Six Whitehorse runners joined an exclusive club following the Klondike Trail of ‘98 International Road Relay on Sept. 9.
They were among 24 to earn a spot on the Senator’s Cup at the 35th annual relay between Skagway, Alaska, and Whitehorse.
The Cup commemorates those who have completed all 10 legs of the 176.5-kilometre race.
For Whitehorse’s Corey Roussell it was 20 years in the making.
“It was never a priority. The last couple of years I was kind of eager to get the last one,” said Roussell. “In ’97 I was a lot younger and they call the younger guys often for Leg 6, the longest one, and I kept putting my hand up for that. And my favourite was Leg 2, and it still is, so whenever I could do Leg 2 I did it.”
Roussell, 60, who first ran the relay in 1997, did Leg 9 on Saturday in what was his 17th time in the event.
His wife Dianne Bruce also secured a spot on the Cup after completing Leg 2 Friday evening. This year’s race was her 14th since first running it in 1999.
“(Leg 2) has got a lot of good things going for it,” said Roussell. “For one thing, it’s often over in around an hour, so it’s not a long leg — it’s under 10 kilometres. You also get to know when you’re going to start too for Leg 2 because you sure know when Leg 1 is going to start and you get a good estimation of when you’re going to start. That’s not the case when you’re doing Leg 9 like yesterday.”
Maura Sullivan, Greg Lane, Jenn Roberts, Marcia Lalonde are the other Whitehorse runners to be etched on the trophy. Sullivan was in her 14th Klondike relay while the other three were in their 10th.
Calgary’s Julie Meyer, who was in the event for her 10th time, was the only other Canadian to make the Cup.
A total of 17 Americans — all from Alaska — have also earned a spot on the Cup. They are: Juneau runners Dan Monteith, Dan Robinson, Dolly Kremers, Jared Erickson, John Kremers, Kathy Kartchner, Lisa Worden, Megan Ahleman and Susetta Cole; Anchorage runners Amara Liggett, Bill Zagrocki, Chera Boom, Ric Wilson, Steve Agee and William Grether; and Skagway’s Becky Jensen and Auke Bay’s Caro Rosier-Polley.
The Senator’s Cup, which was donated to the race by Yukon Senator Dan Lang in 2010, now has a total of 267 names.
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com