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Overlander Sports Yellowknife Marathon brings out big crowd for annual event

A marathon is much like a triathlon for the fact that you simply don't wake up one morning and decide it's a good idea.

James McCarthy/NNSL photo
Debbie Meade, left, and Sarah Cook cross the finish line together in the Overlander Sports Yellowknife Marathon women's half-marathon event at Somba K'e Park on Sunday.

More than 20 runners, though, woke up on Sunday morning and put the boots to the ground for the main event of the Overlander Sports Yellowknife Marathon. The men's race featured 17 racers from Yellowknife and around the country – even one from Germany, Roland Kurz – and it was Mark St. Amant from Cochrane, Alta., who crossed the finish line first in a time of three hours, one minute, 23.6 seconds to take the win.

St. Amant said his time was a lot faster than he thought he would have had.

“The weather was quite nice,” he said. “The wind picked up in the second half of the race and that's something we could have done without but I just pushed through it and it went great.”

The course for the full marathon saw the racers start from Somba K'e Park and head out to all points in the city including Old Town, the airport loop and downtown. It's a figure-8 shape and measures 21.3 km. The full marathoners did two laps of the course.

As mentioned, the weather on race day was cool and breezy, something St. Amant said helped him along the route.

“This is the weather we love to run in,” he said. “The body isn't overheating and you're able to run comfortably with a good pace.”

The race was a family affair for St. Amant as his brothers, Paul and Robert, were also in the men's marathon event and it was the first time racing for all three in Yellowknife.

The women's marathon featured just five competitors and it was Bryany Denning of Yellowknife who was the fastest of the quintet, winning in a time of four hours, one minute, 9.3 seconds, a few minutes shy of her personal best of three hours, 57 minutes.

“I was hoping to break that time,” she said. “I wasn't expecting to win but I knew I would finish no worse than fifth so I wanted to finish well. I made a stop at the last aid station on the course and asked where everyone else was and they told me I was the first woman so I knew I was in good shape.”

Like St. Amant, Denning said the weather was good, even if Mother Nature does what she wants to.

“I was wearing long sleeves and when it warmed up, I took it off,” she said. “It was a bit of a roller coaster because it was warm then windy and rainy but there were no worries.”
The one thing she fought, like everyone else who ran, was the headwind going up the hill along the airport loop.

“The wind always seems to be in your face, no matter what,” she said.

After she was done, Denning hung around the finish area to cheer on everyone else who came in from the race.

“I wanted to make sure they had a cheering section because they worked hard to finish,” she said. “Everyone stayed right to the end and it was such a well-organized event.”

The half-marathon races were both won by Yellowknifers as William Buckland took the men's race while Katlyne McCauley won the women's event. It was the same for the 10-km races with Ezekiel Debogorski winning the men's division and Tonya Huck copping the women's event.