Two two-time Olympians came careening down the home stretch in the women’s race Sunday to highlight the 44th Pioneer 8K in North Saanich. The race also stood at the provincial 8K championship.
Natasha Wodak, the Canadian women’s marathon record holder, won the female race in 26 minutes, 20 seconds. Gen Lalonde, the Victoria-based two-time Olympic steeplechase finalist, was the runner-up in in 26:35 with Kate Ayers third in a personal-best 27:24.
“It was a great vibe out there with great runners and it was a huge kick in the butt to start the new year of racing,” said Wodak, who used the race to prime for the Houston Half-Marathon this week in Texas.
Wodak and Lalonde were Canadian teammates in the 2016 Rio and delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“It took a bit to get going but Gen and I both found our feet beneath us [in Sunday’s showdown on the Peninsula],” said Wodak.
There were 619 finishers, which organizers say is the most in nine years, and the 11th best total in the venerable race’s four-decade-plus history.
Former UBC Thunderbirds runner Thomas Nobbs won the Pioneer 8K men’s race in 24:01 and said it was “a blast to witness the energy of the Island running community.”
That is something with which Wodak and Lalonde are well acquainted.
Wodak, a member of the host Prairie Inn Harriers Club and who has also won the Royal Victoria Half-Marathon, won the Pioneer 8K for the eighth time in her career and on the 10-year anniversary of her first Canadian record in which she set the existing national women’s 8K mark of 25:28 in the 2013 Pioneer race. Wodak has described that as her “breakthrough race.”
Her biggest breakthrough came last year in Berlin when Wodak smashed the former Canadian female marathon record, held by fellow-British Columbian and Olympian Malindi Elmore, by more than a minute-and-half by running 2:23:12.
“Recovering from Berlin was tough but it felt good to go out on the road again to race,” said Wodak, of Sunday’s victory.
Wodak won the gold medal in the 10,000 metres at the 2019 Lima Pan Am Games and placed fifth in the 10,000 metres in the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and 13th in the Tokyo Olympics marathon. Not one to rest on laurels, even at 41, Wodak said she is looking to reach the qualifying standard for the 2024 Paris Olympics marathon by this spring and to crack the top-eight this summer in the 2023 world track and field championships in Budapest.
“This is a good indication of where I’m at,” said Wodak, of her Pioneer 8K result.
Placing behind Nobbs’ winning 24:01 for men’s podium finishes were University of Victoria Vikes racers Jaxon Kuchar second in 24:27 and Gabe Van Hezewijk third in 24:57. The longstanding men’s Pioneer 8K record of 22:58, set in 1985 by former Vikes star and 1996 Atlanta Olympian Carey Nelson, remained unscathed and will stand for at least another year.
The Pioneer 8K began the eight-event 2023 Island Race Series, which continues Jan. 22 with the Ceevacs Cobble Hill 10K. The other races in the series are the Bastion Cedar 12K on Feb. 12, Westcoast Running Sooke 10K on Feb. 26, Frontrunners Hatley Castle 8K on March 12, Comox Valley RV Half-Marathon on March 19, McLean Mill 10K in the Alberni Valley on April 2 and Synergy Health Bazan Bay 5K on April 23.
cdheensaw@timescolonist.com
