West Vancouver, British Columbia – The fourteenth annual Knee Knackering North Shore Trail Run took place on Saturday, July 13. It was dubbed by competitors as the "Year of the Mud", as the rapidly melting snow in the last few weeks left many miles of wet, sloppy footing on the trails. However, this did not stop many runners from achieving personal best times, and two course records being surpassed during the process.

This year’s race saw 164 ultramarathon runners from across North America start the "Race Across the North Shore" at 6:00 a.m., just above Horseshoe Bay. The goal for most was to reach the finish line, 30 miles later in Deep Cove, within the 10-hour race limit. 151 of the runners achieved their goal on this day.

In the men’s field, the record book was almost completely re-written, as course records fell in 2 of the 3 age categories. The fastest time was turned in by 36-year-old Colin Dignum of North Vancouver. In his first attempt at the race, the accomplished marathoner and 4-time Grouse Grind champion turned in a time of 4 hours 45 minutes and forty-three seconds. This was just 32 seconds shy of the course record of 4:45:11, set way back in 1991 by Peter Findlay of Kamloops. The next runner behind Dignum was Whistler’s Kevin Titus, another first-time racer with an accomplished marathoning background. The 45-year-old clocked a time of 5:12:43, bettering the previous Masters (40-49 years) record by just 22 seconds. That record was set in 1996 by then 47-year-old Peter Ladner of Vancouver. Ladner, now 53, returned to this year’s race to finish in tenth place overall in a time of 5:45:21. This was good enough to set a record in the Veterans (over 50 years) division by almost 4 minutes.

The women’s race saw an extremely close finish, with just over 1 minute separating the first 2 competitors crossing the finish line. In her second attempt at the race, 27-year-old Jacquie Trudeau of Vancouver prevailed over North Vancouver’s Patricia Jensen. Trudeau’s time of 6:05:26 was 23 minutes better than her second-place finishing time in 2000. First-time Knee Knacker racers were victorious in the remaining women’s categories. North Vancouver’s Kristin Fox took first place in the Masters division in a time of 6:16:20, just 5 minutes off the record set by Nola Patterson in 1996. In the Veterans division, it was Carly Mcfetridge of North Vancouver first across the line in a time of 8:37:07.

Courtenay’s Steven Royer, Paul Quinn of Vancouver and Bruce Kelsch of West Vancouver became the ninth, tenth and eleventh individuals to complete the race at least ten times.