Prairie Inn Harriers

PIH women's team at the 2009 BC Cross Country Championships on October 31. Click for full-size picture. Tony Austin photo. The PIH men's team leads the pack at the 2009 BC Cross Country Championships on October 31. Click for full-size picture. Tony Austin photo.

• The Spring 2012 Prairie Inn Post is available online.

• Secure Online Membership Form
• Current 2012 Club Membership List
• Don't forget to get your 2012 membership now.

• Saturdays at 8:00 am - Thetis Lake/Francis King
  Starting May 1, meet at the Prior Lake parking lot 1.5K north on Highland Road. Map here. Everyone welcome, all paces.

• Tuesdays at 5:00 pm
  Tuesday Night Group, Speed and Power Training Sessions. Everyone welcome, all paces.
  • Meet at Mt. Douglas Park at 5:15 pm from May 3 'til June 28, 2011
  • Map to Mt. Douglas Park
  • Download Complete 2012 Tuesday Night Schedule

• Thursdays at 9:00 am - Various locations
  
  • Hit the Thursday Morning Gang Page For Full Details

• June 19, 7:30 pm: Cedar Hill Recreation Centre

• Mon May 21 (Victoria Day) - Mt. McDonald, meet at the Humpback Reservoir at 9:00 am
• Sun June 17 (Father’s Day) - Mt. Blinkhorn, meet at small barking lot on Kangaroo Road at 9:00 am
• Sun July 1 (Canada Day) - Stewart Mountain/Scafe Hill, meet at the end of Westoby Road at 9:00 am
• Mon Aug 6 (BC Day) - Mt. Work, meet at the small barking lot on Munn Road at 9:00 am
• Mon Sept 3 (Labour Day) - Mt. Wells, meet at the Humpback Reservoir at 9:00 am
• Wed Dec 26 (Boxing Day) - Mt. Newton, meet at the Prairie Inn Pub at 10:00 am for car pooling

• 4th Annual Harriers Hounds 50-Metre Sand Sprint - Saturday, October 13, 2012, 7:40 am.
• Race starts promptly at 7:40 am, Thetis Lake Park, Main Beach. Trophy awarded to the fastest "Harriers Top Dog" and to the slowest "Most Easily Distracted Dog". No admission fee for the hounds and spectators are welcome. Race precedes our regular Thetis Lake group runs.

There are various distances available at each of these Harriers runs and hikes. Please email our Social Coordinator, Sara Pape-Salmon at social@pih.bc.ca, if you are interested and Sara will forward your names to the appropriate run/hike coordinator. There's a maximum of 36 participants per event. We have to plan for ferries, travel, vehicles, food and other logistics for the events, so please don't wait to the last minute to sign up. Thanks.

• Sunday, June 3, 2012 - Cobble Hill/Kinsol Trestle (Larry Nylen)
• Sunday, July 15, 2012 - Sooke Hills (Jeremy Watts)
• Sunday, August 26, 2012 - Hurricane Ridge (Bob Reid)

• Road Riding
• Sundays, 9:00 am
  Meet at Oak Bay Bikes, 1900 Oak Bay Avenue, for a 60K road ride (2 to 2.5 hours) around the waterfront and out the Saanich Peninsula, weather permitting. Moderate, no-drop pace.
• Mondays, 5:30 pm
  Meet at Gerry Etcheverry’s house, 822 Ralph Street, for a 50K structured workout road ride including hilly courses, time trials and paceline riding, weather permitting. Moderate to hard pace with regrouping as necessary.
• Wednesdays, 9:00 am
  Meet at Ken Bonner's house in Oak Bay for a road ride to Sidney and around the Saanich Peninsula. Various meeting spots. Always a great social ride with the retired guys with a coffee stop in Sidney. Year-round, all weather. Hard and moderate paces in two or three groups. Map from Beach Drive & Orchard Ave
• Thursdays, 5:30 pm
  Meet at Thetis Lake gravel parking lot on Six Mile Road at Atkins Road, near the Galloping Goose, for a 40K (1 to 1.5 hours) road ride through the Western Communities, weather permitting. Easy, no-drop pace to encourage new riders to join in with other Harriers.
• Saturdays, 6:00 am, 8:30 am or 9:00 am
  6:00 am - Tripleshot Hammerfest Ride – Meet at Cook Street Starbucks. Very hard pace.
  8:30 am – Pro City Group Ride – Meet at the Trek Store on Catherine Street. Hard pace.
  9:00 am - Oak Bay Bicycles Ride – Meet at Oak Bay Bikes on Foul Bay Road. Hard pace.
• Mountain Biking
• Sundays, 2:00 pm
  Meet at the end of Woodridge Place, off Munn Road past the Highlands Volunteer Fire Hall for a 1.5 to 2 hour ride on the Hartland Trails. All weather.
• Tuesdays/Thursdays, 6:30 pm
  Optional trail rides may be available from various locations. All weather. Check with Chris Hamilton for more details.
• Saturdays, 2:00 pm
  Meet at Durrance Lake parking lot on Willis Point Road for a 1.5 to 2 hour ride on the Partridge Hills Trails. All weather.
• Download Complete Ride Schedule

