Archive for April, 2007

Victorians may claim it rains half as much over there, but on the other hand, can anyone tell me if there were any new windstorms in Vancouver yesterday. On a otherwise beautiful Times-Colonist 10K weekend, a strong headwind still managed to blow solidly from halfway to almost 9km along waterfront Dallas Road. Combined with a gradual but steady climb for about half of that stretch, all hopes of PB’s were blown away. Its too bad, because the new course seems potentially quite fast, and with 8533 finishers, the race has almost the same “buzz” as the Sun Run.

Even BC’s next great, Ryan Hayden, despite pacing well for a change and winning easily, had to settle for a time (30:41) 78 seconds slower than his Sun Run. Lucy Smith, who turned 40 days earlier, won the woman’s overall in 34:24. Bob Wade was the first VFAC runner in a very credible 37:52. Rita Ivanauskas ran 38:54, placing 9th overall woman and winning $300 with only Lucy ahead of her among the masters. Trefor Smith ran very well to beat his Sun Run time by 9 seconds in 40:30. Laura De Munain also ran solidly to place 13th woman overall in 40:56. Kirsty Siemens just missed the money, placing 4th overall masters woman (and 3rd 40-44), with a 41:33. Sharon Emslie beat her stitch-slowed Sun Run time easily, with a good 45:38.

So, wind or not, the Times-Colonist is still worth the excuse to take a road (well, ferry) trip to Victoria.

Marathon (and other) Post Script

Graeme Wilson was 1st Canadian and 50th overall in the prestigious but too hot (18-24 degree) London Marathon last weekend in 2:33:40. Yesterday, in the resurrected and fast Eugene Marathon, Chris Brandt convincingly overcame his 3 hour marathon jinx with a 2:56:55. Finally, congratulations are also due to 17 year old Shaun Stephens-Whale, who finished first overall in the Golden Ears 5 Peaks Trail race in 1:07:24.

While VFAC had a strong showing at the record-setting Sun Run, a small but determined group watched the continuous local weather updates in their Boston hotel rooms. The rain was torrential outside on Sunday April 15, 2007, and the winds were picking up. Gusts up to 50 miles per hour were expected for the next 24 hours. On the morning of April 16^th, the weather for the 111^th Boston marathon remained the top local news story (the Virginia Tech story had not broken yet) with flooding, rain and gusts of wind. The temperatures with the wind chill were a paltry 3-4C in the morning. The race had been filled with over 23,500 registrants but about 10 per cent chose to stay away, or were kept away, by the conditions.

The new 10AM start time seemed unfortunate given the ongoing storm. Nonetheless, it was business almost as usual and the buses began their pilgrimage to the town of Hopkinton for the start of the race. The athlete’s village tents were battered with rain and winds, while people waited on a muddy field to use the port-a-johns. The obsession with the weather provided a unifying purpose and a nice distraction from the usual time goals and splits. However, by the time the elite women started at 9:35, the conditions were improving. Apart from occasional gusts of wind and intermittent rain, the weather settled, giving way to ideal Vancouver-esque running weather for much of the midday.

The greatest hazard, apart from the alluring downhill start, was the layers of clothing and garbage bags that were being shed in the first few miles of the course. One man ran by in shorts and sheer black nylons – not tights – while others stuck doggedly to their singlets. Despite the weather, the girls at Wellesley College could be heard from a mile away. More children than seen during the entire Vancouver marathon were in each of the small communities the historic race winds through, exchanging orange slices for “high fives”. For any one who has run up Prospect point or the Spanish Banks hill, Heartbreak hill is hard to spot (I had to ask someone if we had passed it).

The constant headwind may have affected the elite runners more than the general masses and their times were slower this year compared to last. The winning woman’s time was 2:29:18. The winning man’s time was 2:14:13, about 7 minutes off his preceding year’s record winning time. VFAC participants included Ernest Hawker, with even splits to run a 2:57:54, Shubhayan Sanatani (2:58:43), Brian Kuchinka (3:23:19) and Walter Kwan (3:37:58).

It’s definitely a spectacle that’s an important stop in the marathoner’s travels. And the weather will always be the unknown.

I know, nothing worse than old news……except bad old news. Well, The Sun Run was mostly great news, so you’re going to hear about it anyhow. But since so many of you ran, attended the (4+ hour) brief debriefing, read the Sun, and/or suffered politely the onslaught of talking swelled-heads (mostly mine ;)), I will try to provide commentary and arcane background trivia instead of headlines. There, now that I’ve totally excused my tardiness in getting this out, here goes…..

