Brady
breaks half-marathon record
Posted By Dale Clifford February 25, 2008
Peterborough Examiner Staff Writer
Ties of friendship, local flair and a scent of youth were
evident on city and area roads yesterday. Throw in new records
and you had quite a day in the 30th-annual Peterborough
Family YMCA Vascular Health Network Half-Marathon, AccuPed
5K and inaugural Kids 1K. The start and finish were at the
corner of Park and Brioux streets for the second-straight
year.
Two friends were winners, local competitors came close
and an 11-year-old boy wore the gold in a new category.
A record 604 participants in the half, 251 in the 5K and
61 in the children’s event, finished.
Toronto’s Shawn Brady (oringinally
from Sudbury) won the half-marathon for a second time while
close friend Ian Reid from the same vicinity captured his
sixth 5K title. They drove here together.
Peterborough’s Darl Sutherland was the top local
runner in the half, although, battling the effects of pneumonia,
he collapsed at the finish line.
Trent University grad and Finnish native Jutta Merliainen
led the local women for the second-straight year and Peterborough’s
Zack Calderwood bested the youth field.
After winning the 5K in 16 minutes 12.6 seconds, the 34-year-old
Reid hoped his good friend would capture the longer event.
Brady didn’t disappoint, taking the half in one hour,
10:39.3. Brady’s mark surpassed last year’s
winning time on the two-year-old course by seven minutes.
He bested the field by nearly four minutes.
Brady’s only other appearance in this event was 2001,
when he took home the gold.
“Ian and I train together in Toronto,” said
the 32-year-old Brady, a physiotherapist and musician, originally
from Sudbury. “It was kind of special today. I was
away from competitive racing for a while because I was busy
with work. I’m back at it now. I’m training
nine times a week. I just love it. I run with a good group.”
Conditions were deemed ideal yesterday, sunny with some
wind at times, temperature above freezing, no snow or freezing
rain and clear, clean roads.
“It’s a great course,” said Brady. “It’s
flat out and back and I like that. It was a bit windy but
I felt good at the end. Peterborough is a good running community
and it’s pretty here. The event is well-organized.”
Like other runners, this event is also used as a measuring
stick for other events, like the Ottawa Marathon in May.
Brady, who may run in a half in Sudbury the end of April,
has run marathons in Chicago and Honolulu.
Reid was happy his longtime nemesis Bruce Raymer, also
of Toronto, didn’t attend this year’s event.
Raymer finished first last year, Reid second.
“It seems whenever we’re both in, he wins,”
Reid said with a laugh. “We usually have good races
but I don’t beat him. I really like it here. It’s
well-run. I like the old course better. It had more loops
which I like. It’s psychological and just different.”
Reid, a software test engineer, competed in the national
cross-country championships in Guelph in December and is
looking ahead to Ottawa.
“I like the time of year for this one,” he
said. “You blow the carbon out.”
The 29-year-old Sutherland was determined to run no matter
how he felt. He finished third overall in 1:16.12.
“It’s the Peterborough Half and I want to support
it,” he said. “It’s our own and I try
to win it. I was a little slow though. I like the old course
because I love hills. But I still like this course because
there are always challenges.”
Sutherland, who won a marathon in Picton in October, is
also gearing up for Ottawa.
It was the first time for him in the Peterborough event
in five years and after recovering from a pit bull attack.
Sutherland, a Fleming College (Peterborough) graduate,
is an education assistant at Lindsay IE Weldon.
Merliainen, 36, a mother of four, defended her local women’s
crown with a time of 1:22:11.1, good enough for 10th overall.
From Batawa, she is now a nurse in Trenton.
She will always have a special place in her heart for Peterborough.
“I graduated from Trent and have a lot of friends
here,” she said.
“It means a lot to me. I kept a good pace and had
a better second half today. It’s a great course. I
was two minutes faster than last year.”
Merliainen competed in the New York Marathon last fall
and averages two a year.
Calderwood, a Grade 5 pupil at Prince of Wales, was elated
to be the first winner of the Kids’ 1K. He is a benefactor
of the Y’s Building Strong Kids Program.
“I had a good start and kept a good pace,”
he said after a 0:4:03.6 finish. I gave it all I had at
the finish. It was exciting to be the first winner. I like
running because you feel the wind in your hair and have
a chance to be the best you can be.”
Chris West, with the Y’s Outreach for Youth Physical
Activity Program was pleased with what he saw. Proceeds
from the event go to the program.
“We promote youth fitness and this is great to see,”
said West.
dclifford@peterboroughexaminer.com.
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