• Saturday, May 19, 2012 - The Kilted Mile Run - Register Here
• Sunday, May 20, 2012 - Island Runner Team X Sprint Triathlon... - Register Here
• Saturday, May 26, 2012 - The Q's Victoria Track Series Meet #2 - Register Here
• Sunday, May 27, 2012 - Gutbuster 001 - Colliery Dam - Register Here
• Sunday, May 27, 2012 - Subaru Shawnigan Lake Triathlon - Register Here
• Sunday, May 27, 2012 - Oceanside 10K - Register Here

Results - Overall | Age-graded | Groups | Teams
Natasha Fraser topped the women's field in 34:32, Lucy Smith was the first master and second female overall in 35:14, while David Jackson, 30:34, was the top Harrier and first Canadian placing 4th of 10,012 finishers at the 23rd annual Times Colonist 10K today under ideal racing conditions. The first two men were Kenyans with Kip Kangogo winning in 29:51 and Willy Kimosop hitting the line second in 30:05. Third place went to American Joseph Gray in 30:23. Natasha and Lucy finished 28th and 29th overall while Lisa Harvey, 35:23, and Marilyn Arsenault, 35:33, were 3rd and 4th females and placed 35th and 36th overall. Several Harriers achieved personal best 10K times at the event including Jeremy Lawrence, 35:34, Ian Ackroyd, 36:02, Chris Callendar, 36:07, Happy Jaycox, 36:40, Julie Van Veelen, 38:49, Larry Nylen, 39:39, and Brent Chan, 43:41. The Harriers boasted eight gold medals for winning their age categories including Natasha Fraser (F30), Lucy Smith (F45), Nancy Baxendale (F50), Adena Cronk (F60), David Jackson (M35), Michael Lax (M55), Brian Connon (M65) and the amazing Maurice Tarrant (M80). Three more won silver and four Harriers took bronze medals. Prairie Inn Harriers claimed the top club honours of 25 teams. There were 12,300 TC10K registrations this year and 10,012 finishers including 4,047 men and 5,965 women. This was 64 more finishers than last year but 604 shy of the record of 10,616 finishers established in 2010.

Individual Results, Club Standings - Sean Chester and Claire Morgan were the highest finishing Prairie Inn Harriers when the Frontrunners Island Race Series wrapped up today in Sooke. Both secured their titles prior to the final Series race and both ran the Sun Run today with excellent performances. Sean won the overall Island Series title for the second consecutive year with an average points total of 840 for his best 5 races. Claire topped the F35 division with 811 points, second only to Care Nelson, 824 points, who won the female overall championship. Seven Harriers secured gold medals in their age categories including Sonja Yli-Kahila (F30), Claire Morgan (F35), Nancy Baxendale (F50), Maree Kennell (F70), Sean Chester (M25), Shane Ruljancich (M35) and John Woodall (M80). Six more Harriers claimed silver medals including Julie Van Veelen (F35), Valerie Bell (F50), Ian Ackroyd (M45), Yuki Otsubo (M50) and Gary Duncan (M55) while both Larry Nylen (M50) and Norm Dolan (M60) collected bronze medals. Honourable mention goes to four fourth place finishers Pamela Dinn (F30), Wendy Davies (F50), Brandon Willson (M16) and Happy Jaycox (M30). Prairie Inn Harriers won the Club Championship with 4,272 points followed by Comox Valley Road Runners, 2,761 points, and Frontrunners Athletic Club, 2,125 points. There were 3,609 finishers in all 8 Series races and 59 clubs participated.

