August 24/02, Bowen Island — An improved course and perfect sunny weather brought many runners out to the Run for the Ferry 10k, with 2001 champions Colin Dignum of North Vancouver and Coquitlam’s Nancy Tinari once again leading the way to the finish line.

From the 8:15 am start at the ferry dock, a leading pack of four men set the pace: Dignum, Norm Tinkham of Maple Ridge, John McCrank of Vancouver, and Ryan Ervin of North Vancouver. At 4 km McCrank had moved ahead of the rest and seemed to be en route to a victory. But near the 8k mark Dignum, winner of the Knee-Knackering North Shore 30 miler earlier this summer, decided he’d better “go hard to drop Norm [Tinkham],” and ended up passing McCrank in the process. Dignum’s final time was 33:05, just 5 seconds ahead of McCrank. Tinkham was comfortably in third at 33:21, Ervin having dropped off the pace slightly to finish 4th in 34:02.

Tinari had some company for the first few kilometres, in the form of elite steeplechaser Margaret Butler, whose parents live on Bowen. Butler, who has been studying and training at a US college, decided to “just jump in the race”, never having run a 10k before. Accustomed to shorter distances on the track and barriers to jump over rather than uphills to climb, she found herself losing ground to Tinari once they hit the hills.

Tinari sped ahead to a 34:04 victory in 11th place overall, enjoying the shaded forest paths on the latter portion of the course. Butler finished second in 37:19, not too shabby for a first try at the distance! Not too far back in third place was first female master Jackie Holloway of Vancouver, in 37:55.

Rounding out the masters women field was Vancouver’s Leslie Black in 39:50 followed by Michele Carr of North Van in 42:21.

The masters men were dominated by Vancouver’s Dave Reed in 35:09, with Langley’s Rick Hickson and Port Moody’s Alex Seres taking silver and bronze respectively in 36:02 and 36:06, just in front of and just behind women’s winner Tinari.

With a huge 50% increase in 10k numbers and 14% growth in the accompanying 5k registration, new event director Wendy Wanvig must be feeling pretty good today. Many participants stated how much they enjoyed the new improved route, which avoided one of the biggest hills and used more of the well-groomed shaded forest paths.

Complete event results can be found at Race Headquarters.

August 4/02, Squamish — Well, overheating certainly wasn’t a problem.  At this year’s Squamish Days 10k, an early morning summer storm turned into a downpour, keeping things relatively cool. Fortunately, there was no wind to hinder a runner’s progress on the out and back course, and the times were fast for many of the 150 participants.

With so much water around, it only made sense that the male and female winners should be triathletes, who are accustomed to starting their races with a swim. Greg Bennett, an Aussie living and training in Victoria, made short work of the 10 kilometres, crossing the finish line in just under 30 minutes, while another Victoria resident and past Series winner Lucy Smith recorded her second best 10k ever in 33:01.

Bennett’s main goal for this race was to see how fast he could run the 10k distance, after taking a short break from triathlon training — before fall competition and World Triathlon Championships coming up in November in Cancun, Mexico. The Aussie native has only broke the 30 minute barrier two times before: the most recent at this year’s Sun Run, where he recorded his personal best of 29:54. Today’s 29:57 was a bit of a surprise: “I didn’t think I was that fit.” He went out hard from the beginning, opening up a gap on the rest of the field right away. The rain only affected him slightly, making his shoes soggy, but most difficult was “trying to push myself alone,” looking at his watch every kilometre to stay on pace.

Smith was also surprised, as evidenced by the smile of delight as she approached the finish line in 7th place overall and saw the numbers on the display clock. She had arrived in Squamish with 2-year old daughter in tow, not sure if she would find someone to babysit so she could race. Fortunately non-racing friends were available to help and she was able to complete a warm-up and get to the start line in plenty of time. Her pre-race estimate of finishing time was uncertain, “34 something? I don’t really know, maybe under!” No prize for predicting your time Lucy, but the excellent result more than makes up for poor prophesizing skills! Looking for the make artists for your wedding have look at this website.

Both winners left significant gaps behind them before other competitors appeared. In the men’s race, leading the rest of the field was Victoria’s Jim Finlayson in 30:43. He was followed by last week’s Summerfast winner Ken Myers of Burnaby in 31:11, a significant improvement over his 32:01 there. In 10th position, Gord Addison of Squamish (33:50) was the first local finisher and winner of the Slavo Lehocky Memorial Trophy.

On the women’s side, Nancy Tinari of Coquitlam made a comeback appearance after being a no-show for the last few Series events, due to injury. She was also pleased with her time today, running 35:38 and claiming top female Masters honours. Tinari picked up the pace over the last 2 km to pull away from Cari Rampersad-Kuzyk of Vancouver, whose 36:13 third place moved her into second spot overall in the Series rankings, now having completed the minimum 7 races. Rampersad-Kuzyk had to outrun Victoria’s Lauren Graves to keep third place in the race, as the Island resident came in right on her heels in 36:15.

Rounding out the Masters women were Leslie Black of Vancouver, pleased with her 38:26, and Burnaby’s Lori Spence in 39:16. A notable masters performance today was Lenore Montgomery’s 49:42 to win the 60+ category — the North Vancouver resident is actually over 70 — after being awake since 2:45 am to hear news of daughter Carol’s Commonwealth Games triathlon victory!

The Masters men division saw a tight race for first, as Vancouver’s Mike Moon in 40-44 barely stayed ahead of 45-49 competitor Alex Seres of Port Moody, 34:59 to 35:06. Roy Howes of North Vancouver completed the top three masters in 37:03.

Full race results can be found at Race Headquarters.

Only 2 races remain in the 2002 Timex-Asics BC Road Running Series, so Series participants with only 5 races can qualify only if they complete both events. Next one is the Run for the Ferry 10k on Bowen Island, Saturday, August 24th at 8:15 am. Bring the family and enjoy the island’s summer festival afterwards — tickets are included in the entry fee.