record of 31:41 for 10,000 metres on the track, she represented Team Canada in cross country at the PanAm Games and IAAF World Championships before winning the Canadian Senior Women's Cross Country Championship last weekend in Ontario.  On the roads, she won the BC Championships in 5K, 15:58, 8K, 26:37, 10K, 31:59, and Half Marathon, 1:11:20.  Two of these times are also Canadian Records.  Geoff was named as BC Senior Male Road Runner of the Year by winning BC Championships in 8K, 23:58, and 10K, 29:32.  Craig, 45, won the Master Male Cross Country Runner of the Year by finishing first overall in both the Provincial Championship in Nanaimo and the National Championship in Kingston, ON.  On the roads, he also won the overall title for the Vancouver Island Race Series, marking the first time ever in 34 years that a master athlete (40+) has topped all age categories of Island Series runners.

November 28, 2015
Natasha Wodak and Craig Odermatt
While 261 local runners were challenging themselves at the Gunner Shaw Cross Country Classic at Thetis Lake, six high performance Harriers participated as part of Team BC at the Canadian Cross Country Championships in Kingston, ON, today against 992 top level runners.  Natasha and Craig had amazing races and were both crowned as National Champions.  Natasha won the senior women's 8K race in 27:13, followed by PanAm marathon bronze medalist, Rachel Hannah, in 27:16, and BC's Rachel Cliff took third in 27:24.  There were 71 finishers in the senior women's feature event.  Craig, 45, won the master's 8K race in 27:25 followed by Derek Hackshaw, 27:33, and Predrag Mladenovic, 27:40.  Harriers' Colin Dignum was 12th overall of 165 master men and women in 28:39 while team mate, Norm Tinkham, was 15th, second M50, in 28:59.  The remaining Harriers, Tyler Dozzi and Jack Stanley, were both timed at 20:03 and finished 27th and 28th of 182 finishers in the Youth Division, 49 seconds behind winner Jonathan Stoppa who hit the tape in 19:14.

November 28, 2015
Matt Cecill and Andrew Pape-Salmon
Matt, a new member in 2015, won his first Harriers-hosted race while Andrew was the top master at the 31st annual Gunner Shaw Cross Country Classic today under cool but sunny conditions.  Matt's time was 36:06 and Andrew placed 13th overall in 41:00 while taking a number of action shots during the race.  Pictures are posted by clicking on the PIH Photo Albums.  The top female was Lauren Babineau, she was 12th overall in 40:44.  There were 310 registrations and 261 finishers including 23 Harriers racing and another 38 volunteering at the event.

November 26, 2015
Natasha Wodak and Geoff Martinson
On USA's Thanksgiving Day two of our fastest Harriers traveled to the deep south and the far east regions of United States to compete against against a staggering 28,000 runners at two major, long-established events.  Both Natasha and Geoff did Canada and the Harriers proud by finishing second overall against a host of talented American and African runners.  At the 79th annual Manchester 4.75 Mile Road Race, Natasha was second female in 24:31, a mere 12 seconds behind the winner and defending champion, Diane Nukuri, of Burundi, who finished in 24:19.  Emma Bates, from Boston, was third in 24:44.  The men's winner was Will Geoghegan, of Eugene, in 21:34, and he led the field of over 15,000 finishers.  Geoff, on the other hand only had to contend with 13,000 finishers at the 11th annual San Jose 5K Turkey Trot where his late charge came up a fraction short of the overall victory.  The top three at the SJTT 5K were Eliud Ngetich, 13:55, Geoff Martinson, 13:56, and Mourad Marofit, 13:57.  In an extremely competitive field, the top 10 runners were only separated by 15 seconds with the top 8 finishing at one second intervals.

November 14, 2015
Shane Ruljancich, Nancy Baxendale and Gary Duncan
Shane placed second overall to winner, Carlos Lesser, at the Bear Mountain 10K today with times of 35:57 and 36:46 while Peterson Perrin took third in 39:51.  Patricia Roney was the top female, placing 6th overall in 41:53, followed by Sara Kelly, 9th OA in 42:41, and Nancy Baxendale was third female and top master; she was 14th OA in 43:33.  Felipe Eldora and Katie Hagen won the accompanying Half Marathon race in 1:26:57 and 1:42:34 and Gary anchored the Harriers Half Marathon relay team, PIH Delta, to a first place finish in 1:31:33, 4 minutes ahead of the second team, Speedy Beattie's.  There were 343 finishers in the 10K, 48 finishers in the Half Marathon and 5 Relay Teams for a total of 411 finishers. This was 72 fewer than last year's mark of 483.

November 11, 2015
Bruce Deacon and Gary Duncan
Bruce registered 5 PIH Youth Teams in the 19th annual Thetis Lake Relay held today and all of them preformed with excellence.  Gary captained the winning Veteran Men's team and, in doing so, his team beat all of the Master Men's teams as well.  Gary also did an outstanding job of compiling and posting the race results.  The PIH Junior Boy's Teams finished third, fifth, sixth and eighth overall out of 103 teams while the PIH Junior Girl's Team finished first in their division.  Gary's team, called the PIH Sole Relaytions, finished 14th in 1:19:24.  The top three teams were UVic Tri + Jericho, 1:03:23, Four Fabulous Frontrunners Friends, 1:05:34, and PIH - The Meme Team, 1:07:16.

November 1, 2015
Lucy Smith, Gary Duncan and Binder Kelsall
Harriers masters dominated the day at Race #5 in the MEC Series, the Grand Banana at Beaver Lake today. Lucy, 47, was second overall, top Harrier, top female and top master in 1:23:10 in the 2-lap Half Marathon race. Gary, 57, was fourth overall, top male Harrier and top master in 1:28:40 to win the M50 division while Binder, 47, was eighth overall, top Harrier, top master and second female in the 5K race in 21:48. The race champions were Andrew McCarthey in the Half Marathon, 1:19:04, Joseph Letang in the 10K in 36:14 and Matt Walsh in the 5K in 18:12. There were a total of 335 finishers today including 83 in the Half, 149 in the 10K and 103 in the 5K. This was an increase of 44 finishers over last year.

October 28, 2015
Kalum Delaney, Bridget Mateyko and Jack Stanley
Twenty members of the PIH Youth Team raced today in the Vancouver Island High School Cross Country Championships at Beaver Lake Park and all of them performed very well. Kalum Delaney, representing Reynolds Secondary, emerged as champion by winning the Junior Men's title in 14:32. Second place went to Joe Robertson, Oak Bay, in 15:13, and Jackson Isnor, Dover Bay, was third in 15:28. In the Junior Women's race, Stewart Hope, of John Barnsby, was the winner in 17:03, followed by Bridget Mateyko, St. Andrews, two seconds back in 17:05 and Justine Stecko, Oak Bay, was third in 17:16. Brendan Hoff, Reynolds Secondary, won the Senior Men's race in 20:55 with Harriers Youth Team members taking second and third. Jack Stanley, Oak Bay, was second in 21:24, and Max McCulloch, Oak Bay, took third in 21:31. The winner of the Senior Women's race was Desiree Ridenour, Cowichan Secondary, in 15:47. There were 84 finishers in the Junior Men's race, 81 in the Junior Women's, 81 in the Senior Men's and 80 in the Senior Women's for a total of 326 finishers today.

October 25, 2015
Natasha Wodak and Geoff Martinson
Two of our high performance mainland Harriers proved to be champions over the weekend with Natasha finishing first at the second annual Vancouver Rock 'N Roll Half Marathon on Sunday and Geoff finishing first at the 45th annual Rock 'N Roll James Cunningham Seawall 10K on Saturday. Vancouver's newest Half Marathon and oldest 10K race brought thousands of runners to B.C. today with more than 10,000 registrations from around the world experiencing pleasant fall weather at the two high profile events both finishing in Stanley Park. Along with live bands and festive fanfare lining the course, the half marathon boasted spectacular waterfront views. Participants celebrated the day's accomplishments with family and friends in Devonian Harbour Park at the finish line festival. Kenya's Paul Kimugul won the men's half marathon in 1:05:24 while Vancouver's Kelly Wiebe finished 24 seconds back in 1:05:48 to claim second. Kenyan Benard Ngeno took third in 1:07:29. In the women's race, Natasha jumped in at the last minute as she was on a break from running after a visit in Las Vegas with her good friend, Lanni Marchant. Her winning time was 1:18:57. The second place female was Jane Ricardi in 1:20:01 and Vancouver's Sabrina Wilke took third in 1:21:04. The top three men in the Rock 'N Roll James Cunningham Seawall 10K were Geoff Martinson, 29:50, Adam Byles, 31:39, and David Proctor, 32:21, while the top three women were Kimberley Doerksen, 36:29, Christy Lovig, 36:39, and Neasa Coll, 36:54. There were 4,977 finishers in the half marathon including 1,934 men and 3,043 women and another 2,998 finishers in the 10K including 982 men and 2,016 women.

October 25, 2015
Claire Morgan and Gary Duncan
Claire and Gary repeated their finishing positions of second and third overall at the Cowichan Autumn Classic Half Marathon in Duncan today. Last year they were also second and third with Claire finishing in 1:24:33 and Gary finishing in 1:26:24. Today Claire was the top female, top master and top Harrier in 1:26:56 while Gary was the top master and top Harrier in 1:27:53, one day after winning the M55 division in the BC Cross Country Championships in Nanaimo yesterday. The half marathon winner was Ottawa's Chris Galley in 1:20:48 and Jude Farmer, from Pender Island, took third in the men's race in 1:30:26, 2 minutes and 33 seconds behind Gary. Claire's women's victory was very impressive as she was 10 minutes and 31 seconds clear of second place, Jenny White, from Duncan, who finished in 1:37:27. The third place female was Lake Cowichan's Jessica Knowles in 1:40:35. In the accompanying Cowichan Autumn Classic 10K race the top three men were Dusty Spiller, 36:48, Angus Brown, 38:00, and Cory Ramstead, 41:35, and the top three women were Sara Kelly, 39:04, Jill Ramstead, 41:38, and Keltie Watson, 44:18. There were 248 finishers in the 10K and 103 in the half marathon for a total of 351. This was 24 more than last year which was the inaugural event. CeeVacs is the host club and they offered free wine tastings by Vigneti Zanatta. Wine was also on hand at the finish area for participants of both racees. Massage was available before or after the wine tastings at the massage tent and runners enjoyed the tranquility of the Trans Canada Trail and fantastic views from the Holt Creek Trestle. Both race courses are quite hilly and challenging and finishers receive novelty wine glasses.

October 24, 2015
Kalum Delaney, Michael Barber and Craig Odermatt
Kalum finished in a dead heat for first place in the Midget Division, Michael finished 9 seconds back in third place while Craig was the top master today at the BC Cross Country Championships in Nanaimo. The Midget race, for 14 and 15 year-old boys, had an exciting, close finish with Jordan Schmidt, of the Langley Mustangs, and Kalum both finishing with identical times of 8:55. With Michael's bronze medal and Joe Robertson's fifth place finish, it propelled the Harriers to the top of the podium in the Midget Team category. In the feature Senior Men's and Women's races the champions were Point Grey Track Club's Lucas Bruchet and Sarah Inglis of Trinity Western University. The Master and Junior categories also ran with the Senior runners participating in Race 1 and 2 of the 10 race Championships featuring age categories from 9 year-old kids to 75 year-old super veterans such as Harriers' Herb Phillips. The Junior Champions were Hannah Bennison, from Okanagan Athletics Club, and U.B.C.'s John Gay, while the Master winners were Craig, of Prairie Inn Harriers, and Darcy Montgomery, of Hersey Harriers. Several Harriers placed in the top three in their age categories with gold medals going to Craig (M45), Gary Duncan (M55), Barrie Dargie (M70), Herb (M75), Nancy Baxendale (F50) and Wendy Davies (F55). Silver medals were won by Tyler Dozzi (M16), Kalum Delaney (M15) and Devin Galway (M14) while Jack Stanley (M16), Michael Barber (M15) and Colin Dignum (M45) collected bronze medals. There were a total of 313 finishers in the 10 races including 28 Harriers. The largest participation were in the Junior/Senior/Master races with 57 women and 88 men. The Harriers team of Craig, Gary, Colin and Bertrand Bozek took the Master Men's Team title.

October 17, 2015
Bruce Deacon
Bruce was inducted into the Victoria Sports Hall of Fame at a ceremony held tonight at the Westin Bear Mountain Resort. He represented Canada in the marathon at two Olympic Games and won a silver medal at the Pan-Am Games. His plaque will be on display at the Save-On Foods Memorial Centre along with 204 other athletes, builders and teams enshrined into the Victoria Sports Hall over the past 21 years. Other 2015 inductees included Ed Ashmore, wrestling, Elaine Dagg-Jackson, curling, Lauren Woolstencroft, paralympics skiing, Ike, MacKay, soccer, Rick Say, swimming, Sandy Peden, shooting, and Steve Sinclair, baseball.

October 17, 2015
Abby Nylen
Runner-up in last year's race, Abby was not to be denied today; she claimed the gold medal and Top Dog trophy as she sprinted to a new course record of 3.44 seconds at the eighth annual Harriers Hounds 40 Metre Sand Sprint on the main beach of Thetis Lake Park. Second place went to 2010 and 2011 champion, Bebe Reid, in 3.79 seconds, while last year's champion, and former course record holder, Roo Kersen, finished third in 3.97 seconds. In a classic battle of the blazing black labs, Abby, 2 (14 in people years), and Bebe, 9 (63 in people years) both broke the 3.93 course record set by Roo, 5 (35 in people years) in 2014. Roo, 3.97, finished four 1/100ths of a second slower today than last year. Abby won the Molly Reid Top Dog Award while Joey Kersen, 12 (84 in people years), was presented with the Most Easily Distracted Hound Award by finishing dead last for the second consecutive year with a time of 5.07 seconds. On a positive note, Joey was 5.86 seconds faster than his last year's trot to the line in 10.93 seconds. Today's fourth place hound was Guiness Coutts, 4.34, Java Wear, 4.52, was fifth, Scout Bakewell, 4.96, was sixth, Kali Simpson, 4.97, was seventh, and Joey, 5.07, finished eighth.

October 11, 2015
Jim Finlayson and Lucy Smith
In the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Half Marathon today it was Harriers master athletes that turned in impressive performances with Jim finishing fourth overall to win the M40 division in 1:09:15 and Lucy finishing seventh overall in the women's field to win the F45 division in 1:20:42. She was also the top master. Other Harriers running well in the half included Logan Roots, eighth OA and first M20 with a P.B. of 1:10:56, Matt Cecill, third M30 in 1:14:47, and Kyle Weagant third M35 in 1:19:58. Kenyans Paul Kimugul, Benard Ngeno and Willy Kimosop swept the top three positions in the race with times of 1:05:00, 1:06:01 and 1:07:53. The first female was Malindi Elmore, from Kelowna, in 1:15:35. The next three women were all from United States with Portland’s Kristen Rohde taking second place in 1:16:06, team mate Lauren Johnson, also from Portland, placed third in 1:17:24 and Victoria Tyler, of Oakland, CA, finished fourth in 1:17:45. There were 3,808 registrations and 2,360 finishers in the half marathon. This was a decrease of 1,435 over last year’s total of 3,795 finishers.

