Pauline on course. Photo courtesy of Joe Crazy Legs
By Leslie Ann Bent
This weekend the Prairie Inn Harriers hosted another great cross-country race – Harriers Stewart Mountain Challenge. Three STARR members were there to take on the challenge and our women brought back some well-deserved hardware.
Marika at the start. Photo courtesy of Joe Crazy Legs.
For those of you not familiar with the race, it takes place at Thetis Lake and offers two distances - 5 miles and 10 miles. The website describes the race as a fall challenge on character building trails, often muddy, wet and slippery with puddles, a lake and a summit climb on the long course. Great views and single track are also part of the experience.
I caught up with Marika to hear about the race. “The Stewart Mtn 10 Mile was awesome! The weather was perfect (a bit chilly at the start but nice once we got going). There was a good turnout of about 117 in the 10 Mile race. The course was in good shape, there was some new single track from 2019 so that was nice. The climb was as rewarding and challenging as ever. It was pretty dry except for one creek crossing and having to go through the same stinky puddle as in the Gunner Shaw (the first puddle in that race). The puddle was VERY cold this weekend (much colder than the previous week) and my ankles and feet were numb and stiff for a good while after going through it. There was a by-pass made available but I think most people chose the puddle. I was second guessing that decision immediately after getting through. This was the toughest part of the course for me, it slowed me down and made it hard to pick it up for the last couple of kilometers of the race... I surprised myself by a time of 1:35, 15 minutes faster than 2019.”
Jonathan. Photo courtesy of Jpe Crazy Legs.
We had some great results on this race. Pauline took home first place in the F50-59 age group with an awesome run of 1:49:31, out pacing the second-place runner by 6 seconds! Marika took home 2nd place in the F40-49 with an outstanding finish of 1:35:25. Jonathan was the first STARR to cross the finish line with a time of 1:26:57, earning him 5th place in the M40-49.
The race also had hot food - rice and choice of curried chickpeas or black lentils which was much appreciated by the runners after such a challenging run.
Congratulations to our runners.
Marika. Photo courtesy of Joe Crazy Legs.