BOW VALLEY HARRIERS

Harriers in Training

2012-02-04T16:00:00.000-08:00

Marathon and Half Rankings - 2011

2012-01-05T11:45:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Jody for pointing me in the direction of this link:

http://www.marathoncanada.com/mcMarathonRankings.htm

As Jody says "As we narrow down into the Age Group and Regional categories, BVH really starts to stand out."

The Passing of a Legend

2012-01-01T21:28:00.000-08:00

Frank Horwill MBE
June 19, 1927 - January 1, 2012

The term "legend" is banded around all too regularly nowadays. For Frank Horwill it is an understatement.

I first met Frank in the year 2000 when I turned up to Battersea track to do a training session and stumbled across the man who would be my coach for the next 7 years, three times a week, without asking for anything in return. Our Saturday sessions were two hour long affairs which involved all manner of exercises - leapfrogging, piggybacking, uphill hopping - and invariably in my case a recovery nap afterwards but it was not uncommon for up to 50 athletes to turn up to these sessions and to travel up to two hours to be part of them. I often wondered what the people sat in their cars in the traffic jams on the Embankment thought as 25 or so shirtless guys would fly by at 5 minute mile pace. They must have wondered who we were running from. Truth is, it was all about who we were running FOR.

Frank's athletes quickly learned not to bother asking how many repetitions we were doing or what the recovery was (the response was invariably "enough time for a cup of tea and a bun"). He never gave anything away about the suffering to come because he never wanted us to hold back. I remember one session of 25 x 400m with 30 seconds recovery. We all assumed we would be doing our usual 16 repetitions but when we had given our all on the 16th, we received a sharp "keep going". Same comment after the 20th. There was relief all round when he stopped us at 25 but had he asked us to keep going, we would have. I once asked him to autograph my copy of the book he had authored ("A Lifetime in Athletics") and he wrote in it "Keep going, keep going, until a little voice in your head says 'keep going'".

Frank formed the British Milers Club and created the training system which Peter Coe used to coach his son, Seb, to Olympic glory. He coached Olympic athletes and plodders with the same enthusiasm and only ever asked his athletes to give him one thing - everything. And we did. Because he did.

Well-known in South Africa as "Sir Frank", he finally received the long-overdue recognition he deserved with an MBE in 2010.

Frank's desire to drop our PBs was only matched by his desire to see us pair up. He saw himself as a bit of a match maker. And he was good at it!

Unafraid to create enemies in the establishment with his brutal honesty, he was loved unwaveringly by every one of his athletes. You will be greatly missed, Comrade.

MitoCanada

2011-12-14T07:17:00.000-08:00

About a year ago a group of intrepid Harriers ran 100k for MitoCanada. A very talented local film maker (Neil Webb) made an excellent 20 minute documentary about it and it's now online. It's REALLY well done and well worth 20 minutes of your time. You can also see quite a bit of the second-worst-BVH-apparel (behind Nick's shorts) if that interests you:
http://www.statinpro.com/RunningOnEmpty.html

Be prepared to cry though...!!!

(You may have to cut and paste the address into your browser, rather than just click on the link, for some reason...)

End of Season Drinks

2011-11-16T07:29:00.001-08:00

What? End of Season run and drinks
Where? Eau Claire YMCA and then the Barley Mill
When? TONIGHT! 6.30pm for the run and 8pm for the drinks

See you all there!

Stewart Cup

2011-10-31T12:57:00.000-07:00

Jeremy and Scott separated the men from the boys at the weekend with a fantastic showing in the Stewart Cup. As one BVH member put it "I am sure the 20 year olds in the field felt great about being trounced by their dads"!

Results here: http://www.ellistrack.ca/results/2011ProvincialOpenXCChampionships.pdf

The BVH end of season wrap is slated for Wednesday November 16. As per tradition (well we did it last year) there will be a run from the YMCA in Eau Claire followed by drinks at the Barley Mill. Time to be determined. All welcome.

Chicago Marathon - Results

2011-10-15T14:22:00.000-07:00

A write-up will follow but the Bow Valley Harriers took on the Chicago marathon last Sunday to great success. The bare numbers are below (placing is gender placing):

Duncan Marsden - 74th - 2:31.19 (PB)
Blaine Penny - 104th - 2:34.37 (PB)
Jody Draude - 118th - 2:36.38 (PB)
Darcy Bell - 198th - 2:43.46
Aaron Swanson - 203rd - 2:44.30 (PB)
Nick Haddow - 331st - 2:51.08
Matt Wanford - 508th - 2:57.56
Jeremy Deere - 555th - 2:59.01
Andrew Wigston - 2341st - 3:27.39
Sarah Penny - 5030th - 4:30.07
Asheligh Haddow - 7144th - 4:47.09.

The results also show us as having finished 4th team. Had I not been stupid enough to put Jody in the masters team, we would have finished 3rd. A great achievement!!

Duncan

Run for Water Race Report by Jody Draude

2011-09-14T09:48:00.000-07:00

Apologies to Jeremy for jumping into a race with a degree of Running Room sponsorship, but I figured that the good karma associated with supporting a great cause - clean water projects in Ethiopia - would buy me some slack. Having fellow BVH member, Mark Fewster, on the 10km start line, with Mark and my families to follow in the 5km event, added to the fun.

As I suspect is the case for all Chicago Mararthon Project members (including honorary CMPer, Ryan Twa who is training for Victoria on the same weekend), my effort this weekend was undertaken with an eye towards the upcoming marathon. That said, the plan was to go out at a tempo pace and evaluate as the race progressed. Doing so, running the first 5km at 3:30-3:35 pace, resulted in being left in the dust by the leader, Jordan Brydon. So much for any hopes of drafting off of the 6'5" guy. Nathan Kendrick spared me a further beat down by arriving at the start line with an hour plus of hard running under his belt. Thanks, Nathan. In an effort to end the agony as soon as possible, I picked up the pace a bit on the way home and managed to sneak in a decent finish only "marginally" shorter and, I suspect, slower than Blaine and Jeremy's monster tempo the day before, and Duncan and Ryan's hilly half in the day to follow. Mark threw in a gutsy effort in spite of dealing with injury issues, a recurring theme for fellow BVHers in the midst of CMP training.

All told, it was a great day for a run with friends and family: great weather; better cause; and most importantly, all 4-7 year olds from the Fewster and Draude households surveyed post-race gave positive endorsements relative to the finish line bouncy tent ("bouncy, but not too bouncy"), and post race snacks (salt 'n vinegar potato chips narrowly eclipsing hamburgers as the favorite).

One month until race day and counting...

Preview of 2011 MitoCanada “Running on Empty” Ultra Marathon

2011-08-26T22:39:00.000-07:00

By Blaine Penny

Mitochondrial Disease affects our body’s ability to produce energy, impairing our cells and often compromising major organs. This video sums up what happened to my son Evan 3.5 years ago, and what Sarah and I have been pouring our energy into to do our part.

"Running on Empty" Promo Video

The MitoCanada “Running on Empty” Ultra Marathon originated a little over year ago with Duncan’s idea of running a long distance through the mountains (Jasper to Banff) to raise awareness and funds for mitochondrial disease. After pouring over the maps and hashing about many ideas and variations of a run, we decided on a simple 100 km loop through Kananaskis Country starting and finishing in Canmore. The run took 18 hours to complete and was one of the most memorable mountain adventures in my life.

Neil Webb, an award winning Calgary Film Maker (and son of Rick Webb who also ran), followed us for the 18-hour journey shooting video, which he put together in a very powerful 20 min documentary of the run. The documentary has since been submitted to several International and local film festivals to help raise awareness.

2010 “Running on Empty” Documentary Trailer

Last years run was very successful in raising awareness and also raised $35,000 towards MitoCanada’s mission. The run far exceeded our expectations and also confirmed we were on to something special that resonated with people from many walks of life who we were hoping to reach. It didn’t take much longer than the mud drying on shoes before we starting throwing about ideas for another aesthetic mountain route for the 2^nd annual “Running on Empty”.

The 2011 version of the run is quite similar to last year and has 100, 50 and 25 km options.

New this year…

Route change – West Bragg Creek to 3 Sister’s (Canmore)

“Rolling on Empty” – mountain bike group led by my friend Brendan McCracken

We have 26 runners and 4 mountain bikers signed up. This is a good size group, which limits the logistics. With that said, when your event course is strung out over 100 km there are still plenty of logistics and safety considerations even with a small group.

Organizing the run over the last 2 years has been a great learning experience and crash course in event planning. There are a lot of details and last minute things, but thanks to Trevor Baine, Rob Armstrong and Sarah it has all come together nicely. Trevor in particular has been working hard behind the scenes getting all our permits in place for over 6 months with the last one just coming through last week! We all sat down on Tuesday night and went over the last of the details, and surprisingly, it has been a pretty relaxing week.

The weather forecast couldn’t be better and we hit the trails of West Bragg Creek at midnight tomorrow night to start running. We will be watching a beautiful sunrise as we climb up Jumpingpound Mountain on Sunday morning – not a bad treat for knocking off 50 km of running!

The run has an additional parallel this year. Not only is the run a great parallel with the energy aspect of this debilitating disease, but we will be running in parallel with my new friend Dr. Kyle McLaughlin who will be on course in Penticton, BC completing his 2^nd Ironman (in 2 months) as part of his ‘MitoCanada Ironman Double Double’

Kyle has raised an incredible amount of awareness in the medical community as well as the general public over the last 4 months since we first met (including raising over $16,500 for MitoCanada). It’s going to be pretty cool to be running along in my hurt zone and texting his wife Carrie words of encouragement to pass on to Kyle.

I also want thank our Sponsors and Supporters – Saucony, Strides, Clifbar, Smith Events, Pure Life Pursuits (and UltrAspire).

Sarah and I are so grateful to be surrounded by such an incredible group of friends, family, work colleagues and supportive community that make lives easier and give people hope.

There is a lot of good ENERGY in this town – now let’s go running!

BVH Wins (2011) Iron Legs Ultra 50 Miler and Takes 2 Podium Spots

2011-08-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

By Blaine Penny

Both Carl and I were not feeling terribly confident going into the race given our lack of mileage and were mentally preparing ourselves for a long day. When racing 50 miles, it’s not a matter of ‘if’ you will have some low spots and challenges, it’s ‘when’. With a warm day in the high 20’s forecast, this was another element to deal with.

Training for ultra marathons while balancing family, work, and all the other things going on in our lives is a challenge. Both Carl and I are on the family plan, which is definitely a much higher priority than fitting in long training runs. Most training tends to happen over our lunchtime runs or early/late in the day when. That means it’s difficult to get the long hours of continuous training runs that one needs to prepare for a run like this. Our longest run coming in to the race was the PowderFace42 marathon a month ago. Other than that, I didn’t run longer than 2.5 hours in the last 6 months.

After last year’s debacle of going off route, one of my goals was to have a ‘clean run’ and just stay on route. My next goal was to go under 8 hours, and if the stars aligned to run 7.5 hours.

Leg 1 (0-25 km) - I pretty much went off the front in the first few kilometers as I was running my own race and going with the flow. The first 23 km went really well and I was feeling quite comfortable. I saw a grizzly bear about 20 m off the trail at about the 9 km mark - nice adrenalin boost! About 23 km in, I stubbed my toe on a root and took a nasty fall. It was one of those falls that when you pick yourself up and let it hit you, you think to yourself “I think I really did some damage and my toe could be broken”. I started walking - it hurt a bit, but was not incapacitating, so I started to run and it seemed OK. I thought to myself, “Phew, it would be a real drag to have to drop out because of a toe!”

Leg 2 (25-49 km) - After the 25 km aid station, we had a really tough 24 km section ahead that included climbing to the top of Jumpingpound Mountain, followed by Jumpingpound Ridge and then Cox Hill climb and descent. My plan was to take it easy up Jumpingpound, and then turn on the afterburners along the ridge and the descent.

For some reason I just couldn’t find the gear I needed along the ridge and this was the beginning of my struggles for the day to keep the speed going. I trudged along feeling pretty flat, and then hoped to fly down Cox Hill. I began the descent by stubbing my bummed toe and remember being in so much pain! It was the reminder I needed that I had to very careful on the descent. Then I took another fall, which was something similar to picturing Superman flying into home base! I slid on my stomach and 2 hand bottles and luckily didn’t hurt myself other than scrubbing up a few fingers. “OK” I thought to myself, “Let’s safely get down off the mountain and get to the next aid station in one piece”.

I pull into Aid Station#3 (Dawson), which is 49 km in, and grab my drop bag, swap bottles and take a seat. One of the volunteers asked me, “What does it feel like to be winning the race?” I said that it was feeling kind of lonely (having run 47 km alone), also a bit flat and glad that I had my watch to keep me company! I have to admit I wasn’t too motivated to head out for the last 31 km and knew there were going to be some tough times ahead, especially with the temperature rising quickly as we approached mid day.

Leg 3 (49-80 km) – I remember last year coming out of the Dawson aid station and laying down some serious speed. This was my plan again this year. I struggled to get the legs moving and managed an OK steady pace, but not as quick as I would have liked. I could see my average pace slipping and my sub 8 hour time goal slowly slipping away and I knew today was not going be the day to crank out 7.5 hours. I was bummed, but happy to be doing as well as I was (all things considered).

I pulled into Spruce aid station at 56 km, which was a 600 m out and back. This was a good place to see if anyone was hot on my tail. There was one runner in sight, so I knew I had to keep pushing if I was going to stay out front. The problem was, I was now feeling horrible – stomach, legs and mentally. I hit a new low and was running 7 min/km on flat terrain with spats of walking. I really wanted this to be over - I was suffering. I couldn’t eat anything solid and I was seriously fading. I didn’t know how I was going to finish and wanted to throw in the towel. I kept slowly plodding along and expected runners to be coming by any second. I then have myself a pep talk and decided I was going to salvage what I could.

With about 18 km to go I thought about Sarah and the kids being at the finish line, waiting for me (and how excited they would be to see me). I was so excited to tell Julia about seeing the bear and to see Evan’s smile. This was all I needed to get a little jam back in my stride to bring it home. I picked it up and was now back on track and feeling a lot better mentally. I pulled into the 70 km aid station knowing I could get through the last 10 km and that this was doable. A glass of Ginger Ale was what the doctor ordered, and I took off anxious to finish this thing off. The last 10 km were uneventful.

Julia was waiting for me about 20 m from the finish line and ran it in with me. I finished in a time of 8 hours and 14 minutes. Evan had a big smile for me and it was so nice to see Sarah, who was also smiling proudly. My stomach felt horrible, so I was very cautious about eating anything - just had a bit of coke, water and orange. I then pulled off my shoes and socks to see the damage to my toe. Yikes – not pretty. Likely broken. (Difficult to walk a day later).

Simon was next come in, followed by Carl a while later. Great runs all around for the boys and I think they were quite happy with their finish.

On the drive home I felt the urge to vomit and had to get Sarah to pull over. It all came up, which was a real bummer because I knew I wouldn’t be able to get that tasty milkshake I was so much looking forward to in Bragg Creek. I wasn’t able to eat for another 5 hours!

You must ask yourself, “Why would anyone want to run ultra marathons?” I know I am asking myself that same question right now. I have no desire to race an ultra anytime soon and I question whether I have it in me to race them in the future. The one positive thing about having done a few ultras, it makes the marathon seem like a piece of cake! Looking forward to the Chicago Marathon in October.

K100 Race Report - Part 3

2011-06-30T12:14:00.000-07:00

Legs 7 - 10 - The Comeback Kids

by Duncan Marsden

To recap, we were 10 minutes and 35 seconds behind the team in the lead, with 4 legs left...

Leg 7 - Jody Draude - Fastest Leg - 55:49

Jody was ready. Pumped. You could see it. But with every minute that ticked by from the handover of the leaders to the Travis handing over to Jody, hope was beginning to fade. When Travis finished, he said " Jody needs to bring us to within under 10 minutes, or we're done". I had to agree. Worse still, Jody was up against an Olympian - Paul Tichelaar.

Jody had spent some time on the course. He ran this leg last year and was third overall in 58:12. He had also managed to get a training session on the latter stages and he said he knew he had to take the first part easy and not get carried away on the downhills. He told me he was fitter this year and watching him on this leg, he was running like it. Travis and I kept pace with him in Travis's car (which, if you've never been in Travis's car, you won't know is pretty much top speed), letting Jody know the split times. And they were coming down. Fast. Jody pulled back just over 3 minutes on the lead and by the end of his leg, we were 7 minutes and 34 seconds back. We can do this. The leaders were starting to look nervous. Even more so when Jeremy Deere stepped out of the crowd to take the handover from Jody. "And we've got Joel Bourgeois next", I shouted to them!

Two points to note about Jody's leg. One, he ran 2.5 minutes quicker than last year. Good lad. Two, he won the fastest leg competition by one second, typifying the theme of this race - that every second counts.

Leg 8 - Jeremy Deere - Fastest Leg (by over 6 minutes!!!!!) - 51:21

Wow. If anyone has run this leg quicker, I want them tested. Jeremy FLEW. He averaged 5'12" a mile for his entire leg and it looked like it. The guy in front was running scared. Seven minutes quickly became 5, then 4, then 3. The guy in front asked Travis and me "Is he catching?" We just laughed. I wanted to say "he's passed you, you just blinked and didn't see it". Jeremy was going to catch him on this leg. It was just a matter of time.

Travis and I were in the support car, coming round a bend when we saw the leader pull up. To say he was hobbling was an understatement. He was dragging his leg like he was one of the living dead. He was done. They swapped him out and another runner took over. Now, whereas our substitution ended up with me running 8 minute miles, this substitution worked very much in favour of the leaders from Edmonton. Their substitute happened to be their best runner, admittedly tired from having run a leg, but that was hours ago. Jeremy still ate into the time and finished only 1 minute and 24 seconds back, but we still weren't in the lead.

Leg 9 - Joel Bourgeois - Fastest Leg - 45:49

That changed very quickly. With the obligatory Quebecois on our team (they had Maxime Leboeuf after all), we couldn't lose. Joel looked effortless up the hills despite having run a hard 3,000m steeplechase the day before to finish 4th in Nationals. The deficit quickly became a lead and Joel ran his leg 4 minutes faster than the guy who had been in front of him. We had a lead. 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Would it be enough? We knew they had Adrian Lambert on their last leg, a 70 minute half marathoner. But we had Scott...

Leg 10 - Scott Jensen - 3rd Fastest - 63:57

In the absence of Mark Fewster, our traditional finisher, I asked the team weeks ago who we should put on leg 10. The response was unanimous. "Jensen". "He's got game". "No-one will dig deeper for you." "He'll do what needs to be done. He's tough." Just some of the comments. And they were right.

Leg 10 was a delayed start and so the first three teams started together. That's tough because it meant Scott could fall behind Lambert, but not by too much. Leg 10 is on trails and so you can't see what's going on. We all stood waiting by the finish line. There was a roar from the team from Edmonton. "It's Lambert!" And there he was. Running up the last hill, looking strong. "Start the clock" they shouted, jumping around like they'd won the Stanley Cup. Scott had to cross in less than 2 minutes and 30 seconds' time, or we'd have lost. Seconds ticked by feeling like minutes. The last hill took at least a minute to run up and he still wasn't in sight. We haven't got much time... and there he was. The BVH roar was made all the louder by the silence Scott's presence brought to the team from Edmonton. Striding majestically up the hill, "The Terminator" crossed the line just over a minute behind. It was enough. We had won by 84 seconds. Less than a second per mile over 100 miles.

Usually these events have stand-out performances. Jeremy and Joel are obvious choices. But with a margin of victory of less than one second per mile, this truly was an event where everyone did their bit. Literally (as Jeremy likes to hear me say), every second counted.

Well done boys. Enjoy the glow of victory. Although the Edmonton guys were fantastic sports and gracious to a man in defeat, I think we ruffled a few feathers. They'll be gunning for us next year.

K100 Race Report - Part 2

2011-06-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

Legs 4 - 6 : Everything's Not Lost

By way of recap, our first three runners had all run heroically to hang on to the front-loaded team from Edmonton, and we were only 5 min and 12 seconds back from the lead.