October 11, 2015
Erin Burrett and Ken Bonner
Erin had a brilliant debut at her inaugural marathon by winning the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon today with a stunning time of 2:39:17. Ken placed fourth in the M70 division but, more importantly, he and Terry Slater became the only two runners to complete ALL 36 Victoria Marathons of more than 50,000 finishers since the event started in 1980. The women's race favourite, and last year’s winner Lioudmila Kortchaguina, of Markham, Ontario, led the women's field until the final 200 metres before being caught by Nanaimo’s fast-charging Erin who sprinted to break the finisher’s tape 20 seconds ahead of Kortchaguina. Erin placed eighth overall which was the highest position for a female in the 36 years the event has been staged. Kortchaguina took second place in 2:39:37 and was the top master while 2010 and 2013 champion Catrin Jones, from Victoria, took third in 2:44:29. The men's winner was Kenyan Daniel Kipkoech, 2:25:40, followed by Lamech Mokono, 2:30:22, and Burnaby's Oliver Utting placed third in 2:34:39. Utting was the top master and won the BC Marathon Championship as did Burrett. There were 1,484 registrations and 1,202 finishers in the marathon. This was a decrease of 368 over last year’s total of 1,570 finishers.

October 11, 2015
Craig Odermatt and Melanie McQuaid
Just as Harriers master athletes surged to the front in the half marathon, Craig and Melanie ran extremely well in the master's ranks and were our top club members in the accompanying GoodLife Fitness Victoria 8K Road Race today. Craig had an outstanding run to place second overall in 26:22 while Melanie was seventh female in 30:36. Other Harriers winning their age category included Binder Kelsall, F45, Maree Kennell, F70, Vlad Lyesin, M16, Shane Ruljancich, M35, Gary Duncan, M55, John Woodall, M80, and Maurice Tarrant, M85. The 8K Road Race was won by Victoria’s Nick Walker in 26:16. Second place went to Craig and Robin Poirier, from Duncan, placed third in 27:03. Lindsay Carson, from Whitehorse, YT, repeated as the women’s race champion in 27:32. Second place female was Victoria’s Hilary Stellingwerff, in 27:40, and third place went to Vancouver’s Cindy Crowther, in 28:42. There were 2,688 registrations and 2,352 finishers in the 8K Road Race. This was a decrease of 12 over last year’s total of 2,364 finishers.

October 4, 2015
Christine Thate
Christine won the Marcia Stromsmoe Performance Award by achieving the most points, 114, for a female in the 2015 Christie-Phoenix Victoria Run Series consisting of four track meets at UVic and two cross country races at Beaver Lake Park. Besides the perpetual trophy, Christine won a two-night stay at Black Rock Resort in Ucluelet including a $ 150 spa credit. Jim Fliczuk achieved the most overall points for a male, 154, and won the Maurice Tarrant Performance Award, which also rewards him with a two-night stay at Black Rock. The awards ceremony was held today at the Stickey Wicket in the Strathcona Hotel where all age category awards were presented and a silent auction was held. The 2015 Christie-Phoenix Insurance Victoria Run Series started in the middle of May and concluded at the end of September for its sixth season.

September 26, 2015
Liam Stanley, Bertrand Bozek and Gary Duncan
Liam, Bertrand and Gary were the top Harriers finishing first, fourth and fifth overall of 26 finishers, including 13 Harriers, at the second and final 6.5K cross country race at Beaver Lake Park wrapping up the 2015 Christie-Phoenix Victoria Run Series. Liam won the Junior Division (M16-19) in 23:17, Bertrand was the top master (M40-49) in 24:59 and Gary was the top veteran (M50-59) in 25:39. Melissa Ross (F30-39), 23:59, and Julia Tschanz (F20-29), 24:50, were the top two women placing second and third overall. LIndsay Chamberlain took third place in 27:20 to place ninth overall. Other Harriers winning their age divisions were John Deacon (M13-15), 33:05, Marcia Stromsmoe (F60-69), 35:39, Maree Kennell (F70-79), 39:07, and Maurice Tarrant, (M80-89), 44:38.

September 19, 2015
Sam Seager, Gary Duncan and Nancy Baxendale
Sam won the M15 division in 27:50, Gary won the M50 division in 26:18 and Nancy won the F50 division in 26:48 and they were the top three Harriers finishing third, fifth and seventh overall at the Christie-Phoenix Victoria Run Series 6K cross country race at Beaver Lake Park today. This is the first of three cross country races at Beaver Lake to accompany the four track meets at UVic's Centennial Stadium comprising the 2015 C-P VRS. Several other Harriers ran well by winning their age categories including Mark Ritchie (M40), Marcia Stromsmoe (F60), Maree Kennell (F70) and Maurice Tarrant (M80). The race champions were Julia Tschanz who finished first overall in 24:52 and Julien Marceau who was second in 25:28. There were 20 finishers at the event including 11 Harriers. Of the finishers, one was a junior, 5 were open runners and 14 were masters including twelve runners that were older than 50 and five of which were older than 70.

September 19, 2015
Natasha Wodak and Geoff Martinson
In the pouring rain, Harriers high performance athlete, Natasha Wodak, continued her banner year with a win at today's third annual Vancouver Eastside 10K, a Canada Running Series event. Besides her $ 1,500 first place prize money, her time of 33:04 was enough to break the course record and she was awarded an additional $ 500 for her efforts. Dayna Pidhoresky was second with a time of 34:01 and rounding out the wonen's field was Kelowna's Malindi Elmore with a time of 34:32. On the men's side Geoff Martinson ran a fine solo effort of 29:32 to crush the trailing pack by more than a minute. He also won $ 1,500.00 in prize money as race champion. Calgary's Trevor Hofbauer was second and Chris Winter third in 30:25 and 30:55, respectively. Defending champion Kelly Wiebe finished a disappointing fourth in 31:18. Natasha ran a great race maintaining the lead for almost the entire event. "It's a really fun way to end out my season with a win and a course record is great," said Natasha. "My plan was to come out strong with the leaders and then I took off at the 2K mark and stayed out in front." The Eastside 10K is the fastest growing running event in B.C. It attracted 2,300 competitors and raised over $ 28,000 in support of the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, Watari Support and Counseling, the Greater Vancouver Food Bank and the Breakfast Club of Canada.

September 13, 2015
Shawn Nelson, Gary Duncan, Pamela Dinn and Marcia Stromsmoe
Shawn won the race outright, Gary won the M50 division, Pam won the F30 division and Marcia won the F50 division at the 18th annual Metchosin Day 5K today. Shawn's winning time was 17:23, followed by Jericho O'Connell in 17:39, Isaac Bonisteel took third in 18:18 and Gary was fourth overall in 19:23. The top three women were Chrissa Tromp, 20:41, Noa Bridson, 21:06, and Cassidy Steen, 21:24, all three were running in the Under-19 age category. Pam's time was 24:41 where she finished ahead of 15 runners in her age category and Marcia, 26:16, topped 16 runners in the F50-99 age category. The Nelson brothers, with Mark winning for the first 11 years and Shawn winning for the next 5 years, dominated the race until last year when a new champion, Jericho O'Connell, broke the tape in 16:20. Shawn placed second last year but rose to the top of the podium again today for his 6th Metchosin Day 5K victory. Jericho's margin of victory was 28 seconds last year while Shawn's margin of victory was 16 seconds this year. There were 125 finishers today including 6 Harriers. The husband and wife team of Charles and Frances Krusekopf finished first in the M40 division and second in the F40 division.

September 13, 2015
Natasha Wodak
The second annual Canadian 5K Championships took place Sunday morning in downtown Toronto at the B&O Yorkville Run. This year’s championship races had a competitive field of fast elites in both men's and women's races with the first-place runners each taking home a $ 2,000 prize. Female elites had to run a sub 17:30 5K to be granted elite status. The men had to run under 15:30 to qualify. Natasha Wodak and Matt Hughes were the winners of this year's 5K Championships. Natasha made it to the finish with quite a lead over the other top runners to clock a 15:57 while Hughes ran 14:16 for his victory. In the women's race, Natasha ran strong and fast from the beginning. She opened a large enough gap and easily took the first place win 17 seconds ahead of Rachel Hannah. Hannah however secured a strong second-place position running 16:14. Her second place wins her $ 1,000. Laura Batterink placed third with a 16:19. The B&O Yorkville run has been a well-known event in Toronto for the past six years and is known for being a fast course. This year, it raised $ 250,000 for Victim Services Toronto with 1,070 runners finishing the 2 races.

September 13, 2015
Herb Phillips
Herb (M75) finished first overall in 35:43 at the first annual Forever Young 8K in Richmond today, an event exclusively for runners age 55 and older. In doing so he beat several other men and women that were more than 20 years younger than him. Second place went to Vancouver's Ryan Greg (M60), in 36:09, and Brian McGuinness (M55), from Dumbartonshire, UK, took third in 36:25. The top three women were Chris Race (F60), 5th OA in 39:18, Cynthia Stout (F60), 6th OA in 39:28, and Anne Sturgeon (F60), 12th OA in 41:27. There were a total of 204 finishers including 88 men and 116 women with several of the women such as Gwen McFarlan holding world age class records at various distances. Others like Doug Clement, BC Hall of Famer and past Olympian, brought recognition and compassion to the event. Race Director, John Young, said, "We really work on keeping it fun. It has been said in retirement that seniors get broken down into three groups — go-go, slow-go and no-go. The purpose of our club is to keep people exercising, socializing and stretching those go-go years with good health." Forever Young 8K co-founder Gwen McFarlan, at age 81, was running like a recent injury and layoff didn’t matter. She had a "Miracle weekend" in Florida three years ago when she ran a 10K on a Friday, a half-marathon on Saturday and finished with a Sunday marathon. Of course, she was a much younger 78 then!

September 13, 2015
Geoff Martinson
After finishing as runner-up to Kelly Wiebe last year at the Eastside 10K, Geoff reversed the tables today to claim a big victory at the inaugural cross country Vancouver Spirit Run 8K. After being staged in Whistler for a number of years, the Vancouver Spirit Run was held on the championship course at Jericho Beach Park. The ocean, mountains and the city of Vancouver provided a stunning backdrop to some great competition as runners celebrated the start of the competitive cross country and trail running season in British Columbia. The Vancouver Spirit Run is the first event of the year that allows runners to score points for the B.C. Athletics Lower Mainland Cross Country Series. Geoff's winning time was 26:07, followed by Kelly Wiebe in 26:58 and Theo Hunt in 27:23. The top three in the women's 6K race were Maria Dalzot, 23:37, Robyn Mildren, 23:54, and Erica Digby, 24:02. There were a total of 250 finishers in 8 different races in the Vancouver Spirit Run including 46 in the Men's 8K, 38 in the Women's 6K, 15 in the High School Boy's 5K, 11 in the High School Girl's 4K, 30 in the Junior High 3K, 63 in the Elementary School 2K, 15 in the 1K Family Run and 32 in the 4x2 8K Relay.

September 12, 2015
Shane Ruljancich, Andrew Pape and Aoibhe Glynn (Ee-Fah)
At the second annual Finlayson Arm 25K rugged trail race today, Shane finished first overall in 2:59:20, only 8 seconds shy of his 2:59:12 victory last year, Andrew was third overall and top master in 3:18:40 and Ee-Fah was the second female and ninth overall of 67 finishers in 3:51:12. Second place went to Vancouver's Jesse Booi in 3:06:42 while Victoria's Kaylee Beales was first female and eighth overall in 3:47:26. Harriers' Jeremy Lawrence had a strong race finishing fourth overall, second master, in 3:26:47, and Larry Nylen topped the M50 division in 4:14:29. Heather Afford was 12th female, 4th F20, in 4:31:28, and Lisa Cantwell was 22nd female, 4th F50, in 4:57:28. In the accompanying 50K race the winners were Yann Bernaquez, of Nanaimo, in 6:00:46, and Darbykai Standrick, from Vancouver, in 6:54:22. Several Harriers completed the 50K including Heather Bretschneider, 20th in 8:29:53, Kyle Weagant, 23rd in 8:43:52, Mark Ritchie, 26th in 9:13:46, Valerie Bell, 29th in 9:22:43, J-F Gagnon, 31st in 9:38:25, Lisa Fehr, 34th in 9:48:30, and Andrew Barclay, 35th in 10:01:12. The event sold out with 150 registrations and a total of 112 finishers including 67 in the 25K and 45 in the 50K. The final runner, Peter Oro from Saltspring Island, completed the 50K in 11:37:19.

September 12, 2015
Craig Odermatt
Craig finished third overall and was the top master at the Run for the Mountain 6K trail race in Nanaimo today. The top three men were Andrew Howard, 21:21, Shelby Drope, 21:31, and Craig Odermatt, 21:37, while the top three women were Melissa Ross, 7th OA in 23:33, Madison Heisterman, 13th OA in 25:07, and Jenaya Pynn, 18th OA in 25:19. The first female master was Victoria Fiddick, she was 31st OA in 26:31. There were 223 finishers including 114 men and 109 women. Located at the base of Mount Benson, in a scenic setting, the Westwood Lake Trail encircles Westwood Lake. The trail is mostly on level ground with a steep grade in the last kilometre of the race course.

September 6, 2015
Michael Angrove, Chris Callendar, Bertrand Bozek and Binder Kelsall
Mike, Chris and Bertrand placed 2nd, 3rd and 4th overall in 17:38, 17:56 and 18:32 while Binder was the top female, 11th overall of 93 finishers in 19:56 at MEC #4, the Best Getter 5K today. The race winner was Aaron Ahl in 17:23. There were two other races with Andrew McCartney, 34:28, and Jessica Lougheed, 41:56, winning the 10K while Jamie Burren, 59:33, and Kerrie Wlad, 59:58, won the 15K. Harriers' Will Boothman had a strong 15K placing 5th overall in 1:02:42. There were 93 finishers in the 5K, 98 in the 10K and 99 in the 15K for a total of 290 finishers at MEC #4, the Best Getter today.

September 6, 2015
Erin Burrett
Erin was the first female placing fifth overall of 765 finishers with a time of 1:15:43 at the Kelowna Wine Country Half Marathon today under sunny skies in the Okanagan Valley. The second female was Kimberley Doerksen, 7th OA in 1:18:01, while Vernon's Lisa Heidt took third, she was 14th OA in 1:26:10. The top three men were Steve Dekoker, from Seattle, 1:10:04, Nicholas Browne, Vancouver, 1:11:22, and Brad Bickley, Kelowna, 1:11:57. There were 765 finishers in the half marathon plus 65 relay teams for a total of 1,130 participants today at the Kelowna Wine Country Half Marathon. Next up for Erin will be her debut at the marathon distance where she hopes to run somewhere in the 2:40s at the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon on October 11.

