Here’s another great race report from Trainharder’s “unofficial” event reporter from the province’s interior, Dirk Handke. This report is, in Dirk’s words, “THE CLOSEST THING next to have been there!”

CLICK HERE to read Dirk report which includes results from the event and lots of great photos.

BC Athletics has again written a great summary report from the event and although we don’t like to copy on this site the first part of that report is included below…

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Kenyan Willy Kimosop, last years Sun Run winner who claimed to have done very little training through the winter while studying in Lethbridge, followed Ontario’s Dylan Wykes for 7.8K of Harry’s Spring Run-Off 8K in Vancouver. With the finish in sight, Kimosop demonstrated that he’d lost little of his track speed as he out-gunned Wykes to come home victorious by 2 seconds in 23:43. Behind Wykes, Victoria’s Scott Simpson was an isolated third in 24:41. Local Jerry Ziak finished fourth in 25:06, ahead of another Victoria athlete David Jackson, fifth in 25:09, and first master Mark Bomba in 25:54.

To find out who placed on the women’s side and to continue reading this report click here.

• 5k Run Results
• 5k Walk Results

Here’s a good report from the event by BC Athletics.

Reports:

• BC Athletics has a nice race report here
• A race report from Erin (West Coast Runner)
• Some photos courtesy of Kamal Rae

Update: Alison has posted a report from the race on her blog Tri’n Fool, and here’s another one by Jeff Symonds.

On the women’s side Victoria’s Melanie McQuaid continued her dominance of the 2010 Frontrunners Island Race Series, winning her second race with a time of 30:54. Care Wakely and Karen Laberee rounded out the top three.

Close to 500 runners took part in the event under sunny skies and warm temperatures.

Full results here.

So far we’ve found three race reports from the event:

• Matt Hart – Orcas Island 50km Race Report 2010 – Flying as Close to the Sun as Possible
• Shane Ruljancich – Orcas Island 25K
• Tom Craik – The Meta Cognitive Runner
• The Lazy Trail Runner – Orcas Island 50 or so K ….. take two
• Ellie Greenwood – Orca’s Island 50km Race Report
• Tom Craik – Orcas Island

Preliminary results for both the 25k and 50k are also posted on the event blog. Click here for 25k results and here for 50k results.

Nick Best has posted his race report here. Check it out…

Check out the results, now posted on RaceDay: 5K Results, 10K Results. Photos from the event can been seen on Dave Silver’s website here. Several reports from the event has been written. One by Lina Augaitis here, and another by Nick Best here.

The next Yeti race is taking place this February at Mt.Seymour. It is an invitational, with elite athletes from around the world having been invited. Check back here for more information on the event soon.

Participant race reports will also be added here within the next few days, for now here’s the first one:

• Triing in Victoria – It was hard!!! Haha. It was actually pretty funny, on the way up we were discussing the course, and were saying we remembered it as a flat course. We were so wrong!!!
• Jeff Hunt – I had no idea what to expect this race day. The past two weeks have been intense for me…

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As Maurice Tarrant shattered the Canadian record in his 80-plus age group during Sunday’s Prairie Inn Pioneer 8K race, he proved that competitive running knows no age barrier.

The Victoria resident beat the previous record by a whopping eight minutes with a time of 38 minutes, 15 seconds.

“That’s one minute per kilometre,” said Bob Reid, director of the Vancouver Island Runners Association and president of the Royal Victoria Marathon. “On the track, if you shave a tenth of a second off a record you’ve done well. But by minutes, that’s incredible.”

The previous record was 46 minutes and 22 seconds, set in 2004 by Victoria’s Jim Sargent, who — at 86 — was the oldest participant in Sunday’s race.

At the awards ceremony, Tarrant received a standing ovation that lasted several minutes, Reid said.

“It was pretty moving,” said Tarrant, who turned 80 last week. “It’s sort of exciting running with all the young folk.”

The 31st annual race, the first of the year and often a marker for those competing in the Frontrunners Island Race series, starts and finishes at the Saanich Fair grounds. Tarrant has participated for the last 25 years.

Breaking records is not new for the retiree. Since moving to Victoria from England in 1981, he has set 42 Canadian age-class records.