Leg 4 - Duncan Marsden - Fastest Leg - 52:37

Eyes on the Prize

Leg 4 is one of the shorter ones and the team in the lead had used the opportunity to put one of their weaker runners in to bat. I was running leg 4 for BVH and took the start hard. I realized that I would be able to pull some time back on the leaders when I was greeted by the support crew at about 2 miles in, and they told me that the gap to the lead was already down to 4 minutes. Spurred on by this, I kept my head down and looked forward to each update (it really is all you have to work with, in races like this). The gap kept dropping. By the last mile I was about 3 minutes behind. It was a downhill mile and although I was tired I took the opportunity to give it one last push to get the gap lower. I threw in a 5'10" mile and by the time I crossed the line, the gap was 2 minutes and 40 seconds.

Leg 5

It's quite a surreal feeling when you get to the end of your leg and there's no-one to hand off to. Of course, you know it's possible but you never think it will happen to you. I kept looking for my runner amongst the crowd of bodies milling about and there was no-one. I kept expecting him to burst out of the crowd, take the hand off and go, but nothing. I jogged through the chute and Aaron was there with the bad news. "He's not here", he said. Three small words. Crushing. "What do you want to do?" Aaron asked me. I really didn't know. I was shattered, my legs could barely hold me up and all I could think was that I was facing another 18k straight uphill. I didn't want to admit to myself that I'd have to do this on my own so Aaron drove ahead while I continued to plod onwards, watching the guy I'd worked hard to pull back into sight disappear again. Aaron pulled on his running shoes and took the hand off. I jumped in his car, drove up the road about a mile, grabbed some Gatorade and took the hand off again. The plan was for Aaron and Natalie to go back to the start of leg 5, get the number for the leg, and bring it to me and then see who (between me and Aaron) would finish the leg.

I was not enjoying myself. I had nothing. The hills were terrible and for the first time in the race I got overtaken. Matt Norminton of the Running Room passed in his car. "What's going on?" "We had a no-show". To his immense credit, Matt immediately pulled over, jumped out with a gel and water and handed them to me. "What else do you need?" he asked. "Gloves? Hat?" That's one of the things I love about running. He could see I was struggling and even though I was the opposition, he had no hesitation in helping. Thanks, Matt.

After about 8k, our runner turned up. To his credit, he ran a storming last 10k and brought what I had lost right back down. But the damage was done. The gap was now 7 minutes and 40 seconds.

Leg 6 - Travis Cummings - 33:47 - 2nd fastest

Travis was a hero. Having already run leg 1, he flew down leg 6 in the second fastest time of the day. Unfortunately, the guy who ran faster than him was from the leaders and, given that he was fresh, he ran 2 minutes and 50 seconds quicker than Travis.

By the end of leg 6, we were 10 minutes and 35 seconds behind. We had our best runners to come but this was looking insurmountable. The leaders had beaten us in 5 of the 6 previous legs and we had a serious deficit to pull back. We rang ahead to the remaining runners "Run like the wind. Every second counts" but it was more in hope than in expectation.

To be continued...

K100 Race Report - Part 1

2011-06-28T07:24:00.000-07:00

K100 Relay - Saturday June 25, 2011

by Duncan Marsden

This. Was. Epic. I simply cannot do justice to this race in one blog alone, so I will be writing a trilogy - legs 1-3 (the forgotten legs), legs 4-6 (everything's not lost) and 7-10 (the comeback kids). This is part one.

Follow the white line - Travis Eyes 100 miles of Drama Ahead of Him

We had already had our fair share of drama even before the race with our leg 6 runner (Nick Haddow) telling us on Wednesday that a golf cart had driven over his foot and that it was broken and he was on crutches. What he didn't tell us was that HE was driving the golf cart at the time. Quite a talent.

Ever-willing, Travis Cummings stepped up and agreed to do both legs 1 and 6.

Leg One - Travis Cummings - 68:32 - 2nd fastest

Nick, Our Leg 6 Runner, On Crutches at the Start Line

Travis has often been compared to Steve Prefontaine (usually by himself) and he certainly didn't sacrifice the gift on leg 1. Up against Maxime LeBeouf, Travis had his work cut out for him. Maxime built up a small lead very quickly and Travis was staying with the Running Room guy. Not for long. In a burst of pace, Travis opened up about a 300m gap in about a mile, to leave the Running Room guy wondering what had happened. The gaps pretty much stayed at that distance the rest of the way. Travis came in second, 2 minutes and 38 seconds behind Maxime, his work well and truly done. We were in second, and still in touch after one of their best runners had completed his leg. It became apparent early on that they had front-loaded their team, whereas we had not.

Front-Running Pre

Leg 2 - Blaine Penny - 3rd Fastest - 63:12

Blaine was not only up against Matt Normington and Kris Swanson, but he was up against the wind too, in what had to be the windiest leg of the day (in fact, by the time Jody ran leg 7, it had turned round and was a tailwind - no such luck for Blaine).

Blaine Wonders if his new short shorts will be help

What better way to hear about the leg than through the eyes of the runner? Here's what Blaine had to say about his leg:

"I was going into this run like it was any other big individual race. I knew it was going to be a tough run and that every one us was going to have an exceptional day if we were going to challenge the win.

Matt Normington's View

Travis Cummings (a.k.a. young Steve Prefontaine) ran Leg 1, and was running in 2nd place with the competition about 3 minutes ahead, and the Running Room team right on our heels. I knew I would be starting with Matt Normington on my heels and have to admit I secretly wanted to hold him off. (Matt is a 2:21 marathoner!) My approach was to start at a good pace (at my upper end), and then adjust by how I was feeling, and not worry about Matt too much. I glanced down at the first mile split and saw 5:08 and was pleasantly surprised to be feeling so good. Definitely some adrenalin in the mix there I realized, and then settled into about a 3:40 min/km pace.

After about 3 km Matt caught me. Matt sat on my shoulder for a few minutes to recover as he was breathing pretty hard. I knew he started really fast and figured I could stay with him. He then surged past me and opened up a 10 second gap. I held that gap for several kilometers and then we were met with a crazy headwind. I could see Matt struggling ahead of me and soon caught him. He tucked in behind me and started drafting. I thought this was cool for a minute, but I thought I either had to shake him or work together taking leads. Duncan was yelling at us to start working together and that's what we did, doing 1 min pulls. It was an awesome way to battle the wind, and we kept a pretty steady (but much slower pace) to the Leg 3 transition where Aaron Swanson was in the chute and ready to go."

Majestic

By this stage the gap was exactly 5 minutes. Plenty of time...

Leg 3 - Aaron Swanson - 57:03 - 2nd Fastest

I did not see much of Aaron's leg but he looked majestic as he strode into the finish. I know this for sure:

(a) He blew the Running Room runner he was up against out of sight, putting 3.5 minutes between us and them. We never really saw them again.

(b) He was only 12 seconds slower than the guy who won the leg which meant that, importantly, the gap between us and the lead was only 5 minutes and 12 seconds. And they were running out of good runners.

Legs 1 - 3 are the forgotten legs. But the race is won and lost here. Hats off to the efficient work of the "engine room" boys who did their job with minimal fuss.

None of us knew that the drama was about to begin.

To be continued...

100 Miles of Magic

2011-06-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

By Aaron Swanson

Photo Courtesy of Natalie Swanson

100 miles, 10 guys, 1 relay race. This weekend is the epic Kananaskis 100 mile (K100) relay race that goes up and over Highwood Pass in the Rocky Mountains. Its not actually 100 miles long but K100 sounds way better than K97.8. The race starts at roughly 1260m in elevation in Longview and peaks at 2206m on top of Canada’s highest engineered road before making the massive descent into the Nakiska ski area. I think most people would agree, the race is in a world class setting and in one of the best races out there.

This is my second year running the event as part of the Centaur Subaru Bow Valley Harriers team. While we placed 2nd last year, I think we still hold the title for the longest team name. We had a tight battle for second place but lagged first by roughly 25 mins. It would be great if we could close that gap and make those first place guys work a little harder. Overall, I think our team is much fitter than 2010 (not to mention we convinced one of Canada’s best steeplechasers to join our team) so this could turn out to be a very interesting battle.

The race starts in Longview, and as mentioned goes up and over the Highwood pass to finish at the Nakiska ski hill roughly 9.5 hours later. I have the pleasure of running leg 3 which is just before the course starts to get scary with leg 4 and the final push up the pass in leg 5. Legs 4 and 5 combine for roughly 700m in elevation gain in a little over 30km. Despite leg 5 being the notoriously brutal leg, I personally would rather take it down than face leg 6 which screams straight downhill (elevation loss of 340m) for 9.4km and has the potential to ruin your legs for a solid week. Check out the elevation profiles from legs 5 and 6:

Here is our plan of attack:

Leg 1 (18.6km) – Travis Cummings
Leg 2 (16.5km) – Blaine Penny
Leg 3 (14.7km) – Aaron Swanson
Leg 4 (14.1km) – Duncan Marsden
Leg 5 (17.6km) – Ken Myers
Leg 6 (9.4km) – Nick Haddow
Leg 7 (16.5km) – Jody Draude
Leg 8 (15.9km) – Jeremy Deere
Leg 9 (12.5km) – Joel Bourgeois
Leg 10 (18 km) – Scott Jensen

I should point out there will be a little bit of a Swanson battle taking place on the course as my dad is slated to run the same leg as me. Given the staggered start times (his team starts at 7am, we start at 8am) I doubt I will catch him, but that would have been pretty sweet.

Being a runner, it’s not very often we get the chance to compete in a team event like this. I find team events tend to bring the best out in people, as Blaine put it last year, ”letting yourself down is acceptable, letting 9 other people down is not.”

Buckle up, its go time.

Blackfoot Ultra 100km May 28th 2011

2011-06-03T07:20:00.000-07:00

by Carl Pryce

This was my third year at the Blackfoot 100km. I finished second in 2009 and third last year, so there was unfinished business to do. 2009 was the year of the heat, where Blaine and I had run the first 75km together, before he opened a gap to win the race by 13 minutes. 2010 was the year of the mud. Continual rain turned to sleet, turning the course into a gloopy mudfest and over half the field dropped out. We had returned to our tent to find it flattened under the weight of heavy snow. This year conditions were much more benign, with the forecast calling for a high of 19C, and underfoot conditions were bone dry.

The Blackfoot Ultra is held just east of Edmonton at the Cooking Lake Blackfoot Provincial Recreation area. It is an area of Aspen parkland, with numerous lakes and lots of wildlife. The area has 85 km of trails and is the home of the Canadian Birkebeiner Ski Festival which is held in early February. The course uses 25km of trails, making a loop which is repeated four times for the 100km. Other races with distances of 25km, 50km, and 50 miles take place on the same day. Although on the prairies, the course packs in a lot of height gain as the trails almost continuously undulate. The hills aren't so noticeable the first time round, but seem to get steeper with each lap.

Being the longest race, the 100km is the first to start. Approximately 40 runners assembled for the 5:00 am start, just as day was breaking. After a few words of wisdom by race director Gary Poliquin we headed off into the woods. It always strikes me just how mellow the starts of ultra races are: there's no mad dash for the front, just gentle jogging to get the legs moving. I soon found myself part of a breakaway group of three - the other two being Oleg Tabelev and Charles Miron. Oleg won the Lost Souls 100 mile race last year, and Charles the Sinister Seven, so I was in good company. We chatted as we ran the first lap together, the kilometers sped by and soon we had 25km behind us in 1:59. The pace felt very manageable. Along the way we saw a huge bull moose bounding through the forest and heard lots of other animal noises but were usually too focussed on watching our footing to pay any more attention.

One of the great things about this race is the aid stations are well stocked with fruit, including over 90 pounds of strawberries. My nutrition strategy was to rely on a mixture of eload and protein in my drinks bottles, and gels and fruit for solid food. This worked well for the first 60-70km, but after taking seven gels I couldn't face any more. Despite downing nearly three litres of fluid I found myself developing an unquenchable thirst, probably brought on by the gels. As somebody who never drinks coke, I was surprised to find myself looking forward to a cup of flat coke at each aid station after 70km in an effort to quench the thirst. The fruit went down very well, especially as they seemed to have sourced the juciest oranges on the planet. I've always found that getting the nutrition right is the most important aspect of ultra running - get it wrong and you can end up with a very sore stomach, and stories of projectile vomiting are very common. I later heard that Charles dropped out with stomach issues after 50km.

The second and third laps went by in 2:06 and 2:25, and by the 75km mark I had built up at least a 10 minute lead over Oleg. Knowing that Oleg is a strong finisher with a lot of stamina, I was getting a little concerned as I could feel myself slowing. Last year on the Moose Mountain 42km race I was feeling complacent during the final 10km thinking I had built a sufficient lead on Oleg, only to find him cross the finish line just one minute behind. There were now lots of runners from the 25km, 50km and 50mile races on the course, so there was plenty of company. By noon things had warmed up and, without much wind, conditions were feeling warmer in the trees than the forecast high of 19C. As dehydration kicked in my pace slowed and the last lap went in 2:38, slower than I had hoped for. With 1km to go my children Bridie (13), Ben (11) and Anna (9) appeared and joined me for the run in to the finish. I had missed Rick Webb's course record by 19 minutes, but done enough to finish first. Just three minutes after collapsing into a chair Oleg appeared to take second place in 9:11. He had gained considerably on the last lap and was looking strong.

As usual I was feeling quite beaten up by the finish. This is where bringing along a support crew pays dividends, as Rosie and the kids attended to my every need. The coke had done little to quench the unquenchable thirst and when I mentioned to Rosie the only thing that could quench it was a cold beer, one appeared almost instantly. Not perhaps the best way to rehydrate after 100km, but very effective.

BVH 5K Results - June 2011

2011-06-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

Results from yesterday's 5k. Report to follow:

1. Darcy Bell - 16.39
2. Frank Wollstencroft - 16:40
3. Paul McCloy - 16:51
4. Jody Draude - 16.58
5. Duncan and Ava Marsden - 17.08*
6. Ryan Twa - 17:12
7. Tom Coll - 17:13
8. Nick Haddow - 17:36
9. Mark Fewster - 17:37
10. Kevin Lindland - 17:45
11. Matt Wanford - 18:15
12. Kerry Zwiers - 20:24.

*Stroller course record. (Note that the stroller course is about 150m shorter than the course run by everyone else.)

Series Standings

1.    Duncan Marsden 36 points
2.= Blaine Penny 25
       Frank Woolstencroft 25
4.    Jody Draude 20
5.= Travis Cummings 19
       Paul McCloy 19
7.    Chris Hooper 15
8.    Mark Fewster 14
9.= Scott Jensen 12
       Darcy Bell 12
11.= Colin McArthur 10
        Aaron Swanson 10
13.   Ben Pryce 9
14.= Phil Villeneuve 7
        Ryan Twa 7
16.= Tom Coll 6
        Bob Banks 6
        Alex Harmer 6
        Kevin Lindland 6
19.   Nick Haddow 5
20.= Mike Brewster 4
        Lisa Harvey 4
22.= Bruce Dalton 3
        Kerry Zwiers 3
24.= Anna Pryce 2
        Matt Wanford 2
26.= David Omahen 1
        Glenn Mutsemaker 1

Wednesday 5k

2011-05-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

We were busy Harriers at the weekend! While most of us were tearing up the streets of Calagry and while Blaine was pushing new boundaries in Ottawa, Harrier Carl Pryce quietly strolled to a 3 minute victory in the Blackfoot 100k (that's the equivalent of out-dipping your opponent over that distance).

But it's not all over yet. Wednesday sees the latest in the "First Wednesday of the Month" 5K race series. Usual place (under the Olympic Arches in Eau Claire), usual time (7pm start). As an added incentive we have marathon hero Blaine Penny on the lead bike. Blaine will be signing copies of his book "How to beat your goals 5 months in advance".

See you all Wednesday!

Ottawa Race weekend

2011-05-29T21:04:00.000-07:00

By Blaine Penny

Family Fun Run

For anyone looking for a fun destination family race weekend, I highly recommend Ottawa. This is the second year we have come to Ottawa to visit family and friends - Sarah grew up here - and to do a little running, and there is something for everyone.

It all kicked off with the 2 km family run on Saturday afternoon. There were literally thousands of families running together which is such a fun atmosphere. Julia was tearing it up with her friend Jane while we just tried to keep tabs on her and follow with Evan without losing her.

Sarah’s 10 km

Sarah ran the 10 km (along with our good friend Anne), which was a later start at 6 pm. Evan and I were on course to cheer her on. With her blue tank top, she blended in nicely with the other 15,000 people who wore their new (blue) race shirts. It was mesmerizing trying to pick her out of the crowd! We did manage to catch her on the final few hundred meters and cheer her to the finish. She ran a new PB of 50 min and a few seconds, which is about 14 minutes faster than last year!

Marathon

Next up was the marathon this morning with an early 7 am start. It was misty rain and about 17 degrees to start. I knew the high humidity was going to be tough and made an early mental note to drink more than usual. Within the first kilometer I was just starting to find my pace when I hear “Hey Harrier!”. I turn around and I see this woman in yellow that I didn’t recognize and she was quick to introduce herself as Emily. Aaron and Jeremy mentioned that a speedster by the name of Emily was going to be at the race and joining the run from Boston en route to a summer in Calgary. (Emily I have learned is a running superstar and has won many Canadian titles over the years.

I asked Emily her goal time and she said it was 2:40, and I said “Perfect – me too”. She then pointed up ahead to a 2:36 pacer and we shortly bunched into a group of about 6 or 7 runners with the pacer. I was thinking this was faster than I wanted to be going, but figured I would go with the pace for a few km’s and see how it felt. We all stuck together until about the 15 km mark and Emily started falling off the back a bit, and slowly but surely our pack was diminishing one by one.

I was lucky to get some great cheering on the course from my sister Diana, Rich Thomas, Phil Villeneuve, Heather Gallagher, and of course Sarah and the kids at the finish.

By about the 25 km mark it just the pacer dude and myself left and we kept our consistent pace going. After a few more km’s he was straggling, and faded, and then I was on my own.

My whole approach to the run was to keep myself distracted from the task at hand as long as I could, and then when I needed to I was going to dig deep and really focus on finishing strong. When we hit the canal I knew we had 10 km to go and that it was pretty much flat. I thought to myself, “This is relatively easy now – just keep it steady and it’s 2 back-to-back BVH Wednesday night races I need to survive”. I knew that pain well and it felt just about right.

I continued to reel in a few more people over the next few kilometers and then with 2 km to go I poured out what I had left to bring it home. I was so pumped to see Sarah, Julia and Evan with just 300 m to the finish, which gave me enough for one final kick.

I crossed the line at 2:34 and was quickly being ushered into the elite area. When I said I wasn’t elite and just a ‘wanna be elite’, the guy told me I was the first non-elite to finish. I seriously couldn’t believe what I had just done!

Emily finished in 2:43 and was the top Canadian woman. Given this was the Canadian Marathon Championships, Emily is the 2011 Canadian Marathon Queen. I managed to finish 9th Canadian. A big congrats to Emily for an impressive run and what a great way to meet the latest addition to the BVH group.

Full Results: http://www.sportstats.ca/display-results.php?lang=eng&racecode=47411

Today I far exceeded what I ever thought I was capable of doing. I was inspired in so many ways today, and I think that was a big part of what helped me be in such a great headspace to pull this off.

With all the great performances in the Calgary races today – congrats to all by the way – I think we need to keep the running project going. Sarah tells me I have qualified for sub-elite status for New York so we already have a fall 2012 project for the Harriers!

Fantastic Motivation!

2011-05-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

by Mark Fewster

What were you all doing at 6am this morning? Blaine and I were running…..while you were sleeping! A little blurb from the TDF 2002:

Throughout the Tour de France, a Colombian rider on the Kelme - Costa Blanca Team, Santiago Botero, has been keeping a diary for the newspaper. Each day the newspaper publishes his diary from the previous day. Unfortunately, the only diary entry I have seen appeared in this past Sunday's edition. However, it was worth the read:

There I am all alone with my bike. I know of only two riders ahead of me as I near the end of the second climb on what most riders consider the third worst mountain stage in the Tour. I say 'most riders' because I do not fear mountains.

