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Three CeeVacs finish Boston Marathon

Three members of the CeeVacs Roadrunners running club completed the Boston Marathon on April 20, including one who set a personal best time for that distance.

Shannon Lebeuf finished in three hours, 32 minutes and 36 seconds, her best time for a marathon. Glenn Goodwin completed the distance in 4:31:42, just one second ahead of fellow CeeVac Colleen Vanderheide.

It's an honour just to qualify for the Boston Marathon, the oldest annual marathon in the world, first run in 1897.

"Before being allowed to enter the Boston Marathon, runners must first qualify by running a Boston-qualifying marathon under a specified time for each category," CeeVacs spokesperson Ken DeEll explained. "Only the fastest in each age category are chosen to run the marathon."

Also this season, the CeeVacs Roadrunners finished third in the Frontrunners Island Race Series, which runs from January to April. The CeeVacs placed behind the Prairie Inn Harries and Comox Valley Roadrunners, edging out Nanaimo's Bastion Running Club by nine points.

The club, which has just over 100 members,

had 14 runners in the top 10 of their respective age groups, including three firstplace finishers. Jill Ramstead beat out her closest competition by 107 points, while Vanderheide and John Pringle also won their age groups by finishing first in all seven races in the series.

Brenda Niziol, Bev Gruhn and Hazura Sangha placed second in their respective groups, with Gruhn also setting a new course record for her age group in the Bazan Bay 5K.

Other top 10 results were set by Teresa Lewis-Schneider, who was third in her age group; Cory Ramstead, who was fourth; Ben Marrs, sixth; John Weber, seventh; James Griffin, eighth; DeEll, ninth; and Danna Hadden and Jim Ramsey, both 10th.

The Island Series consists of eight races ranging in length from five to 21.1 kilometres (a half marathon), including the Cobble Hill 10K in January.

"Clubs and individual runners accumulate points during the series," DeEll explained. "Clubs' points are calculated from the number of club participants and runner finishing position in their age category. Runners get points based on their time to complete the race and medals or ribbons are awarded for the top 10 positions in each age category."

For more information on the club, visit ceevacs.com



Kevin Rothbauer

About the Author: Kevin Rothbauer

Kevin Rothbauer is the sports reporter for the Cowichan Valley Citizen
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