CRR XC Series Wrap – Fish Creek March 6, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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...

...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!