After all, our country is nothing but mountains. I train year-round in the mountains. I am the national champion from a country that is nothing but mountains. I trail only my teammate, Fernando Escartin, and a Swiss rider. Pantani, one of my rival climbers, and the Gringo Armstrong are in the Peleton about five minutes behind me. I am climbing on such a steep portion of the mountain that if I were to stop pedaling, I will fall backward. Even for a world class climber, this is a painful and slow process. I am in my upright position pedaling at a steady pace willing myself to finish this climb so I can conserve my energy for the final climb of the day. The Kelme team leader radios to me that the Gringo has left the Peleton by himself and that they can no longer see him.
I recall thinking 'the Gringo cannot catch me by himself'. A short while later, I hear the gears on another bicycle. Within seconds, the Gringo is next to me - riding in the seated position, smiling at me. He was only next to me for a few seconds and he said nothing - he only smiled and then proceeded up the mountain as if he were pedaling downhill. For the next several minutes, I could only think of one thing - his smile. His smile told me everything. I kept thinking that surely he is in as much agony as me, perhaps he was standing and struggling up the mountain as I was and he only sat down to pass me and discourage me. He has to be playing games with me. Not possible. The truth is that his smile said everything that his lips did not. His smile said to me, 'I was training while you were sleeping, Santiago'. It also said, 'I won this tour four months ago, while you were deciding what bike frame to use in the Tour. I trained harder than you did, Santiago. I don't know if I am better than you, but I have outworked you and right now, you cannot do anything about it. Enjoy your ride, Santiago. See you in Paris.'
Obviously, the Gringo did not state any of this. But his smile did dispel a bad rumor among the riders on the tour. The rumor that surfaced as we began the Prologue several days ago told us that the Gringo had gotten soft. His wife had given birth to his first child and he had won the most difficult race in the world - He had no desire to race, to win. I imagine that his smile turned to laughter once he was far enough not to embarrass me. The Gringo has class, but he heard the rumors - he probably laugh all the way to Paris. He is a great champion and I must train harder. I am not content to be a great climber, I want to be the best.
I learned much from the Gringo in the mountains. I will never forget the helpless feeling I had yesterday. If I ever become an international champion, I will always remember the lesson the Gringo taught me."

BVH 5k Series Standings - After 2 races

2011-05-05T16:17:00.000-07:00

OK so I have unilaterally decided to change the rules. You get points depending on how many people you beat and the one with the most points from their four best points tallies wins. This means that even if you run fewer than 4 races, you can still get a lot of points if a lot of people run the race. So if you come 5th in a race with 25 people in it you get more points than winning a race with 10 people in it. We'll see how that works. Current standings are:

1. Duncan Marsden 28 points
2. Blaine Penny 25
3. Travis Cummings 19
4. Chris Hooper 15
5. Frank Woolstencroft 14
6. Scott Jensen 12
7. Jody Draude 11
8.= Mark Fewster 10
       Colin McArthur 10
       Aaron Swanson 10
11.= Ben Pryce 9
         Paul McCloy 9
13. Phil Villeneuve 7
14.= Bob Banks 6
         Alex Harmer 6
16.= Mike Brewster 4
         Lisa Harvey 4
18.= Bruce Dalton 3
         Kevin Lindland 3
20.= Anna Pryce 2
         Kerry Zwiers 2
22.= David Omahen 1
         Glenn Mutsemaker 1

BVH 5k - May 2011 Results

2011-05-05T07:17:00.000-07:00

1. Duncan Marsden 16.28

2. Blaine Penny 16.36

3. Travis Cummings 17.06

4. Colin McArthur 17.16

5. Paul McCloy 17.19

6. Chris Hooper 17.33

7. Phil Villeneuve 17.36

8. Alex Harmer 18.08

9. Mark Fewster 18.29

10. Mike Brewster 18.36

11. Bruce Dalton 18.49

12. Kerry Zwiers 20.48

13. Glenn Mutsemaker 23.06

Report and series standings to follow...

MitoCanada Run

2011-05-03T16:10:00.000-07:00

By Duncan Marsden

Last Sunday was the first running of the MitoCanada 5k/10k run in Canmore and I am certain that everyone who turned up would have considered it a fantastic success! The Rec Centre in Canmore was full of people wearing MitoCanada buffs and showing off the rest of the fantastic swag given away as part of the entry fee.

The course was an out and back along the river. The weather was fantastic and apart from the last 1.5k which was snowy, it was all bone dry! Perfect.

There were not as many harriers present as there have been in other races recently but we had Blaine (President of MitoCanada) and Jeremy running with their kids in 5K race and Mark Fewster manning the water station with his family. That left Sarah Penny and me running for the glory. And I think we covered ourselves in it. Sarah took 8 minutes off her best 10k time ever and came 3rd in her age group - I don't know if she was more pleased with the time or with the cookie she won as a result. I was helped by a few lost souls going off course, as well as cheers from Blaine and Jeremy in the last mile, to take the victory in the 10k in a time of 35.01.

As an aside, Calgarians beware! As I passed Blaine and Jeremy in the last mile, I was running full-out. Jeremy told his 8 year old son Matthew to try and chase me and chase me he did. At one stage I was worried he was going to overtake me! You've been warned, Calgary, the next generation of Deeres are on their way!

Don't forget the 5k tomorrow. Start at 7pm at the Olympic arches in Eau Claire.

Next 5k

2011-04-28T06:55:00.000-07:00

The next 5k is next Wednesday (May 4). Usual drill - Start is at 7pm sharp under the arches at the Y in Eau Claire. Plenty of room for more people so spread the word. Please drop me an email (duncanmarsden@gmail.com) to let me know if you are going to be running. We may need to run the short course again as they are currently doing work at the back of the River Cafe so instead of going behind it, we will just go in front of it. That means the course is likely to be 150m short. If anyone wants to be lead cyclist/cattle prodder or Executive Photographer, let me know.

Hope to see you all at the MitoCanada Race on Sunday!

There's also training tonight at Edworthy at 7pm...

Calgary Police ½ Marathon (April 17, 2011)

2011-04-17T21:28:00.000-07:00

by Blaine Penny

This was one ½ marathon to remember – snow, snow and more snow!

All I could think about off the start was Duncan’s comment a few weeks back about a fellow runner in the ‘Icebreaker’ referring to his running shoes as bowling shoes (because he was slipping and sliding so much). I think we could all relate today!

The Bow Valley Harriers had a good contingent out today, with at least 3 BVH vests being worn by Mark Fewster, Nick Haddow (welcome back from California!) and myself. My goal for the race was to try and stick with the lead runners for as long as I could and give it a good effort to hold them. I didn’t even wear a watch, so I had no idea of pace or time.

Frank took to the front right away, with Jeff Krar, Jody Draude and myself tucking in behind letting Frank set the pace. Within the first couple kilometers Jeff slipped and went down hard on a corner, which reminded us how slippery it actually was. Fortunately he didn’t hurt himself and jumped back up and in the group. In retrospect, the road conditions were not too bad because we could run on the packed down snow with some form of predictable footing (albeit slippery).

Once we left the roads and hit the pathways (approx. 4 km), the conditions became much more varied. There were sections that were plowed, some with fresh snow on pavement / ice, and other sections with deeper old snow and ice covered with the fresh snow. The toughest section for me (footing wise) was the back end of the reservoir where the snow was more than 6 or 8” deep and really soft and mushy. It felt like running in deep sand and was pretty much survival running.

The pace was pretty steady and things started to spread out a bit as we hit the section by the Rockyview Hospital (5 km). As we made our way through Heritage Park, I took a hard fall (on my hip), but fortunately it didn’t hurt too much and I was able to jump back up and keep going. I stuck with Frank and he led most of the first 7 km. I honestly didn’t know who was with us as I didn’t look back until just a few kilometers to go.

Shortly after the 7 km mark as we were heading around the reservoir, I saw a guy on xc skis, and I thought to myself how civilized that actually looked. It was at about that point I realized that Frank was so steady and strong, and made the running look effortless. As for me, my breathing became pretty heavy and I started to feel it, so I decided to just run my own race from that point and limit my losses.

I kept Frank in my sights until we came out of the Weaselhead, but he definitely started putting time into me when we got back on the flats. I was pretty jazzed to be running in second and felt out of my league considering the company I was running with. I had to dig deep to hold it for the last 8 km, and managed to hang in there to finish it off without being caught by Jody who was pretty close behind in 3^rd.

Good work to all the racers who gave their all despite sub-optimal conditions, and especially to the volunteers who had to stand around in the cold to look after us.

Here’s the full results:

Overall Results

Montreal Half marathon

2011-04-17T18:53:00.000-07:00

By Duncan Marsden

I came to Montreal with a dual purpose. To race a national championship in Canada and to go sub 70 in the half for the first time. 1 out of 2 isn't bad.

Getting off the plane yesterday we were met by a torrential downpour. Coming from London I enjoy running in the rain. "As long as it doesn't get windy" I thought...

Somehow on the bus I managed to bash my calf. An innocuous little knock which got really painful. I knew it wouldn't affect me during the race but it hurt like hell.

The morning of the race was, in a word, windy. Gale force sounds dramatic but the metal barriers for spectators were even being blown over. I decided to forget about times and just race. I'd put myself in the biggest group near the front and hide as much as I could. Luckily, the biggest group was about 10 deep and was running exactly the pace I wanted. I needed an average of 5:20 per mile and although the splits were hugely varied depending on our direction, we were holding an average of 5.19. Perfect.

Part of the race is actually run on the grand prix circuit and it was great to be running at pace with a group of 10 guys on such a good surface.

I managed to hide from the wind in the first half. I was 33.21 at 10k and feeling great. Bang on pace. At 11k we had a long 4k straight (on the grand prix course!) straight into the gale. No one wanted to lead and we almost walked half a k. Then we agreed everyone would take 15 seconds leading and we did that crocodile thing for 4k. At 10 miles I was still on pace for about 70.30 (although my calf was really sore) and although the group had dwindled to 4, I thought the wind was going to be behind us so thought I could still get sub 70. With 2k to go the group split and then we headed back into the wind. I had my virtual partner on my Garmin on 70 pace and I was 58 seconds back from "him". I dropped another 45 seconds battling into the wind those last 2k and finished 14th overall in 71.44. It was crazy. Dustbins flying. Barriers blowing over. Even my legs were getting blown into each other.

That said, it was great to just race for once. In a championship that's how it should be. The time can wait for another day.

Revised BVH 5k (Race 1) Results

2011-04-11T15:54:00.000-07:00

1. Duncan Marsden 16.03
2. Frank Woolstencroft 16.04
3. Blaine Penny 16.14
4. Scott Jensen 16.21
5. Jody Draude 16.28
6. Aaron Swanson 16.37
7. Ben Pryce 16.43
8. Travis Cummings 16.43
9. Chris Hooper 17.04
10. Bob Banks 17.20
11. Mark Fewster 17.38
12. Lisa Harvey 17.44
13. Kevin Lindland 17.50
14. Anna Pryce 18.22
15. David Omahen 19.19.

BVH 5k Series - Race 1

2011-04-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

Forget Salazar v. Beardsley. We had Marsden v. Woolstencroft.

Under Starters' Orders

Last night saw the first of the BVH 5K races of the year. Given the temperature and the fact that it is quite early in the year, we had a very good turn out. We also had a number of firsts; our first female ever to run the 5K and our first Juniors ever to run the junior (4K) course. More about that later.

The First Lap

The race set off at 7 PM sharp from under the Olympic arches in Eau Claire. Our official starter, Julia Penny, nailed the order of Ready Steady Go and gave us the loudest GO ever. The course always remains the same - 100 m out to the park, three loops and back to finish under the Olympic arches. Yesterday, however, there were minor digging operations behind the river cafe and so the course was about 150 m short.

The race was pretty tight for the first lap or so but the main theme of of the race became clear pretty quickly; Marsden would push the lead and Woolstencroft would tail him like a cat ready to pounce. These heavyweights (ahem) were never more than a metre apart the entire race (including in the "sprint" finish) but Marsden just got the better of Woolstencroft, this time.

Swanson, Penny, Draude

By far the standout (and outstanding) performance of the night with that of third place Blaine Penny, looking resplendent in his new lightweight racing shoes. Although the course was about 30 seconds quicker than normal, Blaine took a good 90 seconds off his previous best. Rumours that the shoes have tested positive for anabolic steroids, have been denied.

Ben Pryce

In the female event, Lisa Harvey was in a league of her own. Literally. In the junior race (which runs three slightly shorter laps for a total of about 4k), Ben Pryce showed some serious speed (see the picture if you don't believe me) to finish 7th overall in 16.43. His sister, Anna, ran a very creditable 18.22. Carl Pryce finished with Anna and Carl was looking a little bit more out of breath than he should have...

Full results are set out below. Remember, the times do not count for record purposes but the placings do count for the purposes of the summer series:

1. Duncan Marsden 16.03

2. Frank Woolstencroft 16.04
3. Blaine Penny 16.14

Electronic Timing

4. Scott Jensen 16.21

5. Jody Draude 16.28

6. Aaron Swanson 16.37

7. Ben Pryce 16.43 (New Junior male course record)

8. Travis Cummings 16.43

9. Chris Hooper 17.04

10. Bob Banks 17.20

11. Mark Fewster 17.38

12. Lisa Harvey 17.44

13. Anna Pryce 18.22

14. David Omahen 19.19.

These same races will take place on the first Wednesday of every month, throughout the summer. Always starting and finishing at the Eau Claire Olympic arches.

Anna Pryce

Icebreaker 2011 Report

2011-04-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

by Duncan Marsden

I was not planning on running this year's Icebreaker but managed to sneak an entry, late on Friday, and so I decided that it would be good a good opportunity to see how fit I was at this time of year. I guess the clue is in the title, but I did not bank on the 20 cm of snow which fell in Calgary throughout Saturday, leaving Sunday's race course somewhat of a skating rink. When I warmed up with Jeremy Deere, there were a number of discussions about what shoes we should wear and we decided that there was no correct shoe (the course being either sheer ice or dry road) and that no one would win simply based on their choice of shoes. As we watched the eventual winner (who was wearing spikes!) pulling away from us with ease on a particularly icy stretch in the first mile, we had to concede that we might have been wrong!

Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable race with plenty of BVH interest upfront. Jeremy was in second throughout most of the race but ended up finishing in third place, closely followed by Frank Woolstencroft in 4th, with me in fifth. The picture above shows the only time I was in front of Frank in the whole race! Scott Jensen (also ruing his choice of shoes) was a little bit further back but showing promising form after returning from injury.

All in all, it was a crisp, sunny day to be out running fast round some quiet neighbourhoods and was a very enjoyable race. The times reflect the conditions and that is all I am going to say about that! I missed the brunch but by all accounts it is unmissable!

Don't forget the 5K tonight. Starting at 7 PM under the Olympic arches outside the YMCA in Eau Claire. It will be a slightly shorter course (by about 150 m) due to some digging that is taking place behind the River Cafe in the park. There may also be a few small pockets of ice so be careful on your feet. See you all there!

MitoCanada Race and 5k race series

2011-03-20T14:46:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to enter the MitoCanada run on May 1 in Canmore. Link to the entry here:

http://www.active.com/running/canmore-ab/mitocanada-canmore-5-and-10-km-fun-run-walk-2011

Let's make this one of the premier races in the area!

Also, keep an eye out for the start of the 5k summer race series. The plan is to have them on the first Wednesday of every month, leading up to Chicago (six in the series). The first one is planned for April 6. Time to get some speed...

MitoCanada Inspiring Success at the Canadian Birkebeiner (February 12, 2011)

2011-02-21T16:40:00.000-08:00

By Blaine Penny

Kirk and Blaine at the start. (Photo by Marg Fedyma)

I am a big believer that you definitely give a little more when competing for something bigger than just an individual result.

Just getting to the start of the Birkie seemed like a feat in itself. The week leading up to the event was a long week for all 3 of us (Brendan, Kirk and I) topped off by a late Friday evening drive to get to Edmonton (due to a Charity Gala I attended to promote MitoCanada as part of a Michael Bernard Fitzgerald concert at McEwen Hall). We arrived after midnight and checked into our “Express” hotel. Totally bagged, we all just wanted to sleep in the next morning and drink copious amounts of coffee. Racing was so far from our minds.

With a 6 am wake-up, quick breakfast at the hotel, we were off to the start line to try and figure out the grip wax for the day.

The temperature was +2 degrees in the morning with a predicted high of +6, which meant it was going to be a beautiful warm day to ski, but tough waxing and likely KLISTER. For those who have experienced xc skiing with klister, you know it can be fantastic, but also hit and miss when skiing a long course with variable condition and temperatures (like the 55 km Birkie.) After talking to a few people who were wax testing and helping wax skis, a purple Swix klister was the goods.

As if skiing 55 km wasn’t enough, the Birkie tradition was to replicate the great feat during the civil war of 1206 where 2 Birkebeiner Warriors skied the young 12 lb Norwegian Prince to safety. http://www.canadianbirkie.com/birkie-legend Yes, our version is a backpack with 12lbs!

GO! Kirk and I started in the front row to avoid the start line carnage and quickly settled into a nice groove of double poling across the lake in the beautiful sunshine. Before we knew it, we were a few kilometers in and as we skied through the opening for an 8’ high elk fence gate, I thought to myself that it was a whole lot easier to have the gate open than to have to jump it like last year. (Someone forgot to open the gate last year – serious carnage with 1,000 skiers hucking their skis and poles over the fence and then climbing over after them!)

Our wax was working pretty well, and the conditions were nice and fast with a rock solid track. As good as I have seen for Birkie grooming and conditions overall.

At about the 5 km mark, I looked around and was surprised to see that we were skiing along in about 4^th or 5^th spot (with over 1,400 skiers in the event), and many who chose the Birkie Lite (sans 12 lb pack). Most of the younger competitive skiers tend to do the Birkie Lite, so I was quite surprised to not see more skiers around us – or maybe we started too fast.

In a long ski like the Birkie, there is definitely an advantage to skiing in a group and getting a bit of a draft to rest. Kirk and I were leading a group of 4 and at about 20 km the other 2 skiers fell off. We decided to just keep it steady and no t push too hard in fear of bowing up.

It was pretty uneventful for the next 20 km and then our wax started to slip quite a bit. Fortunately we could muscle our way up and over the hills and it didn’t slow us too much. With 5 kilometers to go we decided to ski it in together and give one last push to make sure no one overtook us. I spent most of the last 5 km reflecting on my son Evan who has Mitochondrial Disease and is a quadriplegic, and so many others who are suffering like him. I felt so alive, happy, sad and fortunate to have the option to be able to do things like this. We crossed the finish line together to win the Birkebeiner, pumping our hands in the air and feeling proud of our ski and for MitoCanada.

The MitoCanada racing suits did garner some attention and I was approached after the race by a researcher from UofA who researches mitochondria and was asking what we were all about. Very cool!

My friend Brendan came up with the great idea of ordering MitoCanada racing suits for the WMC, and soliciting corporate sponsors to put their logos on the suits. In no time we raised $5K and had the suits designed and ordered. Unfortunately it has taken the vendor longer than anticipated to deliver and the bulk of the order is just clearing customs as we speak. However a few suits did make it through and were debuted in the Canadian Birkebeiner last weekend in Edmonton.

A Living Legend

2011-02-07T14:13:00.001-08:00

Two clips of my former coach talking about the British Milers Club that he founded in the '60s:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koHkgVzyxTg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AAS_WNMyb4

Chicago Registration Now Open!

2011-02-01T11:05:00.000-08:00

Harriers from around the world crowded round their computers at midnight MST last night to be among the first to enter the Chicago marathon next October. This is going to be quite the trip and you will not want to miss out on it. Register here:

http://www.chicagomarathon.com/CMS400Min/chicago_marathon/runner_information/index.aspx?id=500

A Call to Arms...

