Following up from last weekend’s Hy-Vee ITU Triathlon Elite Cup, here are links to write-ups from Canada’s athletes which have been published so far:

• Simon Whitfield (winner of the men’s race) – and then that happened – well I’m home. and seeing Pippa launch herself at me for a hug when I arrived with “daddy daddy” was priceless. I wished I could just hit rewind over and over again, to see her reaction and to hear Jennie say “ahhhhhhh, Pippa misses daddy”. Life rolls on…
• Lauren Groves – Hy-vee Recap – So, I can’t lie, that was a pretty cool weekend. After three sleepless nights, I still feel as though I’m on a bit of a high from all the racing. We’re on the plane now and everyone around seems to be sleeping….except me!
• Kyle Jones – This is a tough one to write – I didn’t get much sleep last night and woke up this morning feeling like someone used my stomach as a punching bag. I’m very disappointed. I felt so rested coming into this race and after what happened last weekend I was motivated and confident that I could put together a great race…
• NTC Development Squad – pics from Des Moines – As you all know, a very big day for the big kids – Simon and Lauren both climbed onto the podium today..

Writeups (more to be added as we become aware of them):

• Madly Running Around – Scotiahalf – This is going to be short, but not because of anger or frustration, but just that time is seeping away from me…
• Running Gay - Goal Accomplished! I ran the Scotia Bank Half Marathon today and had a wonderful result. I was 8th overall with a 1:09.05.

Results:

The Kusam Klimb trail running race took place this past weekend at Sayward, located on the north end of Vancouver Island. The Kusam Klimb is an epic endurance event and includes over 1500 meters of elevation gain over very challenging terrain. This year saw Shane Ruljancich, men’s winner from the past two years, head up again to Sayward to race the event and attempt a 3-peat. The first part of his report is below. For complete results click here.

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With a catch phase of “Are you Tough Enough?” Kusam Klimb markets itself as an epic endurance event. With 1500 meters of elevation gain in 5.5km and some very challenging terrain, it lives up to its billing. It has even been listed by elite trail runner Dale Reicheneder (scroll down about half way) as the toughest race he has ever done. While I don’t consider it to be quite as insane as Dale describes, if you have never done it yourself, mere descriptions don’t convey the length and grade of the ascent. You can also read a longer article by Sarah Seads here.

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Results from yesterday’s Victoria Half Ironman are now posted:

• June 21 – Iron Mountain Triathlon, Maple Ridge, BC

  Olympic	Overall | Relay
  Sprint	Overall | Relay

• June 21 – New Balance Victoria International Half Iron Triathlon, Victoria, BC

  Half Iron	Overall | Men | Women | Relay
  Sprint	Overall | Men | Women | Relay

Writeups will be added here as they become available:

• Vincent’s Ramblings – Victoria International New Balance Half Iron Race Report – Wow what a lengthy title. Hopefully the report isn’t the same. My lead up to the race was a little different than normal…
• Heather Hollman – Birthdays and Triathlons – What a great weekend!!  I haven’t in raced in nearly a month and it felt soo good finally getting to pin a number on my shirt again!!  This weekend was extra special because I not only was given the chance to race a beautiful course, but I also got to celebrate my 22nd Bday
• FCH Life and Triathlon – Iron Mountain Triathlon Race Report - First of all I would like to say: This race was fun fun fun! Lots of friends racing made it very cool, it was great to see everyone before the race setting up transition…
• Woman in the Run – It take guts – The New Balance Half Ironman – As I write this early Sunday morning, sitting in my cushy chair with a coffee at my elbow, hundreds of intense athletes are already in Elk Lake, thrashing their way through a 1.2 mile swim…
• Alive with Sport – Victoria - I caught the 7am ferry over today and rode my bike over to Victoria to cheer for my friends in the Half Iron race…

Also, here’s a writeup from today’s Times Colonist newspaper:

Victorians Jasper Blake, Cheryl Murphy victorious in New Balance Half Iron triathlon at Elk Lake

Teacher and student matched each other swim stroke for swim stroke in Elk Lake and pedal for pedal on the roads of the Saanich Peninsula on Sunday. They were also step for step along the Elk Lake park trail before the mentor, 2006 Ironman Canada champion Jasper Blake, pulled ahead to win the 2009 New Balance Half Iron in three hours, 54 minutes, 39 seconds to fellow Victorian Stephen Kilshaw’s 3:55:51.

Maybe next time, grasshopper.

