© Copyright – 2024 – Athletics Illustrated
Vancouver’s Thomas Nobbs and Calgary’s Makenna Fitzgerald won the 35th annual Times Colonist 10K (TC10K) in Victoria, BC Sunday. Nobbs clocked 30 minutes and six seconds, while Fitzgerald recorded a 34:13 performance.
Wind ruled the day on the southern island as the blustery conditions generated a headwind from kilometres 5 to 8 along the water on Dallas Road. As American poet William Arthur Ward wrote, “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.
The 24-year-old Nobbs is a realist. He went out hard with a 2:52 first kilometre, worked with other runners for about 10 minutes, then left them in his wake. “I didn’t want anybody to benefit from my work, so I pushed the pace to the end,” shared Nobbs.
“The wind was definitely a bit of a surprise. Coming out here I knew it was going to be a bit tougher than last year,” he added.
NObbs was fresh off of a new personal best at the Vancouver Sun Run last week with a 29:17 clocking. He was expecting another sub-30-minute performance. However, it was not to be as he ran against the wind and alone for most of the race. Nobbs will have another chance to do so in three weeks when he runs the Canadian 10K championships in Ottawa, ON. The race, which is the Canadian 10K Championships, is run in conjunction with the Ottawa Marathon.
The defending champion finished 42 seconds in front of professional triathlete Liam Donnelly who took second. And finishing in third place was another triathlete Russell Pennock who rolled in at 31:04 for third. Donnelly will be taking in a sprint distance triathlon shortly in Mexico, near the Guatemala border. The TC10K was a final training run for him.
“Today felt good, the weather didn’t do much for my Mexico race coming up,” laughed Donnelly. “But I am happy with the time considering the wind.”
Fitzgerald from Calgary ran 34:13 for a new personal best time and the win. She was pleased with the result. She bettered Victoria’s Jennifer Erickson, who also ran a new personal best of 34:48. Erickson’s previous best of 35:32 was set this year at the Cobble Hill 10K. The event also acts as the 2024 and 2025 BC 10K Championships. Cobble Hill was race two of the eight-race Vancouver Island Race Series.
“The half-marathon is my sweet spot, so this race was a good confidence booster,” Fitzgerald said. She will be racing the Canadian Half Marathon Championships in Winnipeg on June 16.
“It was good and now I am moving away from the roads and onto the track in the 1500m distance to try to improve my best there.”
Erickson would like to improve upon her 4:19.73 best from July last year at MacLeod Stadium in Greater Vancouver. She confirmed that she will take in the Victoria Track Classic, Harry Jerome Track Classic and Pacific Distance Carnival on May 11. The latter two will take place in Vancouver.
Jouen Chang of Vancouver, a former training partner and fellow UBC alum of Erickson’s clocked in a small pb of 35:24 to take third.
Victoria’s Matthew Carlson took the 40-plus masters title in the time of 34:04. He was followed in by Robert Johnston and Mark Crydermand who runs in the 50-54 age group.
Vancouver’s Eriko Soma won the women’s masters division, fresh off a strong podium performance at the Vancouver Sun Run. She finished in the time of 36:19. Catrin Jones took second in the 40-plus category with her 37:13 run. Victoria’s Carley Gering took third in 38:24.
Registrations totalled over 8500 for the event. Six thousand 666 finished the race. The TC10K was run its final time on the current (and recent iterations) course. Currently, it winds its way through downtown before hitting the neighbourhood of Fairfield and returns along the waterfront to the Inner Harbour. The city and police service pushed to have a novel wave start format where the first wave started one hour before the third wave.
The TC10K started in 1990 as the Garden City 10K and was soon title-sponsored by the Times Colonist newspaper.
