 Gordon Samson, Manager / Fariyal Samson finishing third female in the Stampede Road Race. |
Dennis Colburn of Edmonton and Ricardo Guerrero of Calgary have been running together for more than three years and had planned to stick together during the 42.11-kilometre course that threaded its way through the inner city.
They were neck and neck, and ahead of the pack the whole way, until Colburn broke ahead once the finish line was in sight.
Colburn's first place time of two hours, 38.24 seconds was off the record 2:23:49 set by eight-time winner Kelvin Broad in 1991, but Colburn seemed to be happy just to finish, let alone break the tape.
Guerrero was only eight seconds behind him at 2:38.32 and Phil Meagher of Fort McMurray was third at 2:39.15.
"I haven't run that far in a long time," said Colburn, who won the Stampede marathon in 1992. "I'm not really fit for a marathon so I was just happy to be in there."
The 34-year-old runner has spent the last four months training for his new job as a firefighter with the Edmonton fire department which he says precluded any serious marathon preparation.
And with less than 10 kilometres left to run in Sunday's race, Colburn said he started to doubt if he could even finish his fifth marathon.
"At 36 kilometres I stitched up, my diaphragm tightened," said Colburn. "I thought that was the end of it for me. With two kilometres left I was just thinking, 'Keep going,' and I prayed I would have something extra to finish."
"We kept asking each other, 'How tired are you?' " added Guerrero who won the race in '99. "I was hoping he forgot the course. After the (Centre Street) bridge I was going to kick it. I didn't know he had so much energy left."
The Stampede Road Race featured a total of 3,900 competitors in the marathon, longest-running 42-km race in Canada, the 10-km, and team marathon relay races.
Organizers hoped to raise $50,000 to split between the Renfrew Educational Services and Calgary Special Olympics organizations.
The event attracted runners from as far away as Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, Australia and across the United States and Canada. There were 835 entrants.
"It was a little bit tough today," said Colleen Catley of Calgary, the top female runner. "I'm not that fond of running in the heat."
Catley was 16th overall with a time of 3:05.38. By the time the runners hit the finish line the temperature was well on its way to 29 C.
The win was Catley's fourth. It was her 10th marathon in 16 years and her first plus-three-minute result since completing her first two.
"With the way I felt today I just have to take it," said Catley who turned 46 on Friday.
"You never know on any given day how everything's going to come together. I'm happy with it. It was a nice birthday gift to myself."
Long distances are nothing new to Catley, who ran the storied Boston marathon in 1986 and competed in the Loop the Lake ultra-marathon at Invermere in '99 where she was the top woman and third overall in the daunting 63.3 km race in a time of five hours and 14 minutes.
Joanne Bozek of Yellowknife was the second-finishing woman and 22nd overall with a time of 3:08.30 and Fariyal Samson of Calgary repeated her third-place finish from last year with a time of 3:12.57. She was 37th overall.