2011-01-04T16:45:00.000-08:00

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his sweat with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in Calgary now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That ran with us upon Chicago day.

Chicago Marathon. Sunday October 9, 2011. Be there...

Bow Corridor XC Ski Race (Canmore) – BVH Takes the Season Opener (Master’s) Classic Style Sprint Relay

2010-12-29T23:21:00.000-08:00

By: Blaine Penny

Just 3.5 weeks ago I was running along the hot pavement in the desert of the Las Vegas Marathon. Transitioning from long distance running to Cross Country Skiing Sprints in 3 weeks is not an easy thing to do I learned today. I managed to convince my good friend Kirk Howell – an ex xc ski racer from a previous life - that we should do this race and team up since it was a team relay sprint. Each skier skis 3 laps of the 1 km loop. How hard can it be….right? Carl Pryce and Brendan McCracken teamed up, as well as Carl’s 3 kids. Carl’s wife Rosie was on course cheering louder than anyone and definitely gave us all an enthusiastic advantage.

Running provides good endurance and fitness, but racing fast on cross-country skis requires a lot of upper body strength and speed on top of that. I am definitely lacking the strength and the speed and was quickly reminded of that today. Kirk on the other hand had managed some good strength training through the fall, but was lacking the endurance. Together, we made a decent team to muster through this.

After a week of fine-tuning the nutrition over the Christmas holidays through eating copious amounts of turkey and chocolate, a few too many beers and wine, I was feeling like I had the energy to toe the line and light the afterburners. (You sense the sarcasm I assume). With Kirk having a history of pretty much never losing a sprint finish in his olden ski racing days, we decided he would anchor and I would start. We registered in the Master’s category (30 years +) to avoid being embarrassed by the young guns in the open men category.

The 1 km loop consisted of a climb off the start, downhill, then slight up, down again to the stadium and slight up to the finish. There were approximately 20 to 25 teams and I bravely started in one of the front lanes. We blasted off the start and I went as hard as I could and realized I was out in front – now the hard part was holding it. About a minute later it hit me and I was a flailing carcass of lactic acid. A couple times I got tangled up in myself and missed a few strides, but luckily didn’t fall. I managed to double pole as hard as I could to complete the first lap, but was overtaken by one other skier in the last few meters as I tagged Kirk. As I came into the tag zone Kirk started accelerating as I ran out of gas and had to ask him to stop so I could tag him. Ouch! Not bad I thought, but I was seriously hurting and already felt like I had burned a hole in my lungs.

Kirk started cautiously on his first lap and then decided to light it up when he got to the first hill and overtook the lead skier (Charles – another east coaster from days past). By the time Kirk finished his lap he had a good gap. We kept building on the gap throughout the rest of the race and managed to win by about 45 seconds. Not bad for a couple of old school ski dads I guess.

The only downer on the day was the unfortunate incident of a skier who went down on one of the down hills. Apparently he was unconscious for 5 min and was rushed off to the hospital. I sure hope he is OK. Not what you expect in an old guy masters race, but you actually get going pretty fast on some of the down hills and a fall can actually do some serious damage.

We had a quick look at the posted results and our time of 16:44 for 6 kms, which would have put us about 15^th in the open men category, just a mere 1 min behind some Olympians who raced in Vancouver last year. Most of our Canadian National Team were skiing the race and it was pretty cool to watch those guys go. Carl and Brendan came in the bottom 3^rd of the pack after making up some ground on the last few laps with a solid finish.

I know the BVH is mainly a running club – unofficial of course – but one of my goals is to get a few folks out for some of the local xc ski races for some cross training. Here’s a list of a few great local races for anyone interested in challenging yourself on the skinny boards:

- Bow Corridor Regional Race (Jan 8): Canada Olympic Park 9 km Skate Race - http://www.bcrr.ca/league.php?scriptName=LEAGUEINFO&leagueID=9899&leagueInfoID=70157

- Canmore Ski Fest (March 26&27): 12/24 Hour Ski Challenge – solo or relay teams. It would be great to see a BVH / MitoCanada relay team entered. I am going to give the solo a go and would love to have some pacing from anyone interested. http://www.canmoreskifest.com/

- Cookie Race (Feb 26): a.k.a. Kananaskis Ski Marathon http://www.foothillsnordic.ca/main.php?p=5

- Canadian Birkibeiner (Feb 12): Edmonton, AB http://www.canadianbirkie.com/

Matt had the idea last year to ski all the trials in PLPP, which has now turned into an annual 100 km ski tour it appears. If anyone is interested in joining us on Jan 2 for the 2^nd annual tour, email me at blaine.penny@worleyparsons.com or check out the Facebook page Tony Smith of SMITH EVENTS has set up http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=112550458813312

Sacramento Marathon Race Report

2010-12-13T11:34:00.000-08:00

by Duncan Marsden

Sunday, December 5 was the California International Marathon in Sacramento so while Blaine was pounding the pavement in Vegas, I headed slightly further west to take on what was billed as "the fastest marathon in the West". I had heard a lot about the net downhill of the course in the Sacramento Marathon so I was keen to see if I could put this to good effect.

I headed down to San Francisco with my family on the Friday before the marathon and then we drove to Sacramento. We stayed in the host hotel which was right next door to the Expo and only a few blocks from the finish line. I always wonder what the hotel staff think when they host these events; in the days leading up to the marathon the bars are full of people drinking water and the restaurants are full of twitchy racehorse type personalities who want "a double portion of plain brown rice, no sauce". Everyone has their foibles! And on race day, reception is filled at 4 AM with skinny people trying to eat their own weight in porridge, bagels and energy bars.

The Sacramento Marathon is a point-to-point course, so you need to take a bus to the start. It takes about an hour and was a chance to me to catch up on sleep. The race prides itself in having more portaloos per person then any other race and I've never seen so many people taking pictures of toilets before - there really were hundreds!

I got off the bus in the dark but very quickly it became light and was the perfect day for marathon running; cool, no wind and no rain. After a few strides and a little bit of stretching, we were off. I was pretty near the front but I was determined to take it easy in the first few miles, particularly as the first one was downhill and could lead to too fast a pace from the outset. I put myself in with a group of lead women for the first mile and wondered if I should stay with them, given that they were likely to pace the race far better than I was, but I decided that the pace was slightly too slow and pushed off, running the first 6 miles at an average of 5.45 per mile. Right on pace for my 2.30 goal. Miles 6 to 14 were definitely hilly. It's true that there is a net downhill on this course, but it is by no means downhill the whole way - the first half is undulating (albeit with more down than up, but there is definitely some "up"). The pace dropped a little bit at this hilly stage but I was not concerned and I wanted to make sure though I got to about mile 16 or 17 feeling good, so that I could push on from there. I went through the half in about 80th place and was 76.38.

Around mile 14, I heard some footsteps catching up with me at a serious rate of knots and I turned to see the two lead women, ready to pass. It was clear that they were going at a good pace and I thought that it was the ideal opportunity to run with someone for the second half so I upped my pace to match theirs. I didn't feel right tucking in behind these two women and so I lead the two of them in their battle. It was really interesting to watch the race unfold and the miles dropped to about 5.30 per mile. They must have thought it was a little bit weird because they called me up 14 and then I stayed with them right to the finish - it was almost like I had been planted there as a pacemaker for them! The lead woman dropped second place at about mile 18 and then the two of us ran the rest of the way home together. It was really good running with her although I didn't get another cheer the entire race - everyone was cheering for her! We kept running in the 5.30s until about mile 23 and then we both slowed to 5.50s. During this time we must have passed about 30 guys - some looking really tired, obviously having gone off too quickly, but they all cheered us on. I'm pretty sure they all thought I was her pacemaker too.

I finished in 2:32.09 which was good for 35th place. A negative split and I'd passed at least 30-40 people in the second half. No-one overtook me in the whole race.

As I crossed the line, my initial reaction was disappointment. I had wanted to hit sub-2.31 so that I would achieve sub-elite status for the Chicago Marathon next year and I had missed it by 69 seconds. Worse still, it meant I had to run another marathon in spring! However, you can't be disappointed with a personal best and I had run 1 min and 50 seconds quicker than I had previously, so all in all I was pleased. I'm no longer scared of 5.45 mining and I'm hopeful that 2011 has a sub 2.30 marathon in its plans for me!

All in all, a good, well organised marathon and worth doing. Now I can kick back and enjoy getting fat to Christmas..!

Las Vegas Marathon Race Report

2010-12-08T11:09:00.000-08:00

by Blaine Penny

The Vegas trip for my wife Sarah and I was only our second vacation sans kids in the last 7 years. Sarah was running her second half marathon and I was running my 4th full marathon.

It was only 5 or 6 weeks earlier that Sarah mentioned to me that we should go on a weekend holiday get-away. It took a few days before Vegas came on the radar - where we had never been before - and that’s how the idea of making it a running holiday came about. I was thinking all I want is a break since it had been such a busy year of house renovations, running races and charity work. I was all game for it.

The biggest challenge for us in getting away without the kids is having someone to look after them. We have no family in town and have a special needs kiddo, Evan, who has a lot of medications so no easy feat to pawn the kids off. Fortunately our good friends Ian and Anna (who live in Golden, BC) were up for the task of taking the kids for 4 days. They have 2 kids of their own, who are the same ages as ours, so they moved right into our house and stepped in to look after the kids. Fortunately Ian is a paramedic and administering the meds were no issue for him. We also brought in our respite care worker, Dana, who is just amazing with the kids to help out.

We arrived on Friday morning and 2 days before the run. Never having been to Vegas before we knew it was going to be a fine balance between sightseeing and not overdoing it knowing we had the marathon on Sunday. After all, this was Vegas! I swear we walked a marathon on the Fri and Sat.

The race weather was perfect. It was about 5 or 6 degrees with a forecasted high of 15 with no wind. With a gun time of 7 am, we woke up at 4 am for breakfast to allow enough time for food to digest and to catch the shuttle to the start. We spent about 1.5 hours at the start standing around, which is always tough when you are cold and just want to get the show on the road.

It wasn’t long before we were in our corrals and Cher was belting out the National Anthem. Then it was go time. My race strategy was pretty simple. I was looking for a time of 2:42 and wanted to have a consistent pace of 3:50 mins/km and pick it up in the second half if I was feeling good.

The course for the half marathon basically ran down and back on the strip and then the marathoners peeled off with the second half being a little more drab, running mainly through the industrial part of Vegas. The first half was really cool - tons of spectators lining the strip, Elvis everywhere, a band on just about every corner rockin’ it hard, and even 60 couples exchanging vows. I knew it was going to be a lonely second half and that I was going to have to dig deep to keep it going. This was a stark contrast when compared to the Boston Marathon that’s for sure!

There was steady climbing from about mile 6 or 7 until about mile 17 where we cranked around a 180 degree hairpin to look back on the city and I realized the extent of climbing we had done. This was a huge mental boost for me since I had been slowing a bit and we then had a 2 to 3 mile stretch of down where I could crank it out again and get back on track.

Sarah was gunning to go under 2 hours for the half, so at the 2 hour mark when the hurt really started to creep in I distracted myself by thinking about her race and how it was going for her. At about mile 20 I felt my steady Eddy approach was working well and I continued to slowly pick off runners who were fading. I had no idea of how I was doing placing wise, and really just focused on maintaining my game plan and making sure I was taking on fluid and calories at every aid station. I was pretty stoked with 3 miles to go knowing I was still on pace and could actually pull off my goal time. I also knew that I didn’t want to get too excited knowing it could all fall apart in an instant, so I kept taking on fluids and told myself it’s not a done deal until you cross the line. I held it together, but was suffering pretty bad in the final mile (where I got passed for the first time in the entire race) to post a time of 2:42 and change.

I find the marathon is a dichotomy between being focused on your game plan, but at the same time distracting yourself so you don’t dwell on the pain and the lows. The coolest thing about the whole run for me was the effortless downhill cruise between miles 17 and 19 (after climbing for so many miles) – it just felt like the easy lunchtime run pace and didn’t feel like I was in the middle of a marathon at all. Those moments are rare!

I had idea throughout the race what my placing was and didn’t care. I recall looking at last years results and thinking that if I pulled off a top 50 would be good and top 30 would be amazing. It wasn’t until Sarah’s Dad emailed us the results later that night that we realized I had placed so well. To finish in the top 10 and 1st in my age group was an added bonus and one to remember for sure.

Chicago - 10.10.10

2010-10-12T12:18:00.000-07:00

A Race Report by Jody Draude

The good news: not much wind.

The bad news : temperatures of ~30 degrees Celsius.

What started as a fantastic day for running quickly got a bit sketchy, with the temperature climbing like a Carl Pryce ascent of Centennial Trail: relentless.

That said, the conditions favoured the runts, the blissfully ignorant, and those lucky enough to have joined Blaine and crew for an epic glycogen depleting run/jog/stagger three weeks before the race. Right up my alley.

Even armed with the aforementioned advantage, the wall of heat awaiting me (and everyone else) at about 25km necessitated a hastily negotiated deal with the Devil. In my stupor, I reasoned that I could engage Duncan to find me a loophole if Satan came through on his (her?) side of the bargain. Deal in one hand and a couple of sponges in the other, I managed to hang on to a decent pace for the last 10 miles. Over to you Duncan: I am counting on you.

With the 2:40 barrier looming, I managed to sneak under the wire with a couple minutes to spare: fueled by the horrible fear that I would finish at 2:40:01, and be ever after saddled with the burden of having to run another one of these stupid things.

p.s. I managed to beat Joan Benoit Samuelson (sic?) this year after last year's crushing defeat. In fact, I don't think I was passed by one senior citizen this year, a staggering achievement.
p.p.s For those thinking of running this race in the future, please take note that there was free beer at the finish line. I caveat that this perk may have been a one-off throw in by the Devil in 2010 in response to my great negotiation skills, in which case you are on your own to negotiate your own deals in 2011 and beyond.

Jody

Marathon Weekend

2010-10-11T19:12:00.000-07:00

There were two major marathons this weekend - Chicago and Victoria. And we had BVH representation in both. Don King and Jody Draude were in Chicago and Darcy Bell was in Victoria. And I'm pleased to report that consistency was our key as all three finished with times of either 2:37 or 2:38.

Arguably the best performance of the day was Jody's. He watched Don fly out of the blocks and ease through half way in 74 minutes while he took a much more cautious 79 first half approach. At that time, as temperatures soared, Jody gradually picked up the pace and carried out an amazing negative split, catching Don in the last mile and beating him by 12 seconds. Jody was 4th overall masters athlete and Don was 6th. Great running.

Darcy went with the "cheaper version of Boston", heading West to the island. A 76 first half saw Darcy cruise home in 2:38. Slightly slower than he was expecting but a very decent run regardless.

Good running out there guys!!

Don't forget relay weekend next weekend - Ekiden on Saturday and Confederation Park on Sunday...

MitoCanada 100k Run

2010-09-22T16:44:00.000-07:00

When Harrier Blaine Penny mentioned about a year ago that he was thinking of setting up a charity to raise awareness in relation to Mitochondrial disease, which his son Evan is unfortunately afflicted with, I was happy to volunteer some of my work mates to help him set it up. Of course, when it came to calling Blaine about a month ago to tell him that the charity had been set up, I was happy to take the glory on behalf of my work mates. And, I can only put it down to the fact that I was basking in glory that I rashly said, during that phone call, "now you`ve got a charity we`ll have to do something to raise funds". Someone mentioned the word "epic". I assume it was Blaine.

So it was with a sense of surrealism that I set off from Canmore at 3am last Saturday morning with 4 other guys in tights, wearing headlamps and heading off into the mountains for 100k of madness. I have no idea how Blaine pulled it all together so quickly but he managed it so quickly that I couldn`t come up with any excuses in time.

My group were all seasoned ultra-runners; Blaine is the Canadian 50 mile champion, Carly Pryce won the Lost Soul 100k ultra the week before (yes, the WEEK BEFORE), Ian Blanchard was a seasoned 100 mile racer and Rick Webb (whose son was filing a documentary) had just missed the North American 100k record a few years back. I, as a track runner who had done the odd marathon, knew I had both the right people with me and the wrong people. The right people to get me to the end, the wrong people if I wanted an easy ride.

There were three pods running; two of them set off at midnight and we set off at 3am. The young 20-something on a skateboard drinking a beer on his way home from the night club must have thought he was really drunk when confronted with us. The fog was thick but we soon climbed out of it and up the Spray Lakes road and by sunrise we had knocked off 40k. Ian, who brought McDonalds cheeseburgers as his fuelling food of choice, told us we were running above "hamburger pace" (the pace at which you can comfortably eat a hamburger). He said we were at "fries pace" instead.

At that point it got freezing but with food in us and a change of clothes we headed into the mountains ... and hit the snow. The next section of the route had us heading over Bueller Pass, Guinns Pass, down Galatea and then up the Terrace trail to Kananaskis village and then down to Ribbon Creek car park where we knew Carl's wife Rosie was waiting with "the mother of all aid stations". This was my favourite part of the trip. Plenty of running, some snow and amazing views. Thanks must go to the pods in front of us who broke trail for us!

By Ribbon Creek we were about 65k down. I was feeling good and ready for the next part. Only 35k to go and I was re-fuelled by the mother of all aid stations (it was true) and some company from the likes of Fewster and Draude. There were two possible routes; Skogan Pass and Mount Allan. The two other pods took Skogan Pass and enjoyed themselves immensely. We took the more challenging route. And it killed me. We climbed for hours in knee-deep snow and by the time we were spat back out 25k east of Canmore, I was spent. Carl and Blaine were still operating at pace but Ian and I were operating at "hamburger pace with fries effort". Not a pretty sight.

We finally arrived in Canmore at 8pm. Two hours late but with smiles all over our faces. And the best news? Nearly $30,000 raised for MitoCanada and some serious awareness happening.

Well done to everyone who ran. Donations are still open (see the last blog post) and spread the word. Next year I'm doing what the Ozzie Mitochondrial charity did - a "stay in bed for the day" event. Much more civilised!!

MitoCanada

2010-09-09T07:43:00.001-07:00

Great article on Blaine and MitoCanada in the Calgary Herald blog pages. Link here.

Harriers Dominate Moose

2010-08-31T11:30:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was the annual Moose Mountain trails races. Each year, races are put on over 42.2k, 29k and 16k distances. The longer two actually go (almost) to the summit of Moose Mountain, whereas the 16k is a lap of the Telephone Loop.

BVH was well represented. Carl Pryce shifted his dominance of the 29k distance for the past few years up to the longer 42.2k distance and, as expected, took the title. I think his assessment at the end of the race was that it was a little too close for comfort given that this distance (the longest) had the closest winning margin of the day (3 minutes). No results yet but Carl's time was about 3:48 I think.

Blaine Penny continued his recent stellar form to take the 29k title with ease. His time of 2:17 is one of the quickest since Ken Myers rane 2:09 about 6 years ago and Blaine looked easy doing it. "I think I slowed down a bit in the last few miles" said perfectionist Penny after the race.

Duncan Marsden took the 16k title in 62 minutes and was kept company by Jody Draude for much of the event. Draude was doing a tempo run in heavy shoes (in preparation for the Chicago marathon in a few weeks) and even went the wrong way in the last mile (losing about 2 minutes) all in an attempt to make Marsden look better. It didn't affect his position, though, as Draude finished second overall and first Masters competitor. It's safe to say, though, Jody enjoyed himself immensely in those woods.

I make that 4 runners, 4 winners. Nice.

Penny, Pryce and Marsden are running 100k on September 18 (from Lake Louise to Banff) to help raise awareness and funds for a charity called MitoCanada. Anyone wanting to donate can do so here. Alternatively, come along and "run" the last 25k with us...