The biggest highlight was 11 people having PB’s out of a whopping 40-something club participants! Then there was Katrina Driver finishing a VFAC all-time best of 9th overall, with an almost minute PB of 35:29, which moves her to 3rd all-time VFAC woman (see club records). This was her 4th PB in 5 weeks, which has in no small part been due her new found even pacing strategy (actually a negative split in the Sun Run, which undoubtedly makes a big difference when one is faced with the Burrard Bridge right after halfway!). Chris Downie knocked an incredible 4 minutes off his PB with a 34:49, while Katherine Moore at 38:41 and Fiona Jenkins at 39:01 also improved by more than a minute. Other bests were chalked up by Paul Krochak (32:23), Rod Urquhart (37:01), Rita Ivanauskas (whose 38:01 won her $250 as 3rd master), Nicola Everton (38:58), Natalie Closs (39:55), new member Sarah Louw (44:59), and Julia Gerlitz (45:04).

12 finished in the top 100 Women: Katrina, Rita, Katherine, Nicola, Fiona, Natalie, Kirsty Siemens (40:16), Tracy Hall (40:26 with a green #!), new member Laura De Munain (40:30), Adele Wilson (40:42 and only 3 days early on a 3 minute win in the 50+ division), Sue Werner (42:44), and Bonnie Kramer (43:39). 9 men also did the trick: Simon Driver (1 second off last year’s PB at 32:00, though maybe the 15:27 5k split might have had something to do with that ;)), Paul, Mark Wickstead (34:23), Silas Wiefelspuett (34:35), Chris, Shaun Stephens-Whale (35:01), Dave Reed (35:09), Dave Palma (35:40), and Joel Werner (35:46). Mike Negraeff was 4th in the Wheelchair division (30:15), while partner Kathleen continued her post-pregnancy comeback with a solid 45:39. In addition to most of the above, Bob Wade (37:30) and Lilian Wong (47:03) made the top ten in their age groups. Also notable was the best-in-several-year 40:30 by Kim Jow, showing that staying away from the coach for awhile might just be good for one’s performance.

One final, personal note to an excellent day, was the fact that I was bailed out by a Hill actually competing in the thing, as my dad, Cliff, placed a very humbling second in the 85-89 with an 83:19. A very tough act to follow!

Congratulations to all who competed!

It must be good prep to help out at our own races (hint, hint). A day after hosting the Spring Classic 5K, VFAC runners, including indefatigable race director and prez Matt Fedoruk, totally dominated the field of almost 500 in the April Fool’s Run Half Marathon on the Sunshine Coast. In very cool but partly sunny conditions, Matt led the field out of Gibson’s down to the first mile in 5:05, the $50 preem thus won unfortunately fooling him about the real finish line 12+ miles on ;). After a serious dose of lactic acid, he settled into 6th behind Graeme Wilson, Simon Driver, Stan Jang, Paul Krochak and new member Shaun Stephens-Whale. Graeme steadily pulled away to run his second half marathon PB in as many weeks (no, don’t try this at home either!), winning ($300) in 1:10:45. Simon also ran solo most of the way to a 1:12:25 PB for second and $150, while Paul moved past Jang into third around halfway and pulled away to a 1:14:12 PB and $100.

But it was Katrina Driver who stole the entire show, smartly pacing to move into fifth overall with a huge 2 min PB and VFAC record 1:18:29! It was her 3rd PB and second VFAC record in 3 weeks, and also her well-earned 2nd straight $300 payday.

Behind her, Shaun and Matt held on with respectable 1:19:10 and 1:20:06 6th (1st under 20) and 7th place (2nd 30-34) overall finishes. Joel Werner, on the comeback trail rounded out the top ten (3rd 30-34) in 1:22:37. But, we weren’t done yet as Chris Brandt, also on a PB roll, knocked about a minute off to finish 11th (3rd 35-39) in 1:23:29. Natalie Closs was 6th female overall and 2nd 35-39 in 1:30:39, followed by Kirsty Siemens, who also won $50 as first female master in 1:31:34, and Sue Werner with a big 2 minute PB of 1:32:55 to win the 30-34. Trudi Jackson rounded out the top 10 woman and placed 3rd in the 30-34 with a 1:34:54. Imelda Wong ran a respectable 1:53:24 after a long lay off.

They won’t get fooled again!! (sorry, couldn’t resist)

Weekend PS
When are these multiple race weekends going to abate…. I’m getting writer’s cramp. But, alas, we still had enough racers to go around. In our Spring Classic 5K, Guy Smith won the 50-54 in 17:44, Nicola Everton won the female Masters in 19:58, new member Laura DeMunain was right behind, winning the 35-39 in 19:59, Katherine Moore PB’ed in 20:02, Rhys Howard ran 21:24, Sharon Emslie won the 45-49 in 21:44, Bonnie Kramer opened her season with a 22:21, and Lilian Wong won the 55-59 in 23:03. Finally, in the Mission Spring Ahead on Sunday, Dave Palma won the very hilly 1/2 Marathon in 1:21:35 and Shu Sanantini placed 2nd in the 40-44 in 1:28:09, while Bob Wade started his season with a solid 18:56 in the 5K.

Done! (my apologies if I missed anyone)