Canmore runner blazes trail to first in 5 Peaks race

CANMORE – Running fast through nearly 20 kilometres of trees, tight turns and hills, Canmore’s Peter Clack came out on top in the Canmore 5 Peaks grit race.

The speedy runner caught people by surprise when he flew across the finish line in a time of 1:30:08 on Saturday (Sept.7).

“It felt really good,” said Clack. “It’s nice to feel the whole year of training pay off and to place high.”

With a time that fast, Clack was averaging a pace of around four minutes and 33 seconds per km.

Clack adopts the mindset to “run your own race” rather than gunning for the top spot right out of the start gates.

“It’s a really unhealthy mindset to always think you’re going to place first,” said Clack. “I always say top three, or top 10 if it’s a really competitive race.”

“If you think top three, you’re OK to let these guys pass you and then you can run your own race and then pass them later on, if you have the energy.”

Clack felt some pain in his knee leading up to the crux of the course, but fortunately for him the trail mellowed out and it was smoother sailing to the finish.

“I probably didn’t tape enough for the race,” he said. “The crux was once you got to the top of EKG, that’s when it’s the most painful… so around 12km was the hardest part of the race for me.”

In second was Samuel Roy, with a time of 1:30:43, followed by Andrew Thomas at 1:35:14.

Calgary’s Kirsten Suchan, the top female in the grit race, ran across the line with a time of 1:41:02. Suchan was also ninth overall among the field of 164 male and female runners.

Suchan said the longer trail run was out of her normal wheelhouse, but she looked like a natural at the Canmore Nordic Centre.

“It was kind of a new territory out there, but it felt awesome,” said Suchan. “It was a good course, it was a really nice day, so I felt fast out there.”

Knowing that she had some speed with a road running background, Suchan found the 500 metres of elevation gain “humbled” her.

“In that last loop, when we do the sport loop, I was expecting that to be kind of the home stretch, but there's a lot of big hills there that humbled me,” she said.

Suchan plans to speed through the trails of Canmore once again in the Grizzly Ultra Marathon Oct. 12.

The Canmore 5 Peaks race is part of a national race series, which also features a Sport race of 6.8km and an enduro race of 13.1 km.

In the Sport race, Rob Park came out on top, with Jord McIver in second and 13-year-old Kieran Grant in third.

In the enduro race, Greg Ord took the top spot, with Jake Griffiths in second and Sarah Price in third.