Madsen king of the road

The runaway winner of the Tech Shop 10-miler was slower to the finish line than the expected time of arrival.

“I won the race, that was really my A goal coming in, so I’m really happy to be able to do that despite not running as tactically well as I could’ve,” said a sun-drenched William Madsen. He was the king of the road champion at the Landrex St. Albert Road Race on Sunday morning.

Madsen, 21, led the 31st annual 10-miler from start to finish for a blistering time of 53 minutes and 24 seconds.

“I could’ve run a little bit faster if I ran even mile splits throughout the race but I still built up enough of a lead to hang on so I was lucky to be able to do that,” said the University of Alberta cross-country and track athlete.

The fifth winner, since Travis McKay of Edmonton repeated in 2011, was shooting to go faster than last year’s winning effort of 53:17 by Dusty Spiller of Red Deer.

“My goal was definitely to win it but my secondary goal would’ve been to beat the time that Dusty set. Unfortunately, I missed that by five or six seconds I think he’s a really talented athlete so I’m totally OK with that,” said Madsen.

The lanky six-foot-three runner was clocked at 17 minutes crossing Sir Winston Churchill Avenue from Grandin Road onto St. Anne Street towards the north loop and second section of the race.

A minute behind Madsen were a trio of Edmonton runners: Simon Stewart, Lewis Kelly and Graeme Law.

“I’ve never raced over 10 K before so I just kind of treated it like a 10 K and tried to hang on the last six K. I definitely struggled the last six K but I built up enough of a lead that I was able to hang on,” Madsen said.

Stewart was the runner-up as the top 40 to 49 division racer at 55:58 and Kelly placed third at 57:02 for second spot in the 20 to 29 division.

Kelsey Kelemen, a three-time champion from 2003 to 2005, was fourth overall at 57:39 as the 30 to 39 division winner.

A total of 149 runners completed the 10-miler, including 72 males. Five runners did it in less than one hour.

Visit www.resultscanada.com for race results.

Last year 108 males and 139 runners overall finished the race, with 11 faster than one hour.

The first outdoor race of the season also marked Madsen’s 10-mile debut in St. Albert.

“I grew up in Edmonton so I know this race has a lot of history and I’m really excited to be able to take the win,” said the McNally High School alumnus who has been running since Grade 10. “Since I’ve never ran it before I didn’t really know what it was going to be like. I felt good on that first hill (on Sir Winston Churchill Avenue) but I felt it a lot more later into the race than I expected to. I felt smooth at the time but about 10 K in I really started to feel it so it was just about grinding it out at that point.”

Madsen was delighted by his performance.

“I haven’t really done any specific workouts towards the 10-miles so I was pleasantly surprised I was able to take the win to be honest,” said Madsen, who took a week off after the indoor track season before resuming his training. “This win means that I will move up to road races this summer to be honest. Previously I’ve done track events but I think I’m built for 10 K and above so I’m excited to try out a couple of those races, maybe even a half marathon.”

Madsen stressed he doesn’t do triathlons because “I’m not a swimmer.”

At the 2016 Canada West indoor championships, the engineering student placed fourth in the 3,000 metres at 8:31.86 and his time in the 1,500m was 3:57.31.

“I had kind of a rough season leading up to that (3,000m) race but I was able to still perform pretty well so I was excited about that,” said the 53rd finisher and second fastest Alberta Golden Bear in the men’s 10 km at the 2015 CIS cross-country championships.