Thursday, December 30, 2010

Results for Canadian Performance of the Year

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and is getting those resolutions for 2011 hammered out as its a mere 35 hours away!

Thanks to everyone who participated and contributed information and results for the Canadian Male Ultra Performance of 2010. Polls closed on Boxing Day and the results are still up on the right sidebar of the blog.

Congratulations to Gary Robbins and the HURT 100 miler performance which took 48 votes (43% of the vote). My Mount Si 50 miler took the silver with 36 votes (32%) and Gary's Western States 100 took the bronze with 11 votes (10%).

My personal thoughts are:

(1) Given the amount of votes Tracey was getting for her great Western States victory over on Gary's blog I thought both Gary and Glen's WS100 performance would garner more votes.

(2) I really thought Glen's blazing 14:27 at the Umstead 100 miler would get more consideration as well (it's the 4th fastest 100 miler in Canadian History). It got 3 votes (one of them was from me!)

(3) I figured I would get some votes for sure with my Mt Si 50 and Canadian Trail Record run but know more weight is typically given to 100 milers. I didn't think 32% would be the total, maybe 10-15%

(4) I'm glad to see Adam Hill's Sulphur 50 miler picked up at least a few votes. I didn't want to drum myself up in mentioning this performance but in 2005 I was in the shape of my life and ran 6:26 in my final preparations for DNFing Western States. It broke the course record at the time by 75 minutes. Adam for the last few years has been within a minute or two of taking out that record. I know first hand how impressive running 6:28 there is. Adam if your reading this if you agree to supply the post race beer I could be conned into coming out this year and we can hammer each other into the ground and both get under that 6:26 mark!

(5) There were A LOT of impressive results by Canadians this year from both sexes. My gut tells me in the voting for female UROY by Ultra Running magazine Canadian women will be 1-2. I think that had a legitimate shot of being 1-2-3 until Beverley Anderson-Abbs got injured early in the spring. She had 4 amazing races with 3 wins and a close 2nd at Way to Cool all before April 10th!

(6) Gary and myself are going to have a few beers tonight and getting the debate going on male and female UROY in Canada. I will be hosting the men's debate and vote again and Gary will handle the women's.

Happy New Year to everyone and look forward to some debate/banter on here in the coming days with opinions on who should win ultimate bragging rights as top dog in the Canadian Ultra World!

7 comments:

  1. It's been fun following along. As much as I agree with Gary's HURT and your Mt Si being incredible, I found myself going with Gary's WS100 because of the deep field, and also I wasn't aware when you said that his time was only a few minutes off the Canadian record. Also, to me, the way that he did it after a less than ideal buildup was very gutsy and inspiring.

    Too bad that hometown boy Taylor Murphy (shameless plug...I coached him in high school. haha) got injured just before the Toad as it would have been interesting to see what he could have done there after having an amazing Spring/Early Summer at shorter races with Frontenac Snowshoe, Kingston 5Peaks, Canadian Mt Running, PF42 in addition to Fast Trax.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah it was a bummer to hear about Taylor getting injured days before the Toad. Having run the PF42 his time is mind blowing there. I think he has a great shot at sub 3:15 at the Toad healthy as long as the course isn't a mudbath and imagine he'll be gearing up for a huge run there at the 10th anniversary in 2011. If you want to plant the seed in his head 3:07:48 in the Canadian Record for 50k on trail set by Andy Jones at Sunmart back in the day. I don't think the Toad is the course to break 3:07 but think Taylor can get pretty damned close there!
    What's next on your radar Derrick?
    Happy New Year!
    Ryne

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'll definitely mention the 3:07 to Taylor. Hope to see him over the holidays.

    For myself...2010 was very frustrating with a year long knee injury. Finally figured it out late in the year and have had a couple of pretty solid months. I'd like to run a spring 100, but may wait to the fall if I can be patient. Probably just do some OUS races to build back up and get back in the swing of things.

    Hope you're healthy and looking towards a big 2011! All the best.
    Derrick

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Derrick,
    Made an error on the 50k record time. It's 3:14:30 by Andy Jones at Sunmart. The 3:07 was Uli's CR time there.
    All the best to you for a healthy 2011 running season!
    Ryne

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks Derrick, I really appreciate those comments!

    Damn impressive that you have managed to continue your running streak for over two decades now. Just incredible!

    GR

    ReplyDelete
  6. How many times did Rune and Gary vote? Kidding! Those are certainly two very impressive runs! How fast can Ellie go at WS100 in 2011?

    ...and Derrick's streak...Damn, that's a lot of laundry!

    Gotta run, Vince

    ReplyDelete
  7. Vince...the laundry was the easy part. T'is the beauty of wearing your running gear into the outdoor shower (big selling feature of the house).

    ReplyDelete