Fall Classic Half Marathon

Congrats to everyone who raced yesterday!

We had a decent sized showing in the half marathon and another few athletes running the 10k.

In the half marathon we had a few first along with a few personal best finishes despite TERRIBLE running conditions. Race morning was COLD (4*C), RAINY, and WINDY!

When I woke at 6AM up for the race, I checked the weather network and this is what I saw

I realize this says Monday Nov 16th, but fortunately for the blog today had the same warning as Sunday

At 6AM this is not what you want to see. Despite this, it was still a great day. Times were a little slower than normal but spirits were still high.

Congrats again to everyone who raced!

Half Marathon

23 1:26:27 Vincent LAVALLEE

33 1:27:50 Liam HARRAP

48 1:31:23 Eric SUESS

55 1:32:29 Winston GUO

80 1:34:42 Tobi VOLKMANN

106 1:38:06 Nathaniel JANZEN

140 1:41:29 Clara GOMEZ

154 1:42:59 Chris SCOTT

433 1:58:10 Ceilidh CURTIS

522 2:01:11 Sarah SIMON

10k

7 36:16 Derek WESTRA-LUNEY

11 37:18 Matt REEVE

100 46:28 Victoria GILBERT

If I missed anyone let me know and I'll add you on.

Event #7, 5K Run TT Race Report

5K RUN TT

On a day that looked dry and crisp, the Gods decided this wasn't to be the case for the 5k Run time trial as only 15 minutes before practice started, the skies opened up and unleashed a storm!

Despite the horrible weather 26 athletes participated making it the second largest event thus far.

The team ventured East towards Acadia Blvd where the 5.5 lap run would take place. The general atmosphere was much more relaxed than last week at the mile, as jokes of eating Red Burrito and Subway where passing through the air. Andrew Wight was even going to far as to blame Safeway and Halloween candy until he called himself out on the lame for using classic Vincent Lavallee excuses.

Group shot during warmup, with Team Seder prominently in the front

After a rather short warmup due to the cold weather the 26 athletes were off! After a rather"quick" start by an overexcited Claire, Barry Claman, 2 time defending UBCTC event champion quickly took over the lead never to relinquish it. After being out-kicked in the dying meters of the Mile last week, Claire was not going to let this happen again as she distanced herself by 90 seconds over her competition by the finish line, edging out any ideas of a quick finishing sprint getting by her.

Victoria Gilbert finished in second with Rachel Schoeler just over 15 seconds back taking third.

With this strong finish, Claire moves up in the standings to be tied with Flipper Janzen for second.

On the men's side, behind Barry, Vincent Lavallee led out the charging group. Giving short 100m surges to break apart the group, Vincent managed to drop all the chasers but one, Matt Reeve. Then it became a race within a race, with Vincent and Matt Dueling and Winstorm, Flipper and Liam HARRAP close behind.

With 1 lap to go, Vincent gave one final powerful surge on the long backstreach uphill to finally snap the elastic that was holding Matt, and managed to distance himself 10-15 meters coming into the finishing stretch. Behind these two, a true race unfolded as Winstorm managed to open a gap on Liam and Flipper, Flipper managed to hold off Liam HARRAP in the sprint for the line.

Flipper sporting conflicting clothing, some running flats and a tuque

This was not the only sprint finish, as behind this group a minute or two down was the race between Evan Cheng and Matt Robinson with Cheng edging the win at the line.

On a hugely successful night for all, there were multiple personal best achieved:

Matt Reeve, Winston Guo, Andrew Wight, Nathaniel Flipper Janzen, Scott Chris along with many others (tell me and I'll put your name up) despite in being rumored a long course.

Image showing Dark/Wet/Cold conditions racers faced

Comparing the three GPS wearers, Winstorm and team Seder, the average distance covered was measured at 5.13km. However after all the votes are in, no corrected times will be given for the time trial. Although the GPS watches give readings of 5.1+ km, the arguments were made that everyone was running wide and with the leaves/wet ground etc. it was just lack of tight cornering that resulted in the long distance. Also, you don't want to have to justify your result in the future if ever someone asks.

To remedy this situation, many UBCTC members are rumored to be running another 5k TT but this time on the track. No questions there (other than how many laps have been done). Hopefully the previous three weeks of racing won't hurt too much, and the athletes will still have the juice in their legs for a good run. Any company will be encouraged and welcome, an e-mail will be sent out with some warning as to when.

