December 15, 2010

Canadian Ultra Performance Of The Year, Women


I had a bit of fun with this last year and managed a surprisingly solid response so I decided to roll with it a second time. This year I'm teaming up with Ryne Melcher to do a tandem posting as he'll be hosting the Men's vote over on his blog. (since he likes boys and I like girls)

Well, bar none there were some UNBELIEVABLE performances by Canadian women this year which should make the vote very interesting and very tight. As with last year Ellie Greenwood will be representing The Maple Leaf, even if our own governmental policies prevented her from representing us at The World Championships, as she was intending and hoping to do.

To ensure no one is missed in the voting process we will first roll out our top known performances and ask for feedback on oversights. Our apologies in advance if we miss anything. After this list has been up for three days we'll select our top ten and post it to a vote.

Differing from last year, the only rule is that it had to be an ULTRA distance race.

Following our performance of the year vote we'll post an Ultra Runner Of The Year vote as well, and again we welcome all feedback with these topics. Thanks for checking in, helping out, and eventually taking part in the voting process. There is nothing to be won here other than well deserved recognition for our incredibly talented Canadian contingent.

In chronological order, at least as best I know off the top of my head:

Tracy Garneau
HURT Hawaii 100 Miler, narrowly missing sub 24hr and crushing the previous record held by Krissy Moehl
1st place and Course Record

Beverly Anderson-Abbs
Pony Express 50 Miler, 6h14m is an unofficial Canadian 50 Mile Record smashing old record of 6h26m
1st place Overall and Course Record

Jenn Segger
Rainier to Ruston 50k
1st overall

Beverly Anderson-Abbs
Way Too Cool 50k, one of the most competitive 50k races in the US
2nd place

Beverly Anderson-Abbs
Mad City 50k, 3h44m
1st place Overall and Course Record

Tracy Garneau
American River 50 Miler, one of the most competitive 50 Milers in the US
1st place

Ellie Greenwood
Elk-Beaver 100km, not highly competitive but definitely a certified 100km course
1st place Overall and World 100km Trail Record 7h36m

Sue Lucas
World 24hr Championships
22nd woman, 1st Canadian, 197.7km

Carolyn Goluza
Vancouver 100km, a double running of the insanely technical Knee Knacker route in 17hr flat
1st place and Course Record

Tracy Garneau
Western States 100 Miler, The Grand Daddy of 100 Milers and always super competitive
1st place and first ever Canadian to win WS

Nicola Gildersleeve
Western States 100 Miler
11th woman, rookie 100 mile debut

Ellie Greenwood
Knee Knacker 50k, destroying women's record and nearly catching the lead men
1st place and Course Record

Ellie Greenwood
Canadian Death Race 125km, finishing second only to Hal Koerner, breaking previous Overall CR by 20min
1st place, Course Record, 2nd fastest time ever

Laurie McGrath
Dirty Girls 12hr
1st place Overall, 97.8km

Sue Lucas
Lost Soul 100 Miler, a tough course and apparently tougher weather conditions
1st place, 28h27m

Theresa McGrath
Ottawa Sri Chinmoy 24hr, within striking distance of Canadian record
1st place, 205.6km

Ellie Greenwood
Run For The Toad 50k, 3h37m destroying women's CR and running 3rd fastest overall time ever
1st place Overall

Sue Lucas
Lemming Loop 12hr
1st place Overall, 113.6km

Denise McHale
World 100km Road Championships, Official Canadian 100km record of 7h56m
8th woman

Ellie Greenwood
World 100km Road Championships, World and European Champion
1st place, 7h29m

Tamsin Anstey
North Face 50 Mile Championships
11th woman, billed as most competitive 50 Miler of 2010

There you have all that our combined craniums were able to uncover. Official vote will be posted on Sunday evening. Congrats to all above, it's been an incredible year! Best wishes for everyone to stay healthy and continue representing at the big races in 2011.

Don't forget to click here to check out Melcher's blog and the Men's 2011 results and subsequent poll.

GR

26 comments:

Derrick said...

Great list of women's results too.

I feel like a bad Canadian for not knowing that Beverly Anderson-Abbs
is Canadian.

Jim said...

Tough decision between Tracey at HURT and Ellie at CDR, but I'm going with the amazing CDR run!

Mark C. Ryan said...

Those are some awesome performances by Canadians. Given all the awesome runs by Ellie this year and the fact she will take Ulltra Runner of the Year, I'm gonna cast my vote for Tracy G at HURT

Derrick said...

So Ellie is planning to represent Canada in the future? That would be great!

Sue said...

Just honoured to be mentioned in your list Gary.

Tom Craik said...

Having actually witnessed Ellie take down the Knee Knacker record, I'm glad to see her name on this list. She was just starting to crank it up at the end and given a couple more kilometers would have hauled down some of the bigger male guns. (you were running a bit scared, GR. I think she nailed down a faster time than you over the last quarter too)
Based on overall achievement this year it looks like Tracy or Ellie are tops.
My question though...is Ellie a Canadian runner with a British accent or a British runner without a Canadian accent, eh? Hmmmm? How many times did she say "Eh" last year? This is important information for the title of top Canadian Ultra performance of the year.

Ryne Melcher said...

