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Catherine Royer wins Quebec half-marathon outright

The Montreal resident beat the entire field of women, and men, at the Demi-Marathon des Vignobles in southern Quebec

Catherine Royer

Montreal‘s Catherine Royer won the Demi-Marathon des Vignobles  (which roughly translates to the Vineyards Half-Marathon) in Saint-Paul-d’Abbotsford, Que. on Sunday. She beat the entire 261-person field including all men and women.

It was the first time in the race’s history that a woman won the event outright. Royer ran 1:27:11, more than two minutes ahead of second-place finisher Benoit Lagimoniere, who clocked in at 1:29:33. The second-place woman was Laurie-Anne Laberge in 1:37:57.

Not surprisingly, all podium finishers received a bottle of wine.

She’s had a busy race schedule so far in 2017. She’s run at least three half-marathons, according to race timing company Sportstats, including the Ottawa Half-Marathon and the Hypothermic Half. Royer improved her time in each of the three races, including the Quebec half, by nearly 90 seconds. Ottawa and the Demi-Marathon des Vignobles were seven days apart.

“Actually, I went running the day before (on Saturday) with friends for a 21K in the mountains (Mont Royal Park in Montreal) in 1:35,” she says. “Because of that, I was not expecting to have a very good performance on Sunday, but I ended up running a personal best.”

In 2017, Royer has improved her half-marathon time to 1:27:11 from 1:28:39 in Ottawa and 1:31:30 from February.

Catherine Royer
Photo: Zoomphoto.ca.

The race, which went off east of Montreal, is part of the food-themed race series known as Les Courses Gourmandes. The popular Quebec circuit, which claims to be the province’s largest, features 10 races, all of which have a different themes including candy, beer, apple, chocolate among others.

The Vineyards Half-Marathon offered a variety of race distances including its namesake in addition to a 5K, 10K, 15K, 30K and 1K for kids. The 21.1K and 30K make a loop around Mount Yamaska, part of the Monteregian Hills in southern Quebec, while the shorter distances are out-and-back courses.

Editor’s note: Women also topped the race’s 30K distance with runs by Pamela Bouvier, in 2:07:35, and Pascale Berthiaume, who ran 2:08:08. These details were added after the story was originally published.

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