Green­wood smashes Knee Knacker Women’s Course Record and new­comer Camp­bell takes Men’s title

West Van­cou­ver, British Colum­bia – Sat­ur­day, July 10^th marked the twenty-second annual run­ning of the Knee Knack­er­ing North Shore Trail Run (a.k.a. “Knee Knacker”). Good weather greeted the run­ners and vol­un­teers on this occa­sion with clear skies in the morn­ing and warm tem­per­a­tures through­out the day. Course con­di­tions were excel­lent, with min­i­mal snow in the high coun­try and lim­ited patches of mud, how­ever the 26C heat and high humid­ity were likely a factor.

These con­di­tions didn’t hinder Knee Knacker new­comer, and elite ath­lete Adam Camp­bell of Vic­to­ria who took the over­all title in a time of 4:58:13.  Camp­bell ran a smart, tac­ti­cal race, let­ting 2009 winner and cur­rent record holder Aaron Heidt of Vernon and 2008 under 40’s winner Oliver Utting set the pace through the first half.  Heidt and Utting were a minute ahead of record pace at the first quar­ter and came in to the half-way point stride for stride.  In the second half, Camp­bell made his move along with Jacek Doniec, who con­tin­ued to close the gap and fin­ished just over 1 minute behind Camp­bell to take second place overall.  Campbell and Doniec were the only 2 ath­letes to break the cov­eted 5 hour mark on this day.  Heidt took 3^rd place over­all in a time of 5:04:07, Gary Rob­bins took 4^th place in a time of 5:05:52. In age-group com­pe­ti­tion, Mark Ben­nett took the 40–49 title in 5:10:00, Peter Find­lay of Kam­loops took the 50–59 title in a time of 5:15:47 and Neil Wake­lin took the 60 and over title in 7:43:50.

The story of the day, how­ever, was in the Women’s divi­sion with Ellie Greenwood’s per­for­mance.  Green­wood smashed the Women’s course record by over 12 min­utes, and took 5^th over­all in a blaz­ing time of 5:06:09.  Green­wood ran an aggres­sive and smart race, con­tin­u­ing to get stronger as the day went on.  At the 1/2 way mark at Cleve­land Dam, Green­wood was lead­ing the women’s race by a sig­nif­i­cant margin and in 10^th place over­all.  She closed this gap and in the 4^th quar­ter posted the fastest over­all time in the race.  The women’s race for second and third place was tight through­out the day with Brooke Spence and Mar­tina Ramage bat­tling it out.  Ramage led with a small margin for most of the day, but Spence closed this gap and took second place by a mere 16 sec­onds.  Susan Reynolds won the 40–49 divi­sion with a time of 6:14:59 and Rose­mary Westie took the 50–59 title in 7:27:42.

Three people also com­pleted an impres­sive mile­stone this day - fin­ish­ing their 20^th Knee Knacker.  Neil Wake­lin, David Brown and Ron Adams are now the only people to have accom­plished this feat.

Four people also fin­ished their 10^th Knee Knacker – Lori Wong, John Hebron, Darren Lauscher and Judy Kin­dra­chuck joined an exclu­sive group of 31 other people who have attained this milestone.

206 ultra­ma­rathon run­ners started the “Race Across the North Shore” at 6:00am, just above Horse­shoe Bay. The goal for most was to reach the finish line, 30 miles later in Deep Cove, within the 10-hour race limit. 192 of the run­ners achieved their goal on this day, making for a fin­ish­ing rate of 93% percent.

Com­plete results are avail­able at http://www.raceheadquarters.com/results/2010/run/KKNSTR2010OA.html.

Pro­ceeds from the race ben­e­fit the North Shore Rescue Team. The event has raised over $51,000 for local charities.

Kelsy Trigg, Race Direc­tor
Tel: 604–787-8097
e-mail: rd@kneeknacker.com