West Vancouver, British Columbia – The fifteenth annual Knee Knackering North Shore Trail Run took place on Saturday, July 12. A low snow pack from the past winter, combined with dry weather in the late spring and early summer, left the trail in nearly ideal conditions for the race. This may have been a contributing factor, as course records were shattered for both men and women.

A record number of 181 ultramarathon runners from across North America started 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. 163 of the runners achieved their goal on this day, making for a finishing rate of 90 percent.

Kevin Titus of Whistler began his assault on the 12-year-old course record from the opening gun and never looked back. The 46-year-old from Whistler set the Masters (40-49 years) record of 5:12:43 last year, in his first Knee Knacker attempt. This year he wanted to add the overall course record to his list of Knee Knacker achievements. Hot on his tail for most of the first 15 miles was previous record holder, Peter Findlay of Kamloops. This was Findlay’s first return to the Knee Knacker race since 1994, when he ended a string of 5 consecutive victories. Titus had a 3-minute lead on Findlay by the half-way point at Cleveland Dam, and just kept extending it over the second half of the course. He reached the finish line in a record time of 4:42:37, a good 23 minutes ahead of Findlay, who still managed to hold on for second place in a time of 5:05:56. Titus lowered the course record by 2˝ minutes, and set another tough standard for anyone to challenge in future.

The women’s race produced a similar exceptional course record by Patricia Jensen of North Vancouver, who lowered the women’s mark by over 4 minutes. To put this in perspective, the women’s record had been lowered by less than 1 minute since 1994. In her fifth Knee Knacker attempt, Jensen ran away from the rest of the field and demolished the course record (set by fellow North Vancouverite Alexandra Watson in 2001), in a time of 5:41:23. The second-place finisher, 1999 champion Alan Prociuk of Vancouver, finished 32 minutes back in a time of 6:14:00. Jensen bettered her previous best time on the course by over 25 minutes, and managed to finish seventh overall in the field. Jensen’s performance was even more impressive, in that she was the first runner to finish in the open (under 40 years) division – either male or female! This is another first in the 15-year history of the race.

Courtenay’s Keith Wakelin, Sally Marcellus of Delta and Brian VanOene of Kelowna became the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth individuals to complete the race at least ten times. Marcellus is the first female to reach this milestone.