West Vancouver, British Columbia – Saturday, July 9th marked the seventeenth annual running of the Knee Knackering North Shore Trail Run. Near ideal weather conditions greeted the runners and volunteers on this occasion with just a few brief showers, a light breeze and lots of sunny breaks throughout the day. The temperature never rose above a comfortable 21 C (70 F). Trail conditions in the high country this year had the course being dubbed the “year of the mud”.

183 ultramarathon runners started the “Race Across the North Shore” at 6:00am, 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. 173 of the runners achieved their goal on this day, making for an excellent finishing rate of 94.5 percent.

Overall winners in both the Women’s and Men’s divisions this year were participating in the Knee Knacker for their first time, with Mark Bates and Suzanne Evans both making impressive débuts.

First overall was Mark Bates of North Vancouver. The former professional world-class Ironman triathlete showed his toughness on the North Shore trails with a winning time of 5:05:40. Bates was vying for the title with 6-time champion, and this year’s Master’s winner, Peter Findlay of Kamloops. Bates and Findlay ran a tight race through the first half, arriving at the both the 7.5 mile and 15 mile aid stations together. Bates pulled ahead in the second half to win the overall title by 11 minutes and 24 seconds.

On the women's side, New Westminster's Suzanne Evans took top honours in a time of 5:45:00. On this day, that time was good enough for Evans to place 10^th overall. In all-time Knee Knacker history, this was the 3^rd fastest female time. At the half-way point, Evans was trailing last year’s open division winner and 2^nd place female finisher, North Vancouver’s Tracy Wakaluk by over 9 minutes. In closing that gap, Evans posted a 4^th quarter time second only to overall winner Bates.

Marcia Boulanger and Mark Grist completed their 10^th Knee Knacker this year, joining an exclusive group of 16 other people who have attained this milestone.  Boulanger placed 2^nd in the Veterans category this year, and Grist placed 3^rd in the open division (5^th overall), bettering his personal record by over 33 minutes.

For the second year in a row, the race also saw Harvey Nelsen, 71, of Langley, become the oldest ever Knee Knacker finisher.