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Kipchumba wins

A hilly course, four degree weather and thoughts of upcoming races kept Kenyan Philip Kipchumba from giving his all in the inaugural Thunder Bay Miles With the Giant Marathon.
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Kenya's Philip Kipchumba (right) crosse the finish line to win the inaugural Thunder Bay Miles With the Giant Marathon on Sunday, in a time of 2:29:03. (By Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)
A hilly course, four degree weather and thoughts of upcoming races kept Kenyan Philip Kipchumba from giving his all in the inaugural Thunder Bay Miles With the Giant Marathon.

But racing in second gear was more than enough for him to coast to an easy victory on Sunday morning over fellow countryman Gilbert Kiptoo.

Kipchumba, who finished third to Kiptoo at the 2010 Firefighters Ten Mile Road Race, crossed the Red River Road finish line in 2:29:03, 1:18 faster than his running mate this time around. The duo ran together for the first 40 kilometres before a tiring Kiptoo told him to make a break for the finish.

“It was tough, very tough,” an exhausted Kipchumba said moments after crossing the finish line to the cheers of hundreds lining the course.

“It was hilly, it’s a hard course. But it’s a nice race.”

For his efforts, he earned $2,000. Second place got $1,000, with $500 going to the third-place finisher in both the male and female categories.

Kiptoo said he was feeling good for most of the race, but toward the end, not feeling his best, that’s when he decided to settle for second.

“That’s when I released Philip, that’s when I told Philip to go,” Kiptoo said. “The pace was slow for me. Normally I run a lot faster than that. We went slow, and that affected me.”

Other than Winnipeg’s Mike Booth, who clocked in at 2:33:07, there was little competition on the course for the Kenyans, with no other runner finishing within 14 minutes of top spot.
That made it tough too, Kiptoo said.

“We wanted to go together, because there was no need to push,” he said.

Thunder Bay’s Jon Balabuk, a five-time Ten Mile Road Race champion, finished fourth at 2:44:00, a little bit slower than his pre-race hopes, but all in all, he was happy with the result and the race itself.

“The course was good. There were lots of people on the course, so it was easy to stay motivated. The hills were a little tough and the wind started to pick up at the end, but we’ll take it. It was a good day and the weather cooperated,” said Balabuk, who admitted it took him about a mile to warm up on a frigid pre-fall morning. 

“In a perfect scenario I was hoping to go sub-2:40. But a good scenario was sub-2:45 today. So I’m ecstatic. There was no way, when I saw Philip and Gilbert take off, and I saw Mike trail out behind them, so I said ‘There goes the race.”

Thunder Bay’s Nikki Wilberforce was the top female finisher in the full marathon, posting a respectable 3:02 time, good for seventh overall.

Like Balabuk, she’d have liked a slightly better time, but said she had a lot of fun, though it wasn’t always easy.

“The second lap was pretty hard with the hills,” she said of the course, a 13.1 mile track that wound its way through Port Arthur’s downtown core and up around Boulevard Lake and back again. Full marathoners ran it twice.

“The first lap didn’t seem so bad, but all the people cheering (was good). It was actually kind of fun to have the back-and-forth, because I could see all the runners going both ways, and that was really encouraging.”

The second time around was a little more taxing, she said.

“There were more hills than I remembered on the first (lap), and there was a bit of wind down by the water, so that made it a little bit trickier,” she said.

Race organizer Barry Streib wasn’t thinking much about how tough a course he’d help present to more than 835 runners in the marathon, half-marathon and five-kilometre run.

He was too overcome with elation as the runners took off from the starting line, his longtime dream of bringing a marathon back to Thunder Bay finally realized.

He couldn’t think of a better setting.

“It’s fabulous that we’ve got this wonderful day. The weather is beautiful. The start/finish line, if you were here, you could see the beautiful (Sleeping) Giant and the lake. I can’t think of a better moment for this race to start off than this one right now,” Streib said.

Streib, who cheered runners of all abilities on as they crossed the finish line, said the marathon couldn’t have happened without the help of dozens of people working behind the scenes.
“There’s a whole group of us who have worked so hard to get to this point. The satisfaction of getting this thing started, it’s amazing,” Streib said.

Winnipeg’s Corey Gallagher topped the half-marathon competition, finishing at 1:14:45, 59 seconds ahead of Thunder Bay’s Mark Maronese. Ottawa’s Heather Hillsburg was the top woman with a time of 1:30:12, 2:25 seconds faster than Thunder Bay’s Marcia Migay.



Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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