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Past champs reclaim 10 Miler titles

Whitehorse’s Logan Roots and Lindsay Carson sped through 10 miles of pavement and trail to reclaim titles on Sunday. Roots was the top male and Carson the top female in the Chocolate Claim Pre-Skagway 10 Miler in Whitehorse.
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Whitehorse’s Logan Roots and Lindsay Carson sped through 10 miles of pavement and trail to reclaim titles on Sunday.

Roots was the top male and Carson the top female in the Chocolate Claim Pre-Skagway 10 Miler in Whitehorse.

“I went off pretty quick. I knew there were some big hills coming,” said Roots. “Go off fast, get up the first one, see how I feel, recover on the downhills and push it from there.”

Roots, who won the race in 2011, took first with a time of 54 minutes and 48 seconds. Carson, who won in 2013, came in at 1:01:17 as the top female, shaving more than a minute off her previous time.

“I want to crack the one-hour barrier, but given the conditions today – it’s pretty windy and cold – I’m pretty happy with my race,” said Carson.

Roots and Carson will be teammates in a couple of weeks. The two will be part of a new mixed team set to race in the Klondike Trail of ‘98 International Road Relay.

The team, Eikelboom Physiotherapy, will also include David Eikelboom, who placed second on Sunday at 57:10, and Shane Carlos, who took third at 59:48.

Eikelboom trailed Carlos for most of the run before overtaking his teammate late in the race.

“Shane and Logan went out pretty hot and I realized I was going to die if I tried to keep up with them, but through the hills I was able to close the gap a little bit,” said Eikelboom. “I just executed a good run. Even through the finish I was focused on pushing really hard – just making myself work out there, not get complacent in the last mile or so.”

“It was good. Chilly. But the race went smoothly,” said Roots. “It was different to have somebody to run the first portion with – it wasn’t Dave, it was Shane this time. That was great. A new conversation.”

Also on the team is Amelia Fraser, who placed second for females in the 10 Miler at 1:13:43, and Jody Eikelboom who came in at 1:19:38 for fifth.

Filling out the rest of the roster for the mixed team in the 175-kilometre relay race from Skagway to Whitehorse are Luke Carlos, Rodney Hulstein, Kathleen Hale and Anett Kralisch.

All five males are past members of Whitehorse’s Scarecrow team that won the relay four years in a row before placing second to Anchorage’s Skinny Raven team last year.

“Early this year a couple of posts were made on the Scarecrow site and nobody really responded, so it looked like it wasn’t even going to happen,” said David, the team’s captain.

“So let’s do something different this year. We got a group of people together and we’re going to have fun. Instead of taking eight separate vehicles down, we’re going to – more like the Alaskans do – go in a big group and have a real atmosphere, have a good time out there.

“We have some pretty quick people as well.”

Roots is set to run Leg 4 in his fourth Klondike relay. Carson, who is in the relay for her first time, will do Leg 9.

“My leg for the relay is 19K and today was 16K and I felt quite comfortable,” said Carson. “I felt like I could carry on that same pace for another three kilometers. So it’s an added sense of confidence going into the Skagway race.”

Both Roots and Carson have had a big year in running. Roots has won the five- and 10-kilometre Yukon titles, the Yukon River trail Marathon, and placed third for his age division and 19th overall at the Canadian Half Marathon Championships in Calgary, this summer. Early this year Carson placed 59th at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in China and later placed 10th out of 6,759 women runners at the Canadian 10-Kilometre Road Race Championships in May.

View results here.

Contact Tom Patrick at

tomp@yukon-news.com