Results - Julie Van Veelen won her first-ever Series race, Sarah Daitch recorded her highest-ever Series position and Todd Nowack saved his best-ever Series performance for the Sooke River 10K today, the eighth and final event in the 2012 Frontrunners Island Race Series. The top three men were Bastion's Joel Deschiffart, in 33:28, Frontrunners' Shawn Nelson, in 34:09, and Jorge Para, from Courtenay, in 34:33. The top three women were PIH's Julie Van Veelen, 39:09, PIH's Sarah Daitch, 40:14, and Frontrunners' Isabelle Fillion, 40:18. Julie has completed 44 Island Series races in the past 6 years and her 784 points at Sooke today is her best performance and her first race victory. Todd has completed 10 Island Series races to date and his 775 points was his best performance by finishing 5th overall at Sooke. His previous highest position in a Series race was in 2008 where he finished 14th at Hatley Castle. Todd has run this race three times and has seen his times improve from 40:49 to 38:26 to 35:04 today, 5:45 faster than he ran it in 2005. There were 352 finishers at the Sooke River 10K compared to 359 finishers last year.

Results - Ian Ackroyd and Julie Van Veelen were the top Harriers at the Merville 15K today, Race #7 of 8 in the Frontrunners Island Race Series. Ian finished in 8th position overall, his highest-ever Series standing, by completing the course in 55:21. He was second in the M45 division. Happy Jaycox was 11th overall in 55:33 to achieve 753 points, a personal best ranking of 14 Series races completed in 2011 and 2012. He showed an improvement of over 3 minutes from last year's time at Merville and has improved by several minutes at every Series race this year. Julie was second female overall to race winner Care Nelson, 58:09, and she improved her time from 1:08:10 in 2011 to 1:00:32 today at Merville. She also jumped up in the overall rankings from 86th in 2011 to 24th in 2012, an improvement of 62 positions. Valerie Bell had an outstanding race with a personal best time of 1:03:57 to win the F50 division by almost 4 minutes and claim the top master's crown; she was third female overall. Honourable mention goes to Larry Nylen, Gary Duncan and Julien Marceau who won silver medals in their respective age categories. The top three finishers were Aspire's Ben Brzezynski, 50:18, and Sean Chester, 50:31, followed by Mark Cryderman, of the host club River Runners, in 50:44. There were 16 Harriers at Merville of the 283 finishers. This was 49 less than last year's total of 332.

For the second consecutive Series race, Harriers masters athletes produced some commanding performances at the Comox Valley Half Marathon today, Race #6 of 8 in the Frontrunners Island Race Series. Jim Finlayson (M40) won the race outright in 1:07:29, Bruce Deacon (M45) was second overall in 1:11:22 and Bastion's Stephen Struthers (M25) took third in 1:13:53. Nancy Baxendale (F50) was the top female Harrier, fourth female overall, in 1:27:21 winning her age division by over 9 minutes. The top three women in the race were ORCA's Melissa Ross, 1:20:25, Care Nelson, Frontrunners Athletic Club, 1:20:58, and Sonja Futehally, Mercury Rising Triathlon, 1:27:30. Harriers Melanie McQuaid finished fifth and topped the F35 division in 1:28:18. Honourable mention goes to Heather Bretschneider who finished third in the F30 division at the Comox Half one day after pacing her dad in his first race ever at the St. Patrick's Day 5K in Vancouver on Saturday. There were 431 finishers at the Comox Valley Half Marathon today compared to 509 finishers last year.

