West Vancouver, British Columbia – Saturday, July 10th marked the sixteenth annual running of the Knee Knackering North Shore Trail Run. A mixed bag of weather and trail conditions greeted the runners on this occasion. The race started in mostly cloudy conditions, but as the day progressed the sun also peeked out in between brief bouts of showers. The trail was in good shape, with mud only on the early stages of the course in the high country.

A record number of 201 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. 196 of the runners achieved their goal on this day, making for a finishing rate of 98 percent – another record for the race.

North Vancouver’s Patricia Jensen continued her mastery of the North Shore trails for the second consecutive year. Her winning women’s time of 5:44:39 gives her the 2 fastest times by a woman on this course. She was just 3 minutes slower than her course record set in 2003 as a 39-year-old. This year, Jensen also moved into the women’s Masters (40-49 years) ago group. This provided her with a second age group record on the Knee Knacker course, bettering the previous mark of 6:11:20 set in 1996 by Nola Patterson of Lindell Beach by over 26 minutes. Runner-up to Jensen this year was fellow North Vancouver runner, Tracy Wakaluk, who completed the race for the first time in 6:01:10. Wakaluk was also first in the women’s open (under 40 years) division.

The races on the men’s side proved to be more tactical, as no records were set this year. Peter Findlay returned to the winner’s circle after an absence of a decade, with a winning time of 5:02:21. Findlay had won the race 5 consecutive times from 1990 to 1994, as a competitor in the open division. This year marked the first win as a Masters runner for the 45-year-old school teacher from Kamloops. Second place went to veteran ultramarathon runner William Emerson of Portland who completed the course for the first time in 5:16:54. The first finisher in the open division was North Vancouver’s Neil Jones in a time of 5:25:50. This was the third Knee Knacker race for Jones, who finished fifth overall in this year’s race.

Vancouver’s Sam Robbins and Robert Widdows of West Vancouver became the fifteenth and sixteenth individuals to complete the race at least ten times. The race also saw 70-year-old Harvey Nelsen of Langley become the oldest person to finish.