It’s a race to the finish line with last year’s fastest female RunWild marathoner unable to defend her crown.
Janelle Brcic of St. Albert was advised Tuesday to pull out after aggravating a left ankle injury while training for Sunday’s race.
“I had an injury in December and about two weeks ago I ended my last fun run and it just flared back again,” said a disappointed Brcic. “About 10 days ago I would have been raring to go and pumped.”
The Father Jan School kindergarten teacher placed seventh overall in the 2012 Leading Edge race with a personal best time of three hours, 21 minutes and one second after going 3:39:43 for 21st place as the fourth-fastest female at the inaugural 2011 RunWild marathon.
The top female two years ago was Leanne Foff of Edmonton at 3:25:54 for ninth place overall out of 121 competitors.
Brcic’s training partner, Gerianne Zabolotniuk of St. Albert, was last year’s female runner-up at 3:22:47 for eighth place out of 91 finishers, including 33 females. The year before she was the third among 47 females at 3:35:47 for 15th overall.
Based on last year’s results, the 51-year-old Zabolotniuk is the female pre-race favorite with Brcic sidelined.
“I would agree,” said Brcic, 28, who posted personal best times in the Great White North (5:02:39) and Ironman Canada (11:39:02) triathlons after last year’s RunWild.
The marathon field of 118 runners kick into gear at 8 a.m. on St. Anne Street, followed by 414 in the half-marathon at 8:05 a.m., 417 in the 10 kilometre at 8:20 a.m. and 397 in the five km at 8:30 a.m.
Visit www.runwild.ca to view the course maps.
The finish area is victory lane on Taché Street and the awards ceremony is 12:30 p.m. at the Celebration Village in Lions Park. It's also the starting area for the WildOnes Kids MaraFun for 416 six- to 12-year-olds at noon.
The final online registration total of 1,762 surpassed last year's mark of 1,622 and 1,650 in 2011.
Returning to defend their RunWild titles are Marc Meuiner, the two-time defending marathon champion from St. Albert, and doctor Robert Brunelle of Edmonton in the 21.1-km half-marathon. Meunier’s winning time was 2:49:15 and Brunelle was clocked at 1:25:12 after finishing third in 2011 at 1:29:51.
Last year’s winners included Nicolas Wang of Calgary in the 10 km at 37:51 and Dan Vigliatore of Pickering, Ont. in the five km at 19:23.
The leading female runners were Kristen Hansen of St. Albert in the half-marathon at 1:35:05, Natalia Szynkarczuk of Edmonton in the 10 km at 41:58 and Debra Davidson of Edmonton in the five km at 23:00.
Race results will be posted at www.Zone4.ca.
The RunWild is hosted by Leading Edge Physiotherapy in support of Edmonton’s Zebra Child Protection Centre and the St. Albert 50+ Club.
Today's pre-race event at Grandin Theatre is the screening of Madagascar 3 and Racing Stripes from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tickets are $5 and proceeds will go the RunWild charities.
Tonight’s dinner on the run pasta night at the St. Albert 50+ Club is sold out. The guest speaker is St. Albert’s Jennifer (Goose) Krempien, a former Team Canada wheelchair basketball player who will be inducted into the Canadian Paralympic Hall of Fame on Friday.