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Results from Saturday’s Test of Metal Mountain Bike Race in Squamish are now posted here. Congratulations to all 958 competitors who finished. And to those who DNF’ed (including yours truely), there’s always next year…

Here are the writeups we’ve found so far:

• Playing Outside – Monkey Off My Back – Breaking Three Hours at the TEST – I’ve raced the Test of Metal so many times I’ve lost count, and barring the first two years in which my goal was to simply finish, I can remember wanting to finish under 3hrs. The Test, in my opinion is one of the best organized and community supported races on the planet.
• John Ramsden (Steed Cycles) – Test of Metal 2009 – The Test of Metal 2009 went off on a perfect day in Squamish June 20. Almost 1000 riders finished the race. Conditions could not have been better for racing…
• Tall for a Girl – Test of Metal – So I am technically not supposed to race anymore. My doctor said its too risky with the elevated heart rate and dehydration issues. But he did say I was still allowed to train, just at a lower heart rate…

Written by Chris Kelsall – Langford’s Ryan McKenzie won the 25th annual Chemanius Twilight Shuffle five kilometre race on Tuesday.

McKenzie, Cam Levins (who runs varsity for the University of Southern Utah) and Richard Mosley (Coquitlam) ran through the first kilometer together when Mosley fell off the pace. Levins held on until the two km mark before he held back, and McKenzie ran all alone for the remainder of the race, building his lead to 30 seconds by the time the dust settled.

McKenzie set a new course record with a time of 14 minutes, 23 seconds.

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We are a little behind in posts but following are results from last weekend’s inaugural 5 Peaks trail race at Burnaby Mountain:

Trainharder blogger Chris Price competed in the event and you can read about his experience here.

Written by Christopher Kelsall and reproduced here with permission…

Track Classic – Victoria, BC – June 10, 2009 – The 21st annual Track Classic took place in Victoria, BC at the University of Victoria’s Centennial Stadium. The evening was capped by two main events, the women’s and men’s 1500m Invitational, respectively.
University of Victoria Vike, Geoff Martinson won the men’s race in 3:41.97 with Mexico’s Jose-Juan Esparza close behind in 3:42.14 and Canadian, Daniel Mallie nearly 2 seconds behind Martinson with a 3:43.96. Results from the men’s 1500m race are below, full event results are available at www.trackclassic.com.

The sizeable crowd showed enthusiasm for both the men and women’s 1500m Invitational races. Canadian, Kendra Schaff brought the crowd to life first with her strong finish achieving a 4:18.61 for the win ahead of fellow Canadians, Ashley Hinter and Jessica Smith who finished an exciting .01 of a second apart from each other in 4:22.67 and 4:22.68 respectively.

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• June 7, 2009
  Oliver Half Iron Triathlon, Oliver, BC>
• Ridge Meadows, Maple Ridge, BC
• June 7, 2009
  Family YMCA Road Race, Prince George, BC
• June 7, 2009
  Sandcastle City Classic, White Rock, BC

Results from today’s Ambleside Masters Mile are now posted here. If any race reports become available they will be added here.

• Run For Water – Abbotsford, BC

  Half Marathon	Overall Results
  10K	Overall Results
  5K	Overall Results

• 31 – Science Fair Fun Run, Vancouver, BC

  5K	Overall Results

• 31 – Shaughnessy 8K, Vancouver, BC

  8K	Overall Results
  5K	Overall Results

• 31 – Vistas Run, Maple Ridge, BC

  10K	Overall Results
  5K	Overall Results

• 31 – Rotary Seawalk Run, West Vancouver, BC

  10K	Overall Results

And some write-ups..

• Running the Red Road – Shaughnessy 8K - Well, I won’t say it was easy by any means. I knew going into this race it was going to be tough and it certainly didn’t disappoint…
• Back to the Edge – Nanaimo Gutbuster - Yesterday I ran in the Colliery Dam Gutbuster course (1/2 marathon) – a fantastic course and well run race…
• Jarhead – Nanaimo Gutbuster - I’ve run the Nanaimo GutBuster two other times, in 2005 I finished in 2:17:17 and in 2006 I finished in 2:12:11 and both those times were run on the Westwood Lake course…

Results from this past weekend’s Iron Knee 25K and Tender Knee 12K trail races are now posted on the Race Headquarters website:

• Iron Knee 25K overall results
• Tender Knee 12K overall results

In addition, several write-ups have been posted by athletes who participated in the event:

• Brad Cunningham - This was the race that started it all. I had been running trails before this race, but once I had run this course, it was love.
• Nicola Gildersleeve – The start of this race has always been a weakness of mine because it begins uphill. My heart rate is usally in the 180’s before we even get into the single track trail…
• Betty’s Blog – After a full day of activities the day before, Ray and I with Jeremy were up early this morning at 6am to get ready to head out to the start of the race at Grouse Mountain for Iron Knee 25K…

If you know of any more please let us know!

Race #2 of the Frontrunners GutBuster Trail Running Series presented by The North Face takes to the trails of Colliery Dam this Sunday.

Details are as follows:

GB002::Colliery Dam, Nanaimo by Mark Nelson

Following are some of the athletes write ups that have become available over the past few days. Results are available here.

