Once we had five guys considering Victoria last year, I did the math and realized that if we all ran our best, our current combined PBs were fast enough to win either of the previous two years the RVM has had the team competition (Victoria powerhouse Prairie Inn Harriers, led by race winner, Steve Osaduik, won the inaugural team title in 2006 in a cumulative time of 11:24:28 and the VFAC Posse, led by race runner-up, Graeme Wilson, won in 2007 with a time of 11:38:03). We had nothing to lose, so I set the team up on the RVM online entry form and we were in business.
Bill was injured and didn’t start, but our top four all ran PBs for a combined time of 11:13:08, good enough to win either of the first two years as planned. What we couldn’t plan for was the unstoppable machine of a team entered by the Harriers, who were clearly smarting from a third place finish in 2007, as well as the appearance of a fleet-footed group of reptiles who made the trip north from Oregon.
The Open Team Standings:
1. Prairie Inn Harriers
2:25:31 2:31:12 2:34:59 2:43:00 (2:43:01) (3:14:10) (3:26:56) (3:28:47) (3:33:59) (3:37:25)
(3:59:28) (4:06:17) = 10:14:42
Steve Osaduik, Jason Terauchi-Loutitt, Jonathan Withey, Cheryl Murphy, Phil Nicholls, Michael Arensen, Camellia Bentham, Mike Janes, Julie van Veelen, Christian Collins, Lara Jones, Brent Chan
2. Team Red Lizard
2:41:17 2:44:26 2:48:03 2:54:23 (3:07:21) (3:53:16) (3:53:16) = 11:08:09
Lawrence Merrifield Jr, Tim Knox, Wendy Terris, Daniel Kearns, Win Goodbody, Betty Wagner, Robert Mow
3. Broadway Run Club
2:45:42 2:46:55 2:49:48 2:50:43 (3:37:00) = 11:13:08
Aaron Case, David Papineau, Brian Wynhoven, Paul Felton, Devon Lougheed