First-time competitors from near and far topped the podium at a milestone run.
The 10th annual Millarville Run to the Farmers’ Market Half-Marathon saw over 500 competitors take on the challenging Foothills race with Calgarian Joel Neumann crossing the finish line first in his debut in the 21.1 km event.
“I looked at the race profile and saw that 4.2 kilometres is where the peak of the race is, the highest point,” said Neumann. “And I thought once I got there, it will be all downhill.
“But it was not like that at all, there was some really steep hills in the middle section and I just had to go not by my watch, but based on effort and crest it and go fast on the downhills to make up for it.”
Neumann, who finished in a personal best time of 1:17.44 in the half-marathon, said it was a challenging prospect to run ahead of the pack, adding it felt like a time-trial at times.
That changed near the finish line.
“As soon as I hit 20K I thought I’ve got 1.1 left and as I turned the corner and looked at my watch and it said 400 metres,” he said. “From that point on, I was just going all out and as soon as you see the finish line, people are cheering, you hear your name get announced I just thought I had to finish strong and charged to the end.”
The 21.1 km loop takes runners from the start line at Oilfields High School through the backroads of Diamond Valley and towards the end point at the Millarville Racetrack.
“I just think it’s a really cool community event,” Neumann said. “I love all the fans out cheering, there’s people sitting out on lawn chairs during the course, the volunteers were so awesome and the cinnamon buns, I’m going to come back next year just for the cinnamon buns.”
Okotoks’ Ben Marsh marshalled a second-place finish in what was his maiden voyage in the Run to the Farmers’ Market.
“Like any race, I feel like I have some improvement, but I think it was a beautiful day and everything went as well as it could,” Marsh said. “My brother (Dan) has run this a few times and done quite well for himself, but this was my first crack at it.”
Marsh’s time of 1:23.09 was a personal best in the half-marathon distance by a minute, he said.
“Being from Okotoks, I grew up in the area so I knew the lay of the land and I run the Friendship Trail quite a bit,” Marsh said.
“It was cool having some of the runs closed or half closed, usually you’re dodging cars, but to have the day kind of dedicate to us was really nice. Normally I’m a trail runner so I felt like that was something I could excel with, but there was a few more hills than I expected.”
Calgary’s Alex Loach rounded out the podium in the half-marathon in third place with Turner Valley’s Andrew McRae finishing fourth for the second consecutive year.
Paige Beselt, from Calgary, topped the female division in 1:33.37, good for ninth overall.
In the 8-mile bun run, a Danish delight topped the podium.
Nicholas Due, a tourist from Copenhagen visiting his girlfriend’s family, entered the race on a whim.
“I found out a couple of days ago and I heard that you could eat cinnamon buns while running,” he said with a laugh. “I’ve never done that before, it sounded fun and I wanted to do that.”
Impressively, Due’s time of 54:40 was not only the quickest in the 8-mile bunners category, but topped all competitors in the 8-mile, non-bun, race as well.
“It was very warm, a lot of fun and there was a lot of great volunteers as well,” Due said. “Eating cinnamon buns while running was a very new experience, you could feel yourself kind of burping towards the end, it was a bit uncomfortable.
“But they taste great, so it was pretty pleasant.”
Strathmore’s Robert Dixon was second in the bunners race, Catherine Lebel of Calgary was third while Logan Pearce, from Foothills County, was the top local finisher in fourth.
In the 8-mile race, Millarville’s Jeremy Johnson topped the field in a time of 59:18, Black Diamond’s Jesse Kirkpatrick was second and Calgary’s Sarah Pearce-Gieck third.
In the relay, the Matza Bolts! team of Josh Inhaber and Jason Gurevitch finished first, Fast Jt, comprised of Martina Sidorenko and Jonathan Fitzgerald, was second with the defending champions A Running Joke, Michelle Desrochers and Miles Wortley, once again proving their running skills are no laughing matter in third place.
All told, there were 246 runners in the half-marathon, 103 athletes in the 8-mile run, 88 competitors in the 8-mile bun run and 27 teams in the relay event.
The 2023 event was the ninth full-scale running of the Run to the Farmers’ Market, which debuted in 2013, on the heels of a virtual event in 2020 and cancellation the following year amid the pandemic.
The run is a fundraiser for the Millarville Racing and Agricultural Society and coincides with the opening date of the Millarville Farmers’ Market in mid-June.
For more information, visit millarvillehalfmarathon.com.
