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Snowy track made running very slick and slippery

Quesnel cross-country athletes dominated race and owned the podium

Many of you will have heard the term, “runner’s high.”

This often occurs when your content, couch dwelling beach body is ripped from its beloved habitat and forced to go for a run.

In the middle of all the protesting and confusion, your brain takes action; tossing back a much needed adrenaline, endorphin cocktail. The only purpose is to put a damper on your pain, so you can run longer.

The main difference between sporadic runners and cross-country runners last weekend was the type of our pain killer. Endorphins work wonders, but snow works even better.

We are just about six weeks, and only three races into the cross-country season; yet, on Oct. 14 in the West Fraser Timber Park, we got snow. This was snow created with the sole purpose of melting straight through our paper thin spikes, for the fortunate few that ran in a pair.

All those left with their regular running shoes did not fair quite so well. While I managed to avoid slipping, I found myself saying, “careful,” to ever runner in regular shoes. I didn’t pass a single racer who did not slip as I ran by.

This race course included every single kind of terrain you could possibly train for in Northern British Columbia. We experienced snow, mud, rock, pavement, grass, uphills, downhills, 90 degree corners, and bridges through fields, trails and around baseball diamonds.

Despite the tough terrain, it did not stop our Quesnel Junior Secondary and Correlieu athletes from taking our hard-earned places upon every podium.

In Grade 8, our Bantam girls: Ruby Nicholas took first place; Reese Jacobsen came in fourth; and Jenna Paul pulled up in 10th.

The Bantam boys doing just as well: Kyle Eggert claimed second place; Linden Spencer, Isaac Woollends, Joshua Tilsner and Liam MacDonald took places fourth through seventh.

Our Grade 9, Juvenile girls: Lucy Pontius in fifth and Abby Troute in sixth. Juvenile boys, Evan Fisher took fourth and Alex Beauvilier in seventh.

Correlieu’s Junior girls dominated the podium, with Hannah Vaughen-Ferrell taking first, Amber Proudfoot in second and Emma Pontius taking fourth.

I spoke with Emma sometime after the race and asked her how she felt while running that last stretch to the finish. She told me that, “You gotta run like there’s a hot guy in front of you and a creepy one behind.”

Our Junior boys, ranking was equally as remarkable: Christopher Henderson, Adam Nicholas, Jake Beaudry and Kyle Cheng claimed second through fifth.

Senior boys, Bazil Spencer took first, and Scott Sargent in fifth. I, Abby Fisher, took first for the Senior girls.

Quesnel teams have attacked the hardest course of the season, challenging themselves in doing so, and still came out on top. Cross Country Zone Championships – the provincial qualifier – will be taking place on Oct. 21 in Prince George.

A huge thank-you to every volunteer who came out last weekend, and made this insane race possible. If you would like to volunteer, sponsor, or just come out and support our team, feel free to contact our dedicated coach Scott Trueman at scotttrueman@sd28.bc.ca.