At the risk of having my passport revoked and with apologies to everyone representing Canada this weekend — like Matt Sessions and this guy — my loudest cheers will be for Great Britain at the IAU World 100k Championships in Gibraltar on Sunday. Not all of Great Britain, mind you, but a tiny piece of the British Isles currently residing in the Canadian Rockies, Ellie Greenwood.
The long-time Canadian resident will be capping off a phenomenal year by representing Great Britain in her first World Championships against some of the biggest names in the ultrarunning world including defending champion Kami Semick of the US, Italian Monica Carlin, Commonwealth Champion, Jackie Fairweather of Australia, and Russian, Irina Vishnevskaya, who has the fastest 100k time of any woman in 2010.
It seems that every year is a breakthrough year for Ellie, but this year the fleet-footed Scot has taken a huge step and is now winning races outright.
In May, Ellie took the overall win at the Elk Beaver 100k on Vancouver Island, defeating reigning champ, Sammy Lotfi-pour and setting an unofficial women’s world trail 100k record of 7:36:40 in the process. She added overall wins at the Scorched Sole 50-miler in Kelowna — where we ran together for nearly 25k before she left me to die in the snow atop Little White Mountain — and at Canada’s largest ultramarathon, the Run For the Toad in Cambridge, Ontario. Ellie finished 5th overall and crushed the women’s course record with a 5:08 at the Knee Knacker and was second overall behind two-time Western States champion, Hal Koerner, running the second fastest time ever at the infamous Canadian Death Race in Grand Cache, Alberta. Ellie’s dominance wasn’t limited to the dirt as she won women’s titles at the Calgary and Edmonton Marathons, lowering her personal best to 2:49:54.
Best of luck this weekend, Ellie!
UPDATE — Kami Semick did not start, but one of Ellie’s idols, the great Lizzy Hawker of Great Britain did. Should be a great race!
FURTHER UPDATE — Click here for Tweet-by-Tweet recap of Ellie’s run