Olympian wins Fresh Air women’s 10K run
The Fresh Air women’s run celebrated its 35th annual birthday on Sept. 30. The event had a new date and a new route for 2018. The start was at the Vibrant Vine Winery and the runners could choose to challenge either a 5K or a 10K course that wound through East Kelowna.
The 10K race was won by Julia Ransom, who I have written about several times when she competed for Canada in the sport of biathlon (cross-country skiing and shooting). It’s no surprise that she is a good runner, as cross-country skiers are considered to be the fittest athletes of any sport.
Ransom (F20-29) was followed by Jane Jones (F40-45) and Alyson Hamilton (F30-35). Other Kelowna senior women who had great runs included Alison Conway (F50-55, 48:30), Diane Leonard (F70-75, 53:26), Jill Stevenson (F60-64, 55:31) and Liz Borrett (F75-79, 60:01).
The 5K event was won by Delilah Topic (F35-39). It is great to see her back in action. Topic is a top-notch runner who specializes in track running. She has been out of action for a year and a half with a leg injury. She tells me that she is very grateful to be running again. Topic was followed by Marissa Liebel (F20-25) and Kim Martin (F45-49).
It was impressive to see several women in the 50-year age class do so well, with Gwen Pasutto, Leslie Gamble, Lynette Schmidt, Wendy Aigner and Gilian Hughes all finishing in the top 12!
Two youngsters, 13-year-old Ellie Smith and Lyle McGale ran together and finished 25th and 26th in the 66-runner field.
Well-known Kelowna runner and crosscountry skier, Alison Campbell Urness undertook an incredibly difficult ultrarunning event recently at Golden.
The Golden Ultra is a three-day event that starts with a 5K run up a climb of 1,000 metres. The next day, the competitors do a 60K trail run that has over 3,000 metres of climbing, and the final day features a slightly easier 23K trail run with 764 metres of climbing.
Campbell Urness (F47) finished 11th overall among the 50 women who ran the three events. She was closely followed by two other Kelowna runners, Patricia Patton (F41) and Lynn Harshenin (F45) in 12th and 13th place.
YOUNG RUNNERS DOMINATE IN CROSS-COUNTRY SERIES
The first two races in the Starting Block Cross-Country Running Series have been won by young men in the M16-19 class!
The first race, the Campbell Mountain 9K was won by Penticton’s Fred Albrechtson followed by Summerland’s Keagan Ingram (M16-19). Kelowna’s super senior runner David Guss (M55-59) was a close third place just ahead of Penticton’s Josh Heinrich (M3539) and Tim Musselman Bell (M40-44).
Penticton’s Kikkan Randall (F35-39) and Jessie Carriere (F25-29) were one two among the women with another youngster, Summerland runner Tayla Ingram (F1-15), in third.
The second race in the series, the Summerland Sweets 7K was won by Keagan Ingram, with David Guss just nine seconds back. Josh Heinrich was another six seconds back in third place.
The top-three women were all from Summerland, Tayla Ingram (F1-15), Natalie Benoit (F16-19) and Janine Jell (F40-44).
Outstanding runs in the races were produced by Roly Muller (M65-69, Kel), Debbie Finnie (F60-64, Pen),Gloria Woolner (F55-59, Pen), Zach Jackman (M25-29, Kel), Ben Achtem (M45-49, Kel) and Sergio Pio (M50-54, Pen).
Special mention to two outstanding 80-plus runners, Bruce Butcher (Kamloops) and Guenter Naumann (Penticton). Naumann, who I raced against years ago, won his age class in both the runs and Butcher continued his remarkable season of running, finishing behind Naumann at the Campbell Mountain race. It’s pretty cool to see Butcher and his daughter Marianne (F50-54) both running in the Campbell Mountain Run where Marianne took first place in her age class.
CYCLING
Kelowna’s young Conor Martin had a taste of how tough it is to race against the world’s best Junior riders when he was named to the Canadian National Team for the Cycling World Championships in Austria.
Martin competed in the Time Trial and the Road Race. He had an excellent time trial, finishing 25th among the 70 fastest junior cyclists in the world, and Martin still has another year as a junior! He was a DNF in the road race.
Canadian riders had record-breaking performances at the Worlds, highlighted by Michael Woods of Toronto winning a bronze medal in the Elite Men’s Road Race. This is the first medal for a Canadian in this event since Steve Bauer won bronze in 1984!
It has likely been the strongest Road Worlds ever for Canada, with riders finishing with two bronze medals, a fourth, two fifths, a sixth and an eighth. In addition, Canadian riders were on Team Time Trial squads that won silver and bronze.
In the nation rankings, Canada finished a remarkably strong fourth — behind the Netherlands, Italy and Belgium, but ahead of cycling powerhouses such as Australia, France, Denmark and Spain.
The men’s road race had the most climbing in recent memory, 258 kilometres consisting of seven laps of a course that has a 7.8K hill with an average grade of 5.7 per cent, and then finishing with a ride up “Hell Hill” — a 2.9K climb with an average gradient of 11 per cent with a gradient of 28 per cent near the top! I like riding the hills, but I don’t think I could even pedal up a 28 per cent grade, I’d probably have to get off and walk!
Kelowna’s pro cyclist, Jordan Cheyne, celebrated his 27th birthday on Oct. 2. Cheyne had been hoping to race this fall in China as he did last year, but his team, Elevate-KHS, has decided not to go.
Cheyne is training hard for next season with a new coach and they plan to use this off-season to experiment with a new training approach in order to reach a higher level for 2019. Cheyne continually impresses me with the enormous distances he rides virtually every day. He recently did the Robbs Ride out of Grand Forks, a three-day event that covers almost 300 kilometres. Then he rode back to Kelowna from Grand Forks, 204 kilometres at an average speed of 35.6KPH!
My good friend Eric Rayson, who recently turned 80, also did Robbs Ride. Good for him, that is a tough three days!
Leah Goldstein, the ultra-distance cyclist from Vernon, is an amazing woman. She wears many hats and describes herself as “Speaker, author, athlete and kick-ass motivator.” You can meet her today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Venture Training Bike Drive held at the old Kin Race track in Vernon. There will be lots to do there, buy from a large selection of used bikes, visit booths set up from various suppliers, buy food and snacks, etc. All the proceeds go to Venture Training, which provide services and programs to people with development disabilities.
UPCOMING EVENTS
The SunRype Marathon in Kelowna takes place on Sunday. This will be a fairly large event as it always attracts a lot of runners from Alberta and the Lower Mainland.
There are three races left in the five-race Starting Block Cross-Country Running Series. This low-key series attracts more and more runners every year, who get to enjoy 7- to 10kilometre runs on some of the most beautiful trails in the Valley.
The next run is Oct. 14, the Reino Run 9K held at Larch Hills ski trails near Salmon Arm. After that is the Larry Nicholas 9K in Kelowna on Oct. 21, followed by the Kal Park 9K on Oct. 28 in Vernon.