September 5k Results

Last night saw Ryan Twa establish himself as a dominant force on the 5k circuit with a maiden victory, a massive PB and a gun-to-tape win.  Twa staked his claim early on and pulled out a big gap over Blaine Penny in second, with the rest of the group (many of whom had done a 36k mountain run 2 days earlier) bunched behind.

On lap 2, Jeremy "I only turn up for the beer" Deere joined in to help pull Ryan to his ultra fast time and Jeff Krar joined in to help Blaine close the gap.  But the gap stayed and Ryan finished in a super fast 16.10.  Blaine was 2nd (17.03), Captain Morgan third.

The photos (with expert analysis from Bob Banks) should be here:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=A67E40EB6340B986!447

Moose Mountain Trail Races

Last weekend saw the Harriers take on Moose Mountain yet again, this time in the annual trail races which are an exceptionally well-run event.  There are three distances (42k, 29k and 16k) and the Harriers had representation in all three.

Adam Kahtava showed endurance beyond his locks with a fine second place finish in the marathon.  Adam was only minutes behind the winner and was catching him by the end.  Just another half mile...

In the 29k Jody Draude took the title with ease and in a super fast time (about 2:14 - we are waiting to see if it is a course record).  Jody was sporting a manly cut on his cheek at the end of the race - it looked like a shaving cut but he maintained it was as a result of a tumble down the hill at some point in the previous two hours.  Carl Pryce was not far behind in second place.

In the 16k Duncan Marsden overcame a monumental lack of fitness to retain his title.

Good running by all. 

Don't forget the BVH 5k on September 5.  Scott's buying the beers (honestly!) 

The Big Weekend

This weekend was as special for the Harriers as Super Saturday for the Brits. 

It started with Blaine Penny defending his Canadian 50 mile title for the third year in a row.  An amazing performance.  This is what he had to say about it:

One of the toughest races of my life at Iron Legs 50 miler yesterday. It was 30 degrees, I had 2 bouts of diarrhea, stomach shut down at 40 km, puked at 50 km and unable to eat for the last 30 km, took a wrong turn at 60 km (added 3 extra k...

ms), got back on course only to go backwards :( and my worst bonk ever in the last 5 km.

I have to say I somehow found strength I never knew I had (thanks to Evan once again) and managed to keep running to cross the finish line. I defended my Iron Legs title for the 3rd year in a row (just barely) and am officially the 2012 50 MIle Canadian Ultra Marathon Champion. I think I am retiring from racing ultras after this one!

Many thanks to Jamie Nott and his army of volunteers for a great race and looking after us in the heat. Special thanks to Tim Watson for hooking me up with an IV to pour some life back into me!

Also, huge contrats to Phil Villeneuve and Simon Donato for setting a new course record in the relay.

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He'd swap it all for a win in the BVH 5k though.

Then on Sunday we had the Edmonton marathon.  Darcy went for a Sunday morning stroll and came home in 6th with a 2:45 posting.  Incredible.  Scott "I'll never do a marathon" Jensen (aka The Oracle) posted a 2:51 on virtually no long runs.  Great running guys.

Not to be upstaged, Frank (71.56), Jeremy (72.18) and Jody (74.38) put in a great showing in the half. I've promised not to mention that they all got "chicked" twice.   I reckon we must have won the team prize there.

A good weekend.

BVH Annual Trail run

Some videos from Blaine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Feq3CcMLqgQ&feature=plcp

and Adam:   http://youtu.be/PyiHJKK4P4Q?hd=1   from last Monday's trail run.  The heavy-looking guy is Ryan...

BVH 5k - August 2012

The hot weather brought out the crowds, flocking to see their favourite BVH stars battle it out over 5k.  At times the scene resembled the Tour de France with crowds on both sides pushing for a glimpse of Jensen or a flash of Twa and barely enough room for the runners to get through.  At least I think they were there to cheer us on and not to watch Shakespeare in the Park.  One lady in particular gave us all a warm glow when she encouraged us on with a shout of "Get off the public footpath!" 

