5 Peaks COP

The Bow Valley Harriers showed their prowess on the trails this past weekend at the 1st Central Alberta 5 Peaks Series Race at Canada Olympic Park. The course proved challenging but the group showed their mastery of off-road racing with two wins and a runner-up finish. Jeremy Deere claimed victory on the challenging Enduro course (approx. 10km) in a time of 39:34 while Travis Cummings placed 2nd behind Deere in a time of 40:24. Too many surges at the start of the race cost Cummings over the back half of the course as Jeremy's controlled, even paced strategy proved superior. Over the shorter Sport course (6ish k), Blaine Penny claimed a convincing victory winning by nearly 2 minutes over his closest competitor. Also to note fringe Harrier Phil Villeneuve placed 5th in the Enduro race a few minutes back of Jeremy and Travis. It is a busy next couple of months for Bow Valley as we see many of our members contest multiple distances at the Calgary Marathon this upcoming weekend. Jody Draude, Blaine Penny, Ken Myers, and Darcy Bell are all slated to participate in the marathon distance as elite runners. Jeremy Deere is assigned elite status in the half marathon and Travis Cummings is also given the same status in the 10k.
The 5 Peaks results bode well for the Harriers who competed at COP on the weekend as all 3 runners have big plans for the trails this summer. Jeremy is attempting Powderface 42.2 for the 1st time, Blaine is having another go around at Powderface and will also be doing the Iron Legs ultra. Travis is making his first serious attempt at qualifying for the World Mountain Running Championships so these fine young gentlemen all have their work cut out for them as they try and accomplish these significant tasks. Also of note to mention on the trail side of things, Duncan will be making an assault on the Trans-Alps stage races this summer so he will have to keep everyone posted about his training and his results as the summer progresses.
Anyone have any other off-road attempts or summer races to report about?
And last but not least, K100 roster was posted this weekend, with everyone running as well as they are this is going to be a scary team for the competition. I'm not sure if the Leg Champs will be able to claim that title for a name as they will not be taking our title provided they don't load up with Ontario based Kenyans last minute. Preview for this epic race will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.

Great job Harriers!

By Travis Cummings

5k Results - May 2012

We have one more time yet to come in but the results of the first 5k of the season are as follows:

1.  Deere - 16.25
2.  Titus - 16.26
3.  Marsden - 16.29
4.  Twa - 16.34
5.  Penny - 16.39
6.  Draude - 16.46
7.  Haddow - 16.52
8.  Woolstencroft - 16.56
9.  Bell - 17.27
10.  Rich MacDonald - unknown
11.  Jason Reed - 17.53
12.  Bobbi-Jo - 19.13

Jeremy had a great run in the Mother's Day race last weekend, as did Frank.  I will try and get a comment from them at some point.  We have also Harriers running the 5 Peaks COP race tomorrow - starts at 10am!

BVH 5k Series - May 2012

There was a cold northerly wind whipping through Prince's Island Park last night which made it the ideal opportunity for the Bow Valley Harriers to kick off summer with their first 5k of the season.  About 10-15 of us made it out and you could literally (Jeremy) have thrown a blanket over the field for the entire race.  The first lap saw some former winners (Deere, Marsden) heading to the front as well as some newcomers (Titus).  After the first lap a group of 4 had broken away slightly (Deere, Titus, Marsden, Penny) and at half way that had fragmented with Deere and Titus forging a lead.  The finish was tight but in the end Deere held on, to make it a 100% record this season.

Negative split of the night was (for once) not taken by Jody Draude but by Ryan Twa who was virtually last on the first lap and stormed through to fourth.

The engineer amongst us mapped it out (and apparently took seismic data too):

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5441407


Turns out we were right all along and the course is slightly long (by about 40 m) which means we can all take a minute (at least) off our times!

Unofficial results of the top five are as follows:

1.  Jeremy Deere  16.25
2.  Morgan Titus  16.26
3.  Duncan Marsden  16.29
4.  Ryan Twa  16.34
5.  Blaine Penny  16.39

Official results will be posted as soon as I have everyone's time!