August 29, 2015
Maurice Tarrant, Maree Kennell and Marcia Stromsmoe
Maurice, Maree and Marcia collected 13 medals between them including three gold medals each to anchor the South Vancouver Island Team to a third place finish at the 28th annual BC Seniors Games staged in North Vancouver. The Games included numerous track and field events over four days from August 25 to August 29. Of the 13 Zones, Lower Mainland topped the standings with a total of 445 medals, Fraser Valley was second with 409, South Vancouver Island collected 216 followed by North Vancouver Island in fourth place with 170 medals. Maurice took gold medals in the 5,000 metres, 1,500 metres and 800 metres establishing three M85 Canadian Records to add to his lengthy list of national marks. Maree won five F70 medals including gold in the 400m, 200m and 100m and silver in the 5,000m and 1,500m. Marcia also won five F65 medals including gold in the 5,000m, 1,500m and 200m, silver in the 400m and bronze in the 4x100m relay. Another Thursday Morning Group regular, Doug Monds, won 4 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze medal in seven field events including discus, javelin, pole vault, pentathlon, weight throw, hammer throw and shot put. The mission of the BC Seniors Games Society is to improve the health, lifestyle and image of British Columbia's 55+ population.

August 23, 2015
Garth Campbell
Since Garth's running injury he has been putting in big mileage on his road bike and today he posted an excellent performance in his first Tour de Victoria featuring 1,149 participants in 3 different distances plus a hill climb and a time trial finish. All 3 events finished on Belleville Street in front of the Legislative Buildings. Garth finished 47th overall of 634 participants in the most difficult division, the Harbour Air Epic 145K starting and finishing in front of the Parliament Buildings. His time was 4:06:15 and he placed second in the M55 division and was also second in the Passo Dello Stevliro 3K Hill Climb on Munn Road and second in the Happy Ending 18K Time Trial on Dallas Road to the finish line. The winners of the longest race, the Harbour Air Epic 145K, were Cody Canning in 3:48:09 and Jody Rechenmacher in 4:06:21. The top 16 men finished within 8 seconds of one another. The winners of the Pro City Legend 85K starting at Western Speedway were Paul Connor, 2:39:13, and Tamara Dalyrymple, 2:53:42. The shortest race was the Challenge 45K starting in Sidney. Harley Preston, 1:20:27, and Hillerie Denning, 1:28:31, were the winners. There were 634 finishers in the 145K event, 280 finishers in the 85K and 235 finishers in the 45K for a total of 1,149 finishers at the fifth annual Ryder Hesjedal Tour de Victoria. The day was sunny and hot and coincided with the annual Harriers Club Picnic where the riders all passed our picnic site, David and Josephine Hoskins house on Old West Saanich Road.

August 16, 2015
Bertrand Bozek and Brent Chan
Bertrand placed first and Brent placed third in the M40 division; they were second and thirteenth overall of 117 finishers at the first annual MEC Panorama Sprint Triathlon today in Central Saanich with times of 1:08:08 and 1:15:26 for the 500 metre swim, 20K cycle and 5K run. Bertrand recorded the fastest run time of 19:48 while Brent's best segment was the bike portion where he was 12th in 38:58. The race winners were David Trill in 1:04:23 and Keely Hammond, 10th overall in 1:13:55. There were 71 women and 46 men in the event.

August 15, 2015
Lucy Smith
Some might call SeaWheeze 2015 a Half Marathon. The organizers prefer to think of it as a yoga/run/party distilled though the wild imaginations of curiosity-drunk rebel scientists and lawless free-thinkers. This year’s SeaWheeze Sunset Festival, sponsored by Lululemon Athletica, was incredible. It featured an evening of outdoor yoga, music, tasty food and a few brews. Runners danced the night away to a great band on a licensed patio with a gourmet grab-and-go food dinner while watching stellar sunset views overlooking the Pacific Ocean from Vancouver’s iconic Stanley Park. The SeaWheeze Half Marathon, starting and finishing at Brockton Oval, attracted a staggering sold out crowd of 7,640 registrations including 6,301 women and 1,339 men and Harriers' Lucy Smith once again was on the podium in the women's field by finishing a very respectable 6th overall, second place female in 1:20:44. A model of consistency, Lucy was 10th overall in last year's race of 8,233 finishers, she was the first female in 1:20:18. In 2013 she also topped the women's field by finishing 11th overall of 7,607 finishers in 1:20:35. Today's race winner was Justin Kurek in 1:12:41 followed by Jake Van Allen in 1:17:34 and Joel Clarke-Ames took third in 1:18:29. The top three women finished 5th, 6th and 7th overall with Victoria's Kirsten Sweetland winning in 1:19:08, Lucy was second in 1:20:44 and Kate Gustafson placed third in 1:21:01. The huge spectacle of an event was sold out well in advance of today and the $ 128.00 entry fee times 7,640 registrations drew almost one million dollars in entry fees alone! The Lululemon SeaWheeze Half Marathon continues to be one of the largest and most festive events hosted in Vancouver.

August 8, 2015
Gary Duncan and Dan Jacklin
Gary and Dan were the only two Harriers to travel north to participate in the Mount Washington Assent, the fourth and final race of the Vancouver Island Gutbuster Series. Gary placed 6th overall to win the M50 age category in 56:20 and Dan was 8th overall to place second in the M40 division in 57:20. The top three men were Yahn Bernaquez, 45:55, Nathan Smith, 47:02, and Clay Ward, 47:54 while the top three women were Edel Reilly, 1:02:06, Kyla Beattie, 1:02:30, and Jamie Godwin, 1:04:46. The final runner was Amanda Roy, from South Porcupine, Ontario; she finished in 2:03:18. There were 56 finishers today compared to 71 finishers last year and 67 the year before. Not satisfied that they had done enough climbing today, both Gary and Dan stayed on Mount Washington Saturday night so they could participate in the Harriers Wilderness Run up and down Mount Albert Edward on Sunday morning.

August 2, 2015
Bertrand Bozek, Bob Janicki, Bill Scriven and Julie Van Veelen
There were 176 registrations and 154 finishers on August 2 for the 36th annual Self-Transcendence Triathlon and Duathlon starting approximately at 7:00 am including 78 women and 98 men. The winner of the Olympic Distance Triathlon was Carlos Lesser in 1:46:51, second was Carsten Lapointe in 1:58:26, and Sara Gross placed third overall; she was the first female in 2:10:55. Harriers' Bertrand Bozek was sixth OA, first M45 in 2:13:00, Bob Janicki finished second in the M55 division in 2:29:25, and Harriers' Bill Scriven finished in 2:53:28 to win the M65 division. John McManus had a good race taking second place in the M60 age category in 2:27:25. The Duathlon had 39 registrations including 18 women and 21 men with 33 finishers. First place went to Nick Patenaude in 2:02:17. Harriers' Paul O’Callaghan placed third overall in 2:14:37 and club mate Julie Van Veelan was the top female finishing first in her age category and fifth overall in 2:18:36. Mark Colegrave won the M65 division in 2:40:25. The event included a Sprint Triathlon with 177 registrations and 158 finishers. First place was Jaroslav Ploc in 1:04:49, second was Stan Lorenzo in 01:09:29 and third was Hansie De Kock in 01:11:39. The top female was Barbara Roper, she was 7th OA in 1:12:49. Harriers' Mike Lord, 2nd M40 in 1:19:05, and Brent Chan, 3rd M45 in 1:19:55, both had excellent performances. There was also a Youth Sprint Triathlon with 11 Participants, an Olympic Distance Triathlon Relay with 16 teams and a Duathlon Relay with 3 teams. Harriers Christine Thate, Lloyd Lomas, Maurice Tarrant and Maree Kennell marshaled at the event and many thanks to Christine Thate for writing this report. Advice from the great Sri Chinmoy, "There is only one perfect road and that road is ahead of you, always ahead of you."

July 28, 2015
Michael Barber
Michael ran a personal best of 2:07.49 in an 800 metre race in Exeter, England, today to win the U15 division at the British Milers Club (BMC) Regional Races. He placed 6th overall in a field primarily of adult runners. The winner of his heat was Euan Kernahan, from North Devon, with a season best of 2:04.16. There were 7 men's heats and 4 women's heats contested over the evening of 800 metre races. Michael's previous P.B. of 2:13.10 was also established at a BMC event in Lee Valley, England, on March 29, 2015. BMC hosts over 600 track races annually attracting more than 6,000 competitors. Through its racing program, training courses and coaching articles they aim to improve the world standing of United Kingdom Middle Distance running. The club works in close partnership with British Athletics in the organization of its fixtures and courses and the generous sponsorship from Nike allows the club to provide many services for its members.

July 26, 2015
Melanie McQuaid
Melanie, 42, came within a whisker of winning her longest race ever, the 226 kilometre Canadian Ironman Triathlon Championship today in the pouring rain on a challenging course in Whistler. After trailing by 2 minutes in the 2.4 mile swim (3.8K), she quickly caught the leader at the 5 mile point of the 112 mile bike portion (180K) and led by over 5 minutes when she started the 26.2 mile run (42.2K). Melanie ran strongly in the cold and wet conditions and fought courageously for 24 miles before being caught by the much younger Danielle Mack, from Colorado, who went on to finish first in the women's Ironman Canada placing 12th overall in 9:46:19. Melanie hit the tape second in 9:48:23 to finish a very respectable 14th overall out of 1,949 athletes. Another Canadian, Jen Arnett, placed third; she was 19th OA in 9:55:06. The top three men in the race were Viktor Zyemtsev, 8:49:46, Ukraine, Kyle Buckingham, 8:50:30, South Africa, and Justin Daerr, 8:54:45, United States. After turning master last year, Melanie switched her focus from off-road XTerra Triathlons to Half Ironman 70.3 (Mile) road competitions and she won five of these Half Ironman events in 2014 and Ironman 70.3 Victoria in 2015. Add these five wins to her 43 XTerra victories, including three World Championships in Hawaii, and she has now finished atop the triathlon podium 48 times. Today's silver medal was a well earned accomplishment considering that Ironman Canada 140.6 (Miles) was her first ever full distance triathlon. In the master's ranks Melanie finished over an hour ahead of her next F40 competitor, Julie Miller, who finished in 95th OA 10:49:03.

July 25, 2015
Gary Duncan and Marcia Stromsmoe
Gary (M50) and Marcia (F60) both captured 4 gold medals in their respective age categories by winning the 100m, 800m, 1,500m and 5,000m races at the Christie-Phoenix Victoria Run Series tonight at Centennial Stadium in the the fourth and final track meet before the Series swings into cross country season at Beaver Lake in September. Gary placed 1st overall of 6 finishers in 15.84 seconds in the 100m, 4th of 13 finishers in 2:38 in the 800m, 2nd of 13 finishers in 5:16 in the 1,500m and 4th of 16 finishers in 19:15 in the 5,000m while Marcia placed 4th OA in 21.25 in the 100m, 7th in 3:36 in the 800m, 8th in 7:07 in the 1,500m and 10th in 25:21 in the 5,000m. Several Youth Team Harriers ran very well at the meet including Jack Stanley, 2nd OA in 15:44 in the 5,000m race, Connor Harrison, 2:04, Robbie Deacon, 2:06, and Jack Cooper, 2:08, placing 2nd, 3rd, and 4th OA in the 1,500m Youth Race and Kalem Delaney 1st OA in the Fast 1,500m race in 4:29 and Jordan Cheung 5th OA in 4:46 in the Fast 1,500m race. There were 7 events attracting 66 finishers including 33 Harriers. The race champions were Carlos Lesser, 15:26 in the 5,000m, Noah Regnier, 12.14 in the 100m Sprint A, Gary Duncan, 15.84, in the 100m Sprint B, Oleg Saldyga, 2:33 in the 800m Open, Noah Regnier, 2:03 in the 800m Youth, Darren Skuja, 5:11 in the 1,500m Open and Kalem Delaney, 4:29 in the 1,500m Fast Division.

July 18, 2015
Shane Ruljancich and Matt Priestley
The Harriers sent a team of 15 members to Rossland, BC, today to compete in a series of four distances offered at the Broken Goat Trail Races. Shane (25K) and Matt (12K) came away as race champions and the other 13 Harriers also performed well. The feature event was the 50K which attracted 3 Harriers amongst the 87 finishers. The website describes the course as, "The Broken Goat 50K is an incredibly challenging trail running race that takes place in one of Canada's highest cities, Rossland, BC, and is hosted by Red Mountain Resorts. This race is not recommended if this is your first ultra as 50K as participants must be prepared for a long and strenuous journey in remote alpine terrain." This distance was won by Calgary's Jeff Krar in 5:21:10 while the top female was Abi Moore, from Fernie, she was 6th overall in 6:16:05. Kibben Guy was the top Harrier in the 50K by placing 21st in 7:10:08. Kristy Petovello had a strong race taking 46th position, 16th female in 7:37:03, and team mate Katie Clegg was 79th in 9:50:31. Shane's victory in the 25K race in 2:12:00 was more than 4 minutes ahead of Calgary's John Laughton who broke the tape in 2:16:16. Victoria's Karen Welland was the top female, 7th overall in 2:45:10. There were 8 Harriers in the 25K and several had very strong performances including Walter Cantwell, 2nd master and 5th overall in 2:43:08, and Larry Nylen who won the M50 division and finished 17th in 3:02:31. Lisa Fehr was the top female Harrier, 33rd OA, 16th female in 3:19:20. She was followed by Lisa Cantwell, 42nd in 3:31:55, Kathleen Birney, 54th in 3:49:40, Elaine Galbraith, 61st in 3:54:34, and Andrew Galbraith, 67th in 4:37:32. Matt's victory in the 12K was equally as impressive as Shane's 25K win as Matt beat Canmore's Michael Fitzpatrick by almost 5 minutes. Their times were 1:07:56 and 1:12:48. The top female in the 12K was Lisa Pye, also from Canmore, 3rd overall in 1:16:08. Matt's wife, Nicola Priestley, was 21st in 1:47:11 and Sara Pape finished 23rd in 1:50:28. The winners of the Vertical Climb race were both from Kelowna with Peter Watson capturing the men's race in 17:34 and Alison Campbell Urness winning the women's race in 23:27. Harriers' Andrew Pape placed 9th overall in 22:00 and was 3rd master. There were 87 finishers in the 50K, 71 in the 25K, 34 in the 12K and 16 in the Vertical Climb for a total of 208 finishers at the Broken Goat Trail Races.

July 18, 2015
Kris Swanson
Representing the Canadian National Team, Harriers' Kris Swanson placed second overall to Squamish's Nick Elson in a tough duel at the Cyprus Mountain Championship Race today in North Vancouver. Their times were 54:09 and 55:32. Third place went to another Canadian National Team member, Victoria's Shaun Stephens-Whale, in 56:48. The top female was Vancouver's Chessa Adsit-Morris, 15th overall in 1:06:56, while Victoria's Catrin Jones, former GFVM champion, was 7th female and 23rd overall in 1:10:31. There were 54 finishers in the Championship Division, 167 in the Enduro Division, 182 in the Sport Division and 29 in the Kid's Division for a total of 432 finishers at Cyprus Mountain, Race #3 of the Five Peaks BC Trail Running Series.

