The times and day were both great in Wiky's 36th annual 10k Road Race Championships. Running conditions were exceedingly good with temperatures hovering around 10 under broken cloudy skies. There were winds but they gave everyone a push this year and that aid was reflected in fast times at the front.

The Island's latest speedster, 15 year old Jeremy Cooper, literally ran away from the field to take the overall crown with a time of 34:34. Mike Coughlin was a distant second in 37:04 and Andre LeBlanc came third in 38:15. Heather Stroeder easily topped the Ladies field with a very strong 40:37. She would no doubt have ran well under 40 minutes but a miss-step just after the start line by another competitor put Heather hard on the ground. It took her a good couple of minutes to get fully mobile again. Mike Coughlin lost quite a few valuable seconds also when he came to Heather's aid. Celeste Woods came in

second (43:48) and 12 year old Emily Marcolini came third in 44:44.

The kids were a joy to watch. Some examples: Of course 15 year old Cooper's overall win (he's a Sudbury Rocks!! member), 11 year old Brandon Paquette coming 4rth overall, 13 year old Michael Niven coming 9th overall, 13 year old Daniel Lewis coming 14th overall and 8 year old Scott James coming 26th overall (46:10). The top young lady was 13 year old Gillian Ominika (46:47). Somebody on the Island is inspiring these kids not only to run - but to run fast. As I said, it was a joy to watch.

The Wiky 10k Championships is known to be the oldest 10k in Northern Ontario and the Organizers are very proud of that fact. It's not only the oldest but there have also been some very fast times run here in the past. I believe Dan Kimmers's time somewhere around 31 or 32 minutes is the record. If someone has official results of record holders, please let me know.

Put the third Sunday in October on your calendar for next year when the Island will be hosting the 37th annual Wiky 10k Championships.

Hello everyone,

Well this one really knocked the crap out of me. Really. At the 10km mark I felt like I had to go to the washroom. Just a little bit. By the 32km water station an emergency stop was in order. This was another new first time thing for me. The wash room break during a marathon. When the job was done I ran as hard as I could to make up lost time. I passed most of the folks I had already passed before. That was depressing. At the 38km mark I thought I still had the sub 3 in store. But then came the 39km mark. And the reason I do not like this run came to mind. Oh ya. There is that small gradual 3km grade to the finish. The one that knocks the energy out. You can see Queen’s Park all the way. It just keeps coming; slowly. That race to gain lost time after the 32km came to bite me. Man I was spent at the finish. And well darn it anyway; 8/10 of a second. Stupid pooh break!!!

Lynn had an excellent run. She finally broke her dreaded 2:30 mark. It has been almost 5 years since she ran sub 2:30. She was almost giving up the hope. This run was her's and she deserves the praise. Way to go Lynn.

Gene, the other crazy guy running 6in6, made an excellent come back. As usual, he ran very strong. We are crazy eh?

Four down now. Did I mention I love gels? Mmmm!

Not sure what Niagara has in store. It is typically a hard run with the usual rain and head wind.

Oh, and I see from last week's News Letter that there is another Perdue that likes to play at editing cartoons. More time running, less time reading cartoons. Mind you, the 6 ain't over. I may very well look like that if I get to the Hamilton finish.

Ken

Sunday October 19, 2008:

 Rocks!! members Leila Kurkimaki and Paul Pressacco skipped the Toronto events to try something a little different. Both ran in Detroit's Free press 1/2 Marathon.

Leila writes: Paul and I travelled down to Detroit Michigan this weekend to visit family and to run in the Detroit Free Press half marathon. It is a unique run in that it crossed the boarder twice. We came into Canada over the Ambassador Bridge and back to Detroit through the only "underwater" mile in North America, the Detroit/Windsor tunnel.

We went into the race with a time in mind, but, with 8,000 walkers and runners in our race, we were crowded the entire time. Detroit has major road construction going on and there were times when we were almost running on the spot, especially on the bridge. There were alot of unhappy participants at this point. We then abandoned all thoughts of time, and decided to enjoy the race and the sights. The weather was perfect, the sunrise we saw from the bridge was spectacular, and we had a great day.