Harriers dominated in many of the master's divisions at Bazan Bay 5K today collecting 8 gold medals in various 40+ age categories. Ian Hallam topped the M40 division and was the first master in the race in 15:31 finishing 13th overall of 679 finishers on a new out-and-back race course with a slight headwind on the outbound portion. Paul O’Callaghan won the M45 division in 16:53; he was 39th overall. Lucy Smith set a F45 course record of 17:01 and Nancy Baxendale set a F50 course record and a British Columbia F50 Record of 18:35, breaking Catherine Irons' F50 B.C. mark of 18:47, also established at Bazan Bay in 2009. Other Harriers masters winning their age categories included Yuki Otsubo (M50), Gary Duncan (M55), John Woodall (M80) and Maree Kennell (F70). Premasters Shane Ruljancich (M35) and Claire Morgan (F35) also topped their divisions bringing PIH's gold medal total to 10. Today's Bazan Bay race attracted perhaps the most talented and competitive field in the 31-year history of the Island Race Series encompassing 258 races and a combined total of 105,206 finishers since 1982. Bolstered by several high performance, first-time Series athletes from the UVic Vikes, National Triathlon Centre, Point Grey Track Club and Speed River Athletics a staggering 7 course records were set today. Geoff Martinson, a former Vikes star from Prince George, won the race in a blistering 14:20 to break Simon Whitfield's previous course record of 14:36 set in 2010. NTC's Brent McMahon placed second in 14:44 and Dylan Haight, of UVic, was third in 14:48. The women's field produced some even stronger results. In an absolutely stunning performance, Kelowna's Malindi Elmore shattered Lucy Smith's course record of 16:10 to win the Bazan Bay female championship in 15:48. Second place went to Hilary Stellingwerff, of Vancouver, in 16:32, while NTC's Ellen Pennock was third in 16:53. Malindi Elmore's outstanding effort propelled her to the top of the leader-board of all-time performances in Island Series races with 943 points, 3 more than Jon Brown's 1:03:57 accomplishment at the Comox Half Marathon in 2005. Malindi also moved ahead of several other high performance Vancouver Island athletes including Carey Nelson, Steve Osaduik, Jim Finlayson, Debbie Scott, Angela Chalmers, Ulla Marquette and Leah Pells. All of the spectators at Bazan Bay today were treated to an epic performance in Vancouver Island racing history with stellar times in all age categories. Bazan Bay was definitely the highlight of the 2012 Frontrunners Island Race Series in a field of depth and competitiveness for both men and women.

Sean Chester won his first Series race of 2012 in 32:25, Claire Morgan topped her age category in 37:17 and was the second female to finish, while Ken Bonner, 49:15, earned his first gold medal since 2005 at the Cobble Hill 10K today, Race #4 in the Frontrunners Island Race Series. Ken completed his 93rd Series race since 1996 and has finished 60 more between 1982 and 1995 prior to the VIRA database being established. Shane Ruljancich continued his outstanding string of race performances with a second place finish in 32:49 and Ben Brzezynski took third in 32:53. Catrin Jones won the women's race in 36:36 and Kate Scallion was third in 37:58. There were 40 Harriers at Cobble Hill and 6 won their age divisions including Claire Morgan (F35), Nancy Baxendale (F50), Sean Chester (M25), Shane Ruljancich (M35), Ken Bonner (M70) and Maurice Tarrant (M80). The race was originally scheduled for January 22 but snow forced the organizers to reschedule it between Hatley Castle and Bazan Bay. As a result numbers were down substantially with 383 finishers today compared to 560 finishers last year. There were 552 registrations this year which meant that 169 runners did not pick up their race packages at Cobble Hill.

