Vancouver’s Bryan Andrews is used to pounding the pavement in marathons but ventured onto the trails of Ƶappand excelled on Sunday (Aug. 23) at the Ƶapp50 23-kilometre event.
Andrews posted the top time, finishing the course in 1:51:05 and beating out second-place finisher Oliver Bibby from Vancouver by more than seven minutes.
He said he turned it on in the flatter sections, helping him win.
“That course is truly evil but a lot of fun,” he said, moments after finishing the race. “Someone caught me around the halfway point on the really technical stuff – which I’m obviously not very good at – but then it flattened out and I guess I put him away.”
Vancouver’s Anne-Marie Madden won the female division and finished third overall. It’s her third straight win at the race but she cracked the two-hour mark for the first time ever, posting a time of 1:58:17. She managed to shave six minutes off her time in 2014 and nearly 10 from her time in 2013.
“This year I was determined to beat my time from last year,” she said. “I’m super-happy to break two hours.”
Coquitlam’s Jeremy Waters took home bragging rights in Sunday’s 50-kilometre race. Waters time of 5:23:53 was the fastest since 2013. He said the turning point was the big climb.
“I was third heading up the big climb at Galactic Scheisse but I overtook the other two guys on the fly,” he said. “I had to get past them by the corner or I just wasn’t going to win.”
Utah’s Joshua Korn placed second, with Vancouver’s Nick Sunderland finishing third. Vancouver’s Kim Magnus (5:23:53) was the top female, with a time of 5:57:51. Last year Magnus won female division of the Ƶapp50-mile race.
It was also a long weekend on the trails for North Vancouver’s Colin Miller.
He was the top finisher in the 50/50 race, which saw him run 50 miles on Saturday (Aug. 22) and run 50 kilometres on Sunday. Miller was fifth on Saturday’s race and fourth on Sunday’s race for a combined time of 14:16:26. He is also the only man who competed last year to come back and do it again this year.
A total of 250 people finished the 50 km race, with 209 running in the 23-kilometre race. For complete results from the event, visit www.squamish50.com/results.