See you next month everybody.

Police Half Report

Yesterday was Calgary's annual police half marathon which saw the Harriers secure a convincing 1-2.  Usually this is a snowy affair but this year runners were spared the drifts which they have encountered in previous years leading to faster times than in recent races.

Defending champion Woolstencroft cruised to victory in a shade over 75 minutes on an exceptionally tough course.  Just over a minute behind him was Harrier Draude who did his usual race tactic of running a negative split by several minutes (reports had him in 5th for the first half of the race).  Completing the top 3 Harriers was Nick Haddow who finished 4th, a fuither minute or so back. 

Full results can be obtained here:  http://racepro.ca/calgarypolicehalf/2012oa_21.1.pdf

Great running, boys.

Don't forget the 5k on Wednesday everybody.  7pm under the Olympic Arches in Eau Claire. 


STOP PRESS:

We have just secured the first two finishers in the Police Half (at great expense in terms of appearance fees) for the BVH 5k on Wednesday.  Expect the paparazzi.

First BVH 5k of the Season

It's that time again.  Summer is here (sort of).  Which can mean only one thing.  The BVH 5k series is up and running again.

When?  Wednesday, May 2, 2012.
Time?  7pm.
Where?  Under the Olympic Arches outside the YMCA in Eau Claire. 

Let me know if you're coming - duncanmarsden@gmail.com.

BVH goes Global!

The Bow Valley Harriers officially has a global reach, as demonstrated by Harrier Mark Steinle winning the 34 mile Endurancelife Coastal Race Series Sussex event (in England) in 4 hours and 38 minutes.  Steinle is pictured below cruising up a hill in his BVH vest in a scene which couldn't look less like Alberta (particularly in March!) if it tried. 



Steinle overtaking a footballer



Bow Valley Harriers St Patrick’s Day 10k Exploits

by Travis Cummings

The first big road race of the Alberta road racing season kicked off in fine fashion for the Bow Valley Harriers. These early events are always exciting as we see who went into full hibernation during the winter and have work to do and who only went into a stage of torpor and have spry legs in anticipation for the months ahead. The new 10k course is quite a bit more challenging than the old course around the U of C; in fact the new South Calgary course is deceivingly hard, full of twists, turns, and rolling terrain, and a few long, gradual climbs. Needless it isn’t a course to break a world record on, yet some really solid times were posted from some of our star performers.

To begin, Darcy Bell, who is laying early claim to a 2:33 marathon performance at Scotiabank Calgary Marathon Weekend, placed 12th in a time of 35:49. Cracking the top ten in 8th place was local celebrity Blaine Penny, whose efforts earned him a time of 35:05. Mr. Consistent, Jody Draude, seems to defy aging with his clockwork improvements in running each year; he made his case for 4th place in a time of 34:35. It is worth mentioning he placed just ahead of Alberta Timex Series Road Race legend Brian Torrance, who was in our fine city from that god awful truck stop 3 hours north of us to test his mettle against the best Calgary had to offer. However the top performance of the day was had by Travis Cummings. On the eve of his 27th birthday, running like a man with something to prove, Travis regained his form as champion of the St Patrick’s Day 10k for the 3rd time in the past 4 years. Frankly, he was sick of being carved up for dropping out last year. Pretty sure he laid claim to the after party title as well but the recollections are foggy so that is still up for debate. Looks like winter mileage and newly christened maturity are starting to pay off for the moderately young Cummings. He finished in a time of 33:26, fighting off a strong performance by Ryan Russell, who made a ballsy move at 7.5k but faded with a kilometer to go.

The boys took it out pretty fast, going through 3k in 9:45 and 5k in 16:20, then the hills hit on the back half and the pace slowed a little. Great start to the season fellas, let’s keep the momentum going!

K100, pretty much the most important race in the world, is officially only 3 months away so it is looking promising for a successful title defence!

“It’s at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys.” – Emil Zatopek

TC

Sarcastic blogging encouraged…