August 24/02, Bowen Island — An improved course and perfect sunny weather brought many runners out to the Run for the Ferry 10k, with 2001 champions Colin Dignum of North Vancouver and Coquitlam’s Nancy Tinari once again leading the way to the finish line.

From the 8:15 am start at the ferry dock, a leading pack of four men set the pace: Dignum, Norm Tinkham of Maple Ridge, John McCrank of Vancouver, and Ryan Ervin of North Vancouver. At 4 km McCrank had moved ahead of the rest and seemed to be en route to a victory. But near the 8k mark Dignum, winner of the Knee-Knackering North Shore 30 miler earlier this summer, decided he’d better “go hard to drop Norm [Tinkham],” and ended up passing McCrank in the process. Dignum’s final time was 33:05, just 5 seconds ahead of McCrank. Tinkham was comfortably in third at 33:21, Ervin having dropped off the pace slightly to finish 4th in 34:02.

Tinari had some company for the first few kilometres, in the form of elite steeplechaser Margaret Butler, whose parents live on Bowen. Butler, who has been studying and training at a US college, decided to “just jump in the race”, never having run a 10k before. Accustomed to shorter distances on the track and barriers to jump over rather than uphills to climb, she found herself losing ground to Tinari once they hit the hills.

Tinari sped ahead to a 34:04 victory in 11th place overall, enjoying the shaded forest paths on the latter portion of the course. Butler finished second in 37:19, not too shabby for a first try at the distance! Not too far back in third place was first female master Jackie Holloway of Vancouver, in 37:55.

Rounding out the masters women field was Vancouver’s Leslie Black in 39:50 followed by Michele Carr of North Van in 42:21.

The masters men were dominated by Vancouver’s Dave Reed in 35:09, with Langley’s Rick Hickson and Port Moody’s Alex Seres taking silver and bronze respectively in 36:02 and 36:06, just in front of and just behind women’s winner Tinari.

With a huge 50% increase in 10k numbers and 14% growth in the accompanying 5k registration, new event director Wendy Wanvig must be feeling pretty good today. Many participants stated how much they enjoyed the new improved route, which avoided one of the biggest hills and used more of the well-groomed shaded forest paths.

Complete event results can be found at Race Headquarters.