In a post race interview with series leader Matt Reeve, he was asked about his thoughts on the race:

"Well, I've been pretty confident in my running after the uphill time trial and the mile race. I knew that I had the form for a good performance, maybe even a PB. I decided to go out strong. Immediately I saw Vincent take over the lead of our chase pack and figured that I would simply hold him and then when he started to fade I would take over and run in for the win. Well who would have thought Vince had it in him. I mean, we all know he's a decent runner and a generally good looking guy, but the kick he put out at 1km to go was just a little too much today. I have to be happy with the 3rd."

Results:

Barry Claman	17:10
Vincent Lavallee	18:08
Matt Reeve	18:17
Winstorm Guo	18:35
Nathaniel Janzen	18:43
Liam Harrap	18:44
Andrew Wight	19:04
Scott Chris	19:36
Kory Seder	20:02
Evan Cheng	20:32
Matt Robinson	20:32
Ceilidh Curtis	21:46
Derrick Lee	22:18
Jesse Chao	22:26
Fabian Jankovic	22:41
Claire	20:28
Victoria Gilbert	21:58
Rachel Schoeler	22:16
Alana Schick	22:32
Melanie Thompson	22:45
Kimberly Seder	23:05
Lauren Sagadore	23:28
Annie Mauer	24:17
Kelsey Foote	24:34
Celeste Pakstas	24:35
Debbie Poon	32:30

Event #7, 5K Run TT

Tonight starts the second half or the University of British Columbia Triathlon Clubs Fall Classic Series. As one of the longer events, the 5k run TT could shake things up in the overall standings for in this event, endurance and not speed is what is required.

We will leave the track out of it this week and run a more traditional road race, heading a few blocks east into the endowment neighborhood of Acadia. This 5.5 lap run course is fast paced, but not without its challenges. With 4 90* turns a lap and a short hill, athletes will have to pace themselves to prevent a collapse.

Will Barry Claman be able to make it 3/3 and run his goal of sub 17 minutes? Course record is held by Jaime Orellana Tamez at 17:05 last year (in a full tracksuit for some reason). And on the women's side, who will take the running top honors, will it be Victoria or Claire? Or will there be a new dark horse who wins this race?

Be ready and warmed up by 6:10PM to find out!

Correction Time

Hey, so after our undisputable results from the uphill time trial, the executive decision making council convened and it turns out that we messed up Claire Haddock's time. As a result, instead of running a 3:5X as we previously had her down for, she ran a 3:43 to take the victory on the day.

Sorry Claire, sometimes we aren't too smart at math.

Photo a little blurry from mile, sorry!

Mile Showdown

The Mile. Amongst the most grueling physical activities ever designed by man. On Wednesday October 21st, 2009 the UBCTC will be running a Mile on the UBC Track.

There is much speculation as to how it will unfold. Will it be a predictive victory, or will a dark horse prevail?

Already the taunting has begun. No matter how much is said, it will all be decided out on the track.

To commemorate this awesome of evenings, a social gathering will be had at the Gallery after the event where stories can be told to describe the pure athleticism that was seen that night.

Show up at 5:30 to prepare your warm up for the event at 6PM.

To elevate the excitement around the mile, I present to you the Miracle Mile, run not 20 kilometers from where we will be running 55 years ago.

Royal Victoria Marathon and Half

I figured it was better late than never. Congratulations to everyone who raced in Victoria.

UBCTC had 7 athletes racing; Ceilidh in the full marathon, and Winston, Kelsey, Melanie, Kori, Kim and Vincent in the half marathon.

It was quite a successful day for everyone!

Ceilidh finished the marathon in a time of 4:23:30 to start his training for ironman in 2010!

Kelsey Foote, running in her second half marathon wanted to run it in under 2 hours and succeeded by running in 1:56:09. In a post race recap she was quoted as saying that her favorite part of the race was that at midway there were people serving beer. How could she not have a good time.

Kimberly Beck also ran the half marathon, in a time of 1:55:46. Unfortunately I don't know if this was a pb or not, you'll have to ask her yourself.

Melanie Van Soeren ran herself to a personal best with a time of 1:44:08 falling below her target time of 1:45!

