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TC 10K: Everyone’s in the running in most democratic sport

Road racing on foot is the most democratic of sports.
VKA-TC10K-478.jpg
Elite runners Christopher Cheruiyot, left, Jane Murage, Lenah Jerotich and Paul Kimugul will run in Sunday's Times Colonist 10K.

Road racing on foot is the most democratic of sports.

Where else can regular duffers take part in the same event as Olympians and other world-class athletes?

You can’t skate at an NHL game, bounce a ball in an NBA game or catch a football thrown by Tom Brady.

But you can run Sunday in the 27th Times Colonist 10K with some of the best runners treading the professional North American road racing circuit. The average plodders, of course, will be in the heaving sea of humanity behind the elites. But it’s the same race on the same roads.

There are no beer leagues in running. Well, outside of the famed Hash House Harriers, of course. Everybody can be in one race together. Times, of course, will vary widely. Nobody said the world was fair, in that regard.

“Everyone is on the same start line. You get to say you are in the same race,” said Ulla Hansen, elite athlete co-ordinator for the Times Colonist 10K.

Despite the hits road racing has taken in terms of registration numbers from the growth of triathlon and off-road and extreme running events, it is a basic mode of the sport that will continue to hold its own because it remains accessible, Hansen said.

“It’s very social. You can run a road race with your parents and kids, and you can’t do that in the more extreme races,” added Hansen, herself a four-time winner of the Times Colonist 10K, and former Canadian international runner.

“Road running will never go away. It’s the core.”

Headlining the elite roster in the Times Colonist 10K is Christopher Cheruiyot, who was second last weekend in the massive Vancouver Sun Run with a time that was just 16 seconds off the Times Colonist 10K record of 28 minutes, 47 seconds set in 1995 by fellow Kenyan Simon Chemwoiyo.

Challenging Cheruiyot in Victoria will be a runner who knows the streets of the city well. Paul Kimugul, third in this year’s Vancouver Sun Run, was the Times Colonist 10K champion in 2013, Victoria GoodLife Fitness half-marathon champion in 2015 and Sun Run winner in 2013 and 2014.

A pair of familiar runners also knows these city streets like locals and will be out to overtake Cheruiyot and Kimugol. Daniel Kipkoech is the Victoria GoodLife Fitness Marathon champion from 2014 and 2015 and Lamech Mokono is the GoodLife Fitness Marathon record holder. All four men are more than capable of going under 30 minutes.

“The course record is in jeopardy,” Hansen predicted.

Kenya treats running like Canada does hockey, New Zealand does rugby and India does cricket. So it’s hardly surprising Kenyans have also left an imprint on the women’s side of the Times Colonist 10K, with three-time defending champion Jane Murage back for the attempted four-peat.

Challenging Murage on Sunday will be fellow Nairobi native Lenah Jerotich, who has had a smashing season in 2015-16 with victories in the Bath, Hastings and Cardiff half-marathons. Rounding out the top four are Emily Setlack of Cold Lake, Alta., fifth last week with a 34:02 in the Sun Run, and Lindsey Scherf of Scarsdale, New York, who was fourth in the 2015 Sun Run and an NCAA all-American while earning a degree in psychology from Harvard. They will be chasing the Times Colonist 10K women’s record of 32:58 set by 2012 London Olympian Karolina Jarzynska of Poland in 2011.

At the close of online registration on Wednesday, the total number of participants registered for the Times Colonist 10K was 9,121, of whom 838 were for the Family Fun Run.

Registration is open today from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Victoria Conference Centre.

On Sunday, the TC10K begins at Government and Belleville streets — the start times are 7:55 a.m. for the wheelchair and visually impaired athletes and 8 a.m. for the rest of participants. The Thrifty Foods Family Run starts at 11 a.m. at Government and Belleville.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com

Times Colonist 10K 2016 route map