By Andy Smith
575 runners took advantage of sunny calm conditions at Cobble Hill on Sunday January 22nd to race the Cobble Hill 10k, the second event of the Island VIRS race series. The course was a mostly flat 10k loop (10.4k according to my watch) starting/finishing at Mill Bay Nature School. Temperature was 5 degrees, and the sun made an appearance around race time. The course was modified this year to avoid congestion in the village eliminating two hills and making this a faster course than previous years. These early season races attract a lot of elite runners and that was the case at Cobble Hill. A strong contingent from Canada’s National Triathlon Team participated in the race as well as many strong club level runners. The favourite in the men’s race was Daniel Muluchet Zewdu, a young Ethiopian runner recently arrived in Victoria after living for several years with his family in Israel as refugees. Daniel has a super-fast 10k personal best of 29:30 and is coached by former Olympian Bruce Deacon. However, victory on Sunday went to another young rising star Solen Wood, who passed Daniel in the final kilometers to win the men’s race in a time of 30:47. Solen is a member of Canada’s national triathlon team. The team soon leaves for training camps in Cuba and Bermuda in advance of the international triathlon season, so this race was a bit of a warmup. Victory in the women’s race went to Colette Reimer, another rising star from Canada’s National Triathlon team, in a time of 37:17. Both Solen and Colette compete in the 20-24 age categories.
Many of the competitors at the Cobble Hill Race represent Island running clubs like Harriers, Ceevacs, or Comox Valley. More than 25 clubs competed at Sunday’s race. STARR was well represented by 11 competitors across 8 different age categories bringing home two medals in a very competitive field with many age categories having 20 or more entries. Andy Smith placed second in the M60-64 age group and Bruce Hawke placed second in the M80-84 age group. Several other club members won ribbons for placing top ten in their age group. Pauline Nielsen finished 4th in F 50-54; Stephanie Croft finished 9th in W45-49 and Greg Balchin placed 10th in M60-64. Everyone enjoyed the event. It’s a great location with quiet traffic, decent parking and a local high school to host pre-race and post-race activities. The CEEVACS club did a great job sponsoring the race providing volunteers, food, and home baking at the finish line. Congratulations on a fun event and to all our STARR finishers! Full results for STARR runners are listed below.
Photos below courtesy of Joe Crazy Legs