BVH 5k Results

2010-08-19T11:35:00.001-07:00

The third BVH 5k (now known as the second-highest-quality-5k-in-Western-Canada) took place last night. And no-one worked as hard as 4 year old Julia Penny. Julia spent all day making a trophy for the winner, then was official race starter and was also on the lead bike (at least, dragging behind the lead bike which her dad, Blaine, was cycling, on a third wheel). Part of the task of the lead cyclist is to ring the bike's bell incessantly to warn people in the park that they are about to get mown down by a group of fast guys. The bell was not necessary last night, however, as Julia's hysterical laughter at being dragged round the course at Deere/Carruthers speed (i.e very fast) had everyone forewarned well in advance. The lead group found it pretty entertaining too. "It was like being in a Mario Kart race" said one.

A hot day (28C at the start) attracted the crowds to see Pynten and Carruthers display their chests. But it was Jeremy Deere who stole the limelight this time around with a controlled display at the front to take the victory in 16.07. That's three different winners in all three races. Last night was made all the more challenging by the pedestrian dodging - Ed Bickley in particular had the misfortune of meeting one weaving cyclist in the home straight.

That said. I'll take the crowds and the heat over the cold any day.

Full results are below:

1. Jeremy Deere - 16.07

2. Andrew Carruthers - 16.14

3. Duncan Marsden - 16.37

4. Kyle Marcotte - 16.44

5. Frank Woolstencroft - 16.52

6. Jody Draude - 16.56

7. Darcy Bell - 17.06

8. Ryan Twa - 17.14

9. Mark Fewster - 17.56

10. Will Pynten - 18.00

11. Ed Bickley - 18.36

12. Stirling Tiessen - 18.38

13. Matt Wanford - 18.59

14. Bruce Dalton - 19.02

BVH (Penny) Tops Iron Legs Ultra (50 Mile Canadian Championship)

2010-08-15T21:10:00.000-07:00

by Blaine Penny

The Course

The course is definitely a local classic. The race is a loop held in Kananaskis starting at Station flats circumnavigating Moose Mountain. The first 50 km has significant climbing (Powderface Ridge, Jumping Pound Mountain and Cox Hill), while the latter 30 km is mostly flat returning on the Tom Snow Trail.

Course conditions were variable and quite wet due to a generally wet summer and heavy rain the previous day. The Tom snow trail was very wet and muddy, and had a lot of cow traffic leaving you sinking past your ankles in places. Absolutely brutal!

My favourite part of the course was running the Jumping Pound Ridge over to Cox Hill. It had been raining for about 1.5 hours leading up to this section and then the weather finally broke with just the most spectacular light glowing on the green alpine and the contrast of dark looming clouds in the distance. It was truly magical with spectacular running and stunning views for a full 360 degrees.

The Race

There were a few solo runners who blasted off the front, so I let them go while I got warmed up to get a sense of how my body was feeling. I was feeling like I had heavy legs and my breathing was definitely more laboured than when I ran the PowderFace 4 weeks earlier. So I just settled into a comfortable pace hoping that as time went on I would get fired up and be able to pick up the pace.

Bruce (another solo runner) and myself ran together till about the 25 km mark and when we started climbing Jumping Pound I began to slowly open a gap. I was starting to find my groove and had some energy flowing back into my body after the first aid station stop where I filled up on boiled potatoes that were laden with salt and butter. I filled my pockets with a handful more knowing they would come in handy a little further on.

After leaving Bruce, I was totally on my own for the rest of the race. I expected to see some relay teams catch up, but no dice. I really started to get into the race after summiting Jumping Pound Mountain and was totally stoked about he run over to Cox Hill knowing that all the hills would be out of the way at that point and then I just had to ride the 30 km gravy train of flats back to the finish. Boy was I wrong!

I took a nasty spill while decending Cox Hill – busted up my hand and knee pretty good and also hit my other leg and shoulder. Fortunately I could still run.

Things were uneventful for the next 20 km other than wading through the mud and chasing cows, including a standoff with a bull.

At the last aid station I pulled in feeling great knowing I only had an easy 10 km to the finish. My race nutrition had been excellent up until that point and my stomach was feeling great. (I have a colourful history of tossing my cookies in long races as well as after. More on this a little further down…). I was looking forward to a sugar kick to bring it home and downed a coke and was ready to fly.

I was directed to cross the road and told to just follow the trail by the aid station volunteer. After running about 1.5 kms, I still hadn’t seen any flagging, so I pulled out my map to double check. It was difficult to tell what was what since there were so many trails and cut lines on the map, so I decided to backtrack to the checkpoint to double check with the volunteers. Not good I thought to myself knowing my lead was disappearing by the minute. The volunteer was surprised there was no flagging so he decided to come along to see if we could decipher the route. After another 2 kms he was as unsure as I was, but said I should just take the most defined trail and that had to be it. So I did and ended up at West Bragg Creek parking lot. Now I knew I was totally off track.

I decided to make my way through the West Bragg Creek trails to HWY 66 and then to the finish where I would inform the race organizers what happened, hoping they would understand.

After literally running circles on the Bragg Creek trails - as many of the signs were missing - I eventually made it to HWY 66 and ran the final mile to the finish. Sarah just so happened to be driving by to come cheer me on at the finish and thought to herself how strange it was that I would be running down the highway.

I sprinted into the finish after covering 16 km (when I only had 10 to actually finish on the proper trail) and was told I was disqualified. I was so disappointed! It would have been one thing to go the wrong way by my own doing, but to be twice directed to go the way I did by volunteers who should have known the course was another thing.

After much debate and discussion between the race director and other volunteers, they learned that the last leg had not actually been flagged yet. I thought to myself - nice. I asked if I could go and add some additional mileage to do whatever it would take to make my run legit. Even through all this, the second place runner still hadn’t finished, which showed I had a pretty healthy lead by the time I went off course (or that he did as well).

Eventually, I was told that if I was up for it, I could go back to the last aid station and run the final 10 km on the proper course where they would restart the clock with the time I originally entered the aid station. I was mentally done at this point after such a demoralizing finish and had already begun to replenish with some soup and coke.

One of the race volunteers loaded up and we headed off for West Bragg. After driving for 5 mins, my stomach began to turn inside out and I asked her to pull over. I opened the door and hurled my guts out and felt completely awful. I lay there for about 20 min trying regain my composure and get a few sips of water with electrolytes back in me. We headed off again and about 15 min later we repeated the routine. I was a complete mess and my stomach had shut down.

Now I had to muster up the energy, which was pretty much non-existent, to run the final 10 km. About 3 hours had lapsed since my body had absorbed any fluids or food and I was truly running on empty. How ironic I thought – a month from now we will be doing a MitoCanada awareness / fundraiser run called “Running on Empty”. Very fitting.

Off I went at a steady slow pace, which was so much effort. 54 mins later I crossed the finish line for a second time and was told I won the race by an hour.

Sarah and the kids had stuck around to cheer me in and for the awards. It was a bittersweet and challenging day, but I pulled it off in the end and it was pretty rewording when it was all said and done.

Ultra People and the Challenge of Organizing Races

Doone and Tim Watson who had been on course volunteering were at the finish when this was all unfolding and helped nurse my health back twice as well as keep me clothed. I can’t thank them enough (not to mention Tim driving my car back for me and filling it with gas).

The ultra community is pretty laid back, and for the most part, runners focus on the experience and the challenge more than on how fast they are moving. Because this was a sanctioned National Championship race, the race director had some tough decisions to make and ultimately decided to give me a second chance. I was grateful, but also felt for the organizers. It’s tough to mark an 80 km course through the backcountry where there are so many junctions and opportunities to make mistakes or just miss a piece of flagging in a critical area. We had also found out at the start that the Trans Rockies bike race had come through the day before and pulled down many of the flags. Tough break to find out on the day of the race. The race organizers and volunteers did the best they could given the circumstances.

This is one race I’ll remember for a long time!

Calgary Herald

2010-08-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

Excellent article by Keith B. from the Herald about the Harriers is on the Calgary Herald website. Here's the link if you want to add Keith's blog to your list of running blogs to read at lunch!

Big race this weekend. Mileage-wise at least. A 50 miler in Bragg Creek which Harriers Penny and Pryce are looking to dominate. Results next week.

Don't forget the next 5k is on Wednesday. We're going to have a big turnout so it'll be a good one to do. How about any of the Canmore crew joining the fun...?

Summer update

2010-08-03T16:17:00.001-07:00

I have been somewhat remiss on the blog updates recently due to summer catching up on me all too quickly and I've actually been running! The likes of Deere, Myers, McCloy, Dalton, Wanford and Pynten had an epic run yesterday in Kananaskis. Humbled and sore we all lived to fight another day (and in fact there's talk of another one next weekend). None will be so sore as McCloy whose size 13 feet tripped him up 3 times in the first 45 minutes. I guess that's why he never races the trails...

Races I've missed blogging about:

Canmore Challenge - Mr and Mrs Hulburt showed their marital class and won the men's 12k event and the women's 8k event at this trail race. I didn't see Jen's race but Sean was a class apart;
Powderface 42k - Harriers Villeneuve and Penny came 2nd and 3rd respectively in this race with Phil in particular knocking a good 15 minutes off his previous best. (Phil was gearing up for the Death Race which he had less fun in but we don't do negatives on this blog...);
Stampede Road Race - the half marathon was the main event and Harriers Bell (2nd) and Penny (4th) made sure the vest was prominent at the front. Blaine's placing (and time of 82 minutes) was all the more impressive given that he was pushing his 6 year old son, Evan, the whole way to promote his new-formed charity MitoCanada, which provides support for families with Mitochondrial Disease (who Evan unfortunately has).

Apologies to anyone I've missed. The next 5k will be Wednesday August 18 at 7pm at the Y in Eau Claire. Also, keep the diaries free for the Ekiden and Confederation Park relays...

5k Results

2010-07-07T21:05:00.000-07:00

Another high quality 5k was held in Eau Claire tonight. Some great times and a good turn out. Provisional results are as follows:

1. Andrew Carruthers - 15.41 (course record)
2. Sean Hulburt - 16.11
3. Brad Bickley - 16.37 (junior course record)
4. Paul McCloy - 16.42 (masters' course record and leading the McCloy Rankings for 2010)
5. Jody Draude - 16.49
6. Nick Haddow - 16.58
7. Darcy Bell - 17.04
8. Blaine Penny - timing chip error
9. Ed Bickley - timing chip error
10. Mark Fewster - 18.55
11. Matt Wanford - 18.55.

Good work everyone. The next one will be in August (date to be confirmed).

Canmore Challenge

2010-07-02T18:04:00.000-07:00

Don't forget the Canmore Challenge on Saturday July 10, 2010. The race director (Brian Torrance) was hoping for a big Harriers turn out and I may be able to get some free entries so if anyone wants to run, let me know at duncanmarsden@gmail.com.

Training on Sunday - meet at Edworthy at 8.30am...

K100 Race Report

2010-06-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

The Centaur Subaru Bow Valley Harriers finish SECOND overall in the K100 relay, narrowly beating the Running Room by three minutes.

Last Saturday the corporately-sponsored Centaur Subaru Bow Valley Harriers put itself on the Alberta running map by finishing second in the K100 relay, beating a confident Running Room team in the process. The following is how I saw the race.

Blaine, Nick and I met at "uncivilised o' clock" and drove the mobile business card (our sponsored car - see previous blog for photo) to Longview for the start of the K100. Blues skies meant a glorious day ahead.

Leg 1 - Aaron Swanson - 18.6k - 1.08:42 - 4th fastest

The first three legs of the race were run by the team's unsung heroes. By the time Mark Fewster was crossing the finish line over 9 hours later, it would have been easy to forget the efforts put in by the first three runners in particular. But these guys were the engine room. They literally left everything out there and set us up for the victory by putting us well ahead of schedule, with minimum fuss. 4th fastest, 3rd fastest, 4th fastest is a great way to start...

Aaron had his work cut out on the first leg. He was up against some decent runners; in particular a guy who had just run a 66 half marathon. The first three went off fast and Aaron stayed with them for about a mile before adopting the far more sensible approach of running his own pace. It paid off. He came in 4th but, most importantly, only about 30 seconds behind the Running Room. I had wanted him to run 70 minutes and he ran 68. Already we were ahead of budget (as I may have said more than once during the day).

Leg 2 - Nick Haddow - 16.5k - 1.01:45 - 3rd fastest

A very smooth looking Nick Haddow cruised to the third fastest time of his leg. This leg was all about consolidating the good work we'd already done. The Running Room had a speed demon on their leg 2 and so Nick had to watch him slowly get away from him which could easily have destroyed Nick's confidence. But not a bit of it. Nick hung in there and looked smooth throughout. The real work was done in chasing down the leaders and the second placed team. And Nick really closed the gaps. The top 4 were now only a few minutes apart.

Most importantly, we were another 2 minutes ahead of budget. A lead of 4 minutes on where we had hoped to be after only 2 legs.

Leg 3 - Blaine Penny - 14.7k - 58:00 - 4th fastest

Blaine was another unsung hero of the race. Running one of the most scenic legs, he barely looked up at the passing streams and mountains and with grim determination pushed his way through a number of the teams who had started at 6am, to finish 3rd overall on his leg. He told me afterwards that the team mentality of the relay really left him no option but to run well. "Letting yourself down is acceptable. Letting 9 other people down is not." Or words to that effect.

Leg 4 - Jeremy Deere - 14.1k - 49:26 - fastest (possible course record)

One of the stresses of organising this sort of thing is when your runner, who has been waiting to run for about an hour, suddenly decides to disappear the second you get your 5 minute warning. Blaine did it on leg 3 and I had to run about a mile up the road to find him on his warm up. Jeremy decided it would be a good time to start putting his number on. I left him in no doubt how I felt about this when I told him, in no uncertain terms, to "get his sh *t together"!! (Sorry Jeremy!)

Well, I think my words of "encouragement" may have worked because Jeremy certainly did get his sh *t together.

If legs 1-3 were the good start, leg 4 was where the fireworks began. Jeremy started the leg over 3 minutes behind the Running Room. By the end of the leg he was 5 minutes ahead of them. Yes, that's 8 minutes he took out of the Running Room. At the time, I thought I'd just seen our performance of the day. I was wrong - we had greater things to come. nonetheless, Jeremy flying past the Running Room put us in second place for the first time and we never looked back. GREAT running Jeremy (note how his feet are both off the ground in the picture - LITERALLY flying...)

Leg 5 - Sean Hulburt - 17.6k - 1.11:10 - 3rd fastest

Anyone who has run the K100 will know that leg 5 is the tough one. It's long and you run up Highwood Pass, topping out at over 7,000 feet. I'm told it's the highest part of Canada's highest engineered road. So what better runner to put on this leg than a guy I had never met who was only just coming back from injury?! The gamble, I am happy to say, paid off.

Anyone who has seen Sean run (and, in my defence, I hadn't) will know that he has an effortless style. Seeing him run I mistook this for laziness and so my words of encouragement were more along the lines of "don't leave anything out here, Sean" and "time to pick it up, Sean". I had nothing to worry about. Running the 3rd fastest time of the day, in the heat of the day, up the biggest hill and on the leg everyone puts their best runners, Sean finished a fantastic third. Sorry to have doubted you, Sean! At this stage, the Running Room were 4 minutes back...

Leg 6 - Jason Wilcox - 9.4k - 36:38 - 6th fastest

What goes up must come down. And Jason was our man for the downhill. Looking like a character from Miami Vice in his shades, Jason took it to the Running Room both in terms of speed and in style.

When I passed him in the support vehicle, he was flying! All legs and arms. Zero elegance, all guts. Jason was worried he might let the team down. He didn't. He sprinted his way to 6th fastest overall and was only 10 seconds slower than a much more accomplished Running Room guy. It was at this point that the Running Room started to worry.

Leg 7 - Darcy Bell - 16.5k - 59:00

Remember I mentioned stress? Darcy put me through the wringer before the start of his leg. With 10 minutes to go, he still wasn't there. I stripped into my running gear and was about to put my name down for the leg. Brian Torrance asked me "I thought you weren't running?" "I wasn't" I said "but my runner isn't here". "He is now" chimed in Darcy with film star timing. My relief was evident.

Darcy had a lonely leg with one mission. Stay in front of the Running Room. Not only did he do this, he put some time on them and came in SIX MINUTES under budget (yes, I was still banging on about the budget!) and opened up the lead to 5 minutes 30 seconds. Excellent work.

Leg 8 - Paul McCloy - 15.9k - 59.23 - 5th fastest

Had the leaders shot their bolt? Was Paul in trouble? Hamstring hurting, he looked like a man being chased as the Running Room brought out the big guns and whittled our lead down to 2 minutes 30 seconds by half way through the leg. Paul, however, had saved something special for the second half of the leg and brought the lead back up to 3 minutes by the end of the leg. Interestingly, we finished this leg so far ahead of schedule that they held us back for 60 seconds so that the marshalls would be ready. Paul pulled back 6 minutes on the leaders in this leg alone.

Leg 9 - Matt McCrank - 12.5k - 51:21 - 2nd fastest

Matt went off with the runner for the leading team and we all waited at the end with bated breath. The leading team's runner came in, clearly flying, and we all waited. And waited. 5 minutes went by before Matt came in and we were all concerned about our lead. We needn't have been. Matt stormed the leg and put FOUR MINUTES back into our lead over the Running Room, his efforts only overshadowed by the guy he was running with who ran a stormer. Matt had second fastest time of the day and quite possibly gave us the lead we needed.

Leg 10 - Mark Fewster - about 12k - 43:36 - 4th fastest

We knew it was going to be close. The Running Room had Andrew Carruthers on their last leg. A running machine. We received some good news in that leg 10 was reduced to 12k due to flooding. Mark Fewster, expert on the trails, set off hard and never looked back. At the turnaround point he was minutes up and cruised in to finish 3 minutes clear of the Running Room. He just needs to work on his celebrations which involved sitting in a chair.

Mark was so fast I didn't even get a picture of him.

Good work everyone. I never knew a 9 hour and 19 minute race could be so exciting! Well done to the Running Room who took it all in good spirits and were great competitors.

See you all next year!

K100 Provisional Report

2010-06-20T08:21:00.001-07:00

I wanted to do a race report of yesterday's race but there was simply too much to say in the time available and so we will have to settle for a provisional report with more detail soon.

Yesterday was the K100 relay race. A 100 mile relay race through the mountains with 10 runners. We started at 8am in Longview and finished at 5.20pm in Nakiska. These races are normally over by leg 4 but the Centaur Subaru Bow Valley Harriers had a royal battle with the Running Room for second place throughout the entire day. We were never much more than 5 minutes apart for any period of the 100 miles and in the end we held them off (for second place overall) by a nail-biting three minutes. I never knew a 10 hour event could be so exciting!

I'll give a write-up for every leg later but I just wanted to say a massive WELL DONE to everyone. Every single runner ran better than anticipated and it was only the fact everyone left everything out there on the course which got us the second place overall. Before the race one of our runners told me he thought he was in a group of guys he wasn't good enough to run with. He then went on to finish 6th fastest on his leg, a few seconds off 3rd fastest. That's what I'm talking about.

Special kudos go to Aaron, Nick, Blaine and Jeremy who were fantastic supporters throughout the day and in particualr Jeremy who drove his own car throughout the event. Yours truly had the sponsored vehicle (see right).

K100

2010-06-11T16:09:00.000-07:00

Unlike managers in the World Cup, this Manager is willing to announce his team early. The Centaur Subaru Bow Valley Harriers team (we sold out to corporate sponsorship!) for the K100 is as follows:

1. Aaron Swanson - start running at 8am
2. Nick Haddow - expected to start at about 9.10am
3. Blaine Penny - expected to start at about 10.15am
4. Jeremy Deere - expected to start at about 11.15am
5. Sean Hulburt - expected to start at about 12.05pm
6. Jason Wilcox - expected to start at about 1.15pm
7. Darcy Bell - expected to start at about 1.53pm
8. Paul McCloy - expected to start at about 2.58pm
9. Matt McCrank - expected to start at about 3.58pm
10. Mark Fewster - expected to start at about 4.48pm.

Anticipated start times are indicated in case anyone wants to come and support. We are aiming for sub 10 hours which would be quite a feat for a 100 mile race...

