Perfect racing conditions led to fast times at the “First Half” Half Marathon in Vancouver on Sunday.
Dylan Wykes had set a goal of bettering his time from last year, and he did not disappoint. Leading from the gun, he ran a controlled pace throughout, picking it up slightly towards the end, to come home in 1:04:22, seventeen seconds quicker than his record time from last year. The race was part of Wykes’ final preparations before taking aim at the Canadian Olympic Marathon qualifying standard of 2:11:29 in Japan on March 4.
Behind Wykes, who is a member of Athletics Ontario, Steve Osaduik and Natasha Fraser were crowned the 2012 BC Half Marathon Champions.
Osaduik, who has been racing frequently, winning the first two races in the 2012 Timex BC Road Running Series, as well as the Surf City Half Marathon in California last weekend, ran the race in an isolated second position, finishing in 1:07:27.
A pack of five athletes battled together for third for much of the race, but were never able to bridge the gap to Osaduik. Eventually Jeff Symonds from Penticton broke away to record a big PB for third place in 1:07:42. And behind him Jeremiah Ziak completed the BC Championship medallists in 1:08:19. The other members of that pack were Jeremiah Johnston, who also ran a PB of 1:08:34, Saskatoon’s Jason Warick (1:08:44), and first master Kevin O’Connor. O’Connor’s time of 1:08:48 at age 44 was an event record for the M4044 category, and was also the best age graded performance of the day, rated at 92.61%.
Fraser, who last year won the BC 5K, 8K and 10K Championships, added the 2012 Half Championship to her collection. She was unchallenged after the first two miles, finishing in 27th place overall, in 1:16:19.
Behind Fraser, Calgary’s Lisa Harvey continued her remarkable series of performances at the “First Half”. Since first competing in 2000, Harvey has only missed one race, and in the remaining years has won four times and placed second on all other occasions. She was second again this year, as well as finishing top master in 1:18:45.
The BC Championship placings were completed by Shauna Skinner in 1:19:25, and Anne-Marie Madden in 1:19:59.
A number of other age group records were broken. Mark Bennett broke the Canadian M5054 record by one second, clocking 1:13:48. And 82 year old Frank Kurucz set an inaugural M8084 record for the event with 2:07:47, winning the M70+ division in the process.
On the women’s side, records were set at both ends of the spectrum. 19 year old Naomi Fuglem broke the F<20 event record with 1:32:57. And the ageless BJ McHugh set a single age world best for an 84 year old with 2:27:02. McHugh now holds single age world half marathon bests in 14 ages, her first being set at the “First Half” in 1991 when she ran 1:36:17 at age 63.
One final record that was broken was the donation made to Variety – the Children’s Charity. A cheque for $54,500 was presented at the start of the race, bringing the total donated to Variety to over $500,000 since 1995. Pacific Road Runners thanks Forerunners who have sponsored the “First Half” since day one, Mizuno for their current generous support, and all other sponsors for making this possible.
Complete results: http://www.winningtime.ca/index.php?content=12fhhm
BC Championship results: http://www.bcathletics.org/results/2012/bcchampshalf.pdf
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