My vote and I have a feeling I'll be the only one voting for it would be the World Trail Record of 7:36 at Elk Beaver. Race isn't epic so the result didn't garner the attention it should. My argument for this performance, no other time posted is a world record. Ellie's World 100k win and 7:29 is my second pick but I think even Ellie would agree her 7:36 on trail was more impressive than the 7:29 on road.
My third place vote goes to Beverley Anderson-Abbs 6:14 50 miler that is the Canadian Record by 12 minutes. I think Tracey's HURT time is strong but historically HURT doesn't attract all the big guns and although the races Ellie and Beverley did don't attract big guns either (Elk/Beaver and Pony Express) they are the fastest time ever record and the fastest ever in Canadian History respectively.
Happy trails!
Ryne

Paps said...

I'm with Derrick. I didn't know either, but apparently Bev Anderson-Abbs is from Calgary. That's still Canada, right?

It should be mentioned that Ellie's second place finish behind Hal Koerner at Death Race was also the second fastest time ever as she beat Jack Cook's old course record by 20 minutes.

Unknown said...

Unclear of the fine print - but I would vote in the addition of Monica Scholz to that list. She broke her own World Record by completing 25 - 100 mile races this year, including multiple top place finishes.

Anonymous said...

A Western States victory is HUGE! Ellie will likely win this "award" for many years to come, and all of those performances are certainly worthy of mention, but WS 100 trumps them all. Tracy will almost certainly be Ultra Running magazine's female runner of the year.
Gotta run,
Vince

garobbins said...

Thanks for the comments and insights everyone.

In regards to Ellie. She is an official 'landed immigrant.' Where it gets funny though is that she was not officially allowed to run for Canada at The World Champs and by her running for another nation it means she is now unavailable to Canada for at least an additional three years. Shitty since she's done all she can to represent us.

In regards to Monica. Undoubtedly an incredible year for her and she'll score high in the UROY voting for sure, however I'm unaware of an individual race stacking up against this list. I could be mistaken and will look into it further. Thanks for the heads up.

Sue, you obviously deserve to be here as much as anyone. Congrats on another great year!

Paps, done. Good call, thanks!

Re Bev: Melcher knows all, only learned of it about a year ago myself and after dropping her a line she confirmed that she's still a good ole Canuck at heart!

GR

Jude said...

my votes' for Ellie... Elk Beaver.. she was so incredibly fast, we came into the finish minutes apart...lol.. i was racing the 50mile, she the 100km...wow! awesome performance with no one there to really see it. (i saw it and it was INCREDIBLE!)
also... KUDOS. Sue Lucas and Carolyn Goluza.

Sara Montgomery said...

Great list of inspiring performances. I would add Laurie McGrath as a nominee who deserves to be on that list. She had another of her incredibly solid OUS seasons with numerous wins. Perhaps Dirty Girls 12-hour with her first overall win (m&f) as a representative performace.

Bruce Grant said...

wow, what an incredibly tough choice to have to make, our homegirls have been absolutely stellar this year!! Thanks to all of them for flying our flag so high on the world stage.

I had to remove several fenceposts from my butt in order to make a final decision, but I'm going to vote for Ellie's run at Death Race. Technical course, competitive field, and an astounding time in a historical context.

It is too bad only one performance has to be selected, all these ladies and their races are remarkable - congrats to them all.

Gary Robbins said...

Thanks for the recommendation Sara! I've added Laurie to the list.

GR

Anonymous said...

The Canadian women runners are the best looking too. I'am I being a Chauvinism pig by saying that. I don't care I am posting this anonymous and holding to it.

garobbins said...

HAHAHA, couldn't agree more with Mr. Anon's comment

Ellie Greenwood said...

Firstly - great job Gary and Ryne on getting these polls going - a really awesome way to get some buzz going and you guys are great ambassadors for the sport for both guys and us girls! Great to see so many awesome Canadian female performances this year, I am sure we will continue it into 2011! Gary - you seem to know an awful lot about Canadian immigration and eligibility to run for various countries so I'll be in touch when I am applying for citizenship (about a year to go!). And as for the anon chauvinistic comment, the British male crew at world 100km actually voted the Italian ladies the best looking but I think this was more to do with the size (or lack of) their shorts than anything else!
Happy & healthy running to everyone in 2011 :)

Boris T said...

Lots of great accomplishments, gunna be a tough vote.

Daniel Probst said...

Man that's a tough call. Super fun to see Ellie kicking down the walls. But I Have to go with Tracy HURT & Western That's just damn tough! and was super fun to watch too! just remebering how fun this year has been!

Derrick said...

Just thought about this during my run today. Didn't Iris Cooper run a pending Canadian Record in the Jerseyville 100?

http://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=7632

Competition wise it doesn't stack up to a HURT, WS, etc, but probably worthy of being on the list too.

Deanna Stoppler said...

I just like seeing the Canadian flag at the beginning of your post!

Ryne Melcher said...

Derrick,

To the best of my research knowledge Iris Cooper is a Swiss National. I'm not sure if she holds Canadian Landed Status. I could be completely wrong on her being Swiss as well but I see on the Badwater site her nationality being listed as Swiss as well as the record on the ACU site not recognizing it as a Canadian Record.

Happy trails!
Ryne

Derrick said...

Ah gotcha. That does ring a bell now that you mention it.

Ryne Melcher said...

Although I think it should be given consideration for sure when they do Ultra Running Mag Age Group performances of the year. I don't know if they include people that don't have US or CDN citizenship or landed status. 17:52 is on helluva 100 miler for the W50-54 group!
Ryne

Unknown said...

This is really a great step to increase interest regarding sports especially in women.Good work.
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