This weekend was the 5th race in the Vancouver Island Trail Series - Mount Washington. The race has two distances. The Gutbuster is 14km with an elevation gain of 820 meters. For those looking for a less challenging option the sport course covers 8km and the gain is 500 meters. The website describes the course quite crisply. "Above the treeline at Mt Washington! You’ll be treated to some unbelievable views of the Comox Valley & Strathcona Park. Some great climbing, and lots of fun single track. Definitely the most scenic and rewarding race in the series." This year the races had 216 runners.
STARR had only one runner in the race this past weekend - Jonathan Dvorak. Jonathan tore up the trail for the long course, placing second in his age group, and finishing 16th out of a field of 99 runners. His finishing time was 1:26:12. The winner of the long course was Sean Chester of Victoria with a finishing time of 1:11:09.
The short course was won by Victoria's Chris Walsh with a time of 50:49.
Here is what Jonathan had to say about the race. "Hey!! The race was lots of fun. Steep and hilly with a couple big downhill runs that burned the legs. The fog made it very interesting views. As always, lots of positive energy with the other runners!
“I look forward to these races. It seemed like it was bigger than the past couple of years, or it could have just been the fun vibe at Mt Washington!! Nice to hear live music and seeing the people walking around the resort! Maybe my favorite race of the trail series... between this and Cobble Hill."
Congrats once again to Jonathan for an amazing race.