If you have 10 seconds on Saturday ...

Dino Indoor Challenge, April 26

This is the last indoor track meet at the Jack Simpson until the fall. There are not a lot of college or masters athletes competing this weekend, but there are a few notable exceptions. There's a full performance list at the link below, but I'll point out a couple of the highlights. Maybe you can stop by for an event on your way to picking up your race package for the Police Half.
www.uofcathletics.ca/perf_list_dic_08.htm

The morning starts off with a pretty competitive bunch of races, the men's and women's 16+ 60 metres, which are exciting to watch. After that at 10:15 you can watch Calgary Roadrunners masters sprinter Betty Dargie, who is 65, run a 60 metre sprint against 72 year old Mary McCarron-Egner. Dargie ran the 60m in 9.71 in Edmonton a buncha weeks back, so she'll probably be under 10 seconds again. Following that race is the men's masters 60m, with Brian Harries, Christopher Coy, Eugene Yuen and Earle Connor, and the oldest one in that group is merely 52.

So, that's about 5 minutes of your morning, but if you're picking up your race package in the afternoon Donna Dixon is running the 600m at 1:10pm. The times for these races are somewhat flexible, so you'll want to get there a little early and watch some of the other races. Especially if you've never done it before. There will be hundreds of elementary, junior and senior high school kids all freaked out and ready to explode and that's fun to be around.

If you haven't got a bib for the Calgary Police Half, it's too late for the half, but there are 100 5k bibs you can pick up at package pickup at the Tech Shop. I know, it's not the same, but it will still be fun. Or why not register for the 5k, run the half, and get the worst 5k time ever! That sounds like fun. Or volunteer. Volunteers are still needed to keep the hordes on the right path.

www.calgarypolicehalf.ca

See ya out there.

Europe, Glencoe, St. Patrick's Day, Roger Davies

Since some of the Calgarian athletes I've been in contact with have been traveling around a bit I thought I'd expand my horizons a bit in the Calgary Road and Track Report.

Boston Marathon
We'll start with world headlines, and the 112th running of the Boston Marathon, which is on Monday April 21. I'm sure a lot of local runners are heading there for the weekend. This is merely the longest running, most competitive, highly anticipated marathon of the year. In the world. And you can watch it live on Versus.

St. Patrick's Day
On March 16th there were two St. Patrick's Day runs in this city, but the one I went to was the "original" one that starts at the Red & White Club by Foothills Track. 623 people finished the 5 or 10k course in snowy and windy conditions. The winner of the 10k was Matthew Norminton from Edmonton in a time of 32:57, followed by Nathan Kendrick in 33:32 and Elmostafa Asnam in 33:43. The first three women in the 10k were Lindsay McLaren (38:37), Kari Elliot (40:15) and Janice Patterson (41:44). The 5k was won by Stephen Machowski in 20:34, followed by Matt Hall in 21:03 and Nicolas Wang in 21:52. The female 5k winner was grade 10 student Ciara Kary in 20:38, followed by Grace Kary in 21:14 and Orlagh O'Kelly in 22:18.

Glencoe Icebreaker
The next 10k was the sold out Glencoe Icebreaker on April 6. 492 people finished this race, which was won by Jeremy Deere in 32:21, followed by Like Way in 33:52 and Paul McCloy in 33:56. (McCloy ran 35:35 at St. Patrick's Day and finished 5th.) A couple of rookie Dino Track & Field athletes medalled for the women's 10k. Jessica O'Connell was first in 36:57, and Faye Stenning was third in 39:21. In secod was triathlete Rosemarie Gerspacher in 38:28. O'Connell says she runs only one road 10k each year, and last year she had the same time exactly. Gerspacher was second last year as well.

Spring Trio
On April 13th about 200 people showed up to run the Spring Trio, which was one of 3 distances along the Bow River Pathway. The 5k was won by Jan Pedder in 18:10, followed by Doug Owen (18:23) and Fraser Mills Connery (18:48). The 5k female winner was Ciara Kary in 19:00, followed by Grace Kary in 19:45 and Kari Elliot in 20:26. The 10k was won by Ken Myers in 33:49, who outkicked Graham Diehl (33:55) and Ryan Murray (36:25). Diehl was leading most of the race until the final push to the finish. Jannelle Morrison won the women's 10k in 38:29, followed by Nik Vogler (40:42) and Louise Taylor (43:57). The 15k distance was won by Simon Massey in 57:28, second was Geoff Badger in 58:52, and Phil Ukrainetz was the only other person under an hour in 59:43. The first female in the 15k was Janice Patterson (1:04:56), followed by Nancy Alingsangan in 1:06:23 and Ann Van Damme in 1:10:42.

Ski 2 Sea Relay
On April 6th Ken Myers was in Kelowna for his leg of the Sea 2 Ski Relay, which is an interesting team relay race. The first person to start is on a ski hill (Big White) on downhill skis. The second leg is a cross country skiier, followed by a mountain biker, and a road cyclist. Then runners like Ken Myers had a 14.5 k run to hand off to a kayaker who finishes the course in Okanagan Lake. Myers and his team finished second overall in 2 hours, 59 minutes and 13 seconds, exactly 4 minutes back of the leaders. There was also an opportunity for a half dozen people to work the course on their own, and the first one to complete it did it in 4:22:44.

Edinburgh, Scotland
On March 30 three local runners were in Scotland for the World Cross Country Championships. Calgary Spartan (and now first year student at Dalhousie University) Peter Corrigan was competing in the Junior Men 8k. He qualified for this race by placing in the top 6 at the Canadian Cross Country Championships in December in Guelph. The overall winner was Ibrahim Jeilan of Ethiopia in 22:38, and Corrigan placed 66th in 25:27. Representing the Calgary Track & Field Club was grade 12 student Nyial Majock, who placed 60th with a time of 25:19. In the senior women's race Calgary Spartan Lisa Harvey placed 77th with a time of 29:00. First place went to Tirunesh Dibaba in 25:10.

France!
A week later the World University Cross Country Championships were held in Mauquenchy, France. Peter Corrigan qualified for this race at the CIS Nationals in Victoria in November. The overall winner of the men's race was Najim Elqady of Morocco in 36:14, while Corrigan was 64th in a time of 40:01. Also from Calgary was 4th year Dino Heather Sim who placed 46th with a time of 25:07, a couple minutes back of Faye Fullerton of the UK who finished in 22:36.

Athlete of the Week
This Friday, CTV news has a local septagenarian distance runner as their Athlete of the Week. Roger Davies says he will be on around 6:50 on Friday. Awesome.

This Weekend's Races
There are two races this weekend, and one stairclimbing fundraiser. The Lethbridge Kodiak 10-4-2 should be a pretty competitive race, and the Tour de Airdrie half marathon in Airdrie is the opposite. The Airdrie race also has a 10k and 5k distance, and I think it's their third year and they're not attracting a huge crowd yet. It should be worth checking out though.

Climb for Wilderness
On Saturday is the Climb for Wilderness, which has a bunch of different ways to participate. The cool factor is you're allowed inside the stairwell of the Calgary Tower. The bummer is you have to climb up it. The crazy thing is some people pay $100 for the privilege of climbing up it multiple times. Plus, there's a race version, which happens at 8am. A group of runners runs 1k and heads up the stairs and the first one to the top wins. I imagine they have the 1k loop just to thin the crowd out a bit before they hit the doorway all at once.

Two Weeks from Now
The following weekend has two great events. The Rocky Mountain Soap Women's Run is great because any time you can run in Canmore or Banff it's memorable, and the always sold-out Calgary Police Half is on Sunday, April 27. Even though it's sold out you can still buy a number off someone via the Calgary Roadrunners website. There's about 20 people who have since been forced out of the race.

Apr 19 - Climb for Wilderness, 1k run + climb, or climb as many times as you can in 5hrs [200]
Apr 19 - Lethbridge Kodiak 10 Mile, 4 Mile or 2 Mile [400]
Apr 20 - Tour de Airdrie half marathon 5k 10k half [400]
Apr 26 - Rocky Mountain Soap Women's Run 5k/12k, Canmore [300]
Apr 27 - Calgary Police Half [2500]

May 1 - Dino High School Challenge, 5pm-8:30pm, Foothills
May 3 - Big Run Theatre Calgary 5k/10k/21k
May 7 - Dino High School Challenge, 5pm-8:30pm, Foothills
May 11 - Mothers Day 10k
May 17 -18 Calgary Spring Challenge track
May 24 - Five Peaks COP
May 24 - Foothills Academy Walk Rock and Roll
May 24 - HS City Championships
May 25 - New Balance series 1 track meet
May 25 - Calgary Women's Run
May 31- pacekids Race for Pace, 5k/10k