Ten hours and forty-one minutes after her team set out from Reunion Station in St. Paul on a rainy and cool Saturday morning, Janna Zarowny crossed the finish line of the Iron Horse Ultra 100 Marathon.
Her team made the run through a downpour, and tough conditions, but Zarowny was all smiles as she approached the end of the race, bringing victory to her 100-kilometre marathon team, The Hawks. Along with Zarowny, the Hawks team was comprised entirely St. Paul runners.
Another local team from Elk Point, called Kenya Catch Us, were also victorious, being the first team to finish the 100-mile course after seventeen hours and six minutes.
The Iron Horse Ultra is an annual set of 100-kilometre and 100-mile footraces held annually in St. Paul. This year saw the event’s highest number of registered racers yet, with 147 people taking to the roads and county to compete.
Athletes were able to choose to run the entire distance themselves, or in teams, with 49 runners opting to complete the race as soloists. But this year’s wet and cold Oct. 1 weather made for less than ideal conditions for the long and grueling run.
“It was muddy and wet, and it made the trail really slick. We had way more people that didn’t finish,” said Monique Poulin, an organizer for the event. “For every step forward, they were taking half a step back. It was pouring like crazy.”
By late afternoon, heavy rain was taking its toll on the runners, who huddled around the wood stove in the Elk Point TrailRiders Snowmobile Club cabin, with several giving up their quest to finish at that point.
Trail conditions deteriorated during the day, according to other runners gearing up for the next leg, with Dean Rolheiser joking about “a near-death experience with a cow pie" earlier in the day that paled in contrast to the slippery patches encountered later, with one runner saying he made his decision to pack it in after having to climb a hill by hanging on to a barbed wire fence to keep from slipping back down the slope.
“I feel like I've been dumped on with buckets of water for the past six hours,” he said.
The annual event routinely draws in runners from around the world and in the past, people from New Zealand, Argentina, and Chile have competed. But plenty of St. Paul residents proudly represented their community this year, including Lance Jenn, who ran the Iron Horse for the first time this year.
Jenn moved to St. Paul four years ago, and explained why he decided to run in the Iron Horse race.
“When I first moved here, I was shocked that this small town in Alberta hosts this ultramarathon. So last year, I volunteered to help out during the race, and this year, I’m running as part of a team.”
Jenn, an experienced runner that has competed in half-marathons before, ran the last leg of the 100-mile event for his team.
“That’s the glory leg,” he joked at the start of the race. “There’s no pressure on me. I just have to make sure to finish.”
Also competing in this year’s race was Grande Prairie resident Doug Howson, the first solo runner to cross the finish line for the 100-kilometer course with a time of eleven hours and twenty-one minutes, while Adam French was the 100-mile solo winner, finishing his course in twenty hours and twenty-two minutes.
Making sure the run went off smoothly was a group of about 25 volunteers, who “came out and worked their butts off, which was fantastic,” Poulin said. Despite the miserable conditions they faced, runners were appreciative of the chance to challenge themselves amidst the beautiful scenery of hills and valleys.
“People were happy in the end, and that’s what matters,” Poulin said.
For a full list of runners, teams, and finishing times, visit www.ironhorseultra.com
