Sunday's 10-miler will set the pace for Emily Setlack at next month's Canadian half-marathon championships. It's the first step towards the second national crown since 2010 for last year's top female in the historic St. Albert road race.
Sunday's 10-miler will set the pace for Emily Setlack at next month's Canadian half-marathon championships.
It's the first step towards the second national crown since 2010 for last year's top female in the historic St. Albert road race.
“The 10-miler is a really good distance as a tune up and a bit of a rust buster for that race,” Setlack said of her first outdoor race since the fall. “I've had a consistent winter of training and have done a lot of tempo runs on the treadmill. I'm really just hoping to get out there and see what I can do and push myself as hard as I can.”
The 34-year-old Cold Lake runner is the pre-race favourite to repeat at the 30th annual 10-miler after last year's blistering time of 59 minutes and 50 seconds for 14th place overall out of 326 finishers, including 134 females
It was the fastest time by a female since Chantell Widney's 59:16 in 2007.
The goal for Setlack's second St. Albert 10-miler is to run faster.
“I haven't set an exact time because with the course being different this year I'm not really sure what to expect,” said Setlack, who finished seven spots behind her air force husband, Matt, who was clocked at 57:08. “I just want to challenge myself and also enjoy the opportunity to run hard as well.”
The new start/finish line is on Sir Winston Churchill Avenue across from the St. Albert Curling Club, the race-day headquarters for the Landrex-sponsored road race, hosted by the St. Albert Road Runners and Triathlon Club.
Runners will tackle the south loop first instead of the north loop for the Tech Shop 10-miler.
The inaugural Sturgeon Valley Athletic Club 10-kilometre race and the Active Physio Works five km, which replaces the six-km event the last two years, will head in the opposite direction of the 10-miler.
The 10-miler starts at 9:30 a.m., followed five minutes later by the 10-km and five-km races.
Visit www.stalbertroadrace.com/Events/ for the course layouts.
“Joel Maley is the race organizer this year and he brings a wealth of knowledge to organizing races. He's an ironman athlete and competes internationally so I know it's going to be a really good opportunity for all of us to have a great day out there and I'm looking forward to that,” Setlack said.
Runners will summit the Heartbreak Hill portion of the 10-miler on Sir Winston Churchill Avenue as soon as the starter's gun fires instead of grinding it out past the mile seven marker on the previous course.
“When I did it last year my goal was to stay relaxed until I got to that hill in the second portion of the race and then at that point push as hard as I could to the finish,” Setlack said. “This year I think I will have to approach it a little bit differently just because the hill is right at the start. I will kind of push on the hill and hold a steady pace on the flats and that's kind of my goal.”
The big question mark is whether the times will be faster or slower with the course running in reverse after 15 runners completed last year's 10-miler in under one hour. Instead of the quick decent down Grandin Road after the mile nine marker to the finish line, the last six km of the race this year is downhill and flat.
“It's really hard to know. The times might be similar or maybe a little bit faster this year,” Setlack said. “I felt last year the course was, I wouldn't say it was slow and I wouldn't say it was fast, it was fair because there were quite a few down-hills to match up with the up-hills.
“But that downhill finish was nice.”
Last year's 10-miler was the springboard to several first-place honours for Setlack. She was the No. 1 female in the Midsummer Night's five km in July in Edmonton with a women's course record of 17:11 for eighth-place overall and the 10 km Melissa's Road Race in September in Banff at 36:20 for seventh place overall and was the top eight-km competitor at the Canadian Mountain Running Championships at 56:04 in June at the Kicking Horse Ski Resort in Golden, B.C.
“It was my first time doing a mountain race and I really surprised myself with that. I enjoyed it,” said Setlack, one of several elite runners sponsored by the Running Room.
The former national 5,000m junior champion who has represented Canada at the world cross-country championships will gear up for her first national half-marathon, May 31 in Calgary, since winning the 2010 female title at 1:15:41 as Emily Tallon of Kingston, Ont. Later that year at worlds an asthma attack prevented her from finishing the half-marathon in Nanning, China.
Setlack will also be the front-runner in the Alberta five km road race championships in July, held in conjunction with the Midsummer Night's event.
“I enjoy racing. I really like the 10-mile distance and I prefer half marathons as well,” said the marketing and communications coordinator at the 4 Wing Military Family Resource Centre in Cold Lake.
FAST TIMES: Last year's 10-mile winner, Francois Leboeuf of Edmonton at 53:44, and the 2013 runner-up has moved to Europe and will not defend his King of the Road title.
The course record is 50:46 by Matt Norminton in 2007 and Aster Demissie set the female record of 54:36 in 2005.
The inaugural male and female winners in 1986 were Dennis Colburn, a five-time champion, at 54:12 and Anne Galloway at 58:54.
Online registrations closed Thursday with 358 entries – 263 for the 10-miler, 46 for the 10 km and 49 for the five km – processed.
Registrations will also be accepted today at the Tech Shop, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at 11419 104 Ave. in Edmonton.
Visit www.stalbertroadrace.com for more information.