• Simon Whitfield – a solid weekend done and done – I love the intervals, long rides with the boys are fun, long runs in the woods are brilliant, swimming is….. meh. I really like the intervals, head to head…
• Studio YVR – Shawnigan Lake Half Iron – Race Report – My swim time was about the same as last year which is amazing to me because I went so far off course this year since the morning sun on the lake had completely blinded me.
• Meyrick Jones Racing – Subaru Shawnigan Lake International 1/2 Iron Triathlon Photos – Sunday was the Subaru Shawnigan Lake International 1/2 Iron. If you are going to slap a grand title like that on a race it better be good – and this one is awesome!
• Triing in Victoria – Shawnigan Lake 1/2: Race report – What a day for a race, the weather was absolutely spectacular, the water was a good temperature, and I was feeling ready to have a good race.
• Vincent’s Ramblings – 2009 Shawnigan Lake Half Iron Race Report!!! – We once again were blessed with amazing weather for race weekend. Jody and I joked that we bring good luck to races because this is our 6th race together with next to perfect weather.

Results from the 2009 Oak Bay Half Marathon are now posted:

• Individual
• Relay

A number of athlete writeups are also available:

• Yan Lyesin – Running portraits from the May 24, 2009 Oak Bay Half-Marathon.
• Woman on the Run - Race Day – Too fast=long race - If there’s one piece of race-day advice I’ve retained since my first 10K clinic six years ago it’s “Don’t go out too fast.”…
• Carlos Castillo – Oak Bay 1/2 marathon - Today as part of my training for the Scourched Sole 50Mi, I took in a local Half M and made a movie…
• Jeff Hunt – Oak Bay 1/2 Marathon – May 24th, 2009 – After recently posting that I would not be doing any more races until June, I somehow managed to rework my schedule to fit in this race…
• Heather Hollman – Oak Bay Kool Half Marathon – Behind the Scenes - This past weekend marked the date of two wicked races in Victoria, the Oak Bay Kool Half Marathon and the Shawnigan Sprint/Olympic/Half Ironman Triathlon….
• Madly Running Around – Oak Bay Half – Having found myself in Victoria this weekend, I decided to jump into the Oak Bay Half Marathon…

New Westminster, BC – May 25, 2009. Perfect spring conditions prevailed for the record number of racers who participated in the Coast Mountain Sports Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race (MOMAR), held this past Saturday in Squamish. Bart Jarmula of Revelstoke was crowned the new MOMAR champion, coming in just ahead of current MOMAR Cumberland champ, North Vancouver’s Gary Robbins. Victoria’s Shane Ruljancich was a close third overall.

“Bart Jarmula ran an incredibly clean race, finishing the enduro course (57 km) in 4 hours and 53 minutes, almost 20 minutes in front of Gary Robbins”, says Race Director, Bryan Tasaka.

“Gary fought hard to get from 5th place to 2nd place, after losing time in the orienteering section, which was truly impressive.”

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• May 24, 2009 – MOMAR 001, Squamish, BC
• May 24, 2009 - Subaru Shawnigan Lake International Triathlon, Shawnigan Lake, BC
• May 24, 2009 - Oliver Sprint Triathlon, Oliver, BC
• May 24, 2009 - Rhythm of Life Run, Burnaby, BC

All athlete writeups from these events will be added to the site as they become available.

Results from the event can be viewed here.

• NEW! Heather Hollman - North Shore Triathlon - Thankfully, lack of sleep and leg stiffness (from the 10 x 1km Run WO on Saturday morning and Crazy Doctor Dancing), didn’t seem to affect my race too much…  
• NTC Development Squad - 2009 North Shore Triathlon Results – Congratulations to our North Shore racers….
• Meyrick Jones - North Shore Triathlon 2009 – Mattias and his buddy Carter rocked this thing. SWIM: Mattias was first out of the water – he took a few wallops on the head and got run into the side of the pool a couple of times but he distanced himself in the last 25m to emerge first out of the water…
• Nicola Gildersleeve - North Shore Spring Triathlon – Today was the 20th anniversary of the North Shore Spring Triathlon. I don’t normally participate in this event, to be honest, I haven’t even gone out to watch before…

Any others? Please let us know!

Results from this past weekened’s first Gutbuster trail race at Duncan’s Mt Tzouhalem are now available:

• 12K Long Course
• 6K Short Course

By Christopher Kelsall

The first Black Press 5000 (5 kilometre) race took place at the Jack Wallace Memorial Track (Oak Bay Track) May 15, under sunny skies and mild temperatures.

The main event featured one of Canada’s top runners, Langford’s Ryan McKenzie who runs for Pacific Athletics.

Ryan owns an impressive 5000m personal best time of 13:35. He won the Black Press 5000 in 14:02. Second place went to Prairie Inn Harrier Scott Simpson.

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