The third race in the Frontrunners Island Race Series, the Hatley Castle 8K, took place today and our Harriers ladies recorded a perfect 1-2-3 finish. The race, organized for the first time by the new Frontrunners Athletic Club, saw 405 finishers compared to 465 finishers from last year. Claire won the women's division in 31.01 while Julie and Sonja came second and third in a one-second sprint finish, 32:45 to 32:46. It was Claire's first victory at Hatley Castle and both Julie and Sonja recorded their highest-ever finishing positions from a combined total of 65 Island Series races completed to date. James Lander won the men's race convincingly in 25:26 over Harriers Sean Chester, second in 26:14, and Shane Ruljancich, third in 26:57. The Frontrunners Green Jersey for the fastest open male sprinter over the last 100 metres was a tie - both Harriers' Shane Ruljancich and Julien Marceau recorded a 13.20 second sprint to the line. Ten Prairie Inn Harriers won gold medals for topping their age categories at Hatley including Sonja Yli-Kahila (F30), Claire Morgan (F35), Valerie Bell (F50), Maree Kennell (F70), Sean Chester (M25), Shane Ruljancich (M35), Ian Ackroyd (M45), Yuki Otsubo (M50), Gary Duncan (M55) and John Woodall (M80).

The second race in the Frontrunners Island Race Series - the Cedar 12K - took place today, with Simon winning in 37:36, just two seconds ahead of James Lander. The race, which saw 449 finishers down 29 from last year, was hosted by the Bastion Running Club. Sisi won both the Yellow Jersey by topping the master women's division in 47:28 and the Green Jersey for being the fastest master sprinter in 16.21 seconds. Whitfield and Esquimalt-based Lander were neck-and-neck for the entire race, and spectators saw a thrilling finish with Lander just being pipped to the post, finishing in 37:38. "The race was very hard. James knows how to hurt and pushed me the whole way," said Whitfield. "I could tell right away he was going to be very hard to shake, and he kept coming back every time I surged to test him." Third place was Harriers Sean Chester in 39:01. Two seconds also separated the top two women with Care Nelson, Frontrunners Athletic Club, winning in 45:06, and the 2010 GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon women's winner Catrin Jones second in 45:08. Third was Harriers Claire Morgan in 46:15. For the second consecutive race Harriers Sarah Daitch won the open female Green Jersey with a 100 metre sprint of 17.27 seconds. Six Harriers won their age categories at Cedar including Sean Chester (M25), Simon Whitfield (M35), Maurice Tarrant (M80), Claire Morgan (F35), Sisi Hallam (F40) and Nancy Baxendale (F50). Honourable mention goes to two Harriers that both had a terrific race, Happy Jaycox finished sixth in a very difficult M30 division in 46:09, and Julie Van Veelen who was second to Claire in the F35 division in 48:59. This vaulted her from 113th overall last year to 49th this year with a four and a half minute improvement in her time!

In the 33rd annual Harriers Pioneer 8K today it was a clean 1-2-3 sweep for Harriers athletes with Steve Osaduik, from Langley, winning in 24:46. It was Steve's sixth victory at Pioneer including his personal best 8K time of 23:35 set in 2010. Last year's winner, Jim Finlayson, came second in 25:03, and was the top master in his first-ever race as a master. Dylan Gant, of Burnaby, placed third in 25:10. Four-time champion, Lucy Smith, dominated the women's field finishing in 28:30, also making her the top female master. Lucy ran 26:29 to win the 2002 Pioneer 8K. Another master, Marilyn Arsenault, proved she was back on the competitive scene, placing second in 28:59. Care Wakely, of Frontrunners Athletic Club, took third in 29:25. There was a large contingent of high performance runners from the Lower Mainland at Pioneer, claiming four of the top six positions overall and two of the female runners placed third in their respective age categories. Harriers athletes swept the four yellow jerseys for the race champions and the four green jerseys for the fastest sprinters over the final 100 metres of the race course. The champion Frontrunners Yellow Jerseys went to Steve Osaduik (open), Jim Finlayson (40+) and Lucy Smith for both the open and 40+ categories. The Frontrunners Green Jerseys for the fastest sprinters were won by Harriers' Chris Callendar (12.72 seconds) and Ian Hallam (40+) in 16.36 seconds. Sarah Daitch won the open female division in 17.05 and Sisi Hallam won the 40+ division in 18.68. There were 80 PIH finishers today and another 80 PIH volunteers under the leadership of new Race Directors Kathleen Birney and Heather Bretschneider who did an outstanding job. There were 629 finishers compared to 647 finishers last year.