July 18, 2015
Jim Finlayson and Erin Burrett
Jim and Erin were the top Harriers finishing 4th and 14th overall of 378 finishers while Rachel Cliff and Blair Johnston won the 2015 BC 10K Road Race Championships this morning at the VFAC hosted Summerfast 10K in Stanley Park. Cliff successfully retained her crown, winning in 34:49 under sunny skies. Erin Burrett, returning from injury, took second in 35:36 and Lissa Zimmer of the host club was close behind to complete the podium in 35:48. The top female master was Melanie Kassel in 40:54. The men's race featured a much closer finish as only 23 seconds separated the top 4 runners including the first master. Blair Johnston triumphed in 31:30, Theo Hunt took the runner-up spot in the race for the third year in a row in 31:37 and Jerry Ziak outsprinted Jim Finlayson for third place in 31:52. Jim was the top master in 31:53. The Harriers placed four athletes in the top 10 positions overall for, besides Jim's 4th place finish, Logan Roots was 5th in 32:34, Craig Odermatt was 8th in 33:06 and Ian Searle was 9th in 33:25. The Summerfast 10K today was the 14th and final race in the B.C. Road Running Series which started with the Harriers Pioneer 8K on January 11.

July 12, 2015
Brent Chan and Sandra Mullen
Brent and Sandra were the top Harriers finishing 9th and 17th overall in 1:09:30 and 1:15:25 at the Cowichan Challenge Triathlon - Sprint Division in Chemainus today. Brent won the M45 age division and Sandra won the F50 age division out of 88 finishers. The race winners in the Sprint Division were Jeremy Kissack, 1:01:53, and Emily Clark, 1:05:38, while the winners in the Main Division were Byron Trajan, 1:50:42, and Suzanne Chandler, 2:00:33. There were a total of 88 finishers in the Sprint Distance and another 100 in the Main Distance.

July 11, 2015
Shane Ruljancich and Gary Duncan
Shane won the Ladysmith Holland Creek Gutbuster today in 1:07:48 while Gary was the top Harrier and placed second overall of 70 finishers in the short course in 44:17, Race #3 of 4 in the Vancouver Island Gutbuster Series. The top female in the long course, which had to be modified today due to the extreme fire hazard, was Selene Curnow, from Campbell River, she was also the top master and finished 13th overall in 1:30:35. The race winners in the short course were Nick Accardo, 39:06, and Brittany Carey, 9th overall in 51:53. There were 4 Harriers participating in the long course and another 4 in the short course compared to 15 Harriers that ran Ladysmith last year. Colleen Auringer, F50, and Brent Scott, M50, both took gold medals today in their respective age categories. There were 46 long course finishers and 70 short course finishers for a total of 116. This was 4 more than last years total of 112.

July 10, 2015
Natasha Wodak and Geoff Martinson
Natasha won the 5,000 Metre women's race with a P.B. of 15:44 and Geoff won the 5,000 Metre men's race in 13:52 in Nanaimo tonight at the BC Athletics Championship Jamboree. The event was hosted by Nanaimo Track and Field Club at the Rotary Bowl and featured Master, Senior, Junior, Youth and Midget Championships on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, July 10, 11 and 12. Second place in the women's 5,000 was another Harrier, Brittany Therrien, one minute back of Natasha in 16:49, while UVic's Kendra Pomfret took third in 18:13. Geoff's victory over Lucas Bruchet of Point Grey Track Club was an upset as he was ranked 15 seconds behind Lucas based on current 2015 race results and Geoff finished 41 seconds ahead of him in the race. Lucas was second in 14:33 and Point Grey's Theo Hunt, 2015 Harriers Pioneer 8K champion, placed third in 14:49. There were hundreds of participants in over 150 track and field events for athletes aged 10 to 80 years old with an emphasis on attracting youths and teenagers. Twelve members of the PIH Youth Team ran various distances of 400 Metres, 800 Metres, 1,200 Metres and 1,500 Metres and all did very well with a few PIH athletes posting P.B.s. Next up for Natasha is the Pan Am Games in Toronto where she and Lanni Marchant will represent Canada in the 10,000 Metre race on Thursday, July 23.

July 4, 2015
Julie Van Veelen
Julie has returned to training and racing following her very serious bicycle accident last year which required several months of treatment and rehabilitation. Today, she made a successful return to racing by winning her F35 age category and placing 8th overall of 82 finishers at the Triathlon of Compassion in Esquimalt. She was fourth female with a time of 1:06:34 including a 8:40 swim (500m), 36:48 bike (20K) and 21:06 run (5K). The race champions were Jaroslav Ploc and Hannah Henry who finished first and second overall in 56:58 and 1:01:06. Harriers' Kibben Guy won the M35 age division in 1:09:10 to place 13th overall. There were also 30 finishers in the Kids of Steel Triathlon youth division with ages ranging from 6 to 15 years old. The Triathlon of Compassion is one of Victoria’s longest running triathlons. The grass roots, urban triathlon takes place at the Esquimalt Recreation Centre and on the roads in and around the Centre. It is a great family event with a full range of kids' distances as well as the always popular adult sprint race. The Triathlon of Compassion is a major fundraiser for the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre.

June 28, 2015
Natasha Wodak
Natasha finished second to Lanni Marchant today in the large and competitive field at the Scotiabank Vancouver Half Marathon, part of the Canada Run Series. Their times were a very respectable 1:11:08 and 1:12:31 and they placed 10th and 13th overall of 3,562 finishers. Third place in the women's ranks was the top master and 2014 GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon winner, Lioudmila Kortchaguina, a shade over 5 minutes behind Natasha in 1:17:33. The first three men at the Scotiabank Half Marathon were Reid Coolsaet, from Hamilton, ON, in 1:05:40, a fast finishing Arya Bahreini, from Edmond, Okla, in 1:06:34, and Windsor Ontario's, Matt Loiselle, in 1:06:58. In the accompanying Scotiabank 5K Race the winners were Marc Molgat and Olivia Willett with relatively pedestrian times of 18:45 and 19:31. There were 4,296 registrations and 3,562 finishers in the Half and 2,203 registrations and 1,801 finishers in the 5K for a total of 6,499 registrations and 5,363 finishers on a very hot morning in Vancouver where temperatures reached 25 degrees.

June 27, 2015
Craig Odermatt, Bruce Deacon and Robbie Deacon
Craig, 45 years old, Bruce, 48, and his son Robbie, 15, placed first, second and third in the feature 800 Metre race at Meet No. 3 of the Christie-Phoenix Victoria Track Series at UVic tonight with times of 4:16, 4:21 and 4:34. The event drew 74 finishers over 9 different races including 33 Harriers and 13 members of the PIH Youth Team. Distances contested were 400m, 800m, 1,000m, 1,500m, 3,000m, 5,000m and 2,000m steeplechase. Other Harriers finishing first overall were Robbie Deacon, 6:54 in the 2,000m steeple, Chris Callendar, 2:12 in the 800m, Malcolm Harrison, 2:37 in the 1,000m and Ian Searle, 8:56 in the 3,000m.

June 23, 2015
Julien Marceau and Camie Bentham
Julien and Camie emerged as race champions at the 31st annual Twilight Shuffle tonight with winning times of 18:32 and 21:32. After being staged for the first 30 years in Chemainus, Race Director Phil Nicholls shifted his venue to the streets of Fairfield starting on St. Charles Street and following Dallas Road on an out-and-back course to Clover Point. There were 97 finishers including 20 Harriers in the event and most participants enjoyed the new oceanfront route mainly comprised of sidewalks rather than running on the roads. It was an extremely exciting finish as Harriers' Julien Marceau and Bertrand Bozek turned the final corner dead even with 30 metres to go. In the end the young legs prevailed with Julien sprinting to a 3 second margin of victory while Bertrand collected the top master's crown in second place and Jordan Cheung, a member of the PIH Youth Team, took third overall and won the M19 division as the top junior. Nine of the top ten finishers in the race were all Prairie Inn Harriers and six of them won their respective age categories. Garrett Therrien ran a strong race to finish 4th overall and win the M20 division as did Gary Duncan, 5th OA and 1st M50, and the legendary Herb Phillips from Burnaby, 8th OA and 1st M70. Other Harriers finishing first in their age categories were Clarise Lim, F30, she also won the major draw prize of Oakley sunglasses, and Jane McDonald, F50. Silver medals were collected by Sara Pape-Salmon, F40, Michael Lord, M40, Andrew Gregg, M30, Nolan Bentham, M15, Jane Kim, F20, and Christine Thate, F50, while a bronze medal went to Blake Bentham, M15. Clarise and Sara were the second and third females overall behind Camie for a clean 1-2-3 sweep. Running her first-ever race, new Harrier Tami Tate placed 9th of 15 finishers in the most popular F40 division in 31:50. Tami was paced by Goddess Run, GoodLife Marathon and TC10K Race Director, Cathy Noel, who finished one second back in 31:51. Other Harriers including Mike Emerson, Phil Nicholls, Bob Reid and Gary Duncan volunteered with course set-up, finish line, marshaling and awards while Cheryl Nicholls was the lead cyclist. The final three participants finished in 55:46 and the 31st annual Victoria Twilight Shuffle 5K was a successful wrap for 2015.

June 21, 2015
Paul Siluch, Will Boothman, Rob Reid, Susan Jones and Susan Turcotte
Paul, Will and Rob were the top Harriers in the 10K race and Susan and Susan were the top Harriers in the accompanying 5K race today at the Raymond James Father's Day Family Walk/Run in Victoria. The event supports prostate cancer research and the $ 35,000 raised goes directly to patient-supported programs and services on Vancouver Island. Paul, Will and Rob finished 2nd, 3rd and 5th overall in the 10K, their times were 42:19, 42:52 and 45:30. Paul won the M50 division, Rob won the M60 division and Will won the M40 division. Susan Jones won the F60 division and Susan Turcotte won the F50 division in the 5K in 32:42 and 36:23. They placed a very respectable 10th and 13th of 109 females in the 5K race. The race champions were Matt Leroy, 41:16, and Danielle Hubbard, 49:42, in the 10K while Will's son, Cole Boothman, won the 5K in 22:51 and Philipa Lentz was the top 5K female in 25:58. Cole and Philipa finished 1-2 of 205 finishers in the 5K and there were 61 finishers in the 10K for a total of 266. Gary Duncan ran as the 10K race rabbit leading all finishers to the line in 40:30. Other races in Vancouver, Burnaby, Chilliwack, Kamloops and Kelowna also held Father's Day events today and an amazing total of $ 285,000 was raised for the Prostate Cancer Foundation BC.

June 21, 2015
Mark Ritchie, Dan Stefanson and Mike Angrove
Mark, Dan and Mike were the top Harriers today in the Navy 10K and 5K races in Esquimalt starting from the Canadian Forces Base and encompassing a hilly route through the municipality. Mark and Dan were second and third in the M45 age category and placed 7th and 8th overall in 38:28 and 38:40 in the 10K race won by Trevor O'Brien in 35:01 and Jessica Loughead in 41:57. Mike was fourth overall and second M25 in 17:39 in the 5K race won by Andrew Patterson in 16:44 and Cherie Lewis in 22:04. There were 280 finishers in the 10K and 256 finishers in the 5K for a total of 536.

June 20, 2015
Matt Priestley and Kristy Petovello
Matt and Kristy were the top Harriers leading a record field of 529 finishers home at the 11th 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?" Matt finished 4th overall, second M30, in 2:47:05 and Kristy was 6th female of 316 women, she was first F30 and 27th overall in 3:15:14. Both the male and female champions today set course records with Nick Elson, from Squamish, winning the men's race in 2:07:10 and Nanaimo's Wendy Simms winning the women's division in 2:52:06. She finished 7th overall and was the top master. It was the third consecutive win for Nick Elson at Kusam and today he set an overall open course record of 2:07:10 compared to his winning time of 2:09:25 last year and 2:14:44 the year before. Wendy Simms's time of 2:52:06 was a master women's course record as the overall women's open course record of 2:49:12 was set by Claire Morgan last year. Other Harriers running well at the Kusam Klimb today were Chris Brower and Valerie Bell who finished 1-2 in the F50 age category in 3:32:20 and 3:53:31; they were 46th and 78th overall. Katie Clegg was 7th in the F30 division in 3:48:01.

June 19, 2015
Natasha Wodak and Craig Odermatt
Natasha collected her second BC Championship tonight by winning the BlueShore Financial Longest Day 5K Road Race at U.B.C. hosted by Vancouver Thunderbirds. She finished 7th overall of 757 finishers in 16:16 while Craig was one position ahead of her, 6th OA in 16:00, to place second in the M40 age category to Kevin O'Connor who finished 5th overall in 15:54. The race winner was Vancouver's Kevin Friesen in 14:48 followed by Kenyan Benard Ngeno in 15:17. Catherine Watkins was second female, top master, and 14th overall in 17:04. Natasha did a track workout with Lanni Marchand of 5 times one kilometre immediately after the race in preparation for the PamAm Games in Toronto next month where both girls will be competing for Team Canada in the 10,000 Metre event. In the accompanying Longest Day 10K race tonight at U.B.C., the winners were Tyler Ginther in 35:26 and Suzy Hutchins in 41:15. There were 403 finishers in the 10K and 757 finishers in the 5K for a total of 1,160.

June 14, 2015
Melanie McQuaid and Bertrand Bozek
Melanie was the race champion at the Subaru Victoria Ironman 70.3 Triathlon at Elk Lake today by finishing 7th overall in 4:25:50. She was first of 626 women in the event with a comfortable lead of almost 5 minutes over the second place female, Malindi Elmore, from Kelowna, who finished 14th in 4:29:37. The male race winner was Regina's Shawn Wilyman in 4:09:11. Jack Toland, of Kirkland, WA, took second place in 4:18:21 of 1,413 finishers in the Half Iron distance. Bertrand finished second overall and was the top master in the accompanying Sprint Division won by North Vancouver's Craig Dale in 1:07:28. Bertrand's time was 1:10:30 and he was over 5 minutes ahead of the second place master, Calgary's Morten Pedersen who finished 8th OA in 1:15:35. Victoria's Alexandra Bovell was the top female in the Sprint Division; she finished 5th overall in 1:14:05. The popular event which has a cap of 1,500 registrations sold out very quickly. It featured 1,537 finishers including 35 relay teams.

June 13, 2015
Shane Ruljancich, Gary Duncan, Colleen Auringer and Will Boothman
Shane won the long course of the Mount Tzouhalem Gutbuster today in 56:37 while Gary was the top master finishing fourth overall in 1:03:13 to win the M50 division. The female winner of the long course was Victoria's Lindsey Chamberland; she was 10th overall in 1:07:35. Other Harriers collecting medals for the long course included Brent Scott, 2nd M50, Courtney Post, 2nd F20, Valerie Bell, 2nd F50, and Kirsty Petovello, 3rd F30. Will was the top Harrier in the Mt. Zoo short course. He was third master and finished 7th overall in 38:36. Colleen won a gold medal by finishing first in the F50 age category in 48:30. The short course winners were Cory Ramstead, 33:24, and Heather Wirachowsky, 39:23. Sara Pape-Salmon, F40, and Jane McDonald, F50, also collected bronze medals in their age divisions. There were 15 Harriers participating at the event including nine month old Sheamus Pape-Salmon as he was in Andrew's backpack as they hiked the short course and took photos along the way. There were 65 finishers for the long course and 63 finishers for the short course for a total of 128. Last year the Mount Tzhouhalem Gutbuster attracted 150 finishers with 21 fewer on the long course this year and only one fewer on the short course.