Kori Seder ran himself to a PB in the half marathon with a time of 1:38:08. Not only that, he snapped a pretty funny picture.

Winston prior to the race was worried that he may not be able to run a pb, his previous pb was from two years ago when he was in "better running shape". This I find hard to believe, especially since he set a 19 second PB with 1:28:32 along with being runner up at the uphill TT this past week.

Vincent Lavallee was the last of the racers also running a pb in the half with a time of 1:23:57. Seeing as how Vincent had never run a half marathon without a 90km bike first, a pb was in the works.

Uphill Run TT Results

On a wet rainy night, the UBCTC approached the running route Spanish with conquest on their minds. This 1km long grueling climb, the venue of the first running test, would surely shake up the standings of the Fall Classic Series.

In a UBCTC Fall Classic series first, we were seeing the introduction of technologically advanced athletic apparel to try and sneak any bit of advantage the racers could get in this ultra competitive contest. From racing flats to cross country spikes and even global positioning systems were all in action on this fateful night.


The atmosphere was set with many of the favorites laying down preventative excuses of too much turkey over the long weekend and no fitness from the days off.


One first time UBCTC Fall Classic participant and generally good looking guy went so far as to lay down a solid foundation of excuses over tired legs as a consequence of running the Victoria Half Marathon on the weekend.


A small surprise met us as the bottom (steepest) part of the climb was closed due to mysterious repairs. With that a quick change to the race was made and the route was cut 200 meters short. This could prove to be a critical change due to the lack of leg burning steepness at the beginning of a 5 minute gruel fest.


Standing in the rain at approximately 6PM Barry Claman started off the racing, setting the tone with a blistering 3:09 clocking. Who would dare to test against this?


Matt Reeve, who suited up with his running flats, was up to the challenge!

Matt possessed pulverizing the spirits of his competitors

As the 23 competitors completed the course, the task could not be summarized in words, and for this the age old saying; "A picture is worth a thousand words" works perfectly. I present Andrew Wight upon completion!

Look at the exhaustion

After much confusion and photo diary replay to conclude the final order of the competitors, the officiating committee finally came up with the non disputable results.

The look of confidence

There was a strong showing in both fields, Male and Female. With 9 competitors in the female division, we don't think the UBCTC has seen a race so close. With 1st and 9th separated by only 29 seconds and the top two only 1 second apart.


Newcomer Kimberly McMurtry took home the glory in the Female division over second place finisher and Overall Female points leader Victoria Gilbert. Unfortunately we don't have a photo of winner McMurtry.

Victoria smiling as she must clearly know she moved up in the overall standings with a stellar performance

In the mens race, sandbagging Matt Reeve dropped his bag of excuses at the starting line and was pounds lighter as a result, soared to victory in a crushing time of 2:59.


Probably the surprise of the day came to Vincent Lavallee, as his iron clad excuse of tired legs was blown away by a Winstorm! It would appear as though Winston Guo took our Windgust jokes to heart and stamped his dominance with a second place finish in the hill time trial despite also having "tired legs" running a PB on the weekend in the Victoria Half Marathon.

Winstorm in his trusty multi-purpose shorts crushing dreams

After todays results, there is a big shake up of the overall standings. Absent Dan Clouston drops down to 6th overall with Matt Reeve holding a 1 point advantage over Victoria Gilbert, and with Lauren Sagadore and Nathaniel Janzen close in their wake.


At an all time high of 42 competitors taking part in one or more events, this proves to be the largest UBCTC Fall Classic in history! With 10 events left, it's still anyone's game.

Men's Results

Matt Reeve	2:59
Winston Guo	3:08
Barry Claman	3:09
Vincent Lavallee	3:13
Flipper Janzen	3:14
Andrew Wight	3:18
Scott Chris	3:20
Tobi Volkmann	3:24
Derrick Lee	3:35
Kory Seder	3:36
Evan Cheng	3:44
Steve Yau	3:45
Matt Robinson	3:46
Liam Harrap	3:48
Women's Results
Claire Haddock 3:43 Kim McMurtry 3:49 Victoria Gilbert 3:50 Naiely 3:59 Lauren 4:03 Rachel Schoeler 4:06 Melanie Van Soren 4:07 Kimberly Seder 4:10 Shannon Woods 4:18

Complete Race Photos.