From The Okanagan Sports Page:
Pushed by the top female runner, Kelowna’s Jeff Vogt maintained his recent domination of the Interior Running Association’s road race series on Sunday.
Vogt, winner in two of the past four Canadian Tire Series races, ran to third-place overall among 183 runners in the annual Kelowna Midsummer 8K Run.
Lorne White/Okanagan Sports Page
Australian native, Adam Byles of Vancouver, ran to first place overall in the annual Kelowna Midsummer 8K Run on Sunday. He finished in a time of 25:13.
The 35-year-old recorded a time of 27.56 over the flat and fast out-and-back course from Gyro Beach to City Park, finishing behind two Vancouver runners —Adam Byles (25:13) andKevin O’Conner (25:56) — and 11 seconds ahead of the No. 1 female competitor,Natasha Wodak, also of Vancouver.
Vogt, coming off a second-place finish at the 10K Beach Run in Peachland a week earlier and a pair of IRA wins in May, said he knew early on he wasn’t going to catch the Vancouver visitors seeking points for the B.C. Timex Road Running Series.
“I kept them in sights for the first three Ks, but then I realized they were out of my league and that I had no hope of keeping up with them,” admitted Vogt, who started running races only five years ago.
While he had resigned himself to the fact he wouldn’t catch the frontrunners, Vogt didn’t realize until the turnaround at City Park that the fourth-place (Wodak) and fifth-place (Ryan Pidhirniak of Kamloops) runners were making up ground on him.
“I knew I was in trouble because I was fading a bit at that point,” recalled Vogt.
Lorne White/Okanagan Sports Page
Natasha Wodak, left, and Kim Doerksen of Vancouver finished first and second respectively among the female runners in the Kelowna Midsummer 8K Run on Sunday.
At the five-kilometre mark, Wodak, the current Canadian cross country champion, caught Vogt. They ran side-by-side for most of the final three kilometres along Abbott Street.
“The day was hot and hard, but I was able to keep up with her,” said Vogt. “I figured if I could stay with her until the entrance of the park (Gyro), I could probably out-sprint her to the line.
“I made sure I was in front of her entering the park, and then just hammered it and was able to pull away a bit.”
Vogt, who recalls barely able to walk after running a four-kilometre leg of the Okanagan College Half Marathon in 2009, said he was impressed with Wodak’s performance.
“I don’t think she was working as hard as I was toward the end. She was able to talk a bit with the course marshalls, while I didn’t have the energy to even do that.”
For Vogt, a student of Kelowna Running Club veteran Rory Switzer and running coach Brandt Fralick, his time was a personal best on the course. Sunday’s clocking was 40 seconds faster than a year ago.
Lorne White/Okanagan Sports Page
Paul Clark of Kelowna was the first participant to cross the finish line at Gyro Park in the Midsummer 8K Run.
“I knew coming into the race that there would be some fast runners from Vancouver, so I was surprised I finished as well as I did said Vogt. “I was very happy with the result. I love the course, the competition and the volunteers, who did another awesome job.”
Meanwhile, for Wodak, the Midsummer was her first race since a foot injury incurred in March. She was sidelined completely for six weeks and has slowly built up her training.
A former Simon Fraser University track and field and cross runner, Wodak said Sunday’s outing was a fun “tempo” run.
“It was my first hard effort in over three months. The cardio is there, I did feel a bit of pain and I still need to get my legs back to where they were.”
The 32-year-old is planning to run her second-ever marathon this fall and will attempt to defend her Canadian cross country title and earn berth at the world XC championships in China next year (she was 24th in 2013). Her longer-term goal is to run the marathon for Canada at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Byles, also 32, was running for the first time in the Okanagan and promised after his first-place overall finish that it won’t be his last.
“This was great . . . love the heat and the course. I didn’t realize how great it was going to be,” said Byles, who will likely take over first place overall in the B.C. Timex Road Running Series with the victory on Sunday.
A recent arrival (two years ago) from Australia, Byles also competes in five-kilometre races on the track. He came to Kelowna to “see what I can do and can’t do” prior to his final Timex race — the SummerFest 10K in Stanley Park on July 19.
While Byles led from start to finish in the Midsummer, he was more than a minute slower than his personal best (23.59) on an 8K course.
“I wasn’t at all thinking about a PB,” he said. “I just wanted to go our hard at the start and settle into a nice rhythm. It turned out to be a fun run.”
Josh Tremblay, running in the 20-29 age category was second (28:59) to Vogt among Kelowna runners and seventh overall, while Gary Wade (45-49) of Kelowna was 17 seconds back in eighth place. Veteran Rory Switzer placed 10th overall and first in the 50-54 age group with a time of 29:31.
Kim Doerksen (20-29) of Gibsons, a teammate of Wodak’s at Simon Fraser, placed second among the women and sixth overall in 28:30, while Melissa Ross of Errington, B.C. was the third woman to cross the finish line with a clocking of 29:23.
Christy Lovig (35-39) was tops among the female runners from Kelowna with a time of 30:11, while Sandra Kilmartin of Salmon Arm was second among the Okanagan female runners (31:42),