Modo Spring Run-Off

The 2014 Canada Running Series kicks off in Vancouver on March 23 with the Modo Spring Run-Off 8K race through picturesque Stanley Park.

For many runners, it’s a signal that spring is upon us and the hard winter training is behind.

It’s an accurately measured, safe course. Besides the souvenir T-shirts on race day, for the first time ever, all finishers will receive participant medals.

The elite fields are expected to be tougher than ever. As an added incentive, the Canada Running Series has put up prize money for the top three male and female B.C. athletes, in addition to regular prize pots.

“That’s excellent news,” Richard Lee, B.C. Endurance Project coach, declares. “Any kind of support is helpful and Alan [Brookes] and Clif [Cunningham] and the Canada Running Series do a great job supporting both Canadian and local B.C. athletes. It’s great they are stepping up to that. As we all know, it’s a pretty meagre existence being a full time athlete. Probably half of my group are full time athletes and trying to make a go of it off their running income. A bump in any source of income is great. Kudos to Clif and Alan for putting that together.”

Lee’s training group includes 2012 Olympic marathoner Dylan Wykes, 2013 Canadian cross-country champions Natasha Wodak and Luc Bruchet, Rob Watson, a two-time world championship participant, and the 2013 Vancouver Sun 10K winner Kelly Wiebe.

All but Wykes are expected to line up in Stanley Park on March 23 and challenge the men’s and women’s event records which are held by Ryan Mckenzie (23:4 from 2008) and Malindi Elmore (26:49 from 2010).

The men’s race will likely be a battle between Watson and Wiebe. While Watson has announced he will run the Scotiabank Ottawa Marathon in May, Wiebe is more suited to the shorter races. Watson represented Canada in the 3000m steeplechase at the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Berlin.

Wodak leads the women’s field. In addition to winning the national cross-country title last November, just a month after making her marathon debut at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, she has won two Vancouver Sun Run 10K races. She faces fellow national team member Rachel Cliff who finished second to her at the Canadian cross-country championships and just a step behind in the 2013 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. They finished 24th and 25th in this global event.

“The Modo is the Spring litmus test to see how winter training has been going,” Lee says. “It has been a bumpy road for a lot of the people in the group. For Natasha, it was a new experience for her to recover from a marathon and although she ran well in the fall and won national cross, I think she did that more off talent than anything.”

“But now the last couple of weeks, things have started to come about and people are having some really good workouts. I expect they are going to show some good fitness in the 8K.”