June 13, 2015
Natasha Wodak
Natasha was the top Canadian and finished 9th overall of over 6,000 participants in the women's-only, high performance, Oakley New York Mini 10K, one of the most prestigious runs for women in North America. Although this was an improvement over her time of 34:44 last year at the New York Mini 10K where she placed 18th, her time was a somewhat disappointing 33:30 compared to her landmark 10K P.B. where she ran 31:58 in the Ottawa 10K Canadian Championships just last month. Today that Ottawa time would have placed her second overall to Kenyan race champion, Mary Keitany, who hit the line in 31:15. Second place went to Kenyan Betsy Saina in 32:30 and Kenyan Edna Kiplangat took third in 32:39. Natasha's exhaustive travel and racing schedule over the past 6 weeks probably played a part for her tired legs today in New York.

June 7, 2015
Jim Finlayson, David Jackson, Jeremy Watts and Taylor Lyman
On an extremely busy race weekend with 14 events occurring in Langford, Sooke, Victoria, Metchosin, Langley and Whistler, Harriers boasted four overall victories. Jim won the Whistler Half Marathon in 1:11:14, David won the accompanying Whistler 10K in 34:04, Jeremy won the MEC 10K on the Galloping Goose in Sooke in 38:51 and Taylor won the feature 800 metre race in Langley in 1:53.46. Other events on Saturday and Sunday included the Goddess Run 5K, 10K and Half Marathon, the MEC 5K, 10K and Half Marathon, the Robert Cameron Cycling Series of 5 races and the BC High School Track and Field Championships. Jim's margin of victory in the Whistler Half was 1 minute and 11 seconds over Arya Bahreini who finished second in 1:12:25. Third place was Calgary's Duncan Marsden, more than 8 minutes back in 1:20:27. Victoria's Marilyn Arsenault was fourth overall and top female in 1:21:46. There were 854 finishers in the Half Marathon. David's margin of victory was 4 minutes, 25 seconds over John Teitzel, 38:29, while Victoria's Catrin Jones, 39:06, finished fourth overall, first female, of 439 finishers in the Whistler 10K. Jeremy was 1 minute and 37 seconds ahead of Jun Yokota, 40:32, and Angela Easby was the top female in the 10K, 5th overall in 44:04. There were 58 finishers in the MEC Tape Breaker 10K, 59 finishers in the 5K and 44 finishers in the Half Marathon for a total of 161. The Goddess Run attracted 802 finishers in 10K, won by CeeVacs Jill Ramstead in 41:03, 732 in the the 5K, won by Barbara Roper in 20:46, and 167 finishers in the Half Marathon, won by Chelsea Kaasa, from Salmon Arm, in 1:38:35. There were also 200 children and parents in the Family Run for a total of 1,901 participants at the Goddess Run. A special thank you goes to Harriers' Claire Morgan and Gary Duncan for being Lead Cyclists and to Race Director, Cathy Noel, for coordinating a very successful event on a hot, sunny day. Christine Thate won the major draw prize comprised of a one night's stay and a gift certificate from the Westin Bear Mountain Resort. Taylor's victory in the 800 metre race was a mere nine one hundredths of a second over Reid Muller, of Pitt Meadows, in the BC High School T&F Championships at McLeod Athletic Park in Langley. The two finished in 1:53.46 and 1:53.55. New Westminster Secondary School, 65 points, won the Senior Team Title and, on the strength of Taylor's victory, Reynolds Secondary School, 62 points, placed second of 108 schools. There were thousands of athletes competing in Langley over the weekend at the Championships.

May 30, 2015
Natasha Wodak
For the second consecutive Saturday evening in their second consecutive Canadian Road Race Championship in two different provinces at two different distances, Lanni Marchant and Natasha Wodak finished 1-2 as Lanni was crowned 10K Champion in Ottawa last weekend and Half Marathon Champion today in Calgary with a winning time of 1:12:17 breaking her own course record of 1:15:55 set in 2014. Natasha finished with a silver medal in both events by clocking a 1:13:29 today at the Scotiabank Calgary Half Marathon Canadian Championships. Vancouver's Dayna Pidhoresky finished third in 1:16:12 and the top three ladies collected $ 5,000, $ 3,000 and $ 2,000 in prize money for their efforts. The girls were 15th, 17th and 24th overall. Harriers' Logan Roots was 19th of 3,303 finishers in the Half in 1:13:48; he finished third in the M20 age category. Kip Kangogo won the Half Marathon in 1:06:39 while Jonathan Chesoo won the Marathon in 2:17:12. The top female in the Marathon was Lioudmila Kortchaguina in 2:48:12. There were 856 finishers in the Marathon, 3,303 in the Half Marathon, 2,883 in the 10K, 2,346 in the 5K, 500 in the Kid's Run and 141 in the 50K Ultra for a total of 10,029 finishers today in Calgary. More than one million dollars has been raised to date in the Scotiabank Charity Challenge. It has been a busy travel schedule for Natasha with two stops in Southern California, and trips to Vancouver, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Calgary for events over the past 6 weeks. She looks forward to a restful few weeks to train and recover in Vancouver while enjoying her two favourite cats.

May 30, 2015
Maurice Tarrant
Three records were set tonight at the second track meet of the 2015 Christie-Phoenix Insurance Victoria Run Series. Under sunny skies and breezy, but warm conditions at the University of Victoria’s Centennial Stadium, the following distances were contested: 800m (5 races), 2,000m (1 race) and 3,000m (3 races) with open-mixed and elite categories offered. There were 83 finishers in 9 separate events including 32 Harriers' finishers and 15 members of the PIH Youth Team. During the open-mixed 3,000m race Harriers' Maurice Tarrant set the Canadian 85-89 age-group record with his 17:01.99 clocking. He said before the race, "I am hoping to run around 17 minutes." He broke the previous mark by about 4 seconds. Maurice owns over 65 Canadian age-group records as well as the 80-84 world mile record, which he set in 2010 at the Victoria Run Series. Six days earlier, at the Oak Bay KOOL 5K race, Maurice broke Manuel Teodoro's Canadian M85 road record of 34:25 by recording a time of 29:45. Several Harriers ran well tonight with three overall victories by Ryan Niezen in the 800m, Bruce Deacon in the 2,000m and Jordan Cheung in the 3,000m. Silver medals were collected by Robbie Deacon, 800m, Ian Searle, 800m, Kalum Delaney, 2,000m, and Gary Duncan, 3,000m, while Jack Stanley, 800m, Taylor Lyman, 800m, and Devin Galway, 2,000m, won bronze medals by finishing third overall in their respective races.

May 30, 2015
Matt Priestly and Nicola Priestly
Harriers husband and wife team of Matt and Nicola Priestly ran very well today at the Ruckle Park 11K Trail Race on Salt Spring Island, Race No. 2 of a 3-race Trail Series. The 11K course wound its way around the park, wrapping around intimate coves, over the height of land at Merganser Pond and along the water's edge with views of the Southern Gulf Islands and as far south as the San Juan Islands. Matt was the race champion in 56:09 finishing about one minute ahead of Darren Tannas who hit the line in 57:07. Nicole was fifth female in 1:28:00. The top female was Vancouver's Carolyn Goluza in 1:15:03. Carolyn was ninth overall out of 26 finishers including 12 men and 14 women. Harriers' Kathleen Birney was 13th female in 1:36:55.

May 25, 2015
Heather Bretschneider
Heather traveled south of the border on Memorial Day Monday and did remarkably well by finishing as the second place female and 25th overall of 102 finishers with a time of 4:59:36 at the Trail Factor 50K in Portland, Oregon. The top female was Teagen Andrews from Portland; she was 17th overall in 4:44:15. Teagen's time and Heather's time were the second and third fastest female finishing times in the past four years since the race started in 2012. The race winner was Mario Mendoza, of Bend, OR, with a new course record of 3:31:59. Heather was the top Canadian in the field including 4 runners from British Columbia and two from Saskatchewan. There were 96 American finishers from 10 different States. The trails of Forest Park are a treasure for runners and an opportunity to run a race on them shouldn't be missed. This event is the only 50K held in Portland, the route includes everyone's favorite – Wildwood Trail – but also some lesser traveled and less-known paths, with approximately 4,000' of elevation gain. The race supports the Forest Park Conservancy and is one of Portland's most popular trail ultras.

May 24, 2015
Jim Finlayson, Gary Duncan and Andrew Gregg
It must be one of his favourite races as for the seventh time in eleven years Jim won the Oak Bay KOOL Half Marathon today in 1:11:54 with a margin of victory of 7 minutes and 26 seconds over Adam O'Meara who placed second in 1:19:10 while Care Nelson was the top female; she was sixth overall of 501 finishers in 1:23:24. Gary, 39:14, was second overall and top master of 209 finishers in the accompanying 10K race won by former Harriers Pioneer 8K champion, Trevor O'Brien, in 36:39. Mel Russell was the top 10K female and placed fifth overall in 42:25. Andrew was also second overall in the 5K race in 21:11 won by the top female, Susan Gordon, 50 years old, from Salt Spring Island, who broke the tape in 20:36 ahead of the 59 finishers. There were 28 half marathon relay teams and 50 in the kid's run for a total of 931 participants in all five races today. Last year the event drew 1,121 finishers and the record of 1,376 finishers was achieved in 2013.

May 23, 2015
Natasha Wodak
Natasha was the fourth female, second Canadian, with her third consecutive personal best performance of 31:58 at the Tamarack Ottawa 10K tonight, the site of the official 10K Canadian Road Race Championships. She lowered her P.B. of 32:35 by 37 seconds set at the Sun Run one month ago. The Ottawa 10K winners were both Kenyans with Nicholas Bor, 27:55, and Gladys Cherono, 30:55, each collecting the top prize money of $ 8,000. Lanni Marchant was the top Canadian and third female to finish, 10 seconds ahead of Natasha in 31:48, just 4 seconds shy of Lynn Williams Canadian course record of 31:44. For their efforts, Lanni won $ 2,000 for finishing as third female and another $ 3,000 for being top Canadian, while Natasha collected $ 1,000 as fourth female and another $ 1,500 for finishing as second Canadian. The marathon male and female winners each received $ 30,000. Harriers' Craig Odermatt had a strong 10K race finishing second to Vancouver's Kevin O'Connor in the M45 division; their times were 32:30 and 32:59 good for 40th and 48th overall of the 13,227 participants including 8,073 women and 5,154 men. Lanni and Natasha were 22nd and 29th in an outstanding field packed with Kenyans and Ethiopians. Prize money went 10 deep in the four major races. The 2015 Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend welcomed 49,200 participants in six races, including the Scotiabank Ottawa Marathon, the Scotiabank Half-Marathon, the Ottawa 10K, the HTG Sports 5K, the 2K and Scotiabank Kids Marathon. Two of the weekend’s events have received top honours from the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF). The Ottawa 10K is one of only four Gold label 10K races in the world, and the Scotiabank Ottawa Marathon is designated Silver label.

May 16, 2015
Maurice Tarrant, Chris Callendar, Gary Duncan and Marcia Stromsmoe
Maurice set yet another Canadian Record at the Christie-Phoenix Victoria Run Series at UVic's Centennial Stadium tonight, Chris won three different races outright and both Gary and Marcia collected 5 gold medals at two different venues today to add to their treasure chests of hardware. Maurice took the Canadian 85-89 age-group record with his time of 7:59.56 in the 1,500 Metre race which was over 25 seconds faster than the previous National M85 mark of 8:24.85 set by Les Leland in 2002 in Toronto. Currently Maurice has broken over 60 Canadian Records and 2 World Records. Chris won the 400 Metre race in 59.84 seconds, and followed it up with victories in the 1,500 Metre event, 4:50.98, and the 800 Metre event, 2:35.78. Not to be outdone for consistency and durability, Gary won the M50 division in four track races in a row recording times of 1:11.95 in the 400M, 18:59.51 in the 5,000M, 5:35.23 in the 1,500M and 2:50.47 in the 800M. This was after he won the M50 division and placed third overall at the Kilted Mile at Topaz Park as part of 152nd annual Victoria's Highland Games and Celtic Festival. There were 17 runners at the Kilted Mile including 3 visitors from China and 6 Harriers participating with Matthew Winkler winning the race in 4:55, Harriers' Shane Ruljancich was second in 4:57 and Gary took third in 5:33. Courtenay Cameron won the women's race with Harriers' Marcia Stromsmoe taking second and Susan Jones placed third. Cash prizes were awarded with $ 100 for first place, $ 75 for second and $ 50 for third so club members collected $ 250 of the total purse of $ 450. Marcia closely followed Gary's in footsteps by collecting another 4 gold medals at UVic with age category victories in the 400M, 800M, 1,500M and 5,000M races. The Victoria Run Series had 58 finishers including 24 Harriers in 6 different events. Many Harriers won their age categories at both venues.

May 13, 2015
Taylor Lyman
This afternoon at UVic's Centennial Stadium, Taylor won the Vancouver Island High School 800 Metre Championship with a spectacular personal best time of 1:51.73. This is the fastest time run in Canada by the Reynolds student and member of the PIH Youth Team coached by Bruce Deacon. It was also the 6th fastest Youth time run in the world to date and qualifies Taylor for the IAAF World Youth T&F Championships in Cali, Columbia, from July 15 to July 19, 2015.

May 10, 2015
Gary Duncan and Kristy Petovello
Gary and Kristy were the top Harriers on the long course of Gutbuster #1 at Western Speedway today. They finished 5th and 9th overall in 1:04:31 and 1:07:18 with Gary winning the M50 division by just over a minute and Kristy finishing as 4th female and 3rd in the F30 division. The long course winners were Chris Sundby, in 54:57, and Julia Tchanz, 3rd overall in 1:02:12. Spencer Floyd, 25:11, and Keelin Greenlaw, 28:52, were the short course winners. There were 43 finishers in the long course and 47 in the short course for a total of 90 compared to 108 finishers last year and 111 the year before. Happy Mother's Day to all of the Harriers mothers celebrating their special day today. Eat cake!

