Despite an unintentional mid-race detour, Ed McCarthy from North Vancouver set a race record at the 50-kilometre Puddle Jumper Classic ultramarathon with a time of 4:53:57.
“I took a bit of a wrong turn somewhere in the middle that added on 13 minutes, which I could have done without, and my ankle was playing up a little so I had to shut it down on the second half, but it was nice,” said McCarthy at the finish line of the June 9 race.
It’s the second year of the race, which also includes a 25-kilometre half marathon. Both races start and finish in Roberts Creek’s Cliff Gilker Park and snake through B&K and Sprockids trails.
The first female finisher was Malin Ek of Vancouver with a time of 5:42:48. First place local male and female finishers were Nick Duff of Sechelt (5:17:35) and Lisa Warren of Sechelt (8:20:27), respectively.
North Vancouver’s Jeanelle Hazlett was the 25-kilometre first-place finisher and race record setter with a time of 2:42:12 and Gibsons’ Serge Grenier’s 2:48:45 time put him first among local participants.
Co-organizer Mike Meggatio said the race went off almost without a hitch. “Everyone seemed to be happy with the course. We didn’t get anybody lost, which is always a good thing!”
Co-organizer Randi Johnsen agreed before adding, “If people would stop taking our flags down, that would help a lot as well.”
For the second year running, the race also turned into a game of capture the flag. “Last year we had some kids partying up at the back end of the 50 K [course] who took some flags and we didn’t know until quite far in,” Johnsen said.
This year she said friends checked the area in advance of the start, and discovered the flags had been plucked from the same stretch “and put down another trail… They put them up high in the trees and down in a circle,” she said. “I don’t know who does it, I don’t even know why you would do it.”
The race was MC’d by John Crosby, a popular race announcer in the Lower Mainland. “He’s famous for his screaming chicken,” a rubber squeaking fowl that accompanies him to races, Johnsen said.
