Cross-country ski season about to start
Although many of us are still running, and even cycling, my favourite season — X-C ski season — is starting this weekend as the Sovereign Lake ski trails at Silver Star announced they were opening on Friday.
For the top skiers in Canada, the season got underway last week at Canmore with the Frozen Thunder races. These races are held on a two-kilometre track that is made out of snow that has been stored over the summer.
Canada’s National X-C ski team was there, as were many top skiers from across the country and the U.S. The Okanagan was well represented, and our local skiers performed very well. Most of the local skiers came from the Telemark Nordic club, whose coaching program is second to none in all of Canada.
The event began with a skating technique race. Telemark’s Gareth Williams, a member of the national team, did not have a good race, finishing 18th in senior men (more about Gareth later). Vernon’s Hannah Mehain, who skis for Telemark, finished 12th in senior women. Telemark’s Talon Noble came fourth in junior men and was followed by Gareth’s younger brother, Ian Williams in ninth, and Ian Mayer in 16th.
The sprint races seemed to suit our local racers better and they performed admirably! Mehain, just out of the junior ranks, had a great race, finishing second to Dahria Beatty, a member of the national team. Gareth also had a better result, finishing sixth in senior men. In junior men, Talon Noble took the win with Ian Williams finishing third.
Gareth Williams sent me the following email regarding his races: “It was nice to get on snow for the first time this season. I have been away in Mammoth Lakes, California, at an altitude training camp with the National Ski Team. That was a heavy two weeks, so my energy levels for the races at Frozen Thunder seemed to be a little low. The sprint race on Monday went well for me, I placed eighth in the qualifier, less than five seconds from the fastest time. The heats were in King’s Court format, meaning everyone advanced and raced their closest matched competitors from the qualifier, making for some really fast-paced heats. They take groups of four straight off the qualifier results and group them accordingly, (Nos. 1-4, 5-8, etc.). I stayed in the second heat of the day for all the heats (heat-B), and moved up to sixth place on the final day. I skied my final heat with my BC NST teammate Julien Locke, who is headed to start the World Cup season in Finland in the coming weeks. I am pleased with my improvements in the sprint races after my performance on Monday but, on the other hand, I will have to work on my distance shape after a poor 10-km skate race on Tuesday. The soft, sugar-like conditions made for a brutal race. I am looking forward to some rest now before I make my final preparations for the season.”
RUNNING
Bill Justus is a special guy! He started the first ParkRun in Canada here in Kelowna and it has been a great success with dozens of runners out every Saturday morning at the rec center for a fun 5K run. Since his ParkRun started, several more cities in Canada have also started ParkRuns, adding to the huge number of those runs that are held all over the world.
Besides organizing the ParkRun, Justus has been training incredibly hard for a major Canadian race, the Scotia Bank Toronto 5K. This is probably the biggest event of its kind in Canada, with 6,749 runners taking part in it this year. Justus had a great run, finishing 121st overall and first in the M55-59 age class. Congratulations Bill, you deserved the victory!
The final race in the Starting Block crosscountry running series was the Kal Park 9K held near Vernon on Oct. 28. After that race, the series winners were announced.
The criteria for the series awards is that the runner must run three of the five races to qualify, and can count their results from a maximum of four races. As the X-C series is very low keyed, many competitors only ran a couple of races, so in some age groups, no one qualified for a season-end award. Many runners did run three, four or all five races. Here are the first-place winners:
Women — Taylor Ingram (F1-15, Summerland), Charlene Nixon (F35-39, Kelowna), Tracy Michael (F40-44, Penticton), Janice Bradshaw (F50-54, W.Kel), Karen Willis (F70-74, Kamloops).
Men — Keagan Ingram (M16-19, Summ), Zach Jackman (M20-24, Kel), Josh Heinrich (M35-39, Pen), Jared Breneman (M35-39, Kaleden), David Tilley (M45-49, Kel), Michael Berrisford (M50-54, Summ), David Guss (M5559, Kel), Mike McGrath (M60-64, Vernon), Roly Muller (M65-69, Kel), Guenter Naumann (M80-84, OK Falls). A special thumbs up to Linda Woodbury (F70-75, Kam) and Bruce Butcher (M80-84, Kam) who both qualified and finished second in their age classes.
In a recent column I wrote about how Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya had broken the world record for the marathon by running 2:01:40 in Berlin. Now another Kenyan, Abraham Kiptum has broken the record for the HalfMarathon by running an amazing 58:18 at the Valencia Half Marathon in Spain. These Kenyan runners are something else!
The Lake Country Running Club recently hosted the first Summit Challenge race. This event offered several different distances over a fairly gentle loop, but the main race, the Summit Challenge 8K is another story. It’s run over a grueling and technical course, with steep climbs reaching a daunting 28 per cent grade!
In spite of its difficulty, it was the most popular of all the distances offered. The top finishers were: Kelowna’s Anthony Hlynka (51:32) followed very closely by Kelowna Running Club president RJ Dueck (52:33), with Lake Country’s Derek Townsend third in 53:57. The women’s winner was West Kelowna’s Jennifer Scudds (1:03:53) followed by Stephanie Killingsworth (Lake Country) and Kelowna runner Lindsay Boechlier (1:13:22).
Kelowna’s pro triathlete couple, Heather and Trevor Wurtelle, are off to Las Cabos to compete in the Ironman 70.3 event there. Best wishes for a good result for both of them.
I was recently sent the world marathon age group rankings. I don’t understand how they compute them. Our Diane Leonard is ranked sixth, but only one runner on the list has a faster time than her, and that is Jeannie Rice, who broke the world record for their age group (70-74) at the Chicago Marathon where she finished ahead of Diane and yet is only ranked third.
Shanda Hill, the incredible ultra athlete from Vernon, is about to do it again. Next week she will attempt to complete her fourth deca-triathlon in two years! This time, she will be competing in New Orleans in DecaManUSA, a race consisting of a 38K swim, followed by an 1,800K bike ride and then a 420K run. This is done with no breaks except when the competitor stops to grab a couple hours sleep here and there. Good luck Shanda, I’m glad it’s you and not me doing it!
SPORTS HALL OF FAME
The induction ceremony for this year’s entrants into the Central Okanagan Sports Hall Of Fame will be held at the Capri Hotel on Nov. 22.
Inductees for 2018 are Chad Folk (football), Rob Dirk (hockey), Heather Mandoli (rowing), Tracy Melesko (Paralympian); in the builders category Hugh Wong (volleyball) and in the Pioneers category Alan Simpson (baseball).
This will, as usual, be a great morning with people filling the ballroom at the Capri.
Tickets are available at the Kelowna Museum where you can also see a beautiful display highlighting the past inductees.
I want to thank Jeff Richards, manager at Sunset Ranch Golf Club, and Jim Bates, owner of the Fresh Air Experience/Concept stores for giving me a couple of great prizes for the raffle that is held at the induction ceremony.