By Leslie Ann Bent
Wow! Who expects to achieve a personal best once they hit the masters’ level? Well, ask Jonathan. He can tell you how it feels. That’s how it all came down on Sunday at the Oak Bay Half Marathon.
The Oak Bay is a beautiful area for a race and the race event has something for everyone. The Oak Bay race weekend offers a half marathon solo and 4-person relay, a 10k race, and a 1k kids’ event. I heard through the grapevine that the course is a challenging one but the website is shy to point that out. The half marathon starts with a short loop through the downtown and historical section of Oak Bay before turning onto the waterfront near McNeil Bay. The course is then an out and back along the picturesque waterfront passing Uplands Park before turning back and ending at Windsor Park. The 10k course follows part of that half marathon course with the Victoria Golf Course marking the turn around. The race size is decent with nearly 600 finishers in the half marathon, 34 relay teams and almost 450 in the 10k race. The weather along the water certainly favoured the runners with a high of 19C and barely a breath of wind, as Swiftsure Yacht racers out in the strait were dying for wind that didn’t materialize.
I believe our only STARR runner was Jonathan. He crossed the finish line with a time of 1:26:14, earning him a personal best time, and an age group first-place finish for the M40-49. Also impressive was his 16th overall place finish out of 599 runners. Congrats! The winning time came from Adam O’Meara crossing the line at 1:18:55.
In the 10k event, Ducan’s James Richardson placed first with a time of 38:09. For the woman, first placed was won by Mel Russel of Victoria with a time of 43:58.
Here is what Jonathan had to say about the race. “It was a fantastic course - hilly in places and some fast straightaways in others. It was the first time I ran this race...loved it...lots of aid stations. The scenery was stunning. One of the more beautiful courses I have seen. Luck seemed to be on my side as everything came together well. I felt good through out and the body feels fine today. It was a PB on the 21,1km distance for me which really surprised me as I was warned it's a tough course. Missed not seeing the other Sooke runners there.. Hopefully see everyone at Nanaimo for the trail race!”