Driftwood readers might remember reading about Marion Young’s age group second-place finish in the Whistler Ironman Canadian championships on July 28.
This performance qualified her for the Kona Ironman World Championships in Hawaii, which unfolded on Saturday of the Thanksgiving weekend. Marion started at 4:30 a.m. for preparations and actually launched just before 7:30 in the morning with a nearly one hour and 45-minute, 2.4-mile ocean swim. Little did she know that the subsequent 112- mile bike portion, usually one of her strongest events, would turn into a seven-hour and 40-minute struggle to keep her bike from being blown over in serious cross-winds. Finishing the bike portion as sunset approached, she launched into a six-hour, 21-minute marathon in the dark; although under a mostly full moon. She finished at 11:30 p.m. Hawaii time (2:30 a.m. on Salt Spring) after 16 hours, three minutes and 48 seconds of continual motion, an hour before the race cut-off time, to earn 35th place out of 44 in her age group.
Five and a half hours later, 24 Salt Springers who had travelled to Victoria for the Thanksgiving Sunday’s four Goodlife road races began to muster for the start of their races. The first race to offer finishers was the newly named “Turkey Trot” 8K, and the first finishers from Salt Spring were Emerson and India Hayden, children of Richard Hayden and Janine Fernandes-Hayden, who had 50 minutes earlier started the event’s half marathon. Emerson finished third of 48 in the male 12 and under age category, in the top 7.5 per cent of all males and 86th place overall, and then went immediately to enter the children’s fun run where he finished first. India finished five minutes later in the top 20 per cent of her age group category (F13-15), and the top six per cent of all females.
The third Salt Springer to cross the finish line seven minutes later in the 8K was Sneakers club member Donna Cloete, whose time of 47:52 earned her an eighth place of the 43 members of her age group.
Two minutes later, Salt Springer Wayne North crossed the finish line in 50:23, earning a 33rd place of the 56 in his age group and 487th of 821 men.
Laura Sheppard crossed the finish line five minutes later in 25th place of the 61 women in her age group, 784th woman and 1,378th overall.
Mary Rose MacLachlin was the final Salt Springer in the 8K, her time of 55:49 earning her a top 60 per cent place in her age group and among all women.
The second group across the finish line were the half-marathon (21.1K) competitors. The first Salt Springer was Richard Hayden, whose time of 1:23:21 earned him 58th place of the 2,887 runners who finished, a top two per cent finish, third place of 92 in his age group and 46th of 1,200 men.
Second Salt Springer was Sneaker Duncan Elsey in a personal best time of 1:43:57, which earned him a top 20 per cent finish in his age group, a top 25 per cent of all males, and a top 15 per cent of all runners. Janine Fernandes-Hayden was the third Salt Spring Islander to finish. Her time of 1:45:18 earned her a top 20 per cent finish of all runners, a ninth place of the 179 runners in her age group (top five per cent) and a top 10 per cent of all women running.
The fourth Salt Springer to finish the half-marathon was Sneaker Eric Ellis. His time of 1:46:56 earned him a first place among the 34 men in the 70 to 74 age group who competed and is the fastest time recorded in that age group in Canada this year. He placed in the top third of all males who competed and the top 20 per cent of all finishers.
The fifth Salt Springer to finish was David Collombin, whose time of 1:52:53 earned him a 54th place of the 121 men in his age group.
John-Phillip Ritson was the sixth Salt Springer to finish. His time of 1:58:58 placed him 54th of the 121 in his age group.
As the interval from the starter’s gun passed two hours, Kathy Kendall finished in a personal best time of 2:04:28, which earned her a top 20 per cent placement in her age group.
She was followed 20 seconds later by Liam Lenihan Wright, whose 2:04:51 earned him 18th place among the 31 finishers in his under-19 age group, 767th place among the 1,200 males who finished and 1,389th place of 2,887 overall.