May 9, 2015
Jason Loutitt and Lise Wessels
Jason and Lise were the top masters and both finished second at the 28th annual Harriers 2:18 Run Elk/Beaver Ultras today under the leadership of new Race Director, Darcy Kernel. Jason was second to Calgary's Adam Kahtava in the National Championship 100K Division; their times were 8:08:55 and 8:23:21. The female National 100K Champion, Arielle Fitzgerald, from Batawa, ON, finished third overall in 8:29:32. There were 16 registrations, 15 starters and 10 finishers in the 100K race. Lise was second female, third overall in 4:02:28, in the most popular 50K Division won by Alicia Woodside, North Vancouver, 3:53:19, and Victoria's Rafael Albert, 3:57:37. Former Race Director, Carlos Castillo Sr., was 24th in the 50K in 5:45:18. There were 40 registrations, 37 starters and 33 finishers in the 50K race. Nanaimo's Darren Seaman, 6:20:04, and Delta's Melanie Williams, 9:48:32, were the 50 Mile winners which had 12 registrations, 12 starters and 8 finishers. The First-Timers Marathon winners were Kody Kryzanowski, from Royston, in 3:22:50, and Victoria's Venessa Le, in 3:51:32. The marathon had 13 registrations, 12 starters and 11 finishers. The Glen Jaques 40K Walk was won by Chris Rudman, Victoria, 6:50:35, and Kristie Congram, Vancouver, 6:52:35. The walk had 3 registrations, 3 starters and 3 finishers. The total of 84 registrations, 79 starters and 65 finishers were all event records on a bright and sunny day at Elk and Beaver Lakes. A special thanks to all of the Harriers volunteers including Carlos Castillo Jr. and Kandise Froese who both spent 13 hours at the race doing the timing and providing live race results for all participants on the website throughout the day.

May 3, 2015
Jason Loutitt, Michael Angrove, Juliette Christie and Chris Callendar
Jason, 40, was the top master finishing in 2:33:59, good for 11th overall of 3,575 finishers at the BMO Vancouver Marathon today in sunny and hot conditions. Running his first marathon, Michael, 28, had a sub-3:00 performance by hitting the line in 2:57:14 and offered these post race comments, "Just thought I’d update you on the BMO Vancouver Marathon that occurred today. It was a gorgeous day on a beautiful, but very tough, course. The entire first half of the race includes a large downhill, then a large uphill, then another large downhill. By the time the wind-exposed and lonely sea wall came in the final 10k my quads were shredded from the first half. I missed my 2:55 goal by a few minutes, but am still very happy with a Boston Qualifier time of 2:57:14 in my debut marathon. There were lots of cheers for the Harriers singlet I was wearing throughout the race, so hopefully I did the club proud! Definitely missing the Tuesday Night Workouts right now, especially as y’all head back to Mount Doug!" Michael has written a more detailed report that will be posted soon under "Current News" on the website. Chris, 34, and Juliette were the top Harriers in the BMO 8K Road Race finishing 4th and 11th overall of 1,410 finishers. Juliette was the first female overall and, at the age of 52, she beat all other 947 women and 451 of 461 men in the race. Tyler Ginther, 46, won the 8K in 28:32. The largest race with 6,477 finishers, the BMO Half Marathon was won by Rob Watson, 1:04:48, and Jane Murage, 1:12:53. The marathon winners were Luka Chelimo, 2:18:37, and Lioudmila Kortchaguina, 2:37:37.

May 2, 2015
Natasha Wodak and Geoff Martinson
Natasha ran the race of her life and Geoff placed a very respectable third in his 5,000 metre section at the Payton Jordan Invitational Track and Field Meet at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California today. Natasha set a Canadian Record for 10,000 metres with a spectacular time of 31:41.59 lowering her personal best of 33:09.57. She placed 8th overall in a world-class field of 64 finishers including 35 in Section 1 and 29 in Section 2. This remarkable performance qualifies her as part of Team Canada for the 2015 Pan American Games taking place in Toronto this July, as well as the IAAF World Track and Field Championships that will be held in Beijing, China in August and finally, the 2016 Olympic Games being staged in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August 2016. Chris Kelsall, of Athletics Illustrated, offered this well-written report on Natasha's historic race. http://athleticsillustrated.com/editorial/natasha-wodak-breaks-canadian-10000m-record-qualifies-for-olympics/ Canadian Running Magazine followed up with this interview. http://runningmagazine.ca/qa-natasha-wodak-on-canadian-record/ Geoff ran 13:56.39 to take the bronze medal in the 5,000 metre race won by New Mexico's Matthew Bergin in 13:54.31 followed by Drew Morgan, of Washington State, in 13:56.39, as he out-leaned Geoff at the tape. There were a total of 79 finishers in four 5,000 men's sections.

April 26, 2015
Jim Finlayson, Lucy Smith, Kris Swanson and Cheryl Nicholls
Jim and Lucy were the top Harriers in the 26th annual TC10K today and Kris and Cheryl were the top Harriers in the accompanying 2nd annual TC Half Marathon. Both races were run under mild and cool conditions. Jim finished 6th overall in the 10K; he was top master in 31:36. Last weekend he ran 31:52 at the Sun Run which is a much easier, net downhill course so his effort at the TC was much better. Jim had 4 Kenyans ahead of him and 2 behind him which he passed in the last kilometre with a very strong surge to the finish line. Lucy was also 6th female, second to Marilyn Arsenault in the F45 age category in 35:44. She ran 36:09 at the Sun Run last Sunday so her effort was better today, too. The top three men in the 10K were Kelly Wiebe, 29:08, Leonard Kipkoech, 30:01, and Willy Kimosop, 30:18, while the top three women were Jane Murage, 33:07, Lindsey Scherf, 33:31, and Lioudmila Kortchaguina, 34:10. Kris was the race champion of the TC Half Marathon starting at UVic and finishing at the Parliament Buildings. He ran side by side for 19 kilometres with last year's winner, Nick Walker, before pulling away at the breakwater and increasing his pace over the final two kilometres. Their times of 1:12:11 and 1:12:59 were both under the course record of 1:13:25 set by Nick at the inaugural TC Half last year. Third place went to Yann Bernaquez in 1:14:49. Cheryl was the second female to finish and was top master in 1:28:16. The race winner was triathlete Karen Thibodeau, she finished 8th overall in 1:23:35. Andrea Snider took third place in 1:29:36. Several Harriers ran well in the 10K as club members collected 6 gold medals, 5 silver medals and 3 bronze medals in various age divisions. Finishing first were Brittany Therrien (F20), 37:54, Jim Finlayson (M40), 31:36, Nancy Baxendale (F50), 38:39, Gary Duncan (M55), 37:49, John Woodall (M80), 57:32, and Maurice Tarrant (M85), 1:11:45. Second place finishers were Farisha Arensen (F19), 41:43, Logan Roots (M20), 32:00, Kyle Weagant (M30), 34:37, Lucy Smith (F45), 35:44, and John Cliff (M70), 46:07. Third place Harriers were Chris Callendar (M30), 36:02, Craig Odermatt (M40), 32:43 and Rob Reid (M60), 43:34. A big congrats to Logan and Kyle for significant personal bests today. In the TC Half Marathon, Emily Quelch (F40), 1:39:31, and Phil Nicholls (M55), 1:30:39, both won silver medals. There were a total of 10,527 registrations and 9,290 finishers in the various distances and events including 7,835 finishers in the 10K race, 455 in the Half Marathon and 1,000 in the 1.2K Family Kid's Run. This was only slightly down from last year's total of 9,912 finishers. In 2013 the event attracted 9,803 finishers.

April 20, 2015
Matt Priestley, Bill Boothman and Leona Wade
Matt, Bill and Leona were amongst the 30 runners from Victoria to complete the legendary 119th Boston Marathon today under inclement rainy and windy conditions with gusts up to 50 kpm. There were 30,251 registrations, 27,165 starters and 26,610 finishers in the event which is an excellent 98% finishing rate considering the poor weather. The race champions were Lelisa Desisa, from Ethiopia, in 2:07:17, and Kenyan Caroline Rotich, in 2:24:55. Matt was 2,314th of 4,965 in the M18-39 age category in 3:04:33, Bill was 971st of 2,485 in the M45-49 division in 3:20:24 and Leona was 2,250th of 6,011 in the F18-39 age category. They were 3,492nd, 7,102nd and 11,051st overall of the total of 26,610 finishers in Boston today.

April 19, 2015
Natasha Wodak, Lucy Smith and Nancy Baxendale
Natasha, Lucy and Nancy all won gold medals in their respective age categories at the 31st annual Sun Run in Vancouver today under brilliant sunny skies. The event attracted 39,046 registrations with 33,297 finishers including 17,922 women and 15,375 men. Natasha, 32, ran a personal best 10K of 32:35 to finish second overall, just 7 seconds back of Kenyan champion, Risper Gesabwa, 25, who won the race in 32:28. Third place went to another Kenyan, Jane Murage, in 33:17. Lucy won the F45 division by over a minute ahead of Calgary's Lisa Harvey; their times were 36:09 and 37:10. Nancy, 38:52, topped the F50 division by 44 seconds in defeating Ottawa's Sue Schlatter who finished in 39:36. In a unique twist this year the elite women started 10 minutes ahead of the elite men and it was a thrilling race to the tape as Nancy finished just one second ahead of the male champion from Eugene, Like Puskedra; he ran 28:53. Second and third places went to Kenyans Daniel Kipkoech and Leonard Kipkoech, 28:59 and 29:07. Several Harriers ran very well today as the club boasted 12 finishers. Jim Finlayson, Jason Loutitt and Craig Odermatt were 2-3-4 in the M40 division in 31:50, 32:38 and 32:42, Erik Evans was 7th M19, 36:05, and Logan Roots was 7th M20, 32:36, while Ian Searle was 10th M20, 33:32. Erin Burrett was 6th F30, 36:36, Gary Duncan was 4th M55, 37:51, and Hicham El Amiri was 4th M45, 35:23. On the same day in eastern Canada the Toronto Young Street 10K was held featuring 6,009 registrations and 5,271 finishers. That race was won by Eric Gillis, in 29:15, and Lanni Marchant, in 31:48.

April 19, 2015
Kyle Weagant
Kyle has shown a determined and steady improvement in his training and racing as evidenced today with his highest-ever Island Series performance at the Sooke River 10K by placing second overall of 303 finishers in 35:21. First place in the race went to Nick Walker in 33:59, his first Series victory this year, while Hugh Trenchard took third in 35:56. The top three women were Lemlem Ogbasilassie, 36:57, Julia Tschanz, 38:29, and Jill Ramstead, 39:36. Today's excellent race by Kyle earned him the M35 category title and propelled him to the Island Series gold medal position in that age division ahead of Harriers' team mate Shane Ruljancich, who unfortunately couldn't complete his fifth Series race due to an injury. Kyle also won the Channel Ridge 9K trail race on Salt Spring Island last weekend to cap a stellar two weekends of racing. Of the 303 finishers at the Sooke River 10K, there were 21 Harriers and 7 of them reached the podium. First place in their age categories went to Kyle Weagant (M35), Norm Dolan (M65) and John Woodall (M80). Second place Harrier was Maree Kennell (F70) while Dan Jacklin (M45), John Catterall (M50) and Austin Willson (M19) each collected bronze medals for third place.

April 19, 2015
Craig Odermatt and Claire Morgan
The 2015 Frontrunners Island Series of 8 races wrapped up today with the Sooke River 10K hosted by Island Road Racers. For the first time in the 34-year history of the Island Series, the overall champions were both masters as proud Harriers, Craig Odermatt, 44, and Claire Morgan, 40, claimed the overall titles. Craig scored 825.0 points for his best 5 races for first place followed by CVRR's Derek Vinge, 823.2 points, and Nick Walker, of Frontrunners Athletic Club, took third with 816.0 points. Claire achieved 816.0 points, CeeVacs' Jill Ramstead placed second with 791.8 points and Harriers' Nancy Baxendale was third in the women's division with 777.6 points. A total of 3,626 runners participated in the Series and several Harriers achieved podium performances in their age categories and many others attained a top-10 placing to secure the 32nd Series team title for the club. Harriers gold medalists included Kyle Weagant (M35), Claire Morgan (F40), Craig Odermatt (M45), Nancy Baxendale (F50), Gary Duncan (M55), John Woodall (M80) and Maurice Tarrant (M85). Silver madals were also won by Leona Wade (F30), Norm Dolan (M65) and Meree Kennell (F70). Prairie Inn Harriers placed first of 84 clubs in the team competition with 3,406 points (267 finishers) followed by Comox Valley Road Runners with 2,589 points (192 finishers) and third place went to CeVacs Road Runners with 1,607 points (127 finishers). The 3,626 Series finishers this year was only 83 fewer than last year's mark of 3,709.

April 12, 2015
Gary Duncan and Sara Lax
Gary was the top Harrier and Sara won her first gold medal at the Merville 15K today, Race No. 7 of 8 in the Frontrunners Island Race Series which concludes next Sunday with the Sooke River 10K and final Series awards. Gary placed 9th overall in 57:56 to win the M55 age category by 1 minute, 36 seconds over CVRR's Danny Keyes who finished in 59:32. Gary was also 35 seconds faster than his time of last year where he placed 16th OA. Sara, daughter of Harriers' Michael Lax, has only run four Series races this year but it was clearly her best effort. She has improved from 9th position in her age category at Bazan Bay with 593 points, to 6th at Cobble Hill with 609 points to 4th at Cedar with 600 points to her highest total at Merville today with 630 points; she finished in 1:14:24. It has been a very interesting battle between CVRR's Derek Vinge and Frontrunners' Nick Walker for the past 3 years at Merville. Derek won today in 50:08 and he won last year in 50:09 while Nick finished second today in 50:30 and second last year in 50:39. In 2013, however, their roles were reversed as Nick won in 50:12 and Derek was second in 51:19. The top three women today were Sonja Futehally, Mercury Rising Triathlon, 12th OA in 58:55, Sarah-Mae Adam, STARR, 27th OA in 1:10:27, and Sandra Jensen, River Runners, 34th OA in 1:03:02. There were only 10 Harriers at Merville of the 275 finishers including 125 men and 150 women. A few honourable mentions for club members include Roy Styffe who was 5th in the M50 division in 1:02:40, good for 33rd overall, he was just 2 points off his personal best from Bazan Bay, and to Leona Wade, while tapering for the Boston Marathon next Monday, she sprinted her way to be the top female over the last 100 metres and win the women's segment in 14.75 seconds. She was almost a full second clear of the next female and nearly 3 seconds faster than the next male Harrier.

April 11, 2015
Andrew Pape
Andrew traveled across the water on Saturday to run is first trail ultra of the year, the Diez Vista 50K in Port Moody. He did very well placing 11th overall, 4th master, of 110 finishers including 75 men and 35 women. His time was 5:41:58. The rugged course is described on the Diez Vista website as, "West coast rainforest trails and gravel service roads with some roots, some rocks, some mud and some nice trail." The race champions were Jeremy Clegg, from Nanaimo, in 4:37:37, and three-time Victoria Marathon winner, Suzanne Evans, from New Westminster, in 5:34:08; she was 8th overall and was the top master at age 43. Second place went to Whistler's Vincent Pagot, 5:08:58, and David Lee, from North Vancouver, placed third in 5:11:52; he was the top master, age 41. Vancouver's Kim Magnus was the second female to finish, 10th overall in 5:34:56, and Kim Collier, of Calgary, was the third female, 12th overall in 5:42:14.