Mountain Running

2010-06-09T06:50:00.000-07:00

The NACAC and Canadian Mountain Running Championships are only one month away! Both races will be run together and are being held at Nakiska, Alberta (near Canmore) on the evening of Friday, July 9th. You can register for the Canadian Mountain Running Championships at: www.canmorechallenge.com or at : http://www.zone4.ca/onlinereg.asp?ID=2825

The Canadian Championships are a selection race for the national team, which will compete at the World Mountain Running Championships in Kamnic, Slovenia on September 5th, 2010. (For more information about Worlds, see : http://www.wmrc2010-kamnik.si/HomeENG.aspx). The selection criteria for the Worlds team can be found at : www.mountainrunning.ca/downloads/Selection_Criteria_for_2010_National_Teams.pdf.

The 2010 NACAC Championships will feature top mountain runners from Canada, USA and Mexico. A preliminary description of the route can be found here: www.mountainrunning.ca/downloads/race-description.pdf.

The Canadian Mountain Running Championships also features recreational races of 4km, 8km and 12km, which will be held at the Canmore Nordic Centre on Saturday, July 10th. You can register for the Canmore Challenge races at: www.canmorechallenge.com

Ottawa Marathon

2010-06-01T06:40:00.000-07:00

Harrier Blain Penny had the following to say about his personal best run in the Ottawa marathon last week:

"Ottawa Race weekend saw just under 40,000 runners compete in all 7 events and was the first time in history all events sold out.

Sarah and I ran the 2 km family run with our kids Julia and Evan (in his wheelchair) to kick off our first event on Saturday afternoon. Julia - 4 years old - ran her little heart out chasing her other friends and finished with some healthy flushed cheeks. We had just enough time to catch a meal before Sarah took to the start of the 10 km race in the evening. I often don't get the opportunity to watch races from the sidelines, but it was really something to see the leaders fly by and eventually clocking a 28 min winning time. Sarah may not have set a record time out there, but definitely had one of the biggest smiles as she ran by us.

After a decent night of sleep and a 4:30 am wake-up for the 7am start, I was feeling excited about racing my 3rd marathon. The weather turned out to be perfect. 15 degrees at the start and just a light wind and overcast. I was feeling fairly fit going to the line, but lacking distance runs for the marathon prep and not quite sure how it was going to go. I had a goal time of 2:45, which to be honest, was a stretch and my lifetime marathon goal.

Not feeling overly confident that I could pull off my goal time, my approach was to be religious in pacing and mentally told myself that I just had to get to 32 km, then dig into 'the suitcase of courage" and not crater. Everything went to plan till I hit 32 km and I was probably a minute or two ahead of my goal pace, when I took a gel that caused serious stomach cramping. I was pretty bummed that it brought me to a halt and I just limped along in a slow jog trying to relax as much as possible to get rid of the cramp. About 2 km later I managed to shake it, but knew I couldn't take on anymore food or fluids or it would be all over for me. I finally got my speed back up to a good cruise of about 3:55 - 4:00/km and with the cheering of my good friends Rich and Olaf, managed to bring it home on fumes in 2:45 and change. That was good enough for 38th overall in a field of 4,000 with over 20 elite runners. Obviously I was not in contention for any podium appearances and all the glory went to Arata Fujiwara of Japan who won his first marathon and set a new course record in 2:09:33."

Great running Blaine...

Blackfoot 100k

2010-05-31T11:00:00.000-07:00

There were plenty of races with BVH representation this weekend - Crazy Soles, Calgary marathon, Ottawa marathon and Blackfoot Ultra are the ones I'm aware of. We have below our first write-up from those races which is from Carl Pryce who finished an amazing third place in the Blackfoot Ultra in some seriously extreme conditions. Carl finished second last year. Last year's champion Blaine Penny was running the Ottawa marathon this year - but more of that later...

"The conditions were horrible this year. The rain started 30 mins after the start and continued all day, turning to sleet on lap 3 then snow by the finish. The course got progressively worse especially on the horse track and the dirt road. By lap 3 all the inclines (of which there are many!) on these sections became so slippery with limey mud it was virtually impossible to run on them. Lots of people dropping out with near-hypothermia and after falls trying to stay upright in the mud. (18 DNFs out of 42 starters in the 100k). Had to change clothes after each lap and warm up in the start/finish hut.

I finished 3rd in 10:15, about 1 hour slower than last year. All in all I was happy with the run as I was feeling a bit sick on Friday. The winner (9:37) was a young guy from Illinois attending grad school at U of A - the proverbial lungs on a stick. Second was a female - Petra Graen from FastTrax - finished 7 mins in front of me. The 3 of us ran together for the first 15k then they pulled away as the marshalls struggled for a few minutes to get the water barrel working at an aid station (note to self: bring drop bags next time!). In a bizarre way I quite enjoyed the day, but was very glad to reach the finish line.

Much fewer people on the course this year. By the start of the 50k and 25k races conditions were so bad most people didn't start. At the finish the race organiser Gary Poliquin tried pretty hard to pursuade people to eat his stock of 270 dilly bars but there were few takers - people preferred to huddle around the wood stove instead.

We returned to the campsite to find our tent had collapsed under the weight of snow so got a cabin for saturday night!"

Tales of trails and roads

2010-05-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a gloriously sunny day which saw the first of the 5 Peaks trail races. This is an annual trail race series over the summer and comprises, you guessed it, 5 races. The season opener is always at COP and lends itself to some serious hills.

This year saw some serious competition too. One thing that strikes me about the running scene in Calgary is that you have your trail runners and you have your road runners. And never the twain shall meet. Road runners seem incapable of fathoming a race based on position alone with about as much incomprehension as trail runners show for split-junkies. However, this year maybe saw a shift in that trend with shift-junkie Jeremy Deere turning his hand to a trail race or two, in preparation for the Transrockies Run in a year or so.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given his pedigree, Jeremy won the race in a time of 39.02. Afterwards, he was keen to admit that it hurt more than he thought it would. Mark Fewster (7th) and Phil Villeneuve (11th) finished a very impressive BVH trio. Cameron Fewster was all smiles in the kids race and his brother Neven told me he ran very well.

Now to the roads. We all know Don King can run a good half. He's world (masters) champion after all. But to win the Penticton Half by 17 minutes is impressive. When you then take into account the fact that he cycled 250k the day before (and 125k the day before that), it becomes all the more incredible. Don's 76 minute showing is truly one race where the numbers only tell half the story. Harrier Ryan Rawlyk finished a creditable 6th having put himself through the same punishment on the previous days. Good work lads!

Next week we have Blaine Penny in the Ottawa marathon and Carl Pryce in the Blackfoot 100k to look forward to... Race reports are required from both of you please!

Thanks to Scott for pointing this article out. This is the Club 10k stroller record...

2010-05-14T14:03:00.000-07:00

Chariots of fire: The Mother's Day edition By Keith B. Wed, May 12 2010

Timothy Mann doesn’t appear on the official list of 10-kilometre finishers for last Sunday’s Mother’s Day Run.

It’s not noted anywhere in the race results that the little guy flew around the downtown Calgary course in just over thirty-three minutes.

And there’s no mention of him in the Herald’s list of age group winners, which names Kyle Beatty (41:09) as the leading male finisher under the age of 15.

But before anyone starts feeling too sorry for the young speedster, it’s confession time.

You see, he didn’t do the entire 10k course. And according to witnesses, he slept through the entire race.

"The rule with my wife (and I) is that we have to take at least one of the kids when we go out, so when I go for a run, it’s usually pushing a chariot," explained Canmore resident and Calgary firefighter Lanny Mann, dad to three-and-a-half-month-old Timmy.

"I kind of got the idea to push it at the race from Jeremy Deere, who pushed his daughter last year. My wife had the stroller all ready to go about 50 metres from the start line. I just started up on the right and ran over. I actually ended up running 9.95-kilometres with the (stroller).
"It’s like a car seat — it just puts (Timothy) to sleep. I’m pretty sure he slept for the whole race."
Lanny, an elite local runner who has had several top-five finishes in the Mother’s Day race over the years, still managed to finished seventh overall on Sunday (with a time of 33:35) while pushing his son.

The proud papa, a former U of C Dinos track and field ace who has twice represented Canada at the world mountain running championships, figures pushing the stroller/chariot didn’t slow him down as much as you might think.

"About a minute," he said. "Those chariots roll along nicely.

"I was part of a second group of runners (behind eventual winner Geoff Kerr). We were kind of running together until at 5k you hit that hill. They opened up 15 or 20 seconds on me there and I was back to about 10th. Between seven and nine kilometres I caught up to them, one by one."
Much of the pre-race talk focused on whether Deere, the 11-time winner of the Mother’s Day race, would ditch his stroller and try to compete on an equal footing with the other elites.
In the end, the sentimental favourite decided to run without the chariot, and ended up fifth in 32:41. The buzz after the race ended up being Lanny’s incredible time, which beat the 35:16 um ... record Deere set in the 2009 race, when he pushed his three-year-old daughter, Megan.
"It’s fun and it’s something different," said Lanny, who didn’t feel like he was in good enough shape to contend for the top three and thought pushing a stroller would present a unique challenge.

"When he’s older, we can tell him all about the day."

Lanny said as well as presenting the obvious physical challenges, pushing his son through a race threw some mental hurdles his way.

"Typically, when you are racing all you are thinking about is yourself and your energy," he said. "When you are pushing a chariot, there are other things you think about — concerns about how he’s doing and not wanting to make the ride (too bumpy). You are cognizant of where the wheels are. And when there are five or six of you running in a tight group, it’s more of a concern."
Deere suggested after the race that he might like to go head-to-head with Mann next year in a new "stroller division." The 32-year-old Calgary firefighter says he’ll be ready for the 2009 chariot champ — and any trash-talk that comes his way from the other runners.
"I didn’t get any comments during the race," said Lanny. "Most of the (elite) guys knew that I would be pushing the chair.

"Before the race, I got comments along the lines of, ‘you’d better not beat me pushing the stroller.’ Afterwards, they said, ‘thanks for embarrassing me.’

"But it was all in good fun."

Mother's Day 10k

2010-05-12T20:52:00.000-07:00

Sunday's Mother's Day 10k saw some good early-season running by the Harriers. First Harrier to finish was Jeremy Deere in 5th place - not a place he is used to, but a great run nonetheless. Arguably the best performance of the day, however, came from Harrier Lanny Mann who finished an amazing 7th place overall in 33:35 PUSHING A CHARIOT!! I still don't know if he was pushing his newborn or his older child but either way this is a fantastic run - the gauntlet has been well and truly laid down.

Other Harrier placings were Marcotte (11th in 34:46) and Bell in 15th (35:25).

The 5k was also a speedy affair, being won in 15:03. Harriers Ukrainetz (9th in 17:22) and Rawlyk (16th in 18:12) both put in good showings.

Those wanting some real speed can try the mile race at Glenmore track on May 22 (there's a masters race!)

In case anyone is planning a trip to California...

2010-05-10T07:11:00.000-07:00

EMAIL SENT BY GARY GELLIN:

Trail running friends,

Many of you have heard already that Leor Pantilat and I are hosting a trail running race this October 30th at the Boggs Mountain State Forest. For those who haven't, or don't know about Boggs, this place is a gold mine of singletrack trails in ponderosa pine forest just north of the Napa Valley.

Boggs Mountain has been home to many mountain bike races, but is not very well known to trail runners. Leor and I decided it would be a fantastic place to have a foot race, and have grand plans for our first (and hopefully annual) event.
Our web site is here: http://boggs50.wordpress.com/

Some of the highlights include:
-Accurately measured, and well marked 25k and 50k courses with minimal traffic congestion and separate fire road starts for each field
-Free camping
-Catered, full meal post-race; dinners offered for sale the night before the race
-Local microbrewery sponsor
-Lots of goodies and prizes

Event sponsors we are talking to include:
-Salomon
-Running Warehouse
-Bear Republic Brewing Company
-PowerBar

You can help us out by doing one or more of the following:

1) REGISTER now for the event here (mail-in reg. also available):
http://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=8437
We would like to build momentum early on.

2) Please tell your friends about the race. Pass this note on or direct them to our web site.

3) Contact me or Leor directly if you (and/or a friend) can volunteer. We will need help with aid stations, course marshaling, course setup and breakdown, timing, etc. Volunteers will be fed and will get free technical shirts.

THANKS!

Gary Gellin

Police Half

2010-05-05T16:14:00.000-07:00

The Bow Valley Harriers were out in force on Sunday April 25 in the Police Half marathon. The course started at Mount Royal College and went round Glenmore reservoir before finishing back at the college, and it seems that most of Calgary was there.

None more so than Harrier Jody Draude who won what looked like a tight race by a margin of 15 seconds. That's a sprint finish over 13 miles. Beaten by a wheelchair competitor by 4 seconds, Harrier Draude was next to cross the line in 1:17.09 with Frank Woolstencroft and Geoff Hopfner in 2nd and 3rd places, only 15 seconds back and with exactly the same time! Just behind them was Harrier Fewster in 4th, also closely followed by Harriers Daum (6th), Manktelow (8th), Haddow (9th) and Penny (23rd). I'd say we won the team prize...

Results attached:

http://www.resultscanada.com/results2010/2010_Calgary_Police_Half_Marathon/2010_Calgary_Police_Half_Marathon_Overall.txt

Talking of teams, K100 anyone? I'll do the organizing, I just need the runners...

5k Date Change

2010-04-21T06:30:00.000-07:00

Due to the volcanic ash over Europe, my travel plans have been put into disarray. As a result, the next BVH 5k will not take place on Wednesday April 28 as planned but will now take place on Wednesday May 5.

I was going to do some write-ups of races but I couldn't possibly top Phil Villeneuve's write-up of his recently 50k trail run experience. Have a look at Phil's Good, Bad and Ugly account at this address.

Spring Lull

2010-04-12T09:27:00.000-07:00

The Spring lull is over and we finally have some races to report on. Reports on the Glencoe Icebreaker and the 50k trail race Phil Villeneuve was doing in B.C. will follow shortly.

In the meantime, anyone who lives in Canmore should check out the latest edition of the Rocky Mountain Outlook. Virtually the entire front page is a picture of Harrier Scott Manktelow putting in some serious effort on a bike (ignore the references to arson and dead cougars which are next to his picture, Scott had nothing to do with those). He came second in the Canmore Winter Meltdown triathlon (10k xc ski, 10k bike, 5k run) last weekend. Looks like it was a good event - well done, Scott!

Full results are here : http://www.ascentphysio.com/system/files/private/Wintermeltdown%202010%20Final%20Results.xls

5k Champs Results

2010-03-24T20:53:00.000-07:00

On a FREEZING night tonight about 20 hardy souls took part in the inaugural Bow Valley Harriers 5k champs. A 3 lap course round Prince's Island Park. Times will be much faster when the weather is 20 degrees warmer and the wind howls slightly less.

A pack of 5 soon got away and the names Mann, Deere, Carruthers, Cummings and Jensen should say everything about the quality at the front. Blaine Penny also put in a valiant effort to stay with these guys for at least a full lap. It was cat and mouse (at speed) for much of the race with Travis Cummings looking strong at the front for most of it and Andrew Carruthers looking like he was not suffering from his injury lay off.

The first to crack was Scott Jensen, with about a mile to go. About 1k from home Lanny Mann put in a serious effort and broke the group for the first time and got a gap. Turning into the finishing straight, Mann was still in the lead with Jeremy Deere closing the gap at incredible speed. At the finish, 2 seconds covered the first 4 places with Lanny taking the victory in 16.03, Jeremy in 2nd (same time, and spectators claim that Jeremy conceded victory to Lanny), Andrew Carruthers in 3rd (1 second behind) and Travis Cummings in 4th (1 further second behind).

Special thanks go to Jodie Draude for his marshalling and extra special thanks to Bryan Davies who was official starter and finish official on a FREEZING night.

Pictures are attached. Unofficial results are below:

1. Lanny Mann 16:03 (Champion. Course record)
2. Jeremy Deere 16.03 (Joint course record)
3. Andrew Carruthers 16.04
4. Travis Cummings 16.05
5. Scott Jensen 16.21
6. Mark Fewster 17.02
7. Frank Woolstencroft 17.07
8. Phil Daum 17.23
9. Ryan Twa 17.31
10. Blaine Penny 17.34
11. Bob Banks 17.42
12. Darcy Bell 17.47
13. Mark Knoll 17.54
14. Kevin Lindland 18.06
15. Ed Bickley 18.40
16. Ryan Schellenberg 19.05
17. Matt Wanford 19.08
18. Dave Carlson 19.45

I'm bound to have got something wrong so please let me know of any inaccuracies. With 18 people under 20 minutes on such a cold night, this has to have been one of the highest quality 5ks Calgary has seen in a while.

The plan is to hold the same race on the last Wednesday of every month (next one in April). Watch this space...

Unofficial Official BVH 5k Champs

2010-03-16T18:44:00.001-07:00

What? Unofficial official BVH 5k Champs
When? Wednesday March 24, 2010 at 7pm.
Where? Eau Claire. Start outside the Y. Run towards the river and turn left. 3 lap course round Prince's Island park (on roads only), finish under the Olympic monument outside the Y.
How Far? 5k.
How Much? Free.
Why? Low key, fast, fun. I will be the starter, lead bike and I will call the times as you cross the finish line. Remember your time as you cross and come and see me after so we can sort out times and places. VERY spectator friendly. There will also hopefully be chalk arrows on the ground. The paths are NOT closed so pleased watch out for walkers and other users of the park.
How Do I enter? Email duncanmarsden@gmail.com.

Just email me, turn up on the day, sign a waiver and away you go. Depending on interest there is also the possibility of a 4k head-to-head race against the 5k-ers. We already have a good number of 5k-ers so expect a good race.

King of the World!

2010-03-09T20:08:00.001-08:00

(Sorry, Don, I couldn't help myself with the title).

We have a WORLD CHAMPION!! As some of you may know, the World Masters Champs was held in Kamloops this past week and our very own Don King was in the half marathon road race. Anyone over 35 (nearly all of us) qualifies as a Master and, putting it kindly, Don is one category above that. However, he showed all the younger competitors a clean pair of heels and won the whole race outright! Making him World Masters Champion for the half marathon!

Don's time (73 minutes) was very close to his PR and caps off a great season for him which started with the Sacramento marathon. Rumours that he had to take a drugs AND age test after the race have yet to be confirmed although we understand that officials took some convincing that he was anywhere over 30.

Wednesday night is the last night at the Oval before it shuts for the season so let's have a good turn out. We will be having outdoor Wednesday night sessions after that. And keep the evening of Wednesday March 24 free for our Club 5k champs. More details to come soon...

CRR XC Series Wrap – Fish Creek March 6, 2010

2010-03-08T06:43:00.000-08:00

The final XC race of the winter season was welcomed with a beautiful bluebird spring day that saw double digits. There were young Harriers, veteran Harriers and rookie (or is it fair-weather?!) Harriers all on show.

3 Year old Julia Penny kicked off the day in the kids 1 km race. She was really pumped about running until someone said ‘go’. Julia being new to the racing scene (as an athlete) must have been feeling some pressure, or maybe it was the mud, and was in tears by the time she made a few strides. Sarah (her mom) found some words of motivation and she was in good spirits by the time she crossed the finish line.

The 8 km race saw one of the tightest finishes of the season for the top 3 spots. Andrew Carruthers (regular champion at these events) took the lead within the first kilometer, but didn’t get away too easily. Blaine Penny (rookie…well, first run with the BVH vest) chased him on the first decent climb and from there was hanging on for dear life. Andrew slowly extended his lead throughout the race but was pretty much always in Blaine’s sights. The Bridesmaid (Mark) Fewster was picking it up towards the end and in the last kilometer was on Blaine’s heels. Coming into the last climb Blaine was still hanging on to 2nd but starting to fade. Not knowing the course, Blaine dug deep and sprinted the last hill (thinking the finish must be close) with Mark right his tail and Andrew only a few seconds ahead. From the crest of the climb there was only about 200 m to the finish. Andrew held the reins up front, followed by Blaine 7 seconds later and Mark 9 seconds behind Blaine.