The race had some quality in it.  A group  of 7 quickly got away and looked magnificent.  Entering the last lap this was down to 3 and with about 800m to go it was between Deere and Bickley.  One was clearly suffering more than the other.  Into the final straight they were still neck and neck (like that Chicago marathon - you know the one) until finally Bickley's 800m speed showed through and he pipped Deere to the post.  I will not ruin Ed's day by telling you which Bickley won.  (Although the phrase "Bickley sandwich" was used at the end to describe the race).

To the actors who had to compete with my bike bell and shouts of "Runners coming through": I doth apologise.  To the girls who spoke to us at the end: See you next time!  To the lady whom we apparently inconvenienced by all of half a second: Happy Christmas.  To anyone who wasn't there: Did I mention I'm going to the Olympics?

The results I managed to get were:

1.  Brad Bickley - 16.05
2.  Jeremy Deere - 16.06
3.  Captain Morgan
4.  Spencer
5.  Travis Cummings
6.  Ryan Twa
7.  Scott Jensen
8.  Jody Draude - 16.32
9.  Frank Woolstencroft - 16.58*
10.  Darcy Bell - 17.26
11.  Felix - 17.41**
12.  Jason Reed - 17.55
13.  Bob Banks - 18:00
14.  Kevin Lindland - 18:03
15.  Adam Kahtava - 18:19
16.  Ed Bickley - 18:54.

*Having done a half Ironman on Sunday (see that, Haddow?!)
**All the way from Ontario having done a hills session just before the race.

BVH 5k - July 2012

Unofficial Report by Scott Jensen

Here's what I can remember, but I could be off a bit:


1. "Captain" Morgan Titus - 16:16ish
2. Scott Jensen - 16:21
3. Travis "There are three types of people in the world - those who can count, and those who can't" Cummings - 16:29?
4. Jody "Slapping Beaver Tails" Draude - 16:35?
5. Blaine Penny - 16:45
6. Frank Woolstencroft - 16:59
7. Darcy Bell
8. Jeff Krar
9. Bob Banks
10. Kevin Lindland
11. Adam Kahtava

Ryan, when you're plotting these times make sure you take into account the limiting factors of wind, altitude, crowds, and distractions from the Bard and pretty girls.

Travis led most of the first two laps, but slowed dramatically at the end of lap two when he was struck by the twin disappointments of having to do another lap and realizing that he wasn't about to run the world's first sub-11 5k. Morgan took over from there and pulled away slightly on the last lap. Apparently I'm the only one who tapers for these races, as it sounds like everyone else was fitting this race in between morning, lunch, and evening runs!

Next race August 1st!

Salomon 4 Trails

So I'm p sure that the rule is that you're not allowed to be proud of good results if you can't face up to the bad ones. Remember when the wheels fell off Jeremy's wagon in Chicago? Well the same just happened to me but I had 2 mountain passes to negotiate in the remaining 11 miles. The 4 trails is a four day stage race in Germany and Austria. You run about 40k per day. This was to be my warm up for the TransAlps in a couple of months but with injury problems over the past 6 weeks and very little running, I decided that I'd just jog the first day of this as a try out. It was still 36k with three serious climbs. The first three miles were great and I led the whole thing and seriously thought I was going to get the top 3 without a problem. I was pushing up the hills, holding back and feeling good. By mile 7 I could barely walk the flats. By mile 14 I had cramps in both legs which hurt so much that I had to keep crouching to stretch them out. It took me 70 minutes to do the next 2 miles and my heart rate was an average of 178. By mile 18 I was throwing up. At the next aid station a doctor looked at me and took my blood pressure (which he said was "unter hundert") and pulled me from the race. How embarrassing. I could blame a lot of things but I'll never really know what went wrong. All I really know is that I got tamed.