April 3, 2015
Andrew Pape-Salmon and Matthew Salmon
In a unique event that features only three age categories, Harriers claimed silver medals in two divisions with Andrew finishing second in the M40-99 division in 1:17:55 and his 14-year-old brother-in-law, Matthew, finishing second in the M01-19 division in 1:20:49. They were 8th and 16th overall of 210 finishers. The 8th 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 Joel Deschiffart, 1:04:17, and Carey Mark, 20th overall in 1:21:56; she was the top master as was her husband, Justin Mark, who finished 7th in 1:13:43. All three winners are from Nanaimo. There were 10 Harriers in the race and, besides Andrew's and Matthew's fine performances, Dan Jacklin was 15th, 5th master in 1:20:47, Gary Duncan was 17th, 6th master in 1:21:28, Heather Bretschneider was 40th, 3rd F20-39 in 1:30:21, Kristy Petovello was 52nd, Jeff Beddoes was 67th, Heather Afford was 82nd, Valerie Bell was 90th and Kathleen Birney was 150th. The race continues to grow by leaps and bounds with course attendance records established today of 210 trail runners and 600 participants in the 6K Family Cookie Run/Walk around Westwood Lake. Last year's high mark was 184 15K trail runners and 541 6K participants while last year's winners were Shelby Drope, 1:08:07, and Claire Morgan, 1:28:28. Fletcher's Challenge, held each year on Good Friday, is open to both runners and walkers. The event is about participation, having fun and enjoying some physical activity with your family. Gavin Fletcher was a popular sports writer with the Times Colonist and an active adventure runner. He lived in Nanaimo and was killed in a car accident while driving home from work one stormy night in December, 2006.

March 29, 2015
Gary Duncan and Jeremy Lawrence
Gary completed the double this weekend by finishing 5th overall, top master, at the LifeMark 5K in Esquimalt yesterday in 18:58 and by finishing 4th overall, top master, at the MEC Rust Buster 5K in 25:01 today at Thetis Lake Park in the heavy rains with lots of mud puddles on the course. Gary won the M50 age category by more than 20 minutes over Dave Bakken, 45:46. The top three men in the MEC Rust Buster 5K were Matthew Winkler, 23:19, Spencer Floyd, 24:37, and Gary Duncan, 25:01. The top three women were high school speedster Justine Stecko, 3rd overall in 24:58, followed by Courtney Cameron, 9th OA in 26:45, and Claudio Gonzal Cavalio, 11th OA in 28:27. Harriers twins Austin and Brandon Willson were 5th and 7th in the M19 division in 32:03 and 32:43 while Michel Pinault was 3rd M40 in 43:14. The accompanying two-lap 10K race was won by Andrew McCartney, with a time of 44:37, and Katie Munro was the women's champion; she was 8th OA in 53:59. Jeremy finished third overall in the 10K event in 48:30 to win the M40 division by 7 minutes over Jamus Spink, 55:35. There were 106 finishers in the 5K race and 74 finishers in the 10K race for a total of 180 at Thetis Lake Park today. The Rust Buster was Race #2 of a MEC 5-Race Series. Double Update - Gary actually did a triple on the weekend as, following the LifeMark 5K in Esquimalt, he drove to Anderson Cove and ran the Club Fat Ass Spaghetti Trees 16K group run in East Sooke Park along with other Harriers including Heather A., Heather B., Franck, Carlos, Kathleen and Paul. The event was organized by Tea Girl Katie who used to run with the Harriers at Thetis Lake on Saturday mornings before she moved to Vancouver. About 60 people did the Spaghetti Trees run on Saturday morning. Hosted by Club Fat Ass from Vancouver, Spaghetti Trees is a seriously gorgeous run that traverses past ancient copper mines with beautiful west coast ocean vistas. Two routes were offered, 12.5 km and 16 km, with both ending at the 17 Mile House Pub in Sooke for lunch.

March 28, 2015
Chris Callendar and Lisa Fehr
Chris, last year's Excellence in Short Distances winner, placed third overall and Lisa, last year's Bright Shining Light winner, had her highest finishing position ever with a third place performance of 82 ladies in the F30 division today at the 8th annual LifeMark Esquimalt 5K presented by Centric Health. Lisa was 35th overall of 430 finishers with a time of 23:05. Frontrunners Athletics Club athletes Nick Walker and Mike Chandler finished 1-2 in 16:57 and 17:38 followed by Harriers' Chris Callendar, 18:37, junior winner Haile Kebede, 18:46, and Harriers' Gary Duncan, 57, was the top master and finished fifth overall in 18:58, compared to his 11th position and 18:46 time of last year. Winning times were slightly faster last year as the champions were UVic's Kyle Irvine, in 15:49 (course record), and NTC's Alison Hooper, in 17:43. Today's female winner was Yana Hempler, in 20:08; she was 10th overall. Second place female was Mel Russell, 17th OA in 20:35, and Jessica Loughead took took third; she was 19th OA in 20:58. Other Harriers in the race were Andrew Gregg, fifth of 28 in the M30 division in 21:10, and Daphne Panter, sixth of 24 in the F60 division in 33:26. The 430 finishers today was 2 shy of 432 finishers last year and 28 higher than 402 finishers in 2013. Two event records were set in 2011 with a high of 516 finishers and Lucy Smith won the women's division with a course record of 17:28.

March 22, 2015
Geoff Martinson
Kelly Wiebe, 23:42, and Lanni Marchant, 26:43, recorded impressive victories ahead of a record-sized crowd of 1,268 finishers at today's Modo Spring Run-Off 8K in Stanley Park. The event was Opening Day for the 2015 Canada Running Series and drew runners from 7 provinces and 8 countries. Geoff placed second overall after a tough battle with 2014 Canadian Cross Country Champion, Chris Winter, as they finished in 23:58 and 24:05. Geoff offered these post-race comments, "The race was better than I expected as I went out a little bit conservatively. I kept my eyes on Kelly and Chris ahead and slowly tried to reel them in. Kelly went out very fast and I knew that I couldn't hold that pace. I just went with what felt good for me. Then, with a kilometre to go, I found a bit more in the tank and got by Chris". The top three females finished 13th, 14th and 15th overall with Lanni Marchant first in 26:43, Rachel Cliff second in 26:55 and Dayna Pidhoresky third in 27:13. Kevin O'Connor, 9th OA in 25:37, and Catherine Watkins, 20th OA in 28:00, repeated as master's champions. Their winning times were 25:33 and 27:54 last year. Kelly Wiebe and Harriers' Natasha Wodak leave tomorrow to race for Team Canada in the prestigious and extremely competitive IAAF World Cross Country Championships on Saturday in Guiyang, China.

March 22, 2015
Craig Odermatt and Maree Kennell
Harriers masters dominated at the Comox Valley Half Marathon today by collecting 4 gold medals in their age categories. Craig, 45, won the race outright with a sparkling 1:12:04 finish and Maree, 73, ran a personal best of 2:13:12 to shave 3 minutes and 20 seconds off her P.B. that she set at the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Half Marathon last year. Maree ran a faster pace per kilometre than she achieved at Hatley Castle, Cedar, Cobble Hill and Pioneer this year, all of which are much shorter and easier race courses than the Comox Valley Half Marathon course. It was clearly the best Island Series race of her life since she started participating in 2004 with 56 races completed to date. After six races this year, she has earned the most club points with 117, only one point behind the overall Series leader. Craig has completed 75 Series races with four overall victories and his win today was the second Series championship of 2015 which included Cobble Hill 10K. Beyond that, it was twenty years ago when he recorded his previous two outright victories in 1995 at Pioneer and Cedar. Claire Morgan (F40) and Gary Duncan (M55) also collected gold medals in 1:22:53 and 1:24:40 respectively. Three Harriers won silver medals including Kyle Weagant (M35), 11th overall in 1:19:11, Norm Dolan (M65), 155th overall in 1:43:59, and new member, Leona Wade (F30), 89th overall in 1:35:40. There were 19 Harriers in the race out of 459 finishers compared to 15 Harriers last year and 477 finishers. The top three men today were Craig Odermatt (M45), 1:12:04, Jeremy Clegg (M35), 1:12:27, and Nick Walker (M30), 1:12:32, while the top three women were Claire Morgan (F40), 1:22:53, Kristin Smart (F30), 1:25:21, and Yana Hempler (F25), 1:28:15.

March 15, 2015
Natasha Wodak
Natasha ran a personal best of 1:11:20 today at the United Airlines New York City Half Marathon to finish as sixth female in a world-class field and lower her BC Half Marathon open women's record of 1:12:23 by 1:03 which she set in Arizona two months ago. Lanni Marchant, who set the Canadian Half Marathon record of 1:10:47 last year, finished as 9th female today at the NYC Half in 1:12:05. Natasha was 51st overall of 19,445 men and women finishers: she was the top Canadian female, Lanni was 61st, second Canadian female of 10,150 women in the race, while Liza Howard was the third Canadian female, well back in 264th position in 1:21:22. The first Canadian male was Philippe Viau-Dupuis, who finished 28th overall in 1:07:24. The top two men in the race were both Kenyans with Leonard Korir winning in 1:01:06 and Stephen Sambu finishing one second behind in 1:01:07. Third place went to Juan Luis Barrios, from Mexico, in 1:01:14. American Molly Huddle, from Providence, RI, was the women's champion; she was 35th overall in 1:08:31. Kenyan women took 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th places before Natasha's brilliant P.R. to capture 6th position. Both Natasha and Lanni hope their NYC Half performances today will qualify them to compete in the 10,000 metres event at the Pan American Games being hosted this July in Toronto. The next race for Natasha is the Modo Spring Run-off Vancouver 8K in Stanley Park next Sunday in a busy schedule which includes the IAAF World Cross Country Championships the following week on March 28 in Guiyang, China.

March 15, 2015
Gary Duncan and Lisa Cantwell
Gary and Lisa were the top Harriers at the inaugural St. Patrick's Day 5K at Bear Mountain Resort today under pounding rain and cold conditions. The course was primarily on gravel roads with plenty of hills and puddles as 202 brave souls braved the elements in a sea of green uniforms and 2:18 Run t-shirts to commemorate St. Patrick's Day. Race Director, Cathy Noel, was pleased with her first 5K race at the Bear Mountain Westin Resort considering the elements were not favourable as it rained continually throughout the day and during the event. Gary was the only British Columbian to run two different St. Pat's 5K races on two consecutive days, at two different cities, starting at two different times, on two distinctly different courses and win the M55 division convincingly at both events. Today he finished third overall in 21:17 to win his age category by 7 minutes. Lisa also had a strong performance by finishing 25th overall, 5th place female and first place in the F50 division by 3 minutes in 26:54, and she was second master, less than one minute behind Jenine Frank, from CeeVacs. Lisa had run a 2.5 hour training run in the morning as a warm-up prior to the evening race. All 8 Harriers in the race reached the podium with Gary, 1st M55, Lisa, 1st F50, Eric Luchies, 1st M15, Marcia Stromsmoe, 1st F65, Eric Sherwood, 2nd M70, Chris Demetrioff, 2nd M35, Doug Noel, 2nd M50, and Peggy Sherwood, 3rd F65. The top three men in the race were Julien Marceau, 20:43, Warren Beattie, 20:59, and Gary Duncan, 21:17, and the top three women placed 4th, 5th and 6th overall behind Gary in a close finish, each 3 seconds apart. The winner was Jessica Loughead in 22:26, followed by Jenny Quilty in 22:29 and Kyla Beattie in 22:32. There were 127 female and 75 male finishers for a total of 202. Partial proceeds go to the PIH Youth Team who were out in full force with their parents to set up and marsal the race course.

March 14, 2015
Geoff Martinson, Erin Burrett, Gary Duncan and Nancy Baxendale
Geoff and Erin were the top Harriers, both finishing third in the men's and women's fields, while Gary and Nancy convincingly won their age categories at the Vancouver St. Patrick's Day 5K in Stanley Park today. The top three men were Kelly Wiebe, Lucas Bruchet and Geoff Martinson in 14:27, 14:35 and 14:39 compared to last year when it unfolded as Geoff Martinson, 14:24, (Course Record), Kelly Wiebe, 14:29, and Rob Watson, 14:45. On the women's side the top three were Rachel Cliff, 16:15 (Course Record), Dayna Pidhoresky, 16:37, and Erin Burrett, 16:58, compared to last year's finish of Rachel Cliff, 16:16, Natasha Wodak, 16:25 and Erin Burrett, 16:54. There were 1,652 finishers today including 640 men and 1,012 women and the top three ladies finished 30th, 38th and 47th overall. Last year featured 1,715 finishers. Gary was 83rd in 18:38 to win the M55 age category by a full minute and 31 positions over Art Boileau who hit the line in 19:38 placing 114th overall. Last year Gary ran 18:30 for second place and Art ran 18:31 for third as both were edged by Dave Stephens in the M55 division who also ran 18:30 but out-leaned Gary at the tape. Nancy was 96th in 19:04 with a comfortable lead of 2 minutes, 55 seconds ahead of Manon Plouvier who was 187th in 21:59 of 73 women in the F50 division. Nancy was also the top master beating 100 women in the F40 division (winner was Jillian Jackson in 22:42) and another 97 women in the F45 division (winner was Helen Ritchie in 19:38). Other Harriers placing well at St. Patrick's Day 5K were Ian Searle, 32nd in 16:31, and Mark Ritchie, 65th in 17:58, to take a bronze medal in the M45 age category.

March 8, 2015
David Hoskins
David won a silver medal at the San Diego 5K today while visiting his daughter in southern California. He placed second in the M65 age category in 19:59 to the U.S.A. Cross Country M65 master champion, Ronald Wells, from Alpine, CA, who finished in 19:03. Third place M65 was Dan Brown, over 7 and a half minutes back in 27:31. Ronald placed 27th overall and David placed 40th of 680 finishers. David's San Diego time of 19.59 was an excellent performance considering that Oceanside's Terry Riggins won the M65 division of Bazan Bay today in 20:58 and Harriers' Norm Dolan placed second in 22:54. He sent in this report, "Second to a usa x country age group champion.....poo. 80 degrees at the beach. Beer was a lot colder."