Also finishing in the top 10 were Phil Ukrainetz and Scott Manktelow who finished in 5th and 6th places respectively, with exactly the same time. Reports that they crossed the line holding hands are, as yet, unconfirmed... Ryan Rawlyk finished just outside the top 10, in 11th place. With 5 runners in the top 11, I'd say we pretty much dominated!

The pictures show Blaine leading Mark and Ryan powering through a tough section.

At the end, Blaine, who possibly had the best run of his life, had the following to say:

"Wearing the BVH vest for the first time, I felt I had a duty to make it proud. It was one of the best races I have had in a long time."

"Not having (or even owning a pair of spikes), I was feeling like a fish out of water when we hit the first decent climb. I just about body checked a fellow (not sure of the guys name) as I was out of control on some of the icy sections and was carrying some serious speed. Some fancy footwork kept me vertical and positioned right behind Andrew at the bottom."

Weaselhead XC Results

2010-02-28T19:02:00.001-08:00

Perhaps inspired by being called a bridesmaid in the last race report, Harrier Mark Fewster stormed to his first victory in this season's Calgary Road Runner cross country races last Saturday.

The race was held at the Weaselhead and follows alongside the Glenmore reservoir. The start is usually a tough, snowy affair which is a slog and difficult to get any momentum on and this year was no different. After about a mile of effort, though, the course heads into the woods. Narrow, windy, snowy paths make for an exciting and slippery run at the speeds Mark was travelling. And the race went to the wire with Mark beating Chad Reid by 9 seconds and fellow Harrier Phil Ukrainetz in third.

The next race is at Fish Creek next Saturday and is a good one.

Frozen Ass Results

2010-02-23T20:23:00.000-08:00

The results are in...! Confirmation of Harrier Carl Pryce finishing in 5th place, 3 minutes slower than in his report. The reason? He was wearing a fancy Garmin watch which stops every time you do and he forgot that he had a 3 minute wait for ... a train! (I assume he wasn't waiting to jump on board).

Also running was Harrier Darcy Bell who put his track past well behind him with a 7th place finish in 4:09.

A special mention to non-Harrier Ellie Greenwood who beat the women's record by about 30 minutes to finish 4th overall in an amazing 3:48!

Frozen Ass Write-Up by Carl Pryce

2010-02-18T07:06:00.000-08:00

There was a full entry of 125 runners for the Frozen Ass races this year, of which about 75 were doing the 50k and the remainder running in the 25k - the "Half Ass". The 50k route is an out-and-back to Chestermere starting at the canoe club hut on the Bow in Calgary and follows the Chestermere canal. This year the race would more appropriately be called the "Mild Ass 50" with the temperature holding up above 4C - considerably warmer than years gone past.

Conditions underfoot, however (which are never great in this race), were worryingly slushy for the first kilometre but soon improved and about half the course was on snow with the remainder clear.

My game plan was to run 5 consecutive 45min 10kms, which worked fine to about 40km. I went through the marathon mark in 3:10, slightly off schedule and at this point my lack of training started to show and I felt like I was struggling through the last 10km. At 48mins for the last 10k I can't have been struggling too much but every step was tough.

Surprisingly I ran within 2 minutes of my time for the previous 2 years to finish in fifth place overall in about 3:47. Not sure of the winning time but I think the first five all finished within 5 minutes of each other - very exciting.

As usual the race was extremely well organised by Gord with great food at the finish (including home made soup and pizza). Not an obvious choice of race for the hillrunner that I consider myself to be because the elevation doesn't vary more than 15ft. However it's useful milestone so early in the season and the start is only ten minutes from home. Maybe see a few more Harrier vests there next year?

Frozen Ass 50

2010-02-17T07:45:00.000-08:00

Results are not yet up but we have early reports of Harrier Carl Pryce having finished 5th in Monday's Frozen Ass 50k in a time of 3 hours 47 minutes. Carl is Mr Consistency himself having finished within 2 minutes of this time in his last three outings on this course!

More on this when we have the official results...

And a special mention goes to Blaine Penny who seems to be ripping up the xc ski trails this winter with another great finish in the Birkie:

http://www.raceheadquarters.com/results/other_2010.htm

Wednesday night training is back at the Oval tonight - see you there!

Banff-Jasper Relay and K100

2010-02-15T20:32:00.000-08:00

I know they are a long way off (June to be precise) but I wanted to float the idea of putting out a BVH team in the Banff-Jasper relay and in the K100. These are long relays which take some organising so I wanted to get a general idea of how many people might possibly be vaguely interested (no definite commitment needed at this stage).

The web sites are here if you want any more info:

http://www.bjr.ca/home
http://www.k-100relay.ca

Many of you already do the K100 for work teams (etc) but you can always do a second leg for BVH. The more the merrier! I was thinking we could get some of our Edmonton chums to join in the Banff-Jasper relay as that is in two parts...

If you have SOME VAGUE interest in either/both then send me an email to duncanmarsden@gmail.com and I'll look to get some teams together...

Always the bridesmaid...

2010-02-09T19:00:00.000-08:00

...never the bride.

You HAVE to feel for Harrier Mark Fewster who, all season long, has been finishing second in the Calgary Road Runners XC races to the same person - Trev Williams. So Mark would have been over the moon to have beaten Trev in last Saturday's race on Nose Hill...if he hadn't found himself in second place again! Fortunately, the winner in a close-fought race was Harrier Phil Ukrainetz. Good work on the Harriers 1-2, lads. The picture on the left is of the blushing bride himself.

And the Harriers took victory in the women's race too, with Syl Corbett cruising to an easy first place.

Don't forget training tomorrow night at the Oval. The group is getting bigger each week. 8pm warm-up, 8.20-8.30 start. See you there!

12 Mile Coulee XC Race

2010-01-29T17:59:00.000-08:00

The CRR 12 mile coulee XC event took place last Saturday and although the cold scared off all but the most hardy, the Harriers had 2 finishers in the top 10. Harrier Mark Fewster took a very determined approach to the race and really went for it from the gun. "I wanted to go hard from the gun but stay relaxed" Fewster said afterwards and he was certainly fast. A gap of about 20 seconds at half way looked unassailable until Trev Williams (bedecked with his video camera) came through strong in the last 2k to nick victory at the last. Harrier Rawlyk took a similar approach and had designs on 7th at half way until, by his own admission, his legs failed him although he did finish 9th, his first top 10 of the year. "I was hanging on at the end" he said.

Harrier Syl Corbett (pictured) finished a fantastic second in the women's division.

Full results are here:

http://calgaryroadrunners.com/result.php?item=193

Other Harriers have been taking the opportunity for some cross training. Harriers Pryce and Penny in particular did the 72k Lake Louise to Banff XC ski loppet last weekend, with Blaine Penny taking both the victory and the course record!! Good work boys!

Finally, don't forget training on Wednesdays. We are starting to get quite a crowd. 7 of us last week and the numbers just keep growing. Come join in the fun! 8pm at the Oval for the warm up. Session starts 8.20-8.30...

2010 Nose Creek XC - Jan.9

2010-01-19T15:37:00.000-08:00

Results say it all at this one:
http://www.calgaryroadrunners.com/result.php?item=192

Next race is this weekend at 12 Mile Coulee
http://www.calgaryroadrunners.com/forms/file20090413_192332.pdf

Invitation to attend 2010 World Snowshoe Invitational Event during the Olympics in Vancouver

2010-01-19T15:33:00.000-08:00

Hello to all our Mountain Running friends around the World.

My name is Mark Elmore. I serve as the Sports Director for the
United States Snowshoe Association (www.snowshoeracing.com) and the
Secretary of the International Amateur Snowshoe Racing Federation
(IASSRF - www.internationalsnowshoeracing.com). My reason for
contacting you is to inform you of a very important event coming up
February 27th, 2010 in Vancouver British Columbia Canada during
the 2010 Winter Olympics.It's the 10km World Snowshoe Invitational to be conducted on Mount Seymour. This is a very important event. We have been lobbying the
International Olympic Committee for over ten years for inclusion in
the Winter Olympic Program, thus far, to no avail. This event,
occurring the day before the Olympiads Closing Ceremonies, will enjoy
unprecedented media coverage by sports media from around the World.
Past Olympians will be there, supporting our efforts for Winter
inclusion. All that we need to send this event, and Sport, over the
top is a truly international field of athletes. I am working with the
two local event directors, Marc Cooney and Dave Howells
(www.theyeti.ca) to provide free accommodations to all incoming
international athletes. We will most likely be billeting athletes as
hotels are completely sold out due to the Olympics. I am prepared to
serve as a shuttle driver to ensure athletes get where they need to be
without having to rent a car, to further reduce expenses of travelers.
Prior snowshoe running experience is not needed. Bring an athlete or
two and we will provide snowshoes for you to race on. There is no
learning curve involved with snowshoe racing. If you can run, you can
snowshoe race. This is an extremely important event that we hope we
can entice you to attend. We are trying to secure a sizeable prize
purse, but at this time, we can not gaurantee that. What we can
gaurantee is that we will provide you a world class event, as
inexpensively as possible, in a City and region all geared up for the
2010 Olympics. I sincerely hope you will consider attending. Should
you have any questions, or need further information, please do not
hesitate to contact me. My contact information is below. Thank you for
considering this request and I hope to hear from each of you in the
near future. Any assistance you could lend us in promoting
international attendence to this important event would be greatly
appreciated.

Sincerely Yours on Snow,
Mark Elmore
Cell - 518-420-6961
usssasnowshoeguy@gmail.com

Oval Intervals - Wed, Jan.6, 2010

2010-01-06T21:40:00.000-08:00

Another fine night at the oval. Lanny, Scott, Heath and Marie (all of Canmore/Cochrane) and myself got the intervals started around 8:30 after some strides, etc. 5x400 @71" with 90" jog between, then a water break, followed by 5x300 @49"(ish) with about 60" jog. The oval is open every Wednesday in January so hope to see a few more local BVH's out in the coming weeks. Warmup from 8-8:20, intervals start at 8:30, usually done by 9:20 after a few barefoot laps (thx Lanny). //Mark F.

Looking to Kick 2010 off with Some Serious Mileage? Jan 2 Peter Lougheed Ski Buffet

2009-12-31T15:24:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all fellow Harriers! We hope everyone has a nice relaxing Christmas and have rested up for what is going to be great year for the Bow Valley Harriers.

Matt planted the seed a while ago

about skiing all the trails in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park (PLPP). What a great idea! So why not kick off the new year with working off all that Christmas turkey.

Carl Pryce, Blaine Penny and a few other xc ski enthusiasts (or shall we call them lunatics) are planning to ski all the trails in PLPP on Saturday Jan 2. The distance is about 112 km once you link all the trails. PLPP is classic only and has a double track on most trails. The conditions are excellent and if we are lucky we'll even score some fresh grooming. If you are still not sure if this is for you, check out a recent ski at PLPP that Blaine and the gang put in just before Christmas.

Peter Lougheed Ski Video

It will be about a 10 to 12 hour day (depending on conditions, level of skill and fitness) and the plan is for an alpine start leaving the city at 4:30 am.

For those who may be interested and want more details, drop Blaine an email

blaine.penny@worleyparsons.com

For anyone else out there just planning a nice day of skiing, there is a great website SkiHere.ca that is really up to date on all the local trail conditions.

Cheers and Happy New Year to all!!

Check out this link...

2009-12-19T15:52:00.000-08:00

It shows what it's like at the front of the CRR races:

http://speedtheorycyclingteam.blogspot.com/

Go to the Monday posting and click on the video link to see all 27 minutes of the Silver Springs XC from the viewpoint of eventual winner, Trev Williams. Trev had a camera mounted on his head for the entire race. Better still, Trev trails a bundled-up (due to the -24C temperature) Harrier Mark Fewster for much of the race. I understand Mark was asked to show his best side for the camera... :)

Wednesday Night Training

2009-12-15T15:36:00.001-08:00

Don't forget Wednesday night training tomorrow at the Oval. Meet at 8pm inside the Oval and we will look for a 20 minute warm-up and then start the session at 8.20pm. I am hoping to be there holding a watch and calling out times.

Please try and wear your vests so that we are recognisable.

I am thinking 800s tomorrow (or, rather, 2 laps of the Oval which is slightly more than 800m). Maybe 2 sets of 4 x 800m with 90 secs recovery and 3 mins recovery between sets. I'm happy to discuss... :)

Sacramento and Silver Springs

2009-12-13T10:31:00.000-08:00

The last two weekends have seen some more BVH performances on a global and local scale.

First off was Don King in the Sacramento marathon. Known to be a fast course for its "downhill" profile and warm weather, I'm sure Don was looking for a fast time. And he won't have been disappointed, clocking 2:37.36 for a very impressive 43rd overall (2nd in his age group). That's a constant 6 minute miling - good work Don. This was all the more impressive given that I am led to believe that conditions were far from ideal - 0C and a headwind the whole way.

0C would have seemed positively balmy to those brave Harriers who lined up for the Silver Springs XC event yesterday. Three Harriers were on display (presumably under several layers) - Harriers Ukrainetz, Fewster and Wilcox. In what must have been a slog of a race, Ukrainetz was just edged out by Trev Williams for the victory, with Fewster missing out on bronze by 2 seconds. By all accounts, Fewster took the race by the scruff of the neck and led from the gun for much of the race and was unlucky not to hold on. The pictures show a wrapped-up Fewster leading Trev (who seems to be videoing the whole race with a camera on his head). Run-in-all-weathers Wilcox ran a dogged race to finish high up the field in 16th. Well done to those brave souls!

Finally, A big shout out to Friend-of-the-Harriers Paul Mainwaring who came 3rd in the Charlotte marathon this weekend in 2:38...

Don't forget training at the Oval at 8pm this Wednesday everyone!

Wednesday Night Training

2009-12-05T12:44:00.001-08:00

The oval is shut next Wednesday and so we're having a week off the regular Wednesday night training sessions. The next session will be on Wednesday 16 December. Meet at 8pm with the aim of doing a 20 min warm-up and starting the session at 8.20pm. The session will be posted a few days beforehand but we'll probably do some 800s or a whistle fartlek.

Don't forget the next race which is the Silver Springs XC on Saturday December 12, 2009 at midday.

Enjoy the weather everyone!

Oval Wednesdays

2009-11-29T12:02:00.001-08:00

Welcome to Oval Wednesdays!

What are Oval Wednesdays? They are our regular BVH Wednesday night training sessions at the Olympic Oval. Meet at 8.30pm for a 15 minute warm-up and the session will start at 8.45pm. It's a regular event every Wednesday at 8.30 throughout the winter.

So what sort of sessions will we be doing? Intervals mainly. They are a chance to keep some speed in your legs over the winter months when snow and ice tend to make this much more difficult, which will make the spring races much less painful. They are also great for staying in tune for the winter cross country races.

Sessions are open to anyone - just turn up on time and even if you can't keep up with the fastest among us, we'll make sure you get a session out of it, either by handicapping it or making it a relay.

Meet inside the Oval (it's a few dollars for entry). This week we will be doing a gentle introduction - 10 x 400m (or, one lap of the Oval which is more like 440m) with 90 secs rest. I won't be there this week but we definitely have a group turning up (look for Mark Fewster if you know him). Those turning up, try and wear your BVH vests so that we are an easily recognisable group and we get the name out there!

"I feel the need, the need for speed"...

Okotoks XC Report by Ryan Rawlyk

2009-11-24T07:20:00.000-08:00

Weather was perfect around 5 degrees with a little wind. Course was dry with good footing for the most part, some ice and snow in the coulee for short sections.

Bow Valley Harriers had two representatives myself (Ryan Rawlyk) and Jason Wilcox.

Good field of runners and the early start was a mad panic for the first corner. Me and Jason quickly found ourselves behind 10 to 20 guys.

Course was a 2 loop race with only 500m of level ground at the start of the loop. It was a hard, undulating battle both physically and mentally and the finish line could not have come soon enough. I found myself in a group of 4 for the entire race, surging and fighting from getting dropped. I was eventually gapped in the last kilometer before I was able to battle back and barely win a print finish for 12th with Lindsay Mclaren. Jason Wilcox came in 25th putting in a solid effort despite fighting off a nasty cold. Andrew Carruthers took the win handily in front of Trevor Williams.

This race is one of the better courses and definitely not one to miss next year.

Next X Country race is Silver Springs in three weeks (Dec 12). Bow Valley Harriers expects to see a better turnout, with Phil Ukrainetz and Mark Fewster back in the fold.

Cover Girl

2009-11-21T12:26:00.001-08:00

Check out this month's Impact magazine. Harrier Syl Corbett is on the cover and there is a great article all about her achievements including the fact that she is reigning national snowshoe champ!

The full article can be accessed here:

http://www.impactmagazine.ca/profiles/2009/snow-way.html

Strides Running Store...

2009-11-20T07:24:00.001-08:00

Friend of the Bow Valley Harriers, Strides Running Store, is having its annual Strides Friends & Family Night from 5-8:30pm on Wednesday, November 25th and they have very kindly offered all Bow Valley Harriers to be "friends and family" for this event. Turn up with your vest as proof of membership and get a head start on your Christmas shopping. There are great deals on this night only including a massive 20% of all fall shoes and clothing and 10% off accessories. For those who have not been there recently, they are now at 3558 Garrison Gate SW (across the street from the Garrison Safeway & Starbucks): www.stridesrunning.com.

Also, don't forget the Okotoks XC race this weekend. Starts at 12 noon I believe. This may be the only year ever you can run it without snow on the ground so make the most of it! I know a few names who are running so look forward to a report.

Last Chance Half Race Report by Scott Manktelow

2009-11-16T08:35:00.000-08:00

The Last Chance Half took place yesterday and I was fortunate enough to be present at the finish and see Harrier Manktelow (in the words of the immortal David Coleman) "open his legs and show his class". It was a fantastic finish that went right down to the wire. Here's what the Harrier himself had to say about the race:

The Last Chance Half is run along the riverside paths, starting and finishing at Eau Claire. I had two main goals for this race: 1) a new PB, and 2) having gone off-course in 4 separate races this season, I hoped to Stay On The Course. Achieving #1 was probably only going to happen if I achieved #2.

There was a strong wind from the west so the first 5km was blustery and slow. At the turnaround I accelerated and passed the early leader, Jan Pedder, and tried to lay down some fast splits with the tailwind. I got a nice gap, running the 2nd 5km almost a minute faster than the first, and going through 10km in just over 36min.

I might have been a bit too eager. By 12km, I was starting to stagger, was getting dizzy and realized it was a perfect opportunity for me to lose focus and Go Off The Course. Steely resolve was required. By 15km I could see that Jan had caught up to within 10-15 sec. and Harrier Don King was not far behind. I tried to drill it for the last 5km, but despite my best efforts, Jan kept closing the bloody gap. At the 20km marker, Jan passed me and passed HARD. I hoped he was bluffing and surged to get on his shoulder.

With 400m to go, we had to climb the ramp leading to the pedestrian bridge over the Bow R. I stumbled up the ramp, turned right, and was surprised (and dismayed) to discover myself kicking as hard as I could from 300m out. With 100m to go, I could see Duncan cheering by the side (with new baby in tow) and knew I could not let him down while wearing the dashing new Bow Valley Harriers vest. Unfortunately, Jan was still on my shoulder and it turned into a full-out sprint to the line -- not a pretty sight in a half-marathon.

I was able to get a small gap and win by one second (!), successfully getting a new PB (1:17:11) and also successfully Staying On The Course.

Much credit is due to Jan Pedder for hauling ass through the 2nd half of the race, and Don King who came in a fast-closing 3rd in 1:17:48. The full results are here: http://www.winningtime.ca/09/09lastchance/oall.txt

Drinks, Training and Racing...in that order!

2009-11-13T15:23:00.000-08:00

First of all, the inaugural pub night at Kilkenny's last night was a great success. Lots of new faces to add to the names and we really are a great group of people! Not sure how many early runs will have been missed this morning...

