A record number of 203 runners toed the line in Horseshoe Bay at 6:00 am this morning. 190 of them (second-highest ever) reached the finish line in Deep Cove by the 4:00 pm cut-off time (10 hours later), making for an excellent finishing rate of 93.6%.

The 2005 champions in both the men's and women's divisions successfully defended their titles against formidable competitors. North Vancouver's Mark Bates played a cat-and-mouse game with Peter Findlay of Kamloops until the 3/4 point at the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve (LSCR). At that point, Mark pulled away to eventually finish almost 4 minutes ahead of Peter. Mark's time of 5:08:26 was about 3 minutes off his winning time of 2005.

The women's race was also hotly contested, between New Westminster's Suzanne Evans and Lisa Polizzi from Brisbane, Australia. Suzanne started pulling away just after the halfway point, to eventually win by 9 minutes. Both Suzanne's winning time of 5:18:57 and Lisa's second-place time of 5:27:55 were substantially under the previous course record of 5:41:23. And to top it all off, they finished 3^rd and 4^th overall, just behind the top 2 men! This was one of the most memorable battles in Knee Knacker history, featuring 2 of the finest individual performances turned in by anyone in 18 years of the race.

As always, I offer a few more comments/observations at this late hour (well after the Awards Banquet):

• Many, many thanks to all - runners, volunteers, sponsors and supporters - for making this another very special day for all of us!
• A charitable contribution of $3,500 will be made to North Shore Rescue . In addition, the Aeroplan lottery and Donations box yielded an additional contribution of almost $500. We will post exact amounts once final accounting is in. Thanks to everyone for their generosity!
• As promised, the trail was in excellent shape with minimal amounts of mud and snow. The weather was ideal for the first few hours up in the high country with a nice cloud cover and cool temperatures. However, it got a bit warm in the second half with temperatures getting into the mid-twenties C (80 F).
• Almost all comments on the new 2.6 km. of trail at the start were extremely positive. Who can complain about even more single-track, technical trail and less road?
• 71 of the 190 finishers were first-timers. Out of the remaining 119 Knee Knacker veterans, 32 achieved Personal Bests on this day - way to go, gang!
• Overall times for all runners were slower this year. The median time of 7:37:54 was the second-slowest in race history, second only to 1999's "Year of the Snow" median time of 7:47:00. In most years, the median time falls into the 7:15 to 7:30 range.
• Complete results, with split times, are available here.
• If there are any typos/errors in the results or race certificates, please let me or Kelsy Trigg know (via the Feedback page) and we'll try to correct it as soon as possible.
• We had many excellent photographers out there today. Their pictures will be uploaded to our photo Web site over the weekend. Check back here for details on how to access them.
• Finally, I know you are all just dying to enter the lottery for the 2007 race. Find out just how to do so here.

That's all for now, folks!

Enzo Federico
(on behalf of the Knee Knacker Race Committee)