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Haney Harrison 100km Ultra

Saturday November 4th, 2000

Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia - Battling a steady downpour, cold temperatures and strong winds, Herb Phillips of Burnaby, B.C. outran the field to win the annual Haney Harrison 100KM road race for the 3rd straight year in a time of 8:07:09.

18 hardy souls toed the start line at 4 am in steady rain and wind which continued throughout the day and was exacerbated by dropping temperatures as the day went on. Nevertheless, the runners persevered with 16 competitors making it to the beachfront finish line in Harrison Hot Springs.

Sarah Gallazin of Vancouver, B.C. in her first 100km race, ran strongly to win the women's race in a time of 11:43:27.

Ron Nicholl of Sumner Washington returned, successfully finishing the race and becoming the only person to complete the race in all four years that it has been held.

Phillips (age 60) was the oldest competitor in the race, showing the younger folks how it was done and proving you can get better as you get older. The severe conditions exacted their price, however, preventing Phillips from realizing his goal of becoming the first person at age 60 to break 8 hours for the 100KM distance.

Second place went to Matthew Sessions of Burnaby in 8:53:48, who after a see-saw battle throughout much of the race finally pulled ahead of 3rd place finisher Rob Wall of Campbell River who crossed the line in 9:10:29.

Challenging the full race distance this year was the founder and original race director of the Haney Harrison Relay, Neil Wakelin of North Vancouver who admitted after crossing the finish line that this race was much, much tougher than he thought it would be. It must be pointed out that Wakelin originally designed the race route in 1982 with the intention that it be a challenging 100K championship road course.

This was the 4th edition of the Ultra race held in conjunction with the 19th Annual Haney Harrison Relay, a point to point course which starts in Haney, British Columbia (a suburb of Greater Vancouver) and winds along scenic rural roads in British Columbia's Fraser Valley to finish by the beach on the Esplanade in the idyllic resort community of Harrison Hot Springs.

At the awards banquet, all of the ultra runners received a standing ovation from the crowd of relay runners who also seemed to be trying to grasp the concept of running a full 100km. Finally, a vote of thanks has to be given to those volunteers who contributed a 17 hour day of volunteer work.

Ron Adams, Haney Harrison 100KM, Ultra Coordinator
North Vancouver, B.C.