Whitehorse runners won half as many divisions as last year at Duff’s Skagway Marathon last Saturday in Alaska.
But they won the two biggest ones and kept win streaks going for Yukon in them.
Whitehorse’s David Eikelboom topped a field of 24 to win the men’s half-distance event and Maura Sullivan a field of 56 to win the women’s half-distance at the event.
It was the fourth year in a row a Whitehorse racer won the women’s half and the sixth year in a row a Whitehorse runner won the men’s, beginning with the inaugural event in 2011.
Eikelboom, 29, came in with a time of one hour, 15 minutes and 15 seconds. He was 57 seconds from the course record Whitehorse’s Logan Roots set last year, but he was still fast enough to catch the organizers by surprise as he neared the finish.
“I think they were just setting up the tent there. So when I crossed the line I nailed my head on the bottom beam of one of these pop-up tents. So that was a little bit of a bad way to finish,” said Eikelboom with a chuckle.
“I was happy with the race,” he added. “It wasn’t as much fun without Logan (Roots) there. It’s good to have him there to really keep me hopping.”
Eikelboom won the half two years ago and placed second behind Roots last year. He wasn’t far off his personal best half-distance time of 1:13:42 he set a little over a year ago in Vancouver.
“I’m not far off it. And for a course that is as hilly as it is and windy as it was, I’m pretty happy with it,” said Eikelboom. “It seemed any time we were going uphill in the race there was a headwind and anytime we were going downhill there was a tailwind, so it was hard to know how to strategize the last few kilometers of the race. There was at least a 50-kilometre headwind for the final three K, that was a bit of a sufferfest at the end of a race like that.”
Sullivan earned back the title with a time of 1:36:12, having won the race in 2013. Whitehorse’s Amelia Fraser, who won the distance the previous two years, placed second at 1:38:49. Whitehorse’s Sue Bogle came third at 1:39:41.
The Yukon-rich field packed the top of the standings with Whitehorse runners in the top 12 spots in the women’s half-distance event.
The sixth annual marathon had a record field of 121 runners and walkers.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com
Top 10 results
Women’s half marathon
1st Maura Sullivan
(Whitehorse) - 1:36:12
2nd Amelia Fraser
(Whitehorse) - 1:38:49
3rd Sue Bogle
(Whitehorse) - 1:39:41
4th Hanna Atmanspacher-Wirth
(Whitehorse) - 1:44:24
5th Kathleen Campbell
(Whitehorse) - 1:45:00
6th Garnet Muething
(Whitehorse) - 1:46:00
7th Morgan Bouquot
(Whitehorse) - 1:47:14
8th Sarah Johnson
(Whitehorse) - 1:47:31
9th Erin Henderson
(Whitehorse) - 1:48:06
10th Annie-Claude Dupuis
(Whitehorse) - 1:48:48
Men’s half marathon
1st David Eikelboom
(Whitehorse) - 1:14:15
2nd Alex Lucas
(Brooklyn, N.Y.) - 1:24:48
3rd Andrew Onermaa
(Skagway) - 1:25:44
4th Stephan Atmanspacher
(Whitehorse) - 1:30:06
5th Nathan Gratton
(Skagway) - 1:30:48
6th Don White
(Whitehorse) - 1:41:26
7th Peter Bartlett
(Skagway) - 1:42:04
8th Robert Gillis
(Whitehorse) - 1:42:43
9th Sean Daniels
(Skagway) - 1:43:10
10th Paul Myers
(Skagway) - 1:43:58
Women’s half marathon (walking)
1st Michelle Greenstreet
(Skagway) - 2:54:22
2nd Kathleen Dyke
(Whitehorse) - 2:54:22
3rd Becky Jensen
(Skagway) - 3:00:23
4th Mindy Miller
(Skagway) -3:00:24
5th Angie Hall
(Whitehorse) - 3:27:29
6th Willeke van den Hoorn
(Skagway) - 3:27:29
Men’s half marathon (walking)
1st Andy Miller
(Skagway) - 3:00:24
2nd John Storms
(Whitehorse) - 3:18:26
Women’s marathon
1st Joy Isbell
(Fort Jones, Calif.) - 3:52:24
2nd Jessica Read
(Whitehorse) - 3:59:08
3rd Erica Van Vlack
(Whitehorse) - 3:59:08
4th Shelley Gellatly
(Whitehorse) - 4:18:20
5th Thaidra Sloane
(Toronto, Ont.) - 4:48:42
6th Lisa Dean
(Fort Jones, Calif.) - 4:48:52
7th Gillian Smith
(Whitehorse) - 4:49:34
Men’s marathon
1st Jeffrey Wegener
(Skagway) - 3:19:47
2nd Kallen Roth
(Skagway) - 3:25:48
3rd Brian Horton
(Whitehorse) - 3:29:24
4th Spencer Morgan
(Skagway) - 3:31:46
5th Michael Healy
(Skagway) -3:37:06
6th Alex Graham
(Orem, Utah) - 3:51:49
7th Kyle Green
(Skagway) - 3:53:57
8th Daniel Hale
(Kapaa, Hawaii) - 3:53:57
9th Boris Hoefs
(Whitehorse) - 3:58:15
10th Petr Polivka
(Whitehorse) - 4:01:57