January 06, 2011

And The Winners Are...

Well, I think Sue Lucas summed it up best in her last minute comment about the poll:

Hey Gary
Sue here, make sure you give that UROY award to Ellie she truly deserves it. I'm just flattered that I was in the running. It seems that my fan club in town here goes overboard once again. 



Sue definitely owned the popular vote taking 53% and a shocking 140 personal votes, which is just shy of our total votes cast in the performance of the year poll! That's an impressive and loyal following to say the least Sue!


Ellie lead the way early and I think it's fair to say that based on her 2010 resume she was the 'run away' winner of the Canadian Ultra Runner of the year, for a second year 'running'. (yeah I know, these running puns are just pure genius on my part)



My personal thoughts, since you asked and were dying to know. It's tough to argue against The World 100km Champion and someone who set a Course Record it all but one possible CR event, that being Ellie and her second place finish at the Chuckanut 50km in March. Tracy Garneau had only three races but all were victories, and they were pretty huge events, capped off of course by taking the crown at Western States. Beverly unfortunately had an injury riddled season, otherwise her resume would have stacked up against the best of the best. The biggest surprise to me however was the lack of love towards Monica Scholtz. Not only did she break her own World Record for most 100 mile races in a calendar year, tackling twenty four of them, but she was top two in nearly 50% of her races! Monica won three races, finished second in seven others, and was third once as well. It's as if her resume was just too large to even comprehend and many of these outstanding performances were simply lost in the sea of 100's listed below. I mean consider that Monica ran more miles, 2400, in a total of 24 days than most runners were able to eclipse in the entire year. As they say though, speed wins, and no one on this list is nearly as speedy as Ms. Ellie Greenwood. So congrats to her!

On the men's side Glen Redpath was rightfully voted the Male Canadian UROY, and for the second straight year. He outpaced yours truly by 13 votes and 13%. Glen won the Master's Crown at Western States in June, ripped off one of the fastest 100's in Canadian history in March (14h27m), and set three further course records, at three different distances (50k/100k/100m) in the fall. As I mentioned in a comment on Melcher's blog, Glen just shows up every single time, and at every single distance. The guy is a machine and at 44 years of age he just seems to be getting faster on an annual basis.

Here's how the final women's vote broke down:

Beverly Anderson-Abbs
  8 (3%)
Tracy Garneau
  16 (6%)
Ellie Greenwood
  79 (30%)
Sue Lucas
  140 (53%)
Laurie McGrath
  1 (0%)
Theresa McGrath
  0 (0%)
Denise McHale
  1 (0%)
Monica Sholtz
  15 (5%)


Votes so far: 260 

AND THE MEN'S
Adam Hil
  1 (1%)
Chris Downie
  1 (1%)
Gary Robbins
  36 (36%)
Glen Redpath
  49 (49%)
Ryne Melcher
  13 (13%)

Votes so far: 100 
Thanks to everyone for taking part and keeping it fun. Year two of these polls is now in the books, with Greenwood and Redpath refusing to relinquish their titles. Best of luck to everyone on a fun filled and injury free 2011 running campaign!

GR

5 comments:

Sue said...

Thanks for posting that Gary. Elle certainly is an amazing runner, along with Monica (what can we say about 25 100 milers!)my good friend Denise (another amazing woman), Laurie M. and Theresa M.(super women and 2 more great Ontario runners), Tracy (can you say one fantastic year) and Bev who is constantly in the top rankings. It's certainly flattering to be included in a poll for UROY with women like that.

garobbins said...

It really was an incredible year for Canadian Ultra Running...and I have a feeling 2011 could be even better again!

Thanks for commenting Sue, great hearing from you!

GR

Ellie Greenwood said...

Firstly Gary, the fact that Sue's fan club possibly got a little enthusiatic about this poll, means that the poll in just it's 2nd year actually means something! I think it's only fair to say Thank you to you and Ryne for not only being kick ass Montrail runners but also for being two of the biggest ambassadors for ultra running and trail running in Canada, shown by things like the fact that you take time over this poll. In a sport that still sees more male than female competitors it is great to have you two treating the ladies as just as significant as the men in our sport.
With the way votes went I personally feel it is hard to judge who should have won as once votes started going wild for Sue I think it puts people off voting for other runners who are so far behind. I think this could be one of the reasons that so few votes were made for Monica. Tracey had some stellar races but as you have alread said, Monica has just run from strength to strength with the volume of races, the fact they were all 100 milers, and she was up at the front of the ladies pack for them all. She gets my vote for UROY for sure and I think it will be a long time before anyone tops a year liek Monica's. On a side note and shameless plus - I believe Monica always runs in Montrails - must say something about the quality of the shoes because you can't wear the wrong shoes for all those miles!!
Happy Running & Racing for 2011

Sue said...

Gary, I have to add that I think that Laurie, Theresa and Monica got minimal or no votes in your poll is because no one out in Ontario probably knows of your blog or the poll for UROY. I know personally that there is a huge following of those amazing women in Ontario. The same goes with Denise in the Yukon. I certainly have to agree with Ellie about Monica as that woman is in a class of her own!

Dom Repta said...

Nice one Sue. You are right. First of all, everyone on the list would kick my ass.
Second of all, this should never be a voting system, as people are biased and vote for the person they know or like. Considering this is about best ultra runner, and these are races, we should only be looking at the best performances. Monica is an iron horse and we know that. I could not even do a fraction of what she has done, but if I run 20 100 milers, in no way am I UROY.
This was only a 2 horse race. Ellie or Tracy. That's it. Considering Ellie has a world championship, it's hard to beat that, especially since she ran a variety of distances showing versatility. Winning Western...that speaks for itself. But this is not the best 100 miler award. As an unbiased ex-ultra runner, Ellie wins, Tracy runner up.

I could actually car a less who wins, and that is who you need to be making the decision on UROY. It may be undemocratic, but democracy is dead anyways. So let's make the voting results meaningful.

peace out