Voting Time for Canadian Male Ultra Performance of the Year

Alright folks. Thanks to all for the comments, suggestions and weighing in on the list of male ultra performances. It certainly was a great year for Canadian Ultra Running not only on the men's side but especially on the women's side. Gary Robbins is hosting the debate and now the vote on the women's ultra performance of the year on his blog.

Voting is now available on the right hand side of the blog page. The time frame for being able to vote will be from December 19th to December 26th ending at 5pm PST. I just want to stress that the goal of this is to vote on the performance you believe is most worthy and not be a vote for my friend contest. All performances on the finalist list are phenomenal as were the few that didn't make the cut and each deserve a huge pat on the back to the respective athlete.

Comments are still welcome to come in and if you want your more than welcome to state who you voted for and why.

Congratulations not only to those on this list but everyone this year on your respective runs, adventures, journeys and any other miles along the way. Best wishes for a happy holiday season and a healthy 2011 running season.

Again in chronological order, here are the ten finalist.

(1) Gary Robbins

HURT 100 miler - 20:12 - 1st place, course record

Gary's time lowered the course record set by Geoff Roes the year earlier from 20:28 to 20:12. He also became only the 5th person in the history of the run to break 24 hours.

(2) Adam Campbell

Chuckanut 50k - 3:52:59 - 3rd place

Adam's time was the 4th fastest in the long history of the Chuckanut 50k. Unfortunately for him this year 2 of the 3 times faster than his were run by competitors Erik Skaggs and race winner Andy Martin. With nearly 5000 feet of climb this time is very impressive.

(3) Glen Redpath

Umstead 100 miler - 14:27:51 - 3rd place

Glen's time was the fastest 100 miler recorded by a Canadian in 2010 and the 4th fastest all time. It should also land him in the top 5 100 mile times in North America as well for 2010.

(4) Ryne Melcher

Mount Si 50 miler - 5:54:15 - 1st place, course record

The time was good enough to squeak under the old course record held by James Kirby by 22 seconds and is also the fastest 50 miler ever run by a Canadian on trail .

(5) Chris Downie

Miwok 100km - 9:00:23 - 7th place

Chris' time is the fastest known time laid down by a Canadian at the Miwok 100k. 7th place was impressive given the list of people at the race aiming for one of the final two Western States slots.

(6) Adam Hill

Sulphur Springs 50 miler - 6:28:07 - 1st place

With an elevation gain of 6000' over the 50 miles 6:28 is a very impressive time. It also came within 100 seconds of breaking the course record of 6:26 set in 2005.

(7) Taylor Murphy

Fast Trax 50k - 3:32 - 1st place, course record

Taylor continued his success in ultras following up his brilliant Run for the Toad 50k victory with an impressive time laid down in hot conditions

(8) Gary Robbins

Western States 100 miler - 17:06:20

Gary narrowly missed the fastest time run at the WS100 by a mere 3 minutes. His time also placed him 6th in arguably the best field ever assembled for the race.

(9) Glen Redpath

Western States 100 miler - 17:10:06

Right behind Gary for 7th place Glen also took home the honors for top masters runner at the Western States 100.

(10) Thierry Asselin

IAU World 100k Championships - 7:40:37

Thierry's time landed him the top Canadian on a course not exactly designed for PRs. His time was also the fastest 100k run by a Canadian in 2010.

(11) Other

If you think the best performance of 2010 by a Canadian Male was not on this list. Vote for other!

Again thanks to everyone for participating in this and making it fun. Once the vote closes on December 26th at 5pm PST the initial list will go up for Canadian Male Ultra Runner of the Year.

Happy holidays!

Ryne