NYC

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!

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!

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!

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

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

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!

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

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

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