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All time record of nearly 9,000 finishers
Victoria, BC – April 27, 2007 – Victoria’s Eric Kiauka and Calgary’s Lisa Harvey narrowly edged out their competition in some of the closest racing ever at the 19th Annual TC 10K for their first victories in near perfect conditions on Sunday morning. A new record of 8,818 participants made their way along the scenic 10-kilometer waterfront course to finish in the Inner Harbour in front of the B.C. Legislative Buildings.
A hotly contested men’s race saw the top five separated by only 11 seconds. Kiauka’s 30:31 victory denied former TC 10K champion Jim Finlayson of a second win by just five seconds. Last year’s second place male David Jackson was the next fastest Victoria runner, placing fifth behind Burnaby’s Oliver Utting (30:39) and Richmond’s Ryan Day (30:41). Jackson ran his best ever TC 10K time in 30:42.
Steve Boyd, top master (forty-plus) and sixth overall, was in the furious lead pack of eight that finished a thrilling 18 seconds apart. Boyd, the former 2000 TC 10K champion, missed out by 20 seconds on bettering the TC 10K forty-plus record he set in 2005, but said he was pleased with his result and the opportunity to see such an exciting race for the win going on just steps ahead of him..
In her debut, Harvey held off Cheryl Murphy, of Victoria, to cross the line a fraction of a second ahead. However, both women recorded an official finish time of 34:14 – matching Murphy’s 10K personal best, and surpassing her TC 10K best by one minute and 26 seconds. Victoria’s Kirsty Smith was a close third another 19 seconds back. Marilyn Arsenault was first master (forty-plus), and fifth overall, with her fastest ever TC 10K time of 35:50.
Harvey, a former Olympic track runner who recently represented Canada at the 2008 IAAF world cross-country championships in Scotland, said she has always wanted to run Victoria’s picturesque course and visit her father, Peter, who lives in Victoria, but her daughter’s birthday this weekend had prevented her in the past. “It’s all brown back in Calgary – we’ve had snow all week. I loved to run along the waterfront with so much green around,” said Harvey, 38.
Harvey’s attention on all the greenery meant she hardly noticed Murphy, also 38, coming from behind. Murphy, who was running in third until the final kilometer, made a surge to pass Smith, and then ran out of road in the final steps to overtake Harvey.
Nearly 500 youths lined up in front of the Legislative Buildings for the Thrifty Foods 1.5K Family Fun Run. Gordon Hogg, the Minister of State for ActNow BC, fired off the starting gun for the kids after he had the opportunity to address the crowd of nearly 3,000 walkers in the new ActNow BC Walking Category. Nearly 6,000 people on 356 teams joined forces to compete in the Team Challenge categories – Island Runner Corporate Challenge, Island Farms School Teams, or Team Sales Sport Teams. For the past 13 years, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of B.C. and Yukon has been an integral part of the Times Colonist 10K, having raised over $488,000. This year nearly $45,000 had been raised prior to the event, with more pledges expected to be totaled from race day contributions. Barbara Haley, Area Manager of the Heart and Stroke Foundation, was most impressed with this year’s improvement in the online donations that increased to a total of $21,000 from $6,000 in 2007.
See the website www.tc10k.ca for results, photo links, and new this year -- archived streaming video from Chek News.
A full list of participant results appeared in Monday’s Times Colonist.
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