March 8, 2015
Craig Odermatt, Bruce Deacon, Nancy Baxendale and Finn Battersby
Craig and Bruce were the top two Harriers today, Nancy had a brilliant age-graded performance, while Finn topped the M15 division at the Bazan Bay 5K, Race No. 5 in the Frontrunners Island Race Series. Craig and Bruce were 7th and 10th overall and finished 1-2 in the M45-49 division in 15:43 and 15:52. Finn won the the M01-15 division and was 42th overall of 618 finishers in 16:39. Nancy had a great race and was just 10 seconds off her F50-55 course record of three years ago. She won the F50 division by 1:22 and, at 53 years old, she age-grades at 93.17% equivalent to a young female's time of 15:53 or a young male's time of 13:50. Craig has been a model of consistency over the past five years at Bazan Bay with three first place finishes and two second place finishes as a master. His times have been 15:43, 15:48, 15:40, 15:58 and 15:45 and today's performance of seventh place overall was his highest position ever. The top three men in the race were Stefan Daniel, from the University of Calgary, in 15:11, followed by a UVic duo of Ben Wier, 15:18, and Shoayb Bascal, 15:24. The top three women were Hilary Stellingwerff, 16:26, Alison Hooper, 16:37, and Erin Burrett, 16:47. Several Harriers reached the podium totaling 18 medals and countless top-10 ribbons. Winning their age categories were Finn Battersby (M15), Bridget Cameron (F15), Kyle Weagant (M35), Craig Odermatt (M45), Nancy Baxendale (F50), Gary Duncan (M55), John Woodall (M80) and Maurice Tarrant (M85). Finishing second in their respective age divisions were Devin Galway (M15), Erin Burrett (F30), Jim Finlayson (M40), Melanie McQuaid (F40), Bruce Deacon (M45), Lucy Smith (F45), Marcia Stromsmoe (F65), Norm Dolan (M65) and Maree Kennell (F70). Collecting a bronze medal was Findlay Day (M15). There were 58 Harriers in the race including 10 Youth Team members, all of which finished in the top 10 in the male and female 15 and under and 16 to 19 age categories. A few Harriers highlights were Marcia Stromsmoe coming back strong to win a silver medal after 4 years of not racing in the Island Series, Gary Duncan reaching the top of the podium with his first gold medal this year and Maurice Tarrant walking the event to a gold medal with his daughter, Claire, after suffering a fall at home and breaking three ribs. There were 618 finishers today compared to last year's total of 632. It was a perfect sunny day for the race.

March 7, 2015
Heather Afford and Heather Bretschneider
Heather Afford finished 9th overall, 4th female in the 15K race, in 1:27:06, and Heather Bretschneider finished 12th overall, 3rd female in the 25K race, in 2:45:54, at the Dirty Duo in North Vancouver today. Harriers Kristy Petevello was 30th overall in 3:04:18, 5th F30, and Valerie Bell was 43rd in 3:21:58, 2nd F50; both were in the 25K race. The winners of the 25K were Oliver Bibby, 2:10:26, and Nicola Gildersleeve, 2:34:18. and the 15K winners were Tanner Schatz, 1:13:37, and Mirabelle Tinio, 1:15:37. The event offers a 50K mountain run (64 finishers), a 25K mountain run (117 finishers), a 15K mountain run (51 finishers), a 30K mountain bike ride (30 finishers) as well as a 25K run/30K mountain bike ride with both solo participants (23 finishers) and relay teams (48 teams with 96 finishers). The Dirty Duo is like no other race in North Vancouver as it brings together the mountain bike and running community with a total of 381 finishers.

February 22, 2015
Shane Ruljancich and Kyle Weagant
Shane and Kyle were the top Harriers and finished first and second in the M35 age category; they were third and sixth overall of 478 finishers at Hatley Castle 8K today, as the Frontrunners Island Race Series reached the midpoint with four races completed and four more to go. The top three men at Hatley Castle were Andrew McCartney, 26:36, Shaun Stephens-Whale, 27:00, and Shane Ruljancich, 27:27, and the top three women were Alison Hooper, 11th overall in 29:43, Patricia Roney, 15th in 30:24, and Julia Tschanz, 20th in 30:48. There were 35 Harriers in the race and 7 of them won gold medals in their respective age divisions including Shane Ruljancich (M35), David Hoskins (M65), John Woodall (M80), Maurice Tarrant (M85), Claire Morgan (F40), Nancy Baxendale (F50) and Maree Kennell (F70). Silver medals went to Kyle Weagant (M35), Andrew Pape-Salmon (M45) and Gary Duncan (M55) while Bill Scriven (M70) collected a bronze. Gary's fitness level is increasing with every race as he was only 11 seconds behind M55 gold medalist, Brent Scott, from Cobble Hill. The 478 finishers today was a good sign for race organizers that Hatley Castle is bouncing back to the 500+ level of finishers it has experienced in its better years. Last year, because of a one week rescheduling due to snow, the event saw a drop in attendance to 312 finishers from the previous year, 2013, where it had 465. The record for Hatley Castle is 504 finishers set in 2003 and the average number of finishers is 436 for the 20 years that it has been in the Island Race Series.

February 15, 2015
Jim Finlayson, Tina Connelly and Erin Burrett
Jim and Tina were crowned as BC Half Marathon Champions today in the masters' division and Erin, 1:16:27, was the top female Harrier, placing second to race champion Dayna Pidhoresky, 1:16:10, at the Vancouver First Half Half Marathon hosted by Pacific Road Runners. The event was the official 2015 BC Athletics Half Marathon Championship for junior, senior and master runners. Jim had a strong performance of 1:09:27 to finish 4th overall of 2,082 finishers including 947 men and 1,135 women. He was 8 minutes and 21 seconds ahead of the second place M40 master, Chris Barth of White Rock. Tina, a three-time winner of the First Half Half and course record holder, had a equally good race by finishing as 10th female and her margin of victory over the next master, Melanie Kassel of Chilliwack, was 1 minute and 32 seconds. The top three men were Dylan Wykes, 1:07:20, Trevor Hofbauer, 1:08:56, and Takanori Haraguchi, 1:09:25. Third place in the women's field was Courtney Olsen, from Bellingham, in 1:18:19, about 2 minutes back of Vancouver's Dayna Pidhoresky and Nanaimo's Erin Burrett. Harriers' Claire Morgan was the 12th female overall and placed 4th in the F35 age category, in 1:23:09. Tina won the First Half Half Marathon in 1996, 2004 and 2006 as an open runner before capturing the master's title today. She set a provincial half marathon record of 1:12:47 in 2004 which stood for 11 years before being broken four weeks ago by Natasha Wodak at the Arizona Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon. Natasha's new B.C. open mark is 1:12:23.

February 14, 2015
Taylor Lyman
Taylor had another successful weekend on the indoor track. Returning to Seattle for the University of Washington Indoor Open Track Meet, the Grade 11 Reynolds high school student, won another gold medal in the men's 800 metre race. His time of 1:52.56 ranks him second among North American high school students this year and betters the Canadian Indoor Youth record. Racing for the Prairie Inn Harrier Youth Team, Taylor went to the front early against a field of university runners. He was passed in the last 200 metres but battled back to win by a scant 1/100th of a second over Anas Zhoury of California State University, Northridge.

February 8, 2015
Craig Odermatt, Claire Morgan and Gary Duncan
Craig and Claire were the top Harriers and Gary is rounding into form as the three all had good performances at the Cedar 12K today, Race No. 3 in the Frontrunners Island Race Series. For the second consecutive race, Craig finished second overall and was the top master in 40:20, only 23 seconds behind the winner, Jeremy Clegg, from Bastion who finished in 39:57. Third place went to Victoria's Andrew McCartney in 41:16. Claire won her third consecutive F40 division since she moved up an age category this year by finishing 16th overall in 45:08 and showed a big improvement by running over 6 minutes faster than her Cedar time of 6 years ago. The top three women were Kimberley Doerksen, 2014 Vancouver Marathon Champion, in 44:51, followed by Claire, 45:08, and Danelle Kabush, 45:50. Gary has been steadily improving as the Series moves ahead following his accident in early December where he fell and broke is arm requiring surgery. He started the Series with an 11th place age category finish in Pioneer and improved to 4th at Cobble Hill and today climbed back on the podium for his second place finish in the M55 division in 48:50. It won't be long before he is back on top of his age category standings where he belongs. There were 30 Harriers at Cedar with 6 winning gold medals including Craig (M45), Claire (F40), Nancy Baxendale (F50), David Hoskins (M65), John Woodall (M80) and Maurice Tarrant (M85). There were 439 pre-registered for the race with 382 finishers, down 37 from last year's mark of 419.

February 7, 2015
Taylor Lyman, Jack Stanley, John Deacon and Michael Barber
The PIH Youth Team sent 7 of their younger members to the Harry Jerome Indoor Track Meet in Richmond today while 7 of the older Youth Team members traveled south to compete at the Seattle High School Invitational Indoor Track Meet at the University of Washington. At Richmond, John Deacon, 12, won a silver medal in the 600 Metre race while Michael Barber, 14, won a silver in the 600 Metre and a bronze in the 1,200 Metre events. Bridget Cameron, 14, Bridget Mateyko, 14, Devin Galway, 13, Jordan Cheung , 17,and Findlay Day, 13, also ran well at the Jerome Meet with all of them placing in the top four in their respective races. In Seattle, Bruce Deacon drove the Youth Team there and sent this report, "At Seattle it went absolutely superbly well. All but one of our team P.B.'d and the one who didn't was a mere 0.12 seconds from his best time. The highlight of the day, and probably of the entire meet, was Taylor Lyman's 800 Metre race. Taylor, 16, smashed the meet record, pulling five other runners under the previous mark. His stunning 1:52.86 is the third fastest High School time recorded in the United States this season and only 0.07 seconds away from the National Youth indoor record. I will check with BC Athletics to see if it's a provincial record. We will return to Seattle for Taylor to try for the record next Sunday. Jack Stanley, 16, also ran a great 3,000 Metre race with a huge P.B. of 9:07 and he will also be returning next Sunday in an attempt to dip under 9 minutes. Ryan Niezen, 17, won his first 800 Metre heat race and placed third in his One Mile heat. Needless to say, the team is coming home on a real high. Both of today's meets went very well and I am hoarse from cheering!"

January 25, 2015
Craig Odermatt, Claire Morgan and Maurice Tarrant
Craig must like the Cobble Hill race course as he has raced extremely well there for the past 2 years and has had two other stellar performances two years earlier. Today, he was second overall to top the master's ranks in 32:57, just 11 seconds behind race winner Derek Vinge, of Comox Valley Road Runners, who broke the tape in 32:46. Third place went to Bastion's Jeremy Clegg in 33:01. Last year Craig won the race outright in 33:29 and in 2010, his first year as a master, he was fourth overall in 32:40, then in 2011, he improved to second overall in 32:48. The top three women today were Alison Hooper, 36:43, Melissa Ross, 37:09, and Claire Morgan, 37:13; Claire was our top female Harrier and first female master to place 28th overall of the 503 finishers. Maurice added and other M85 Canadian Record to his exhaustive list of over 70 national marks by running 1:07:06 at Cobble Hill and breaking Manuel Teodoro's 10K Canadian Record of 1:09:39 set in 2013 in London, Ontario. There were 35 Harriers at the race, however 8 of them forgot to put their club affiliation when signing up including a gold medalist. Seven gold medals were awarded to Harriers including Claire Morgan (F40), Nancy Baxendale (F50), Logan Roots (M20), Craig Odermatt (M45), David Hoskins (M65), John Woodall (M80) and Maurice Tarrant (M85). Shane Ruljancich (M35) and Maree Kennell (F70) took silver medals while Kyle Weagant (M35) and Garth Ball (M75) won bronze medals in their age categories. The 503 Cobble Hill finishers was 73 fewer than last year's total of 576.

January 18, 2015
Natasha Wodak
One week after her Pioneer 8K victory and BC championship, Natasha surprised herself by slicing 1:44 off her half marathon personal best time at the PF Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Half Marathon today, and in doing so set a new BC Record of 1:12:23. She was pulled to the record by race winner Amy Hastings, of Flagstaff, AZ, who finished 19 seconds ahead. Natasha's time improved the previous BC Record of 1:12:47 set by Harriers' Tina Connelly in 2004. Third place female was Molly Watcke, from New Bremen, OH, in 1:15:59. The top three women finished 12th, 14th and 33rd overall of 11,124 finishers in the half marathon, clearly the most popular distance of the four events offered. The top three men in the half marathon were Benson Cheruiyot, Valpariso, IN, in 1:04:15, Ryan Hall, Redding, CA, in 1:04:16, and Dylan Wykes, Vancouver, in 1:05:29. There were 1,485 finishers in the 5K, 2,781 in the 10K, 11,124 in the half marathon and 2,578 in the full marathon for a total of 17,968 finishers.

January 18, 2015
Andrew Gregg and Gary Duncan
Andrew was the top Harrier and finished 11th overall in 21:05 in the 5K race while Gary was the top Harrier and finished 6th overall in 42:10 in the 10K race of MEC Event No. 1, the Rust Buster, today at Lochside School under pounding rain and difficult running conditions. The winners of the 5K were Robin Poirier, in 16:57, and Patricia Roney, 4th overall in 18:35. The Willson twins finished 4th and 5th in the M16-29 division of the 5K in 25:14 and 26:00. The winners of the 10K were Eric Holdijk, in 35:47, and Taylor Salisbury, 3rd overall in 41:32. Harriers' Michel Pinault was 7th M40-49 in the 10K in 53:50. Despite the horrendously bad weather, the race saw an increase of 63 runners over last year's total of 132 as there were 107 in the 5K today and 88 in the 10K for a total of 195 finishers.

January 11, 2015
Natasha Wodak, Jim Finlayson and Maurice Tarrant
Natasha won the women's race in 26:37, Jim was the top male Harrier and top master finishing third overall in 25:47 and Maurice shattered the M85 Canadian 8K Record by over 4 minutes in 50:02 today at the 36th annual Harriers Pioneer 8K. His time lowered Jim Sargent's M85 Pioneer course record of 1:03:17 by a staggering 13 minutes and 15 seconds. Eleven Harriers raced very well by winning their age categories including Natasha Wodak (F30), Bridget Cameron (F16), Claire Morgan (F40), Nancy Baxendale (F50), Finn Battersby (M16), Logan Roots (M20), Shane Ruljancich (M35), Jim Finalyson (M40), Craig Odermatt (M45), John Woodall (M80) and Maurice Tarrant (M85). Six other Harriers won silver medals and three took bronze for a total of 20 podium finishes for the club. There were 64 Harriers in the race and another 64 volunteering. The Harriers Pioneer 8K is the first race in the Timex BC Series and was the official BC Athletics provincial 8K Road Race Championship. The race winners and Senior Champions were Theo Hunt, Vancouver, and Natasha Wodak, Vancouver, the Junior Champions were Brennan Smith, Victoria, and Amy Morris, Nanaimo, while the Master (40+) Champions were Jim Finlayson, Victoria, and Marilyn Arsenault, Victoria. Congratulations to Race Director, Kathleen Birney, and her team of volunteers for a very successful kick-off to the 2015 Frontrunners Island Race Series and the Timex BC Series.

January 1, 2015
Ross Morgan
Ross won the prize by finishing closest to zero on the clock at the 19th annual New Year's Day Harriers Memorial 10K Run at Beaver Lake Park. Ross led a group of over 50 Harriers and friends around Elk and Beaver Lakes to finish within 17 seconds of his predicted time. Cookies and hot chocolate were served after the run and $ 400.00 was donated by the participants to the Harriers Foundation.

Shane ran the fastest time of 58:30 today at the 17th annual Harriers Boxing Day 10-Mile Handicap but had to settle for fourth position based on a staggered start where the slowest runners start first and the fastest runners start last determined by their handicapped race times for 2015.  Shane was the final runner to start and he passed 14 runners but couldn't catch the top three comprised of Curtis Deardon, Anthony Jeffrey and top female, Amy Deardon.  Several other Harriers had good performances including Race Director Gary Duncan, Will Boothman, Jeff Beddoes and Garth Ball.