Leboeuf motors to victory

Winning the 29th annual St. Albert 10-Mile Road Race was a crowning achievement for Francois Leboeuf.

“I would say this is probably my biggest win. It’s a big race,” said the happy King of the Road champion after darting across the finish line in 53 minutes and 44 seconds Sunday.

Leboeuf’s time was 63 seconds faster than his second-place finish last year.

“To win is great but I really wanted to run a better time,” said the Edmonton runner. “I really wanted to race about a minute faster than last year so my goal was accomplished and it feels good.”

Leboeuf, 28, gained traction after the mile eight marker on Sir Winston Churchill Avenue before swinging onto Levasseur Road to pull away from Andrew Bysice, an Edmonton-based elite level triathlete. Bysice was the runner-up at 54:26 and also placed second behind Leboeuf in the 20 to 29 age category in his first St. Albert 10-miler.

“I didn't want to wait too long before we started going hard. I wanted to make sure that I could actually get a good time,” Leboeuf said of the separating move.

The frontrunners bolted from the starting gate shoulder to shoulder while matching stride for stride through the streets of St. Albert. Thirty-three minutes into the race they flew past the 10 km sign in front of the Perron Street Bridge, about a minute ahead of the Edmonton duo of Thomas Fleming (third place at 56:07) and Mike Vine (eighth place at 57:08).

“I had the chance to run with Andrew for the first eight miles of the race so it was very good because we could work together and push each other. At the beginning of the course sometimes it can be hard to get ahead,” Leboeuf said.

Last year Leboeuf made his St. Albert 10-mile debut and was in the lead pack with Jason Jama of Edmonton, the race winner at 54:02, when he hit mile seven on the Heartbreak Hill section on Sir Winston Churchill and slowly slipped behind the Edmonton Triathlon Academy athlete.

“After last year I knew I would have to be a little more aggressive early on so at two or three K I decided to go and push a little bit harder and Andrew stayed with me,” Leboeuf said. “When we got to mile eight I was able to gain a bit more of a gap on Andrew.”

Leboeuf was among 15 runners – 14 males and Emily Setlack of Cold Lake – to complete the 10-miler in less than one hour on a dry track during the crisp mid-morning race. The field included 192 male finishers and 326 overall.

Leboeuf’s 53:44 showing was also the fastest time in the 10-miler since Travis McKay of Edmonton repeated in 2011 with a 52:29 clocking.

“I’m happy that I won but that is just a bonus. It was a difficult winter for training. It was very cold so I’m happy I was able to stick with it. I have two little kids at home and I have a wife that supports me and I’m a teacher so I work full time and I was still able to go out there and train even though it was really cold. I’m happy about the process and the commitment I put in and I’m happy with the results as well but it’s really all about being able to do that lifestyle and that’s the biggest thing for me,” said the French immersion, phys-ed and science teacher at Ecole Holy Cross Elementary/Junior High School. “I also try and be an example for the students and I’m really happy I was able to do that.”

Last year after the 10-miler Leboeuf won the Edmonton Police Foundation Half-Marathon with a personal-best time of 1:11:32 to beat out 477 finishers. The runner-up at 1:14:54 was Caine Warburton of Australia, winner of the fourth annual Leading Edge RunWild Marathon in St. Albert in 2013.

“I was pretty proud of that time,” Leboeuf said of his 21.1-km result. “My goal for the year is to run a half-marathon PB in Calgary so I’m really putting my focus there and this race today is really good preparation for it.”

FAST TIMES: Mark Brown was the top St. Albert male in the 10-miler at 59:17. The seventh-place finisher in the 20 to 29 category placed 12th overall in the race.

Sean Seville of St. Albert was the 20th fastest 10-miler at 1:01:03 for fifth spot in the 30 to 39 category.

Longtime St. Albert runner Glenn Mack was eighth in the 40 to 49 category for 34th place overall at 1:05:30.

Wyatt Katerenchuk of St. Albert placed fifth in the U19 category at 1:06:23 for 40th place overall.

David Livingstone of St. Albert was the runner-up in the 50 to 59 category at 1:07:20 for 47th place overall.

Larry Webb of St. Albert ranked second in the 60 to 69 category at 1:17:53 for 103rd place overall.

George Rattai and Alfred Bagdan finished first and second, respectively, in the 70-plus category. Rattai’s time was 1:24:39 for 146th place and Bagdan was clocked at 1:35:08 for 232nd place.

The six-km fun run featured 16 finishers and the top three runners were Jordan Arthur of Stony Plain and Luke Hanson of St. Albert with identical 20:27 times and in third place was Shae Kelly of Sturgeon County at 20:29.

Visit www.resultscanada.com for complete race results.