http://fox.nstn.ca/~dblaikie This article first appeared in http://fox.nstn.ca/~dblaikie
By David Blaikie
Ultramarathon World
Kingston, Ontario (UW) - Scott Turner of London, Ontario, ran 68.873 kilometres to win the fourth Sri Chinmoy Six Hour Race here Saturday. But Ed Alexander and the oval of muck that passed for a track at Royal Military College Track prevailed in other ways. And so did Suzanne Gagnon of Ste-Foy, Quebec, who won the women's division with a distance of 56.148 kilometres.
The race was held at an old RMC dirt track because of a last- minute snag in making arrangements for a modern certified 400-metre track at Holy Cross Secondary School in Kingston.
Running on the uneven surface would have been difficult on a good day. "I played sports here in the 1950s," said Bill McLeod, a statistician for the Association of Canadian Ultramarathoners. "As far as I can tell, they haven't done any work on it since."
However, it poured on Saturday and conditions were so bad they were laughable. From the opening lap, runners found themselves ankle deep in mud and slop, their legs blackened to the knees by an ooze that stuck like crazy glue. Shoes were unrecognizable, hardly visible. A cross-country race would have been clean by comparison.
Yet the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, and the 27 runners who entered, took it all in good spirits - none more so than Ed Alexander of Hamilton. Alexander, who directs the Ontario Ultra Series, is a slow runner who is accustomed to finishing near the end of the field, if not dead last, in most of the ultras he runs. Saturday was no different, but there was a twist.
The track was such a mess that all runners but one - Alexander - switched to the grass on the inside edge of the field. (The shortened path was measured with a Jones counter as closely as possible and factored into the final results. This route too soon turned brown and sloppy and by the end was not much better than the track.)
But Alexander refused to the "comfort" of the easier pathway. He stuck to the track, blackened to the waist, almost wading at times, until the race was over. "I'm the only one who ran the whole way on the track," he noted. "What would that normally tell you about who won the race?" For his effort he was given a an ovation when he stepped forward to accept his medal and race certificate.
Another ovation went to Odino Soligo, the 75-year-old runner from Thornhill, Ontario, who would have set a national age group record if the race had been held on a proper track. In a secret ballot of all participants, Soligo was voted the most cheerful runner of the day, and his luck continued when he was asked to pull a name from a hat to decide the winner of a door prize - a copy of Serge Richard's autobiography of Phil Latulippe. Soligo drew his own name.
Next year, organizers say they have an ironclad guarantee that the Holy Cross track will be available. "A good thing too," said one organizer. "RMC would never let us come back anyway after what we did to this track."
Sri Chinmoy Six Hour Race
Kingston, Ontario - 8 June 1996
(4th edition - 400-metre track)
(with marathon and 50K splits)
Name, Age, Province/State, Kilometres
1. Scott Turner, 35, London ON 68.873
(3:32:05, 4:12:39)
2. Rob Kalovsky, 27, Bowmanville ON 64.873
(3:48:34, 4:33:04)
3. Ronald Gehl, 48, Kitchener ON 60.952
(4:12:59, 4:54:58)
4. Colin Kingsford, 53,Ile-Brizard PQ 60.026
(4:12:16, 4:53:29)
5. Paul DeBiasi, 61, Etobicoke ON 59.739
(4:12:57, 5:01:29)
6. Jim Moses, 60, Kitchener, ON 58.275
(4:17:57, 5:06:25)
7. (f) Suzanne Gagnon, 35, Ste-Foy PQ 56.148
(4:30:18, 5:19:10)
8. Ed Ciesielski, 56, Hamilton ON 55.980
(4:33:07, 5:23:13)
9. Elliot Aronoff, 41, Toronto ON 55.085
(4:32:08, 5:28:03)
10. John Cookson, 49, Kitchener ON 55.082
(4:25:40, 5:14:31)
11. Odino Soligo, 75, Thornhill ON 54.726
(4:31:01, 5:27:15)
12. Tom Restoule, 46, Embrun ON 53.310
(4:37:28, 5:38:05)
13. Hans Maier,56, Markham ON 53.213
(4:53:12, 5:40:19)
14. Greg Bohuslawsky, 44, Toronto ON 52.599
(4:52:40, 5:41:20)
15. Howard Parker, 46, Scarborough ON 52.512
16. Tim Waterhouse, 36, Ottawa ON 52.401
(4:43:25, 5:38:52)
17. Ab Kampstra, 59, Sarnia ON 51.102
(4:58:08, 5:50:45)
18. (f) Sherry McLean, 47, Bobcaygeon ON 50.326
(5:02:04, 5:58:41)
19. Joe Cleary, 56, Georgetown ON 49.268
(5:11:03)
20. Barbara McLeod, 58 Gloucester ON 48.125
(5:16:45)
21. Serge Richard, 50, Ste-Foy PQ 46.035
(5.35:18)
22. Deirdre Morrison, 50, Ottawa ON 45.060
(5:37:51)
23. Ron Turner, 63, St. Catharines ON 44.473
(5:41:20)
24. Michael Gehl, 18, Kitchener ON 39.731
25. Jess Heroux, 49, Burlington ON 39.095
26. Edwin Alexander, 51, Hamilton ON 36.000
27. Virginia Lavin-Moss, 54, Verona ON 34.516
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