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A record number of 203 runners toed the line in Horseshoe Bay at 6:00 am this morning.
190 of them
(second-highest ever) reached the finish line in Deep Cove by the 4:00 pm cut-off time (10 hours
later), making for an excellent finishing rate of 93.6%.
The 2005 champions in both the men's and women's divisions successfully
defended their titles against formidable competitors. North Vancouver's Mark
Bates played a cat-and-mouse game with Peter Findlay of Kamloops until the 3/4
point at the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve (LSCR). At that point, Mark
pulled away to eventually finish almost 4 minutes ahead of Peter. Mark's time of
5:08:26 was about 3 minutes off his winning time of 2005.
The women's race was also hotly contested, between New Westminster's Suzanne
Evans and Lisa Polizzi from Brisbane, Australia. Suzanne started pulling away
just after the halfway point, to eventually win by 9 minutes. Both Suzanne's
winning time of 5:18:57 and Lisa's second-place time of 5:27:55 were
substantially under the previous course record of 5:41:23. And to top it all
off, they finished 3rd and 4th overall, just behind the
top 2 men! This was one of the most memorable battles in Knee Knacker history,
featuring 2 of the finest individual performances turned in by anyone in 18
years of the race.
As always, I offer a few more
comments/observations at this late hour (well after the Awards Banquet):
 | Many, many thanks to all - runners, volunteers, sponsors and supporters - for making this another
very special day for all of us! |
| A charitable contribution of $3,500 will be made to
North Shore Rescue
. In addition, the Aeroplan lottery and Donations box yielded an additional
contribution of almost $500. We will post exact amounts once final accounting
is in. Thanks to
everyone for their generosity! |
| As promised, the trail was in excellent shape with minimal amounts of mud
and snow. The weather was ideal for the first few hours up in the high country
with a nice cloud cover and cool temperatures. However, it got a bit warm in
the second half with temperatures getting into the mid-twenties C (80 F). |
| Almost all comments on the new 2.6 km. of trail at the start were
extremely positive. Who can complain about even more single-track, technical
trail and less road? |
| 71 of the 190 finishers were first-timers. Out of the remaining 119 Knee Knacker veterans,
32 achieved Personal Bests on this day - way to go, gang! |
| Overall times for all runners were slower this year. The median time of
7:37:54 was the second-slowest in race history, second only to 1999's "Year of
the Snow" median time of 7:47:00. In most years, the median time falls into
the 7:15 to 7:30 range. |
| Complete results, with split times, are available
here. |
| If there are any typos/errors in the results or race certificates, please
let me or Kelsy Trigg know
(via the Feedback page) and we'll try to correct it
as soon as possible. |
| We had many excellent photographers out there today. Their pictures will
be uploaded to our photo Web site
over the weekend. Check back here for details
on how to access them. |
| Finally, I know you are all just dying to enter the lottery for the 2007 race. Find out
just how to do so here. |
That's all for now, folks!
Enzo Federico
(on behalf of the Knee Knacker Race Committee)
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