By Barbara Cina
Photos by Guido Cina
The Vancouver Island Road Series finally continued after the postponed race two weeks ago. The Hatley 8k race took place today on the grounds of Royal Roads University, surrounding the historic Hatley Castle, in Colwood. The early arrivers even found time for a photo-op with the resident peacocks freely roaming the gardens. Despite of an uncertain weather forecast, it turned out very favorable with a milky sun winning over the clouds perfectly timed for the race - allowing the course to dry up just enough.
Speaking of the course, the 8k loop with 115m of elevation is quite spectacular with breath-taking views (or are there other reasons…?) over the Colwood Lagoon and the distant Olympic Mountains, in addition to the impressive old growth forest. The patchy road and rooty trails don’t necessarily make this run only an easy breeze, as the sprinkled-in ramps gets everyone steaming and temporarily forgetting about the scenery – at least as far as I was concerned.
For the 483 runners, the start horn was tooted at 11:00 sharp - with the last oncoming car luckily just making it out of the way in time. Anton Kuipers took his first win within this year’s series in impressive 26:34, followed by Brennen Smith and Nathanael Tabert.
The first female Meg Lewis-Schneider, finishing in 29:41, was followed by Zoe Hamel and Julia Tschanz.
Post-race, participants enjoyed hot dogs provided by Colwood Fire and refreshments in the Auditorium, where awards were also given out. The opportunity for some indoor shelter is a great addition to this race. Last year’s participants will recall how storm and rain cut all after-race activities short.
Notable performances of our STARR runners include (-apologies, should I have missed anyone):
Barb Cina: 38:19 (3rd in F45-49)
Emily Mann: 41:48
Jill Potter-Hellmann: 49:09
Maggie Curtis: 51:57
Kari Toovey: 53:01
Undecided whether you’re more of a road or trail runner, and up for a short race not far from home – you should definitely consider this one for next year…