Runners conquer course change

Switching the St. Albert 10-mile course around didn’t slow down too many finishers Sunday.

Runners put their best foot forward heading south up Heartbreak Hill from the new start/finish line across from the St. Albert Curling Club on Sir Winston Churchill Avenue before hooking up to the north loop and the original first section of the road race.

“It’s the same course, you just have to run it in different directions so you can’t really complain. You’ve got to hit the hills at some point,” said Mark Martens of Calgary.

In past years the gruelling climb up Sir Winston Churchill Avenue with only a few miles to go took its toll on runners.

“The last time this was the second hill and if anything you kind of had to judge your pace going out here,” said Martens while pointing towards Heartbreak Hill. “This year you had to run by feel a little bit more than just looking at your watch and getting paces but whoever managed to run their best on this hill did well.”

Martens, 46, was the 15th fastest male and 18th overall finisher at one hour, four minutes and 16 seconds.

“It’s a really well organized event. Kudos to the race organizers. They do a great job with this one,” he said of the historic 10-miler, voted one of the best road races in Alberta in 2014.

David Livingstone of St. Albert was hoping runners would start by powering their way up Grandin Road but said organizers “didn’t want to bite on that one.”

“You’re used to doing it one way and then you do it the other so it was different,” he said. “The only problem is you come down Grandin and it’s so steep so you really pound yourself going downhill. You just have to be careful not to go too hard because you can really trash your legs but other than that it was a lot of fun. Actually, I quite liked it.”

Livingstone celebrated his 53rd birthday a day earlier on Sunday by placing 29th overall at 1:06:44 as the top St. Albert male in the race.

“It was a better time than last year (1:07:20 for 47th place). That’s all I ever look at these days.”

Gerianne Zabolotniuk completed her 16th St. Albert 10-miler in 19 years at 1:16:18 for 25th place in the female division and 75th overall.

“I loved the course run this way. You’ve got the hills over at the beginning (on the south loop) and I live (in the north loop) so I know that like the back of my hand so I knew how to run it,” said Zabolotniuk, 54, a St. Albert resident who has been racing competitively for 34 years. “It was a challenge today but it was great. It’s a beautiful day and a beautiful city, so what more can you ask for. It’s just a fabulous race.”

Jason Durance of Edmonton described the course equally as difficult as last year, when there were 192 males and 134 female finishers for the 10-miler, compared to 108 males and 131 females this year

“I don’t think it’s any easier. It seemed like you were climbing until 11 K, whereas before you had a longer downhill,” said Durance, 40, the 21st overall finisher at 1:05:23 after going 1:11:22 for 73rd place two years ago. “The only tricky part was that in my mind before I got here I was sort of visualizing, maybe that’s too strong of a word, but thinking about the old course and going, ‘OK, here I’ll do this, here I’ll do that,’ and then I found out (the location of the new start/finish line) was now here.”

Dennis Skene of St. Albert gave the course change positive reviews.

“Overall I thought it was very good. You’re climbing for the first half of the race but the second half you’re downhill all the way, which makes it nice. Before you had to leave a little bit for this stretch (on Heartbreak Hill) because she is a pretty good climb until you get to the top of Grandin so there is a little bit of strategy there too,” said Skene, 65, who has competed in a handful of St. Albert 10-milers.

FAST TIMES: Two of the top three finishers in the Active Physio Works five-km race were Paul Kane High School students. Luke Hanson was the winner at 16:47 and Shae Kelly was third at 17:34.

Abby Wilson of St. Albert was the No. 1 female at 19:42 for ninth place.

There were 29 male and 30 female finishers in the five km, which replaced the six-km race held the last two years. Last year Hanson tied for first at 20:27 and Kelly was third out of 16 overall six-km finishers at 20:29.

Spotted proudly wearing an Edmonton Oilers’ jersey with McDavid spelled out with tape on the back was Steve Olsson of St. Albert. The former Rummies’ soccer player was still on a high in the aftermath of the Oilers winning the NHL draft lottery to pick Connor McDavid with the No. 1 overall selection and was the winner of his 40 to 49 age division at 28:27 as the 22nd overall male and 37th finisher in the race.

Visit www.stalbertroadrace.com or www.resultscanada.com for race results.