A cold and overcast Sunday morning brought out the best in Paul Mason at the 13th annual St. Albert Fall Challenge.
The race conditions for the half-marathon on the Red Willow trails resulted in a first-place finish for Mason in one hour, 25 minutes and 21 seconds.
"It was a good challenge for this morning. The weather is very conducive to running. I just tried to stay slow and steady, stay comfortable within myself and have a good day," said the superintendent of schools for Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools. "It was a good day for me and it feels good to go home now and put my feet up."
The finish line area by the gazebo in Kingswood Park served as the unofficial marker for the halfway point in the 21.1-kilometre race and with the second lap on the trails to go Mason was flying solo at 43:11, 48 seconds ahead of Reina Ainsworth of Edmonton, the fastest female for the second year in a row, and 19 seconds in front of Peter Block of Slave Lake, the runner-up at 1:27:53.
Ainsworth, 34, duplicated her third overall placing from last year with a time of 1:27:56.
"It was a good race. I lowered my time from last year and that's what we want to do," said Ainsworth, who was clocked at 1:30:33 in 2014 after her 1:33:26 effort the year before as the second fastest female for seventh place overall.
There were 66 finishers this year, compared to 91 last year and 130 in 2013.
"I do these as kind of training so I'm happy with my time," said Ainsworth, a noted marathoner who was the third-place female at last month's Edmonton competition for 24th overall at 3:01:38. "I'm doing Toronto (Waterfront Marathon on Oct. 18) so this was kind of a training run. It was a good run.
"My first leg was better, but that's not what runners should say. They should have a stronger second leg but that's OK," added the Daysland High School alumna. "They changed my route (slight detour to bypass Lions Park to avoid the Terry Fox Run in progress at the same time) so I was a little thrown off. It's better marked this year so I was more impressed with this route. I want to tell the organizers that. They did really well."
The Fall Challenge, sponsored by the Sturgeon Valley Athletic Club, was the last outdoor race of year for Mason.
"I missed the past couple of years doing this race so I thought it would be a good way to wrap up the season and look forward to winter," he said.
The half-marathon is Mason's specialty.
"It's probably as far as I will go right now. There is just not enough time to train and this is challenging for me," said the "seasoned" 52-year-old. "I'm just trying to continue to improve. It's kind of surprising as I get older I seem to get faster. Some point in time that will stop and I'm going to enjoy the ride while I can."
Race results
The Fall Challenge 10-km winner was Sean Seville of St. Albert at 36:08.
Simon Ong of Calgary placed second at 38:42 and Shannon Maisano of St. Albert was third at 39:19.
Seville, the half-marathon runner-up the last two years and the two-time defending Leading Edge RunWild half-marathon champion, used the 10-km as a training session for the Toronto Waterfront.
Maisano was the top female in the 2013 half-marathon at 1:27:01 to finish ahead of Ainsworth.
"Shannon only did 10 (kilometres) today or else she would've beat me. She hurt her ankle," Ainsworth said of her training buddy, the No. 1 female at this year's RunWild half-marathon at 1:26:32 for sixth overall out of 308 runners.
Maisano was also the sixth female finisher in last month's Edmonton half marathon for 38th overall at 1:24:57.
There were 50 finishers in the 10-km run/walk
Mary Stewart of Winnipeg won the five-km race at 24:09, as 49 runners went the distance, including 19 Sturgeon Heights Eagles, ranging in age from nine to 12 in Grades 4 to 7, and two coaches. Jessica Kormysh (Grade 7, 24:12, second), Randi Kormysh (Grade 5, 24:20, third), Quinn Hoffman (Grade 4, 25:28, fourth) and coach Jen Bruinsma (25:28) of the Eagles finished behind Stewart.
Rounding out the top 10 were Riley Begert (Grade 4, 28:17, eighth) and coach Corey Conroy (29:37, ninth) of the Eagles.
The Sturgeon Heights Running Club started in the spring and was such a huge success the school is now running (no pun intended) fall and spring clubs. The Eagles practice twice a week and work on both sprint and long distances.
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the Eagles' team picture.
Brad Lissack of Edson ranked first in the half-marathon walk in 2:35:47 and Heather Neumann of Edmonton was second at 2:43:08.
Visit www.resultscanada.com for the complete Fall Challenge results.
