The pinnacle of the fall road racing schedule took place Sunday morning through the streets of downtown Ottawa and Gatineau as thousands of runners took part in the annual Canada Army Run which includes races of 5 and 10km as well as a half marathon.
The 5km event had a strong concentration of Lions athletes with 800 metre specialist Sebastian Saville posting the top overall finish among Club members, finishing fifth in a time of 17:00.4. Finishing just outside the top 10 was 15 year old Jack Link who crossed in 17:35.2 for 11th. Also in the top 20 for the men was Jay Sneddon in 17th.
For the women, both Skye Pellerin and Charlotte Murchison cracked the top 10 with the pair finishing seventh and eighth respectively. Pellerin, a recent National Finalist in the RBC Training Ground competition, finished in 19:47.7 while Murchison was two and a half seconds back.
In the half marathon event, Jason Dunkerley was 12th overall in a time of one hour, 20 minutes and 34.1 seconds. We believe Sunday’s run may have been the first half marathon for the five time Paralympic medalist who has previously run two marathon’s including a third place finish in last year’s Boston Marathon. Guiding Dunkerley Sunday were veteran Jeremie Venne and a recent addition to the club, Jean Marie Uwajeneza.
Finishing six minutes back of Dunkerley was Cameron Porter. The 16 year old Aspire athlete crossed in one hour, 26 minutes and 47.9 seconds to finish tops among the 14-19 year olds competing and 45th overall among the men.
Also putting forth a very strong effort in the half marathon was former Lion and University of Ottawa Gee Gee runner Erika Houde-Pearce finished fourth among the women with an impressive personal best of 1:29:24.3.
The Lions head on the road this weekend to compete at the University of Sherbrooke Vert et Or Invitation cross country event.