Rundle’s Revenge needs more girl power.
That’s the edict from Canmore’s Megan Dunn, who was the lone woman brave/insane enough to finish the Rundle’s Revenge grueling two-day, 100-km mountain bike, 50-km trail run at the Canmore Nordic Centre on Sunday (June 22).
Dunn finished the bike portion on Saturday (June 21) in 8:10.23, and the trail run 6:15:29 to take the win.
“I did the half donkey the last time (50-km bike, 25-km run) I registered and I managed to pull it off. I thought that didn’t seem too ridiculously impossible, so I figured I might as well try the full donkey. There were a few other girls registered, but they all pulled out,” Dunn said. “More girls should go for it. Hardly any have completed it.”
Dunn is a veteran of the 24 Hours of Adrenalin race, so she ripped up the mountain bike course with ease. She aimed to survive the trail run, and actually enjoyed the time on the trails alone.
“It wasn’t so bad. I liked the fact I was racing just against myself because that was hard enough without worrying about anyone else being out there,” Dunn said. “The run was definitely harder. There was no coasting on the downhills when running.”
Dunn works for the Town of Canmore’s planning department, and was involved with flood recovery work, so to race on the anniversary of the flood was special.
Friday night rain brought some muddy sections to the course, however weather was brilliant otherwise.
“(My favourite part) was when the trails dried out on Saturday and I could have some fun on the descents. I was enjoying it out there,” Dunn said. “I love riding on Long Road to Ruin, but running it, everything was quite challenging.”
She didn’t have a dedicated training regime for the 14-plus hours of racing other than to get out as much as possible.
“I get out biking a lot normally and I was trying to get some running miles in too, so I didn’t completely die on the run,” Dunn said.
Jared Green beat out Matt Pauli in the men’s division to win the open men’s division, which only had two finishers. Mark St. Amant won the full donkey 40-plus men’s division
The half donkey drew more competitors over the two days. Mike Blennerhassett won the 50 km-bike/25-km trail run in 5:10:37. Bill Van Beek finished second and Eric Zilinski was third.
Erin Walkom was the lone finisher in the half donkey open women’s race.
Canmore’s Alaric Fish (5:29) won the half-donkey 40-plus division over Chris Ring and Mark Wilson, while Cindy Koo Enevoldsen, also of Canmore, won the women’s 40+ half donkey (7:51:51).
Many familiar faces won the individual races. Canmore’s Jon Firth took the 100-km race by more than an hour, hitting the century mark in 5:48:30. John Churchill was second and Dean Senkiw was third. Brianna Roth won the open women’s 100 km in 7:43:28.
Brad Pilling won the 40-plus category over Andrew Paul and Sean Evans, and Annie Quinnett.
Ian Murray won the open men’s 50-km race (2:50:03) ahead last week’s Organ Grinder winner Jared Gervais. Mike Mercer finished third. Krista Turcasso won the open women’s 50 km (3:32:33), ahead of Shawna Donaldson and Liza Shatula.
Dan Peters won the men’s 40-plus men’s 50-km race (2:57:34), followed by Darren Freeman and Pat Doyle.
In the 50-km trail run, Calgary firefighter and ultra-marathon freak Devin Featherstone won the open men’s division in 4:32:31, but it was Canmore doctor Andy Reed who returned from a nagging back injury to record the fastest time of the day (4:29:09) and win the Men’s 40-plus race.
Fernie resident and Sinister Seven winner Abi Moore won the women’s race in 5:04:32, ahead of Lisa Heidt and Kristina Meyer.
Audrey Kelly won the women’s 40-plus category (6:12:22), ahead of Joanne Schmidt and Natalie Baldo.
Organizers TransRockies offered free entries to all participants who missed the 2013 Rundle’s Revenge, which was cancelled due to June flooding.
