Teferi Kebede Balcha, an Ethiopian immigrant who works as a janitor during the day and trains at night, won the 2022 Times Colonist 10K on Sunday. The 41-year-old Victoria resident, coached by two-time Olympian Bruce Deacon, was across in 31 minutes flat to win the 33rd running of the event.
“This course is so nice and so beautiful,” Balcha said.
He was a top runner in his prime on the pro circuit with two sub-2:08:00 marathons to his credit run in Paris and Israel. To realize how good that it is, consider that no Canadian has ever run that fast, with the national marathon record of 2:09:25 held by Olympian Cam Levins of Black Creek.
Balcha, who has been in Canada for 10 years, moved to Victoria from Edmonton last fall with his wife Bashatoo, and joined the Prairie Inn Harriers club under coach Deacon, who is a former champion of the Times Colonist 10K.
“[Balcha] is looking to make a comeback in masters running,” Deacon said — and clearly doing a good job of it.
Former University of Victoria Vikes runner Jonathan Toombs was second in 31:34 and Jack Stanley of Victoria, who runs varsity for McGill University, third in 31:40.
“The conditions were perfect and Jonathan and I pushed each other along,” said Stanley, brother of Paralympics-medallist Liam Stanley.
“The morning fog was actually insulating and the temperature was perfect,” Toombs said.
The women’s Times Colonist 10K champion, Jen Millar, made short work of the picturesque course in 36:10 and then shuffled off to take part in the Thrifty Foods Family Fun Run 1.5K with daughter Charlie and son Eamonn.
“The conditions were perfect, without the usual headwind on Dallas Road, and I was thrilled to win,” Millar said. “I stayed with a group of guys at the start.”
Millar came to the Island out of Queen’s University as part of the first cohort — which included eventual Olympic-champion Simon Whitfield and Ironman-champion Peter Reid — that set up shop at the national triathlon centre in Victoria
“It’s just so great to be back in this race after two years and seeing everybody running again,” said Millar, 42, who also had podium results in the recent Island Race Series.
Millar joins a list of past women’s Times Colonist 10K winners that includes Olympians Debbie Scott, Angela Chalmers and Dayna Pidhoresky.
Care Nelson was second woman across Sunday in 36:47 and Maia Watson third in 37:44.
Watson is the daughter of six-time Times Colonist 10K women’s champion and former Canadian international Lucy Smith, who was 10th Sunday. It was a special moment for mother and daughter, considering they began racing together two decades ago in the event in the Family Fun Run 1.5K.
“I got tripped up and face-planted in my first kids’ 1.5K,” Watson recalled.
Watson, 22, eventually found her stride and races varsity for McGill.
“Maia is probably thinking it’s about time that she beat her mom,” Smith quipped.
There was a buoyant feel to the day as the Times Colonist 10K returned after two years of pandemic cancellations.
“It’s part of the healing process and return to normalcy,” said race manager Mark deFrias.
“It was amazing to see this come together after two years and it was a bit emotional to watch the runners coming through the finish line after so long.”
But it’s a slow rebuild, with the 9,000-plus entrants from the previous race in 2019 down to the 5,523 who took to the streets of the capital Sunday. There were an additional 488 participants in the Family Fun Run 1.5K.
The 2022 Times Colonist 10K continues the return of live road racing, which began with the Royal Victoria Half-Marathon and 8K in October during the hesitant early days of the reopening. That was followed by the six-event Island Race Series this spring.
“It’s about the return of human interaction and human connection in road racing after two years,” deFrias said.
“But everybody has their own comfort level in getting back to a massed start line. We are learning to live with this and people’s comfort level will grow. I don’t see any reason why in a few years that we won’t be back to over 10,000 participants, as we were in the past, and to continue making this a part of a healthy lifestyle and also an economic driver for the community.”