Part of the conversation last night turned to group training sessions and there was some discussion about a group training night at the Oval on Wednesday nights from starting at either 8pm or 8.30pm. A few of us did these last year and it was good to leave it later so the place clears out and then we can either do intervals inside or head off on a run depending on what everyone is keen on. I was thinking of December 2 being the first week we try this out and then just making it a regular Wednesday night event with minimal commitment and people just turn up if they can, knowing that some of us will be there at least. Let me know what you think either by adding a comment to this post or by sending me an email (duncanmarsden@gmail.com); (a) would you be interested (b) is Wednesday good for you (c) is the Oval good for you (d) what time is best for you?

Finally, it's the Last Chance half marathon this weekend and the race is sold out. Good luck to those running and I look forward to a race report...

CRR Edworthy Park XC Race Report

2009-11-09T07:18:00.000-08:00

The sacred grey and black vests made their first appearance in a local race this weekend, and to great effect.

Saturday saw the first of the Calgary Road Runners' series of XC races. There are about 6 throughout the winter and they are well worth doing.

We had a number of Harriers competing and, as you can see from the picture on the left, the vests were out in force (picture of a very relaxed Mark Fewster leading Scott Manktelow). The full men's team was Manktelow, Fewster, Phil Ukrainetz and Ryan Rawlyk.

The early pace was forced on by Fewster, keen to impress on home soil, with Manktelow close behind and Harrier Phil Ukrainetz just behind them. In a close-fought race, however, Calgary's Trev Williams managed to outsprint Manktelow for full honours with Manktelow capping a marvellous autumn season with a second place. (Manktelow is the bookies' favourite for this weekend's Last Chance Half - provided he can stay on course that is...!) Fewster was just a few seconds further back in third and Ukrainetz finished a fantastic fourth. Rawlyk also had a good showing in a competitive race to finish 13th. A GREAT showing at the front by the Harriers. The picture on the right is of Fewster leading eventual winner, Trev Williams.

On the women's side we had just as much success with our one female participant (it's all about the quality, not the quantity with us Harriers!), Syl Corbett. Syl clearly had a very close-fought race with eventual winner Lindsay McLaren and Syl finished a matter of seconds behind Lindsay, to take the silver medal.

A very successful start to the cross country season - good work everyone! Full results are here:

http://www.calgaryroadrunners.com/result.php?item=189

The next race in this series is in Okotoks on November 21.

Races and Pub Night

2009-11-06T09:23:00.000-08:00

There are two main races this weekend and we have BVH representatives in each. The first is the CRR Edworthy XC event at Edworthy Park. This is a great little series of races which goes throughout the winter and is great fun. Start is at 12 noon and you just turn up and pay your $10 entry. All standards are catered for and there are two races (8k and 4k) and a kids' race. I know that Harriers Manktelow and Fewster will be running and sporting their new vests to boot. I know that Manktelow in particular is very excited about dusting off the old spikes having retired them a few years ago...

Later that same day (about 7pm I think) the Banff Winterstart will set off from the Caribou Lodge. I know that Harrier Russell will be doing this sprint (for her) following her Okanagan marathon success.

I look forward to reports from all!

Finally, our first pub night will be held next Thursday (November 12th) at Kilkenny's starting at 8pm. I will be bringing the vests for those who let me know they will be there. Hope to see as many of you there as possible. Friends, partners, spouses etc welcome!

NYC Marathon Report by Jody Draude

2009-11-01T19:49:00.000-08:00

4:30 am - alarm. That would be EST. Too early. Perhaps I could fake an injury.

5:30 am - Staten Island ferry. Pouring rain and windy. Yup, the warm, dry, bed is looking good right now. I bet it's nice in Calgary.

6:30 am to 9:30 am - Refugee camp - with coffee and bagels. Still raining. This is not cool.

9:30 am - At the start line. An Italian guy just peed on my leg. Note to self : must, at all cost, beat that Italian guy. Can't wait to get going. This is cool (can a 40 year old say that?).

9:40 am - We're off. Rain has stopped. Windy. In our face. Still happy to be there.

Approx 1:23 and change later - 13.1 miles in, and all is well. Plan to run the second half in low 1:20s. Left the Italian guy behind long ago. This is easy. I am awesome. ( Foreshadowing....)

6: something later - Mile 14 water station. Wondering if anyone ever gone blind from splashing Gatorade in their eyes while running a race. I am something less than awesome. Bad omen. Getting plenty of shouts of "Go Harrier", though.

Approx Mile 15 - beginning to wonder if I should have taken Jeremy's Deere's advice and worn my Etonic Tayu's. Why listen to Jeremy? What does he know about running anyway? The excruciating pain emanating from my right foot within my beat-up DS Racers provides the answer. I am an idiot.

Mile 17 - wondering if I will ever walk again. I actually stop and re-tie my shoe in the hopes that somehow my amateur knot-tying technique is my issue. I curse the triple knot I tied in my shoe to ensure that it would NEVER come undone in the race. Amateur. Back and running approx 1:30 later. Shouts of "Go Harrier", replaced by "You suck Harrier". Am I in the Bronx?

Mile 20 - Decide that I will make it. Way off pace. Too bad: aside from the excruciating pain in my foot, I feel pretty good.

Mile 22 - Decide that I don't care if I ever walk again: I will at least break 2:50. Spend the next 5km all but sprinting past - well, it felt like sprinting, compared to the death march around me - the many, many inconsiderate bas--ards who passed me during the shoe fiasco. Fueled by a combination of fear of failure and anger, I pass 108 people. Not one passed me. Not sure what me knowing that fact says about me aside from the fact that I am obviously OC.

Mile 25 onward - Lots of "Go Harrier" cries again as I roar past people like a psychopath: feeling pretty chuffed about myself until it dawns on me that the huge roar from the crowd is not for me, your now humbled Harrier, but for the 52 YEAR OLD lady that just beat me. I feel a bit better that it was Joan Benoit Samuelsson (sp?) (I should have beat her). Oh well, I definitely beat the Italian urine-boy.

2:49:14 - Done . Broke 2:50. Don't care if I looked like a maniac doing it.

Approx 2:50 after start - DS Racers deposited in the rubbish bin. Note to self: listen to Jeremy.

3:53 pm - Having my fourth recovery Guinness in St James' Pub. Humbled. My only truly professional running move of the day.

NYC

2009-10-30T17:19:00.001-07:00

The BVH vest will make its first public appearance this weekend - and what a stage for it - Jody Draude will be pulling on the sacred grey and black and lining up against the world's best marathon runners in New York City. If you can spot the vest among 38,000 other runners, though, you'll be doing well...

For those who want to pick up their vests, there are 3 options:

1. Let me know when you want to come to Canterra Tower (Eau Claire) and pick it up; or

2. For those doing the Winterstart, email me and I will bring your vest to the race next week; or

3. Best of all - come to the pub! Thursday November 12th has been earmarked for a night in a pub somewhere so we can all get to know each other a bit. The venue has not been finalised yet but keep the date free! All welcome!

Duncan

The Vests are Here!

2009-10-23T20:59:00.000-07:00

The vests arrived today! A sample picture is attached.

If you are near Eau Claire during the week then send me an email (to dmarsden@blgcanada.com) and you can come and pick up your vest. Otherwise I will arrange a pub night for us all to get to know each other and hand them out then.

There are still a few unpaid debts so please send any remaining cheques ASAP. Thanks!!

Another week another win!

2009-10-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

The Bow Valley Harriers (comprising Ryan Rawlyk, Phil Ukrainetz and Mark Fewster) entered a strong team in the 3 x 4k CRR Confederation Park Relay on Saturday and the team's strength became immediately evident. The mild fall weather was a welcome change to the last few weeks of racing, even with the creek crossings.

Ryan led the charge on leg 1 of the 4km loop, leaving it all on the course and coming in around 6th about a minute down from the lead runners. Phil rose to the challenge to move us up to 2nd overall after a 13' performance for the 4km. Mark had about 20" to make up and did so about 1 mile in, then added another 15" or so by the finish to take the win for the team.

Phil and Ryan were so moved by the win that they decided to volunteer themselves as race directors for next year...really!

A special thanks to Sugoi for the new uniforms (see attached). (On that note, the actual kit is being shipped on October 30, so we can expect it early November...)

Relay Weekend!

2009-10-17T08:20:00.000-07:00

There are two races this weekend - both relays.

Today we have the Eikden relay in Banff which is being sponsored and co-hosted by Strides Running Store. For those who don't know much about Ekiden, wikipedia has a few words of wisdom:

"An Ekiden originally referred to a post-horse or stagecoach which transmitted communication by stages, and now usually refers to a long-distance relay race, typically a road race. The term originated in Japan. The first ekiden race was in 1917, and was run over three days between Kyoto and Tokyo, a distance of 508 km."

Very interesting. I know Jeremy was looking for volunteers so if you find yourself at a loose end today, go along and seek him out!

Tomorrow is the Confederation Park relay and the Bow Valley Harriers have at least one team entered in the 3 x 4k event. I look forward to a race report...

Alberta XC Race - Official write-up

2009-10-13T16:43:00.001-07:00

The official write-up of last Saturday's XC race is set out below. BVH men finished 5th out of 8 teams which is not bad at all. Very encouragingly, we were only 3 points off 4th place and only 16 points from finishing second. Also, as Phil pointed out, we dominated the 30-39 age group. Syl came in a very creditable 21st, although it seems that they put her in the wrong age group :)

Race #3: The Battle of Alberta results are now up along with the series standings after 3 races:http://runningsolutions.shawwebspace.ca/pages/view/2009_saucony_run_alberta_xc_seri/
Chantell Widney from the Edmonton Thunder won her 2nd race in the series over Ciara Kara from UCAC. Top 3 was rounded out by the UofA's Hayley Degaust who lead her team to a big win over the UofC and Lethbridge Kodiaks. Series standings after 3 races see Tara Struyk from the Running Room leading followed by Heather Sim from CALTAF and Jennifer kemp from the Running Room. Runners are currently ranked according to the # of races they have run and then by their points so look for Chantell to top the standings after she finishes another couple of races in the series. Lethbridge Kodiaks lead the team standings followed by the Running Room and CALTAF.The mens race saw the same top 2 as the first 2 races in the series go 1-2 again with Kip Kangogo of the Running Room winning over Willy Kimosop from the Lethbridge Kodiaks. Geoff Kerr from the UCAC cracked the top 3 in his first race of the series. The team result saw the UofA run a very impressive and disciplined race to win easily over the Running Room Athletic Club with the UofC just one point behind in 3rd place.Mens series standings see no change with Kip Kangogo (RRAC) leading Willy Kimosop (LCK) and Andrew Carruthers also from the Running Room athletic club. The team standings see the Running Room on top followed by Augustana College and the Lethbridge Kodiaks.Race #4 of the series goes next weekend in Camrose where the 2009 College Cross Country Championships will be held.

Marathon Heroes

2009-10-12T20:24:00.000-07:00

There were a number of marathons held this last weekend, from Chicago to Victoria via the Okanagan and we have a few early results:

1. The Okanagan Marathon - by far the best BVH performance of the weekend was Harrier Deb Russell's third place podium finish in the Okanagan marathon. Deb's summer of running in the TransRockies seems to have paid off as she smashed her personal best marathon time to finish in 3rd place, only 5 minutes behind the winner.

2. Victoria Marathon - Jason Wilcox, who a week ago was running the River Park classic, went out hard in the Victoria marathon and was on pace for sub 3 hours at half way. Jason slowed slightly in the second half but finished in a very good 3:15 which he will be very pleased with.

Good work, Harriers!!

The Bow Valley Harriers are up and... er, Running!

2009-10-10T17:25:00.000-07:00

The Bow Valley Harriers excelled in their first team race today in a cold and wintry Canmore Park in Calgary. Temperatures at the start were -5C with an icy cold wind dropping them further still but not even the first few flakes of snow in the air could dampen the spirits of the Harriers who made it to the start line with the excitement of the first BVH team race to spur us on. We had 6 Harriers running; Jeremy Deere, Mark Fewster, Phil Villeneuve, Blaine Penny, Matt Wanford and Duncan Marsden - kudos to Phil Villeneuve for fighting off a hangover and coming all the way from Canmore for the event.

This was the third in a 6 race series and is very much a team event. Times do not matter (as Jeremy reminded me just as I was about to start my watch on the start line!), only places. There are 4 to score in a team and the team with the lowest score wins. Easy. Non-Scorers are vital for these sorts of events though - not only do they provide a safety net but they can reduce other teams' scores.

The race was over a distance of 8k (4 x 2k loops - ideal for spectators) and the event attracts the cream of the Alberta running community. The Harriers knew they would be in for some tough competition. The average age of the field was about 20 and with the youngest Harrier being a sprightly 33 years old, we knew our tough old legs would have some raw young speed to face.

The toughest thing about cross country races, is the intensity. If you relax for 30 seconds, 5 people will pass you. But it's also about not getting sucked in to the early pace which is always much too fast. The Harriers started well and we all watched in awe as the gun went off and Jeremy Deere sprinted into the lead group never to be seen again (at least not by us) and into what was probably a top 5 finish. The rest of us had a very close race which is good in these team events - a team that packs its runners together is generally a strong team. For the first half, Villeneuve led Marsden and Fewster, all within seconds of each other with Penny and Wanford very close behind. The gaps stretched over the last 2 laps, with Marsden finishing second Harrier, very closely followed by Villeneuve and Fewster who, in turn, had Penny and Wanford breathing down their necks.

We do not have the results yet but everyone enjoyed the intensity of the competition - generally, a resounding success!

In the women's event, we had one Harrier - Syl Corbett - fighting the BVH cause. Syl ran a great race having just come back from the World Mountain Running Champs in the UK. We'll give more on Syl's performance when the results are in...

Great running everyone! We can mix it with the best...! Photos will be posted on facebook.

Sugoi Offer

2009-10-09T14:31:00.000-07:00

Seeing as we have ordered our club vests with SUGOI, they have offered us a discount of 40% off any SUGOI Inline apparel you want to buy, via SUGOI.com. The offer only lasts for 60 days. You need to use the promotion code CUS09APPR1208 and place your order through SUGOI.com. You can use the code any number of times until the beginning of December so anyone on the team can place an order!

Weekend Racing

2009-10-04T07:45:00.000-07:00

This weekend saw a packed schedule of races with a large number of Harriers out on display showing off their speed for what seems like the last time before we all have snow and ice to contend with...

Ambulance Chasers

First up was the Ambulance Chasers 10k and 5k on Friday night. The race starts and finishes in Eau Claire and runs along the paths by the river. It was very well attended and drew huge crowds. In addition, it seemed to be a real who's who of the Calgary running community. The 10k was won convincingly by Harrier Jeremy Deere in a great time of about 32.50. Jeremy led from gun to tape and looked in very good form despite not much training recently. The results are not out yet but Harrier Kyle Marcotte also put in a good performance to finish very close to the top 5.

The 5k was won by Harrier Duncan Marsden in 16.35 with Jody Draude hot on his heels in 3rd place. Jody was getting in some speed work for the New York marathon next month. Good luck, Jody!

Harvest Half

Barely 12 hours later, the gun went off for the Harvest half marathon in cold (but thankfully not snowy) conditions out in Midnapore. The course is undulating but goes through Fish Creek provincial park and is very pretty with virtually no traffic. Highly recommended. Right from the start it was clear that the Bow Valley Harriers would have control of this race - Harriers Marsden and Scott Manktelow looked easy in the lead group until about 3 miles in when they both took off and very quickly had a big gap on the rest of the field. The BVH duo stayed together until about half way when Marsden slowly got the better of Manktelow and just managed to pull away slightly. Marsden went on to win in a new course record of 75.29. Manktelow would have been 2 minutes behind at most (and the owner of a new PB) but for the fact that he went off course in the last 1k and, although still finishing second, lost a big chunk of time (and a PB).

River Park Classic

By far the biggest BVH presence this weekend was at the Calgary Road Runners cross country series race in River Park, Calgary. The course is rightly known as a classic and involves two rivers crossings (with about 50m worth of wading) very early in the race leading to chilly toes throughout throughout the remainder of it.

Harriers Mark Fewster and Phil Villeneuve had great races and finished 4th and 5th respectively, close together. Excellent performances were also put in by Harriers Ukrainetz, Rawlyk and Wilcox:

Jason flies down the hill

Fewster Tracks Villeneuve

4 Mark FEWSTER 25:06
5 Phil VILLENEUVE 25:13
14 Philip UKRAINETZ 26:35
21 Ryan RAWLYK 27:54
26 Jason WILCOX 28:51

Full results are here:
http://www.calgaryroadrunners.com/result.php?item=186

Harrier Phil

2009-09-30T18:16:00.001-07:00

We have received the following roving report from our roaming Harrier Phil Villeneuve (all such race reports are very welcome and highly encouraged):

"Ran 7 summits trail in Rossland this past Wednesday on my way through to Vancouver – What a fantastic trail…worth going back for sure and running it as a posse. It turned out to be a great warmup run for a last minute entry into the Rubble Creek Classic Trail Run, a 26km jaunt up (1,000m), in and around Black Tusk mountain and back down (1,300m) to Rubble Creek (more info: http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/pique/index.php?cat=C_Sport&content=Rubble+creek+run+1639 ) just outside Whistler.

No official results yet but it ended being a great battle between Oliver Utting and myself, down to the wire on the final 8km steep descent and I just managed to squeak out the win (and a new course record!) by a few seconds. Now my legs are…fried!"

Good work, Phil! Don't forget there are a number of races this weekend including Ambulance Chasers, River Park Classic, Harvest half - all of which are great warm-ups for the main event - the Alberta XC series race on October 10.

Keep those race reports coming!!

Melissa's

2009-09-27T09:15:00.000-07:00

The Harriers had representatives in both the 10k and the 22k races in this weekend's Melissa's Road Race out in Banff. The race is hugely popular and when online entries become available in February every year, they sell out within hours.

Reports from the course tell of hills and wind - neither being conducive to fast times, but the Harriers lucky enough to have scored entries showed what they are made of with some strong performances.

The 10k event was part of the Alberta road race series and so the cream of Alberta's 10k runners were out on display. The race was won by Devon Kershaw in 32:57 and Harrier Scott Manktelow finished a very creditable 16th in 36:47. After the race, Scott commented that whole swathe of xc skiers came past him on the Tunnel Mountain hill - let's hope they are just as fit come February...

Full results of the 10k are here: http://www.raceheadquarters.com/results/2009/run/Melissas200910K.html

In the 22k event, we had Harriers Ryan Schellenberg and Brooke Houston showing what they could do over the longer distance. The race was won by Geoff Hopfner in 1:24:13. Ryan, in great form this year and improving all the time, finished 20th in 1:36:34. Brooke, in her first race as a Harrier, finished 27th woman in 1:49.44.

Full results of the 22k are here: http://www.raceheadquarters.com/results/2009/run/Melissas200922K.html

Well run everybody! If I missed any other Harriers in the results, please email me (duncanmarsden@gmail.com) and let me know...

Weekend Races

2009-09-25T22:20:00.000-07:00

Good luck to anyone doing Melissa's, the Waldorf School XC or any other races this weekend. Don't forget to send pictures, race reports etc to duncanmarsden@gmail.com...

On the subject of pictures, I will be posting a few on the facebook page of a last-minute impromptu run up Moose Mountain which 5 brave Harriers took on during the week. Aside from a seriously sprained ankle and some tactical night-time formation running, it was a great success!

Harrier Carl Pryce, Three-Time Reigning Moose Mountain Champion Cuts a lean silhouette near the Peak

Also, anyone wanting to do a 50k or 100k training run out in Canmore on the weekend of October 16, please step forward. Harrier Blaine Penny and a few of his friends are looking to go a full 100k and would welcome anyone willing to pace them for any part of the distance...

Finally, don't forget the XC on October 10. I have Deere, Fewster, Marcotte, Wanford and Marsden as confirmations. Anyone else wanting to sign up, send an email to duncanmarsden@gmail.com. Cost will be $6 (payable on the day). Let's try and get two teams out!!