Even after a week of working in the field as an environmental engineer, a less-than-ideal diet and a last-minute entry, Whitehorse’s Lindsay Carson can set records.
The 26-year-old broke her own course record as top woman in the Chocolate Claim Pre-Skagway 10 Miler in Whitehorse on Sunday.
“I’ve actually been in the field the last week, living off of Mr. Noodles, and I wasn’t supposed to be here today. I was supposed to still be working today, but got off early,” said Carson.
“So I didn’t know what to expect today. After the 10-K champs I took some time off interval training and just focused on running when I felt like it and took an emotional/mental breather. So this is my first time back with a hard effort and I really surprised myself.”
Carson was the top female for a third time with a time of 59 minutes and 43 seconds — the fastest women’s time for the race in Athletics Yukon’s records, which are missing a few years. She shaved over a minute and a half off her record time from last year.
Sunday marked Carson’s fourth straight win in recent months as the winner of the Yukon five- and 10-kilometre road race championships and as the top female in the half distance of the Yukon River Trail Marathon.
She is a two-time Team Canada member at the World Cross Country Championships and hopes to make the team again this fall.
“This is a positive benchmark for me going into my cross-country season,” said Carson. “It’s a lot faster than I’ve done previous years and this is kind of the starting block, so maybe I can expect some better results with my cross-country and road races this fall.”
Carson was one of three runners to crack the one-hour mark on Sunday.
Whitehorse’s David Eikelboom placed first overall with a personal best of 54:56 and Brendan Morphet second at 59:33.
Eikelboom, 28, who placed second last year behind Logan Roots, hoped to surpass his friend’s winning time of 54:48.
“To go 54-high this year, I was really happy with,” said Eikelboom. “I looked up what was Logan’s time from last year and it was 54:40-something, so it was maybe 10 seconds faster than I went today, so I was a little choked about that.
“It keeps me motivated knowing that he has all these times still that I haven’t touched. It keeps me working.”
Pre-Skagway is in the name because it is considered a warm-up event for the Klondike Trail of ‘98 International Road Relay in a little over a week.
Eikelboom and Carson will run the last two legs of the Skagway-to-Whitehorse race for a mixed team called Running Home to Yukon Brewing, with William Bell, Sam Lindsay, Anett Kralish, Luke Carlos, Brittany Pearson, Shane Carlos, Jody Eikelboom and Amelia Fraser.
“There are a couple new faces, but we’re excited to have a team that’s going to have a good time again,” said David Eikelboom, the team captain.
Last year his team placed second overall behind Anchorage’s Team Raven: Take No Prisoners, which set the mixed division record of just under 11 hours.
“I spoke to one of them and they’ve indicated that they’re going for the mixed team record again this year,” said Eikelboom. “So they’re bringing in a couple ringers” who can run a marathon in two and a half hours.
“I’ll be eager to see what they do,” he said.
This year’s Klondike road relay will see a record 198 teams compete, including 170 10-person teams, 13 youth teams and 12 walking teams. There are also two individuals registered for the ultra – the full 176.5 kilometres from Skagway to Whitehorse — a division introduced in 2014. The relay is scheduled for Sept. 9-10.
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com
10 Miler results
Male runners
1st David Eikelboom – 54:56
2nd Brendan Morphet – 59:33
3rd Dominic Bradford – 1:01:16
4th Keith Maguire – 1:15:39
5th Jason Mackey – 1:15:53
6th Wayne Smyth – 1:19:56
7th Ross King – 1:21:25
8th Chester Kelly – 1:24:19
9th James Patterson – 1:25:48
10th Francis Whiteman – 1:31:26
11th Roger Hanberg – 1:31:28
12th Jason Cunning – 1:35:51
Female runners
1st Lindsay Carson – 59:43
2nd Janet Clarke – 1:19:41
3rd Victoria Ryan – 1:19:58
4th Sarah Johnson – 1:20:23
5th Hannah Shier – 1:20:46
6th Laura Salmon – 1:21:41
7th Andrea Finner – 1:21:57
8th Jody Eikelboom – 1:23:12
9th Helen Stappers – 1:23:22
10th Cathy McNeil – 1:26:48
11th Allison Whitehead – 1:30:13
12th Hayley Henderson – 1:30:43
13th Kirsten Sylvestre – 1:32:05
14th Amanda Allen – 1:34:56
15th Andrea Cook – 1:35:51
16th Briana Tomlin – 1:35:52