Lots to look for as our Ultimate and Relay runners enter their seventh day of racing!
Overall leads
Male – Rob Brouillette has a commanding lead over Nick Burt (53:32). There is still a battle to complete the podium: Stefan Gudmundson has a 10:19 lead over a hard-closing Andrew Keeves for 3rd place!
Female – Vicki Zandbergen has won four of six Stages, building up a 9:45 lead over second place Catherine Desrosiers, who leads Valery Hobson by another 5:26. This is the second-closest ever women’s race entering Stage 7 (2013).
Relay – Health + Performance is dominating the podium right now, with teams fighting for first place (Masters Men lead Millenials by 6:00) and for third place (In Betweeners lead Women’s A by 9:18).
Chasing historical times
Male – After six Stages, Robert Brouillette is in 3rd place all-time, 17:59 ahead of his previous best time (2016). He trails the second best all-time Ultimate performance by 2:59, meaning he would need a 2:32:31 marathon to assume the second best time, ever. (Rob ran 2:37:22 on this course in 2016.) This would be a new course record for the marathon by 11 seconds
Female – In a week of crushing PBs, Vicki Zandbergen (who sits 13th all-time after 6 Stages) can move into the top 10 all-time with a 3:17:05 marathon. Crazier things have happened! Joanne Bink owns the entire podium for Masters Women, but Catherine and Valery are knocking on the door; marathons of 3:13:47 or 3:08:22 respectively would gain either woman 3rd place in all-time Masters Women’s finishes.
Relay – The H+P Masters Men need a 3:11:24 to maintain their 10th place position, which they sit in after Stage 6. There are two more teams within two minutes, and the H+P Millenials also have a great shot to reach the Top 10 all-time. The H+P Women’s A team is 1:42 back of their time from last year, which is the current record for fastest ever all-female Relay team. A 3:12:39 marathon is what it would take to best their own record!
Other storylines
ENDURrun Bests – There are several Ultimate contenders this year who are running their best ever ENDURrun week, besides Vicki and Rob. Thaddeus Homewood, Merzi Dastoor, Valery Hobson, Trish Benoit and Rebecca Kruisselbrink are all competing in the Ultimate for their second time, and all five of them have run ENDURrun bests at almost every stage! Will Spaetzel is also running his second Ultimate, and is currently 7 minutes ahead of his 2013 result, thanks to a huge 27:34 PB at Chicopee. Amanda Booth (third time Ultimate competitor) is also currently 6:36 ahead of her own 2016 performance. Interesting fact: both Merzi and Amanda ran exactly the same time in their 10KM TT this year as they did in their last Ultimate competition!
Year over Year Improvements – We’ve already covered Michelle’s close races against the cut-off clock, but that doesn’t mean we’re done talking about how great her races have been this year! Michelle is currently 1:21:18 ahead of her 2016 self! Wilf Goron is also having a fantastic week, his fastest ENDURrun since 2013! He is on pace to run over 4 hours faster than his 2016 self!
Middle of the Pack Relay Competitions – Orange is the New Fast, currently sitting sixth, has a strong marathoner in Jonathan Redfearn, and is 21:01 behind the Women’s A team (fourth), with the RC Wed Knights in between. TEAM LLOYD 1 and TEAM LLOYD 2 are only 7:10 apart after Stage 6! What can April Boultbee vs. Patrick Campbell add to this unexpectedly close battle?