Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Heat a factor in Comfortably Numb

Whistler's Rody top female, fifth overall

Anyone who wonders what impact heat might have had on the third annual Comfortably Numb Trail Run on Sunday only had to watch athletes at the finish line gulping down water and Gatorade or looking for somewhere shady to lie down.

Temperatures climbed over 30 degrees Celsius by late morning for the second straight day, surprising a few runners who have been training in cool, wet conditions for most of the spring.

Only the fastest athletes managed to beat the heat, finishing the 25 km-plus course in just over two hours and making the best use of the cooler morning temperatures.

First across the line this year was J.F. Robert in a time of two hours, three minutes and 27 seconds.

According to Robert, the race was challenging and at times a little lonely.

"The trail is epic, and it’s hard – really, really hard," he said. "You have to stay sharp and pay attention to your footing or fall flat on your face. I mostly focused on being steady on the climbs, and then going faster on the downhills."

Robert, who is from Quebec but now lives in Port Moody, has ridden Comfortably Numb twice before and had a strategy. On the first climb he turned back once and saw the second place finisher and Kristina Rody on his tail, but after the first descent to the bridge over Wedge Creek he was on his own.

"I’d look back at every switchback to see if someone was coming up behind, but there was never anybody there. It’s kind of hard compared to a marathon where there are a lot of people – you have no idea if you’re fading compared to the competition, or what kind of gap you have."

This was Robert’s first Comfortably Numb race. Last year he did his first two marathons with some success and plans to enter a marathon at the end of the summer with the help of sponsors at New Balance and the Runner’s Den. That leaves him to spend his summer trail running other Sea 2 Sky Running Series events, of which Comfortably Numb is part. He also plans to enter at least two of the 5 Peaks Trail Running Series events.

Comparing marathons to trail runs like Comfortably Numb is like comparing apples to oranges said Robert, but said he felt that the 25-km trail run is as hard as any marathon.

"It’s more intense and it does take all your attention. The ups and downs kill your legs," he said. "That said, being at kilometre 35 in a marathon and feeling your legs die on you is just agony. They’re both really hard, which is why I really like to mix it up between the two."

Second overall went to Brad Cunningham in 2:05:20, almost two minutes back of Robert. Tim Jazzard was third in 2:06:16, followed by Whistler’s Mike Edwards in fourth with a time of 2:06:51.

Fifth overall and first among women went to Whistler’s Kristina Rody in 2:08:10. Rody raced in the first Comfortably Numb in 2004, winning her age group and placing third overall, but missed last year’s run when she went back to school out of province.

Although she has kept running at a high performance level it’s been a while since she’s been on a substantial trail run.

"I wasn’t here last year, and I’m not used to running trails anymore," she said. "One thing I noticed was that the guys in front of me were really good at going downhill.

"When we got to the top of the climb over the (Wedge Creek) bridge I was passing all the top guys, but as soon as we started down I got passed again. I made some gains in the next uphill, but the guys caught me again on the way down."

Rody says she would probably do better if the course was reversed, with mellower downhill sections.

Her low point of the race was when one of her feet started to hurt before the halfway mark, getting worse on the way to the finish line.

"It’s one of those things – it didn’t hurt enough to pull out of the race but I was aware of it every time I put my foot down. It was more annoying than anything."

Her next event is a 10-km run in Squamish during the Logger Sports weekend, followed by the Toronto Marathon in October, but otherwise she hasn’t really planned out her racing schedule for the summer.

The second woman across the finish line was Lisa Polizzi, the top woman from last year’s Comfortably Numb run, in a time of 2:11:37. While Polizzi didn’t repeat her win, she did up the ante by turning around at the finish line and running back past the midway point to meet up with a friend and head back to the finish– a total of about 50 km of running in temperatures that climbed up to the mid-30s.

In total almost 170 racers took part in the sold out race, with some athletes taking over five hours to finish the course because of injuries and issues with the heat.

The race starts at Wedgemont Parking Lot, and heads up logging roads to the old entrance to North Secret Trail – now Comfortably Numb. From there the course includes almost 22 km of singletrack and an 800 metre elevation gain, followed by a 2.5 km run through Lost Lake Park to the finish line at Spruce Grove Park.

The next event in the Sea 2 Sky Trail Running Series is the Squamish Thunder 16-km run on July 15. The event was originally planned for April 16, but was delayed because of snow on the course.

For more information visit www.s2srun.com .

Results:

Men Under 40

1. J.F. Robert – 2:03:27

2. Brad Cunningham – 2:05:20

3. Tim Jazzard – 2:06:16

Women Under 40

1. Kristina Rody – 2:08:10

2. Lisa Polizzi – 2:11:37

3. Lisa Kallio – 2:41:11

Men 40 to 49

1. Kevin Holland – 2:11:31

2. Roger Shirt – 2:13:50

3. Rich Rawling – 2:19:01

Women 40 to 49

1. Donna Weller – 2:31:21

2. Arlene Schieven – 2:33:51

3. Patrician Jensen – 2:35:00

Men 50-Plus

1. Jim Bowers – 2:32:48

2. Greg Sandkuhl – 2:39:37

3. Imre Sorban – 2:45:25

Women 50-Plus

1. Walli Kruger – 2:39:18

2. Janet Green – 3:14:11

3. Grace Blok – 3:39:46

Complete results are available at www.comfortablynumb.ca.