Two-time Olympian and 2019 Pan Am Games steeplechase gold medallist Genevieve Lalonde was the top finisher when the Vancouver Island Trail Running Series returned to Cobble Hill Mountain on Saturday, May 14.
Lalonde completed the “Gutbuster” long course — about 20 km with 915 m of vertical gain — in one hour, 43 minutes and 38 seconds, nearly a minute and a half ahead of the second finisher and top male racer, Trace Tyler of Victoria (1:45:07).
Seventy men and 64 women ran the long course. The top finisher from the Cowichan Valley was Yuta Yamato of Duncan, 20th overall with a time of 2:09:01. The top local female finisher was Christine Leech of Cobble Hill at 2:40:18.
Cory Ramstead of Duncan finished second to Surrey’s Simon Widmann on the short course — about 12 km with 640 m of vertical gain. Widmann completed the course in 59:51, while Ramstead came in at 1:05:31.
The top female finisher was Michelle Mark of Cumberland at 1:14:04, while Duncan’s Sophie Cutt was third among female runners and eighth overall at 1:17:52 and Trish Laliberte, also from Duncan, was fourth among female finishers and 10th overall at 1:18:23.
Sixty men and 112 women completed the short course.