Pauline won her age category.
Last Saturday May 4, Cobble Hill hosted the second event in the Vancouver Island Trail Running Series. Four STARR racers; Pauline Nielsen, Greg Balchin (Greg B), Jonathan Dvorak, and Greg Carson, (Greg C) challenged the rugged 20k “long course” event held at the local mountain bike park. The weather was beautiful as nearly 200 athletes (91 long course and 107 short course) challenged themselves on the difficult terrain. Greg B reports the course is a spider web of interconnected twisty trails that seldom stay flat or level for more than a few meters. Racers on the long course followed the short course first before switching to an east/west direction at the middle of the hill, leading to a water station, and then 4km back up the hill on the north side, descending the south side, to the finish line. The course includes a 915 m climb that runners negotiate twice and a technically challenging 1.5k descent. “It’s an unforgiving series of washout river rock gullies, switchbacks, and root entangled dirt tracks that looks like Olympic bob sled shutes!. Most runners walked the uphill portions of the trail and ran the downhill parts to avoid tripping over trees, rocks, roots and cliffs. The run to the finish line was a brutal 1.5 km zigzag, 915 m drop. It threw everything at us; rocks, trees, mud, roots, and hairpin turns!”
Greg B. was third in his age group.
Trail-racing challenges endurance, physical agility and direction-finding. Runners need to balance running speed against the risk of taking a tumble or missing a turn. The technically challenging course was well marked except in two places where a number of racers took a wrong turn. Greg B lost 5 minutes after missing one marker and Jonathan got lost twice! Pauline put together a well-judged effort finishing first among STARR runners while also winning her age group… beating her previous year’s time by 20 minutes! Well done Pauline! Despite a brief detour off-course Greg B still managed to take 3rd place in his age group, giving STARR racers two podium placements on the day. Jonathan (usually our fastest club runner) was philosophical about his race. “It was absolutely fantastic…loved the run…I got my money’s worth with an extra 2 k…just more time to enjoy the beautiful course”.
Top male finisher in the race was by Timothy Drews (M30-39) from Cobble Hill in a time of 2:01:05. Top female finisher was Tara Pollock (F40-49) from Ladysmith in a time of 2:26:07. The short course men’s event was won by Kevin Spahn of Victoria in 1:16:18 and the women’s champ was Brittany Brooks from Lake Cowichan in 1:17:19.
Despite (or maybe because of) the challenging courses trail runners are an enthusiastic bunch. Everyone reported enjoying the race. As Jonathan said “Totally recommend the trail series!!..Loving it”
Next race in the Vancouver Island Trail Running Series is Westwood Lake on June 8th.