June 4, 2011
Cori Alfreds
Special to The Question
With the first sunny day Whistler has seen in a while, friends, family and volunteers welcomed Jim Finlayson, winner of the inaugural Whistler Half Marathon, to the finish line this morning (Saturday, June 4).
The Victoria resident finished the 21.1 kilometre course in one hour, nine minutes and 25 seconds.
Finlayson is an avid jogger, but despite his extensive marathon track record he said he found the course beautiful yet challenging — especially the downhill sections.
"You're putting a lot more stress on the body, so you feel by the end of the hills you're running in quicksand. I found the steeper downhills the toughest," he said at the finish line in Whistler Olympic Plaza.
In the top 10 overall and the first female to cross the finish line was Care Wakely, who clocked in at 1:21:04. She said the uphill part of the course was most challenging.
Despite wanting to collapse by the last two km, Wakely said she couldn't help but notice the Whistler course's natural beauty.
She traveled from Victoria to participate in the race.
"I'm really excited to come to Whistler. I love coming here and the race was great, really well organized, and I am happy to have won," she said.
Among the more than 800 participants was first time half-marathon runner and Whistler local Karen Blaylock, who said she was just happy to have completed the course no matter how long it took her.
"It was so fun to finish it and now I won't have to do another one because I can say I have done it," she said with a laugh.
For full race results, click to http://racedaytiming.ca/whistlerhalf2011.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment