Well it really was an incredible weekend for the Harriers... In addition to the victorious exploits in the 5 peaks, we had two more victories to celebrate.
The weekend was kicked off in style by Carl Pryce taking the Lost Soul 50k race with a certain amount of ease - cruising to victory in 5 hours 27 mins - 30 minutes ahead of second place. The course is a punishing hilly affair and Carl's time is all the more impressive when you take into consideration the heat he had to contend with down in Lethbridge on Friday. The results are here:http://www.lostsoulultra.com/LSU09%20OA_31.PDF
Carl was originally planning the 100 miler but dropped to the "shorter" distance only a few days ago and clearly it was to his liking...
And to round off the weekend, Harrier Mark Fewster won the Canmore half marathon (on another very hot day) in a shade over 80 minutes. His winning margin was slightly less than Carl's but clearly Mark had the legs to hold off a strong challenge from last year's winner. The results are here:
http://www.raceheadquarters.com/results/2009/run/RockyMountain2009Half.html
Congratulations to both Harriers!!
A quick reminder that the deadline for ordering singlets is 5pm tomorrow (Tuesday). We are going to try and see if we can get women's singlets too...
Mark's race summary - With expectations in fall mode, I was looking to better my time on a rolling course I'm all too familiar with out in Canmore. The front of the race was quickly established at the 1km mark with a long time friend, Chad Reid and I running side by side with a guy about 20' in front. The first 1/3 of the race is in town and flat, so the splits felt easy at 3:30/km all the way to 5km. It was around this point that I overtook the leader and settled in to a good, hard day with a pace bike leading the way. The middle 1/3 is where the undulations start on gravel paths leading towards the final turn in Three Sisters. I had made some ground so enjoyed what I thought was probably about a minute over the chaser. On the way back in to town, I got a decent view of my pursuer who was more like 30seconds back with about 5km to go. I just kept my pace smooth and even as we descended back towards town. With the staggered starts of the 5km, 10km and half - the finishing stretch was where the chaos started. It went from racing alone to being surrounded by packs of runners. No big deal, I had some time... With about 2 blocks to go, I felt the need to flip my hat backwards for a cool finish in front of my wife and kids. My hat fell to the ground, I stopped, picked it up and casually ran to the line for 1st in 1:20:04, a minute and a half better than racing here 2 years ago. What I didn't notice was Will Archer approaching the line much faster than I anticipated, ending up only 9 seconds back for 2nd...I only discovered this during the ceremonies as I did not see him cross amongst the hoards of finishers.
ReplyDeleteThis remains one of the best fall races out there, and the weather was far from fall hitting high 20's by early afternoon.