Like bees to honey, Jasper’s trail runners never shy away from a good challenge.
On July 9, 14 women, five men and one solo female runner from Jasper tied up their laces for the Sinister 7 Ultra, a grueling 161 km race through the Canadian Rockies near Crowsnest Pass.
Broken up into seven stages, the race included 5,687 metres of elevation gain and had to be completed in 30 hours.
To complete the race, runners had to climb over deadfall, cross creeks and bogs, avoid tripping on wet roots and rocks and navigate through the dead of night. Racers also had to deal with fluctuating temperatures and bouts of rain. To put it in perspective every year the race puts a few people in the hospital.
Fortunately, all three teams from Jasper were able to overcome those challenges and finish the race in the allotted time.
The 14 women were broken up into two teams of seven, appropriately named Girls Breaking Trail.
Team two finished fifth out of 29 teams, crossing the finish line in 18 hours and 48 minutes, while team one finished 11th with a time of 21 hours and 11 minutes. Both teams were sponsored by Lolë, a local shop in town.
“It’s not a race you can just get off the couch and do,” said Valerie Bartziokas, the unofficial spokeswoman for the women’s teams.
“You have to take it seriously, anything can happen out there.”
With that said, she emphasized it’s all about having fun and enjoying the camaraderie with her fellow teammates and other runners at the race.
“We think of ourselves as one big team,” said Bartziokas. “We all take our training seriously, but in the end we have fun with it.”
At one point during the race she said she stopped to regroup and decided to take a video to send to her teammates.
“I’m a talker and I was joking all day that I was going to check in from my leg and I actually did,” said Bartziokas, who completed leg five of the race.
“I’m so lucky to run with the girls I run with,” said Bartziokas, “I seriously don’t know where I’d be without these girls, they’re awesome.”
The male team, also known as The Greasy J-Town Boyz, finished second out of 16 teams with an overall time of 14 hours and 23 minutes, an hour and 41 minutes behind the first place finishers.
Solo runner and Jasperite, Kim Stark, finished the 161-km race in 29 hours and 22 minutes and was one of 19 runners to finish the race, coming in 16th place. Thirty-two solo female runners were unable to finish the race.
Girls Breaking Trails team one included Rebecca Britton, Katy Poirier, Terri Smith, Lorraine Wilkinson, Robin Bangle, Wendy Copp and Bartziokas, while team two consisted of Marnie Oatway, Marie-Andree Arcand, Simone Heinrick, Caroline Roy, Gillian Thompson, Wendy Copp and Ange Blake.
Copp filed in at the last minute after Tiffany Toussaint fell ill with a chest infection the week before. Copp ran for both teams.
The men’s team included, Jean-Yves Doucet, Jocelyn Nadeau, Sam Leblanc, Mike D’Antonio and Bruno Bergeron.
Paul Clarke [email protected]
