Race Season 2010 is Underway!
Written by Kevin Sunday, April 25, 2010 06:46 AM
APTS Athletes Raising the Bar
It's a long winter here in Edmonton and by the time March comes around Aerobic Power athletes can't get to the start lines soon enough, anxious to put their hard work and committment to the test.
Races have started off quickly here in 2010. The first big triathlon to note was the California 70.3 at the end of March. A tough event to have your first outdoor ride on but Kevin Clague and Graham Doody needed to tackle this one to help prepare for their early season Ironmans. Kevin finished in 6 hours and Graham used a blistering 1:29 run time to to put him in the top 10 with a 4:31 overall finish time.
St Albert 10 Miler
Runners in Alberta set their sights on the St.Albert 10 Miler. This year was the 25th Anniversary for the event and the birthday brought out everyone. It made for a very fast field where Aerobic Power's Niall Mc Grath and Marc Meunier finished with fabulous PR's of 56:30 and 57:30 placing them 10th and 12th.
Aerobic Power's run coach Brian Torrance is still keeping one step ahead of the athletes finishing with a time of 56:26, just edging out Niall.
The big highlight of the day came on the women’s side where Shannon Maisano finished 2nd female overall with a time of 63 minutes. Shannon actually followed this up a week later with a 37:30 at the very competitive 1200 runner Times Colonist 10 km, placing her 11th female overall. Looking forward to seeing her marathon performance at the end of May in Calgary.
More results from the St Albert 10 Miler include Jeff Beeston, who made the trip up from Calgary to test his early season training and hit his mark at 1:14.
Karen Robertson ran a PB on her hometown course. Karen ran 1:22:18 and finished fifth in a very competitive age division. Well done, Karen. Great race!
Jillian Footz ran sub-5:00 minute kilometres to finish 11th in her age group.
Mike Olsson, representing St Albert, also came away with a personal best performance with a time of 1:11.
Big shout out to Catherine Buhr for organizing all the volunteers! The St Albert race is always a first class event.
EPS ½ Marathon
A week later Niall finished 4th,in a time of 1:17:20, at the Edmonton Police Service Half Marathon. Despite being a very challenging, hilly course, Niall once again ran another personal best. Well done, Niall. Brian Torrance though still managed to keep one step ahead of him in this one too.
Rebecca Lamden was coming back this year with some focused training to break that 2 hour mark, and she did finishing with a 1:54 performance.
Chris Bolivar started his season up with the EPS ½ finishing in 1:39:50.
Boston Marathon
Simone van Gelder ran a gutsy performance and re-qualified for Boston in 2011. She will have to heal up before she answers the big question: will she return to Boston one more time? Simone ran a streaking 3:35 with a steady effort of 8 minute miles.
Fellow APTS athlete, Candice Tipton, informed Brian last fall that she was going to run only two more marathons, a qualifying race and, of course, Boston. The qualifying race in Kelowna had a few tears due to course confusion but everything worked out and Candice was heading to Boston. With a 3:42 to boast of, Candice comments on the experience, “Boston Marathon was an unreal experience... I’m not sure what was more amazing: the sheer number of other runners (as far ahead and behind as the eye can see), the cheering fans which offered us everything from beer, to Vaseline, to screams and kisses as we ran, or the good people (other runners) I met that day. My time of 3:42, among all of that, just doesn’t seem as important.”
Big Sur Marathon
Mike Hobart used the Big Sur Marathon to prepare for a bigger effort later this summer. Mike ran a 3:41 to finish an impressive 352 overall.
Vancouver ½ and Full Marathon
Vancouver has always been a big draw for Aerobic Power runners. This year was no different with all of them achieving PR’s on this difficult cold, wet and hilly course.
Chris McNeil knocked off 9 minutes finishing in a time of 3:03. One of his running partners, Adam Richardson, was not going to be out done also shaving off 13 minute finishing in 3:22. Brian Stewart, at age 50 was not going to use that as an excuse, bringing his marathon time down to 3:13.
Racing the ½ marathon Aerobic Power’s Jenn Howitt of Vancouver dropped her time by 4 minutes with a finishing time of 1:31. Karen Robertson kept her momentum off of the 10 miler running 1:51 for the 13.1 miles.
Aerobic Power's Kim Raine went down under to complete the Busseltown 1/2 Ironman in 5:50:35. Check out the link for some great action shots.
“It’s exciting now that a number of athlete’s have been working through the program for a couple of years now. Niall and Shannon and many of the other APTS runners are great examples of displaying how racing helps define and strengthen you as a runner, and ultimately, a racer. When building a schedule, it’s important to have steps, planned races, to get you to the main event or goal race. Win or lose, within the parameters of a race, you are exposed to more battles, more choices and more opportunity to grow and develop for the next one. These moments are educational to an athlete regardless if they push hard and achieve their personal best in that race or not.” Brian Torrance.
CONGRATS to all for tremendous efforts during the spring season. Keep racing and keep us updated on your performances. APTS is extremely proud of you!
