Two members of Scarecrow, the winning men’s team at last year’s Klondike Trail of ’98 International Road Relay, were first across the finish line at the Chocolate Claim Pre-Skagway 10 Miler, starting and ending in Rotary Park on Sunday.
It’s a good sign for the 10-person Whitehorse team, which will be defending their title at the upcoming Klondike race, scheduled September 9-10.
Another good sign is Anchorage’s Skinny Raven: Take No Prisoners team, which won the division seven consecutive times between 2003 and 2009, will be absent a second straight year.
Scarecrow was the first Canadian team to win the division in 17 years.
“We have a pretty good team; everyone is pretty keen, everybody is pretty strong,” said Scarecrow captain Simon Lapointe. “Logan (Roots) is super strong this year, Karl (Blattmann) has had a fantastic summer and having Dave Brook as part of the team is a wonderful addition.”
Taking the lead from the start, Roots won Sunday’s 10 Miler with a time of one hour, 43 seconds, defeating two Whitehorse Triathlon champions.
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Scarecrow teammate Blattmann, who won this summer’s Whitehorse Triathlon, came second in 1:04:46, ahead of Joel Macht, the 2009 and 2008 triathlon champ, in third with a time of 1:07:15.
“It was kind of cold the first half, but I warmed up once I got to the trees on Chadburn Lake Road, so the second half was pretty good,” said Roots, who finished fourth last year. “I think this year was faster, but
I was hoping to break an hour, which didn’t happen. So I was a little disappointed with that.”
After finishing in second the last two years, Whitehorse’s Amy Riske took first in the women’s division of the 10 Miler, coming in at 1:16:46. Taking second was Keltie Hollingsdale at 1:17:27 with Michelle Rigoni in third at 1:18:23.
“The only reason that I won was because Maura Sullivan injured her ankle,” said Riske. “I feel bad for Maura – she’s on my relay team – and I hope her ankle is OK.
“I’m a very recreational runner. I’m just happy to be out there, that I can run and it doesn’t hurt, it feels good.”
Sullivan, who won the women’s half marathon in last summer’s Yukon River Trail Marathon, withdrew from the race due to the injury.
Roots is one of four new members of the Scarecrow team, along with Lapointe, Mike Richards and Dave Brook.
While attending Shawnigan Lake School on Vancouver Island this past year, Roots placed first in five, and second in two races in the Island Series, earning him a top ranking in the 16 to 19 age division. He represented the Yukon at the Western Canada Summer Games in Kamloops a couple weeks ago, coming ninth out of 14 runners in the 3,000-metre, and the Canada Summer Games in 2009.
Richards has won the Yukon River Trail Marathon the last two years and finished second in the Skagway Marathon half-distance category in June.
Brook, who had the fastest time for Leg 4 at last year’s Trail of ’98, is an accomplished cross-country skier, winning two bronze medals at the Masters World Championships in March.
Lapoint won the Mayo Marathon in both 2009 and 2010.
Returning to the team are Shane Carlos, Stephen Waterreus, Ray Sabo, Brent Langbakk and Blattmann, all of whom won their legs in last year’s race. Luke Carlos is also returning.
TOP 10 RESULTS
Male
1st Logan Roots – 1:00:43
2nd Karl Blattman - 1:04:46
3rd Joel Macht - 1:07:15
4th Dom Bradford - 1:07:42
5th Kieran Halliday - 1:09:24
6th Aidan Bradley - 1:10:37
7th Logan Boehmer - 1:13:41
8th Sean McCarron - 1:15:41
9th Ben Yu Shott - 1:21:24
10th Justin Chow - 1:21:37
Female
1st Amy Riske - 1:16:46
2nd Keltie Hollingsdale - 1:17:27
3rd Michelle Rigoni - 1:18:23
4th Laura Salmen - 1:18:59
5th Cynthia Freeman - 1:19:43
6th Anett Kralisch - 1:20:40
7th Piia Kukka - 1:23:17
8th Cathy MacDonald - 1:23:36
9th Chrissy McConnell - 1:23:55
10th Sylvie Hamel - 1:24:03
Walkers
1st Sue Dennehy – 1:59:37
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com