Melanie celebrates with one of her grandchildren after the race.

By Leslie Ann Bent

What a perfect day for a race and our STARR members were there in full force. This was the 7th of 8 races in the Vancouver Island Race Series. As locals, I expect most of the STARR club members are very familiar with the course. It starts at the high school and is an out and back course along Sooke River Road. For those of us still fairly new to Sooke and not blase about local scenery, I describe the course as scenic, peaceful, rolling and fairly rural passing homes with long white fences and to the odd sound of a rooster cock-a-doodle-doing in their yards. There is one long hill on the return but not as steep as in other races and is achievable for all talents. STARR had 12 runners out for the race which made for lots of upbeat pre-race and post-race socializing. We saw old and new STARR shirts milling around the gym before the race.

This race has an early start for those runners and walkers expecting a finish time of around 1:30. For the fast folks, this may appear to be long time to complete 10k, but many of the starters in that group were elderly or walkers, and it really gave them a chance to participate without holding up the race afterwards, and having spectators on the course to cheer them on when they crossed the finish line. I started with that group and was impressed by several runners who clearly had physical challenges or were old enough to be my parent, but were out there doing their thing anyhow and smiling. The outbound section has some nice down hills which help pick up the momentum. On the way back, we got to witness the top talent battling it out for positions, even as they whizzed past us on their return. Jackie was at the top of the long climb with her camera in hand cheering on the runners and snapping shots of us in action. Once out of Jackie’s range the course evens out again and it is a nice cruise back to the finish line. Of the 281 participants, 15 were over 1:15 and could appreciate the early start. Also impressive was the Ceevacs runner in the 85-89 age group who crossed at 1:13, and later received a standing ovation as he graciously accepted his gold medal. Sooke’s Bob Butterworth (M80-84) was also cheered on by the crowd with a finishing time of 1:05.

No course records were beat. The overall male winner was Andrew Russell of the Prairie Inn Harriers with a time of 32:03. The first female runner to hit the finish line was Julia Tschanz with a time of 37:00. First across the finish line for STARR was Jonathan Dvorak with an amazing time of 39:50, earning him a silver age-group medal for M40-44. Our second runner to cross was Andy Smith with a time of 40:41, earning himself a bronze medal just 5 seconds behind the second place finisher in the M55-59 age-group. Pauline Nielsen also achieved an impressive result bringing home the bronze medal hardware with a time of 47:18 in the F50-54 age group. Stephanie Croft was edged out of third place by 6 seconds, into a respectable 4th place showing for F45-49. Bruce managed a 4th place (M-75-79) just 30 seconds behind the bronze medal. All of our runners did spectacularly well. We took home 3 medals and 9 ribbons – not a bad haul for a Sunday morning. It was great to see so many supporters at the finish with Megan also taking photos and racers hanging around the finish line to cheer the rest of the runners flowing in.

Race results for STARR

M40-44 – Jonathan Dvorak 2nd 39:50;

F45-49 – Stephanie Croft 4th; Teresa Lennox 8th; Kari Toovey

F50-54 – Pauline Nielsen 3rd 47:18; Leslie Ann Bent 10th

M50-54 – Dave White, 7th

M55-59 – Andy Smith 3rd 40:51; Greg Balchin 7th

F65-69 – Melanie Cunningham 5th

M65-69 – Mark Ziegler 6th

M75-79 - Bruce Hawkes 4th

Next week is the last race of the series and the awards ceremony at the Bazan Bay 5K in Sidney. We hope to see you there.