July 28, Vancouver – The skies looked stormy all around but the sun managed to shine for most of the 13th annual Summerfast 10k, held this year for the first time on the Stanley Park seawall. Uncharacteristic cool temperatures and high winds near the water made this a challenging run, though the effect was not the same for all – some participants got “personal worst” times while others were thrilled to get personal bests. Over 275 competitors completed the new course.

The men’s race for the top three spots was closely contested. Colin Dignum, Norm Tinkham and Bertrand Plouvier raced together for nearly the whole course, but with half a kilometre to go Dignum put the hammer down and managed to pull ahead slightly for a 32:19 clocking. Tinkham chased him in (32:27), with Plouvier just a few metres behind (32:32).

In the women’s race it was Alison Rendell who bested the field with a speedy 36:55 and 19th finish position overall. A couple of minutes back in second spot was Nurten Tasdemir (38:50), who has been consistently placing in the top three in recent Series races. First master woman Leslie Black was next in 39:21, shadowed by 20-34 age grouper Wendy Montgomery (39:33). Second and third masters women places were filled by Kathie Moore (40:39) and Lori Spence (41:23).

Former UBC varsity team member Mike Moon took the men’s masters title in 35:07, good for 11th overall. Rob Barber was the next overall finisher and second master in 35:50, while a visitor from Ottawa, Kris Malcyznski, took third place in the over-40’s.

60-64 age group leader Herb Phillips is back in the race after recovering from an injury. Though his time of 41:35 was “slow” by his standards, he still won his age group by over a minute, and was only 14 seconds behind 55-59 age group winner Peter Pollhammer. Meanwhile there was a bit of an upset in the 65+ division, where perpetual winner Frank Kurucz took second to Michael Breeze of Vancouver, who recorded an excellent 46:37.

Full race results at www.raceheadquarters.com.