He’s looking to shatter more records at the Times Colonist 10K race, the Royal Victoria Marathon and the five other races in the series.

“I’m planning to at least set course records in all the Island series — and I’ll pick up a Canadian record wherever I can,” he said, about as casually as one would talk about a plan to pick up milk on the way home.

Tarrant has been running since his early 20s, which he spent in southwest England. But he became more competitive in his 50s when he moved to the Island.

“So many runners come up to me and Jim [Sargent] and tell us that they would like to be running at our age — and we hope they can,” Tarrant said. “I will run as long as I enjoy it.”

Sunday’s 818 registered runners was a record turnout for the race.

“This was probably the best field of quality runners that’s even been assembled in Victoria,” said race director Randy Jones.

Here is the results page:

http://pih.bc.ca/results/Series.php?race=170

kderosa@tc.canwest.com

Congratulations to everyone who came out to enjoy the first race of the series. The next race is the Cobble Hill 10K which will take place on January 24. To register click here.

Full results here.

Race reports:

• Shane Ruljancich – Pioneer is the very popular first race of the Island Race Series. I’m quite surprised at the level of competition that shows up for this local race.
• Triing in Victoria - Prairie Inn 8k Race – report SO I hit up the Prairie Inn 8km road race on Sunday for the first race of the year.
• Kirsten Sweetland – Yesterday we raced the Pioneer 8k…my first running race in years!
• Kyle Jones – 8k Results & Pictures – Here’s a link to the results from the 8k and a few pictures from the race (taken by Tony Austin)
• Steve Osaduik – WE MAY AHVE BIT OFF MORE THAN WE COULD CHEW! But that was the point; Richard and I raced the Pioneer 8km in Saanich this Sunday and took it out quick…
• Derek – The Sparse Race Report (Pioneer 8km) – In lieu of an actual race report, I decided to do something kinda fun. I will describe each km of the race in 5 words. 5 words ONLY…
• Donald Peterson – Pioneer weekend – This morning I was looking at running the Prairie Inn Pioneer 8K…
• Adam Campbell -1st Post: Squeezing out speed – I raced the 31st Prairie Inn Pioneer 8km this am. It was a perfect day for running, 8 degrees, no wind and a dry course. A nice respite from the wet and soggy runs that I have been doing… AND 2nd Post: 4.5 km in…
• Jeff Hunt – Pioneer 8k – It was surprising to me how excited and nervous I was for this race…
• Kamal Rae - Pioneer 8km – It sucked. Signed up day-of and just felt off, wanting to walk after a couple of km, and stop at 4k, but finished…

Results are now posted here:
http://www.racedaytiming.ca/stewart2009.html

…and photos here.

Race reports and photos will be added here as they become available.

Race reports (more will be added as they become available):

• Shane Ruljancich – A big thanks to Bob Reid, who again organized a large group of Harriers to head over to the race at Jericho Beach. I’m going to keep this report somewhat short so you can read some background on the race from my report last year if you are interested.
• Tom Craik – The Cinnamon Bunner Shaw 10k – He’s back. The “not-so -Lazy Trail runner” has redeemed his title as a runner rather than a wine and tequila connoisseur.
• Nick Best – This race is somewhat less chaotic than BC X, and the 2×5km loop format is easier to manage…
• Kamal Rae – Saturday morning I headed over to Vancouver (for the Gunner Shaw 10k at Jericho Beach) with Tyler on the 7am ferry…

Results can be found here.

An amazing photo slideshow from the race by John Irvine can be viewed here.

Dave Shishkoff has posted a great report from the race including pictures on his blog here.

(Photo courtesy of Dave Shishkoff)

Race Reports:

• Dec 2nd – Richard Knowlton’s race report is now posted here.
• Dec 1st -Betty’s Blog – Gunner Shaw 8.5K Victoria – Gunner, gunner….I sure give it a gunner. What a total different experience for this race!!
• Nov 30th - Lauren Groves – Here are some of Tony Austin’s great photos from yesterday’s race. I am still looking for the “swamp” shots so if anyone knows where they can be found, please let me know…
• Adam Campbell – I am in the middle of writing a paper, so a race report will have to follow at a later time. I finished 4th in 33:03 (results here). The new course was a beauty and the puddles were deep…