Fennell top RunWild female

The female winner of the third annual Leading Edge RunWild Marathon was in a celebratory mood after Sunday’s successful run.

“I will want a beer after I have one or two more of these for sure,” Cassandra Fennell said in between gulps from a water battle at the finish line. “I have never won a marathon before so it feels really good. I’m over the moon!”

Fennell, 29, placed ninth overall out of 102 finishers, including 40 females, in three hours, 27 minutes and eight seconds.

“It was definitely better than my first year here but it’s not my fastest marathon,” said the 10th female and 38th marathoner to finish the inaugural 2011 RunWild in 3:53:44.

Her personal best is 3:23:31 as the seventh fastest female and 50th finisher at the Canadian Derby Edmonton Marathon last August.

A pumped up Fennell throttled back a blazing start in order to have enough gas left in the tank to beat out Alissa St. Laurent of Edmonton, the female runner-up at 3:28:58 for 11th place overall.

“I started a little bit harder than I wanted to so I decided to back it off and run my own race and that actually worked out pretty well,” Fennell said. “I slowed down in the second half and I didn’t want to do that but I’m still really happy how my race went.”

The 42-kilometre course left Fennell feeling spent.

“It’s tough. I did it the first year and there were more hills than I remembered,” she said. “My legs are a little bit tired but I will just walk it off and maybe do a little jog and I will feel okay later.”

Fennell wanted to give RunWild another shot after enjoying her initial experience of racing through the streets of St. Albert and the Red Willow trail system.

“St. Albert is great. It’s so scenic,” said the Alberta Heath Services employee. “The volunteers were fabulous. Having all these people from St. Albert cheering us on helps so much.

“It was a beautiful day too. It’s nice to do it early before it gets too hot.”

Last year’s Wild Roses Women’s Half Marathon winner at 1:37:58 prefers long distances than short runs.

“I think I must be a little bit of a masochistic. I just like the time alone. It’s relaxing for me. It’s running as a stress reliever so the more you do it the better,” said the Edmonton resident who hails from Timmins, Ont.

Visit www.zone4.ca for complete race results.