Chris Stone was feeling the heat while burning up the pavement at the 12th annual Fall Challenge.
With last year's runner-up, Sean Seville, in hot pursuit the Edmonton runner torched the Red Willow trails to win the half-marathon race with a blistering time of one hour, 15 minutes and 24 seconds on a balmy Sunday morning.
"It was a great day. I had a good run," said Stone, who used the Fall Challenge as a training run for next month's marathon in Amsterdam. "I probably should've gone a little slower actually today but the energy was good. Sean was pushing me and it was just gorgeous out so I kind of got caught up in it."
Stone, 34, completed the first leg at 37:59 and Seville was timed at 38:09 at the halfway mark.
"I was a little quick in the first half but it was fun. I was kind of giving it all I had," said the 11th fastest runner in the 2014 Edmonton half-marathon at 1:13:37.
Seville, 30, finished 27 seconds behind Stone at 1:15:51 as 91 runners completed the 21.1-kilometre race.
"The last race I ran with Chris (Moose is Loose half-marathon in the Edmonton river valley in July) I tried to keep up with him and it didn't work out that well for me so today I had a goal. I was going to go 3:40 for the first lap pace and I thought I would then go a suicide pace for the second half and see what I could do but it ended up being more like about a 3:37 or 3:38 pace for the first half, which was faster than I wanted to go, and then the second half turned out very similar so it was just all out the whole way. There was nothing left to put on the table," said Seville, the 2014 Leading Edge RunWild half-marathon winner at 1:23:14.
Ironically, Stone and Seville finished first and second, respectively, at the Moose is Loose at 1:17:55 and 1:18:30.
"That was a hell of a race. We pushed each other pretty hard for about half that race and I ran a personal best again at 1:18," Seville said. "Coming into this race I was really excited and then when I saw Chris today I thought this is going to be one heck of a race."
Last year Seville was clocked at 1:23:29 for second place behind Paul St. Amant of Bonnyville at 1:23:14.
"After last year I really trained hard and I started to dip deeper into the science behind nutrition and stuff like that. Early on in the season I started with a PB at RunWild and then I started training for the summer, which is always a good time because it's a lot easier to improve. You get some nice weather and when push it you don't feel as strained as on the track or in the snow in the winter," said the Zen-Meister of the St. Albert running community, sporting his colourful trademark bandana. "I didn't know what it would be like this year so that's why this race was really exciting for me. Nutrition was a big thing for me and also just the science of training different ways. I did a lot of Mission Hills, Seven Hills, intervals up and down and lots of foam rolling out my muscles and it seems to be helping keep the pace up."
The Paul Kane High School alumnus will spend his vacation time running a trail marathon in Utah in November.
"It's getting real exciting right now. I can't wait."
The Fall Challenge was Stone's eighth half-marathon of the year, which started off with the Rock 'n' Roll Arizona in January where he placed 18th at 1:13:26.
Amsterdam will be his second marathon this year and the goal is to go faster than his 2:37 performance at the Boston Marathon.
"I often run a lot more halfs just because you can recover quicker," said the top Canadian, 149th overall at 2:39:45, at the 2011 New York Marathon who be competing in his fifth Boston Marathon in April. "When you fire it up it feels very much similar to running the marathon."
Sunday also marked the first Fall Challenge of Stone's career.
"I don't think it will be the last one either. It was a lot of fun out there," he said. "You couldn't ask for a more beautiful day at the end of September and the course is absolutely stunning."
Stone was your average Joe Citizen before discovering that running was the ultimate high.
"I was a smoker and a drinker through my 18 to 25 years and that was fun and then I kind of got addicted to this," said the J. Percy Page High School alumnus.
Fastest female
Finishing third overall as the fastest female in the half-marathon was Reina Ainsworth of Edmonton at 1:30:33.
"I wanted to be around 1:30 so I'm happy with the time," Ainsworth said. "Usually I'm around 1:25 so I will take it. It's a bit of a hillier course and I'm not that strong of a runner so I figured I would be around 1:30."
Last year Ainsworth placed second behind Shannon Maisano of St. Albert as the seventh overall finisher out of 130 half-marathoners at 1:33:26. Maisano placed third overall at 1:27:01.
"This was just my lucky day," Ainsworth said. "It's my first fall race and I finished in first place so it's a great way to start off my fall races."
Christina Lynn of St. Albert was the female runner-up at 1:34:33 for fifth place and 2013 Ironman Worlds' competitor Jennifer St. Pierre of St. Albert was third-best among the 50 females to go the distance at 1:36:40 for seventh place.
Ainsworth, 33, is training for an upcoming marathon in New York and is also focusing on the 2015 Boston Marathon. The Fall Challenge was her second half-marathon of the season.
"It's something I do to build up for a marathon," said the Daysland High School alumna.
Ainsworth's last major race was in late May at the Envision Financial Run For Water Marathon in Abbotsford, B.C., where she finished 23rd overall as the third-fastest female at 3:15:29.
On the world marathon scene Ainsworth has completed the Boston, New York, Chicago and London races with Tokyo and Berlin left to conquer.
"It's kind of a bucket list thing. I have to run all the worlds and see how I do," said Ainsworth, who would devote all of her time to running if she could. "I wish I could get paid to do this. It's kind of unfortunate that Nike hasn't called me yet."
FAST TRACKS: The Fall Challenge, sponsored by Sturgeon Valley Athletic Club, featured 198 finishers in the half-marathon run/walk, 10-km run/walk and five-km run/walk.
Visit www.resultscanada.com for the Fall Challenge results.
