The 1st race of the 2015 Vancouver Island Race Series, the Pioneer 8K, was held 11 Jan. The weather was ideal…foggy, calm and cool.
There were 606 at the Saanich Fairgrounds start line to launch the series off. After a short delay due to the large number of "at the line" registrations, they were off. The overall winner from Vancouver was Theo Hunt (25-29) in a time of 24:59. The top female was PIH Natasha Wodak (30-34) with a 26:37 and 10th OA. Our top Male Master was PIH Jim Finlayson (40-44) in a time of 25:47 and 30th OA. The top Female Master was PIH Marilyn Arsenault (45-49) in a time of 28:19 and 25th OA.
STARR had 11 runners in the mix covering 8 age divisions and capturing one silver medal and two ribbons.
- Our 1st STARR (and first Starr female runner) to cross the line was Sarah-Mae Adam (25-29) with a 33:37. Sarah-Mae was 2nd in a field of 16 and 124th OA. Good job Sarah-Mae!
- Our 1st male runner in was Jonathan Dvorak (40-44). The STARR master crossed with a 34:23. He was 21st in a field of 35 and 144th OA.
- Claude LaForce (50-54) in time of 36:09. He was 14th in a field of 33 and 192nd OA.
- Stephanie Croft (40-44) with a 37:28 and was 8th in a field of 38 and 238th OA.
- STARR legend and ironman Bruce Hawkes (70-74). With his 161st consecutive race in the series, Bruce crossed with a 43:34 and was 10th in a field of 15 and 408th OA. Congrats to Bruce for sure.
- Maggie Curtis (40-44) in a time of 45:21 and Maggie was 21st in a field of 38 and 446th OA.
- Charmaine Munro (50-54) with a time of 47:18. Charmaine was 26th in a field of 31 and 479th OA.
- Tom Burgess (70-74). Tom was in with a 48:03 and was 12th in a field 15 and 491st OA.
- in the NO AGE ? division was Don Brown. Don was in with a 51:52 and 554th OA.
- Not far behind was Vince Trahan (65-69). Vince came in with a 52:06 and dead last in a field of 23 and 559th OA.
- Closing our STARR field was our youngest runner Matthew Thomson (16-19) who fell ill during the race. He finished with a 53:54 and was 13th in the field of 13 and 570th OA. It appears he recovered since his STARR sprint time was 2nd best with a 22:75. Well done Matt.
- Our STARR overall 100M sprint winner was Jonathan with a fast 21:33.
On completion of the awards, a tribute was paid to long time Prairie Inn Harrier runner and Canadian Record Holder Maurice Tarrant who was running in the 85-89 division which he incidentally won in a time of 49:54. We should all hope to reach that age and still be running. Congratulations to all our runners who flew the STARR flag.
The next series race is the Cobble Hill 10K in 2 weeks. See you there!