KevO with Bart Yasso

As noted in an earlier posting Kevin O'Neill won the 5k in St.Louis on Saturday. Here is a picture of Kevin with Bart Yasso receiving his award.

Paris Marathon

As mentioned below in one of the comments, Kevin Hamilton of Barrie who used to work at the Running Room, ran his first marathon this past weekend in Paris, France. Not only that he ran a very impressive 3:18. Well done Kevin.

Early results from St. Louis & Rotterdam

Looks like it may have been a tough day on our RoadRunners in St. Louis. Except for Kevin running a 3:18, Ricky Mac struggled to finish at 4:51 and there is no sign of TMac making it past the first timing mat. She may be a DNF. Hope all is well guys.
Update: It seems the course was closed (due to the heat I'm guessing and Tmac didin't make the cut off).
Theo ran 4:07 in Rotterdam, looks like it was a tough day on both sides of the pond.

Early Weekend Results

We have a winner!

In St.Louis today, the MArathon weekend got off to a great start for one Barrie RoadRunner. Kevin O'Neill won the 5k, yes WON! his time of 18:30 was 4 seconds faster than the second place runner. Awesome job KevO. 1st out of 1532 finishers. His better half Chris finished in 32 minutes, in the top third of the field. Well done Chris! Good luck to all in the marathon tomorrow.

Roadrunners on the move.

This Weekend a few Barrie Roadrunners are off and racing in the US and Europe.
Theo Bosch is off to the Netherlands' for the "Rotterdam Marathon".This event is a big one attracting over 25,000 combined for all events, and offers one of the fastest courses to run. The streets will be lined with 900,000 cheering spectators.

http://www.abnamromarathonrotterdam.com/home

Rick and Tracy Maclean, Kevin and Chris O'neiil will be travelling not quite as far to St. Louis for the "GO St.Loius Marathon". Listed as a challenging course, St.Louis has some great sights and scenery on the route.

http://gostlouis.org/

Pictures,results, and stories to follow. Good racing to everyone!

Ontario Ultra Series Spring Warm Up

It was a nice spring day and Myself, Catherine, and Bill took off to Dunedin, Ontario to take part in the Ontario Ultra Series Spring Warm up Fun Run.

The usual crowd of Ultra folks were there and we mingled at the Community centre prior to the start. Dunedin is in a valley and the only way out is up hill, an ominous sign of thing's to come. This was to be a hilly run, which should be spelt with a capital H! after the start along the main street we turned right up a 2k + hill before turning onto a unassumed snow covered road, yes still lots of snow in these parts.

Into a even snowier ravine before coming back up. More hills, and a narly, icy, snowy, deer poop covered Bruce trail section before heading back.

The second loop I took one of the alternates, longer but it avoided the nasty trail section, the other trail section became worse as the day progressed too, slipperier and muddier. Almost dangerous if you got going too fast. The wind was another factor and it was very windy at the top of some of the "mountains". In all a good day was had by all, lots to talk about after. One couple told me about their run in with a herd of deer, in which they almost got run over, and then almost stepped on a porcupine. Five to five hours of running for most on a nice sunny day was a great way to start the Ultra season.

Harry's Spring Run Off 8K - High Park, Toronto

This is my season opener for races. I love this race. It's a friggin challenging run. I use to laugh at my brother in law for training in High Park. After the first year I ran it 4 years ago, I stopped laughing. I've never really come across a route that challenging. The hill at 7.6km is just killer. My god. The one at 3k feels like it goes on for about a whole kilometer. The flatest bit is 4-5k. it's a nice piece. The rolling hills from 5-6 k are rolling but rolling up. At the 6k mark I was at 33min even. I managed to do the math... 11 more minutes for 2 km. I could probably do it if the 7k hill didn't exist. But it did. I had a quick break around 7 k just to let my breathing steady itself, then off again. I had a lady in a red shirt that I was trying to stick to, but I lost her when I walked. At the 4oo meters left to go mark was the base of the hill. I ran for about 200 meters and my lungs were screaaaaming. I had to walk - it was about 100 meters then I took off again. I could hear the crowds clearly now & heard my sister yelling ... I saw my sis/bro in law and niece at the beginning and then again just before the half way mark and just my sis at the 100 meter left mark. God did I ever need that. I dropped it into 5th and burned up the rest of the hill, around the corner and over the finish line in 46:23 chip time. 23 seconds better than last year. I'm working hard at not doing to deep a post mortum on this run. Trying ... But it gives me and idea of where I am at and where I need to work harder to improve. The one thing I did keep thinking that I'm going to have to change is " how the hell do you keep this up for 42.2 k?" I'll have to change it to " I CAN keep this up for 42,2 k" It's all good. Next race for me? I'm not sure possums what's in store for me this year. There are a lot of factors right now ... I just may focus on training & just wait until August to do the Midsummer Nights Run & then a couple of fall races. We'll see. Til the next post.