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UPDATE 7:49 PM Friday: Jane Murage will compete in both the TC10k as well as the half-marathon race, which starts at the University of Victoria, one hour after the TC10k starts (8:00 AM and 9:00 AM). Murage is favoured to win both races. She said, “I will continue to aim for the TC10k course record (as per below) and I will seek the win in the half-marathon race as well.” The half marathon is a point-to-point race that provides a net downhill course and is rolling. Murage said, “I will try for sub-1:15, as I am starting shortly after I finish the 10k.” Murage will be driven with four other athletes that are challenging the morning double: Shane Ruljancich, Gary Duncan, John Catterall and Garth Campbell.
Jane Murage of Nairobi, Kenya is in Victoria, BC to race the TC10k, Sunday April 27th. She wants to win as well as break the course record, which stands at 32:56 from 2011 by Polish athlete Karolina Jarzynska, who won back-to-back TC10ks in 2010 and 2011. “I would like to take the course record and I think I can do it, I am feeling like I am in good shape,” shared Murage, who owns a 10 kilometre personal best time of 32:20.
Murage is the defending champion. She came back to Victoria from Nairobi for the express purpose of racing the TC10k, but while she is in the area, she will take in the Lilac Bloomsday 12k, which takes place in Spokane, Washington the following weekend. The TC10k will have roughly 12,000 participants and is Canada’s second-largest 10k, while Bloomsday, which started in 1974, has had as many as 61,000 participants.
When Murage returns to Nairobi in two weeks, she will begin the process of seeking Commonwealth Games Standard for the 3000-metre steeplechase, so that she can represent Kenya in the Glasgow games this summer. Athletics Kenya announced this spring that they will field the same team for the Commonwealth Games as they will for the African Championships. The Kenyan national championships take place June 20th to 22nd in Nairobi.
The twenty-seven-year-old Murage is a light trainer. She runs just 50 kilometres per week including a 90-minute long run, two “speed sessions,” which typically consist of repetitions of 400 metres or one kilometre in length on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She will go easy the rest of the week and sometimes run hills on Saturday, while Sunday is a day of complete rest. She hopes to run the 2015 Virgin London Marathon she said, “I will have to significantly increase my mileage to be able to race the London Marathon well”.
Also, racing is Lioudmila Kortchaguina from Toronto, Ontario. She will be seeking second place overall and first master (over 40). During 2013, she raced as fast as 33:57 at the Vancouver Eastside 10k and ran the Ottawa Marathon in 2:33:11.
Other competitors include a couple of Victoria-based triathletes in Alison Hooper and Alex Coates. Hooper hopes to go sub-35:00, while Coates hopes to run under 36:00. They will be challenged by a strong set of master athletes in multi-time winner Lucy Smith, who is a 19-time Canadian champion in triathlon, track, duathlon, cross-country and road running. Marilyn Arsenault, who owns the Canadian 10,000-metre masters record, is also racing and these two may battle head-to-head. Lisa Harvey from Calgary is racing; she is a former masters winner of the TC10k and has had a long national-level career.
For the third year in a row Kip Kangogo is back at the TC10K, hoping to go one better than 2013, and win on Sunday, April 27. The 2012 TC10K champion will be joined by Gilbert Kiptoo, David Jackson and Jim Finlayson in the men’s race. The inaugural Half Marathon will see an exciting battle between Nick Walker and Todd Howard.
Kip Kangogo – who will be running as a Canadian citizen for the first time – is aiming for a sub 30:00 finish. The Canada Running Series Champion won the Sporting Life 10K in 28:56, just nine seconds shy of the TC10K course record. Gilbert Kiptoo, who came fifth last year and has a PB of 29:12, is hoping to be on Kangogo’s heels. Abbotsford’s David Jackson has a goal of 30:30. He was the third Canadian last year and was fourth in the 2013 Vancouver Sun Run in 30:36. Victoria’s Jim Finlayson could also be in contention. He won the Master’s category in this year’s Pioneer 8K in 25:17.