THUNDER BAY – Carole Cameron left her children at camp on Monday morning, telling them she was just going out for a quick run.
And run she did.
The Thunder Bay woman passed Hilary Quirion at about the three-mile mark in the 84th running of the Firefighters Ten Mile Road Race and never looked back, cruising to her first win in the city’s most prestigious race.
“I think I may have to stick around. I may have to go and get (my kids) and bring them back for the awards,” said Cameron, who crossed the finish line in a respectable 1:07.15.
“I had a good run. It felt good. I didn’t know what the competition would be about. I just put my music on and went out for a good, hard run.”
Once she passed Quirion, Cameron said she found her zone and kept it the rest of the way.
“I like to run on my own … enjoy the scenery and clear my head,” she said. “I listened to the crowd. They were great and I saw some people along the way, threw my gloves off and kept going.”
Quirion, who collapsed in exhaustion after completing her run, finished just 22 seconds behind Cameron.
On the men’s side, things weren’t nearly as close.
Trevor Zimak, who runs for Lakehead University, donned the No. 1 bib and lived up to the hype, cruising to victory in a personal best time of 51:17, 3:31 quicker than his next closest competitor, Duluth's Scott Behling.
“I feel OK,” he said. “The time wasn’t what I was looking for, but it was nice and cool, which was good. I went out hard on pace for trying to break that elusive 50 (minute mark). I was 25:04 around the half and made the turn and tried to work it as hard as I could.
“There was a little bit of a headwind the rest of the way. I just wasn’t able to hold that pace.”
Essentially he was racing against the clock and himself for most of the morning.
“You’ve just got to keep focused and stay mentally engaged,” Zimak said.
This year’s race had a bit of an added twist, with firefighters donning full gear and running a leg of the course, among 255 runners taking part in this year’s relay event.
New recruit Stephanie Drost held the anchor position and said it was tough, carrying around an extra 50 pounds of gear.
“It was pretty challenging. I did a couple of practice runs, but this was definitely pretty hard,” Drost said.
The race also featured NHLer Jordan Staal, who joined wife Heather in the field and placed a respectable 194th in the 604-runner field in a time of 1:25:47.
Staal said he was simply looking for a new challenge.
“My wife’s always been a runner and she and her dad wanted to run the race … To be honest, I was a little sick of going to the gym, so I tried it to try to keep in shape a little bit throughout the month-and-a-half that I’ve been off,” said Staal, whose Carolina Hurricanes missed the playoffs for the eighth straight season.
Men’s results
Trevor Zimak: 51:17
Scott Behling: 54:48
David Depiero: 56:49
Jon Balabuck: 57:03
Dylan Brown: 57:13
Stephen Chapman: 57:22
Marc Hardiejowski: 59:00
Doug Thiessen: 59:39
Tyler White: 59:50
Connor MacIntosh: 1:00:25
Derek Patterson: 1:00:46
John Power: 1:00:53
Kip Sigsworth: 1:01:11
Marko Ahokas: 1:01:17
Scott Wiebe: 1:01:28
Women’s results
Carole Cameron: 1:07:15
Hilary Quirion: 1:07:37
Michele Fiorese: 1:08:04
Caroline Cox: 1:09.15
Kayla Kjellman: 1:10:00
Michelle Donato: 1:10:30
Rebecca Carr: 1:11:01
Hillary Bernosky: 1:11:12
Jodie Berrie: 1:11:25
Julie Follis: 1:11:27
Megan Juenke: 1:11:34
Kelly Henry: 1:13:14
Natalie Lehto: 1:13:19
Taka Hoy: 1:13:52
Brandy Robbins: 1:14:17
