Taylor Murphy surprised himself by wining Sunday’s 10-miler.
The 32-year-old Edmonton orthotist finished his first St. Albert road race in 54 minutes and one second.
“I didn’t think I would be able to run that quickly so I’m totally happy with the effort,” Murphy said with a satisfying grin.
The King of the Road champion broke away from his nearest challenger around the mile seven marker on Sir Winston Churchill Avenue and never relinquished the lead.
“I was feeling good so I pushed it a little bit on that long hill,” Murphy said. “At the last corner [going onto Grandin Road] I took a little peek behind me and that’s when I realized that he probably wasn’t going to catch me at that point.”
Andrew Carruthers was the runner-up by 21 seconds.
“When the winner made that move at about seven miles, I couldn’t go with him and he kind of maintained that gap on me until the end,” he said.
Carruthers, 28, jumped out to an early lead before Nicholas Martin, the third-place finisher at 55:05, and Murphy caught up to the Calgary runner.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve done a race so I wasn’t really sure what my fitness was like so my plan was to go out and run as fast as I could and just see what I could do,” Carruthers said. “I went out pretty hard for the first mile and then a couple of other guys caught up to me and I ran with them for most of the race.”
Murphy tracked down Carruthers and Martin at mile four and the trio stayed within a stride of each other before tackling the most challenging part of the course.
“For a 10-miler the first half should feel pretty relaxed and then it should be a little tougher and tougher but if you maintain pace you should do well,” Murphy said.
Two years ago Carruthers finished second overall at 53:51
“My time was a little slower this year but that could’ve been the conditions,” he said.
At the start time at 9:30 a.m. the temperature was hovering around -4 C and most of the snow that fell in the hours before the race had melted on the streets.
“Obviously the conditions weren’t ideal but there wasn’t really any ice on the course, it was just wet,” Murphy said. “It was just a nice, calm day and not too windy. It was a good race.”
Murphy normally runs longer distances on trails than 10 miles on pavement but decided to give the St. Albert race a try in preparation for the upcoming season.
“It seemed pretty well organized. It’s a good course and there was some good competition. It’s got it all,” said the former resident of Guelph, Ont.
The final registration total for the 10-miler was 519, but not everybody showed up at the start line because of the weather. There were 425 finishers, including 17 runners who completed the race in under one hour.
“I’m pleased with the amount of people that came out. The running conditions are nowhere near perfect, but they’re not terrible,” said race director Donald Fairweather. “We’ve got a little bit of snow on the course because some of the areas are just not exposed to the sun or are in the shade. At the end it’s a little bit slick and the finish line [behind Grandin Mall] is not as good as we would like it to be because of the conditions but again, it’s not terrible running conditions.”
FAST TRACKS: The fastest St. Albert male in the 10-miler was Joel Maley at 59:02 for 15th place overall.
Alfred Bagdan of St. Albert was the only finisher in the male 70-plus division at 1:25:42 for 153rd overall.
In total, 236 males completed the 10-miler.
In the high school category (three runners per team), the New Norway Spartans finished first out of seven teams with the lowest aggregate time. The Bellerose Bulldogs placed second and the Paul Kane Blues were third.
Race results are listed on page 74, as well as online at www.resultscanada.com.
