Dayna Pidhoresky’s Around the Bay 30K performance

© Copyright – 2017 – Athletics Illustrated

Vancouver’s Dayna Pidhoresky did Sunday what few women have accomplished and that is win the historic Around the Bay 30K for a third time. She ran it in what could be her all-time best performance for any distance.

Her official 2017 result is one hour, 47 minutes and 27 seconds.

The two other times that Pidhoresky won the race, she finished in 1:50:47 in the 2015 edition and 1:50:45 in the 2011 running.

She finished 16th overall. The second female was Kenya’s Jane Murage who finished in the time of 1:53:52. Vancouver’s Neasa Coll finished third in the time of 1:54:54. Full results are, here.

Two other women have won the race three times, Russian-Canadian Lioudmila Kortchaguina, won it in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Her best performance was 1:46:04. Kenyan Lucy Njeri Muhami also won it three consecutive times in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Her best is 1:48:28.

Pidhoresky is the first Canadian-born woman to win the 123-year-old race three times*.

Asked if she was expecting a three-minute personal best, Pidhoresky told Athletics Illustrated, “It’s sort of funny because this morning I basically threw all-time goals out the window when I saw the wind speeds and essentially that is exactly how I raced. The first 10K involved a major headwind and when I saw my split (36:35) I knew that was the right decision – to just race for the win.  At the same time, I was excited to see I had a big lead and at that point onwards I just tried to enjoy the race and feel thankful to be back running strong again.  I was taking my 5K splits along the way to keep myself occupied but I definitely left a lot in the tank which is okay because it means I will recover faster and get back to training quicker.  So I’d say the pb was unexpected and just the icing on the cake! Maybe one day I can go after that record but it would have to be the right conditions, especially given that the course is now tougher.”

The course record is held by fellow Canadian, Lanni Marchant, who owns the Canadian record for the marathon at 2:28:00. She set the ATB 30K record in 2013 at 1:44:40.

When asked about what this new unexpected result means in regards to her fitness, Pidhoresky said, “This shows that my fitness is good and certainly bodes well for the spring.  Josh (husband Josh Seifarth) was saying that last weekend’s 5K (St. Patrick’s Day 5K in Vancouver) was probably going to be the tougher of the two and I think he was right!  The main event this spring is the Ottawa Marathon, where I hope to make a big improvement on my time from the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.  Today proved that we’re well on our way to making that happen.  In the meantime, I will be running Scotiabank Montreal 21.1K and TC10K at the end of April.”

Below are the top 11 women’s times in the ATB 30K results history. Pidhoresky now has the seventh fastest result on an apparent tougher course. The comparisons to athlete’s 21.1K, 30K and 42.195K results is strictly conjecture as each road race at any distance provides its own set of circumstances, just as each athlete toes-the-line dealing with their own set of life circumstances. Saying that, it appears that Pidhoresky, should be able to run a 2:30:00 marathon and given the right circumstances may run faster. The national record is just two minutes faster at 2:28:00.

*Official results started in 1979 for women, although results are provided to 1975 and women ran the race before that, however, their finish times were not recorded.

*Anne Marie Malone’s half-marathon time is actually for the 20K distance, not 21.1K.