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Teams and individual points races heating up; next three races critical

The 2025 Vancouver Island Race Series has surpassed the halfway mark with the running of the Bastion 12K on Sunday, March 16. There are three key races remaining in the series.

The sold-out Comox Valley RV Half Marathon is the next race on tap, happening Sunday, March 23, in Courtney from the Florence Filberg Centre. The Bastion 12K and Comox Valley Half Marathon are the only races over 10K in length, a requirement for series standings for individual competitions as well as the two team competitions, the VIRA Cup, and the Island Series Cup.

The half-marathon, put on by the Comox Valley Road Runners, is the first race in the 45-year history of the series to sell out. A cap of 1100 was set and met over a week in advance.

The race will be critical for standings, so expect a high percentage of participants to show, especially if the weather is favourable.

Club standings

Island Series Cup

Currently, Speedfarm Racing is in first place in the Island Series with a low score of 137 points. Chasing them is Esprit RC with 144, and in third place is Bastion Run Club with 426. Low score wins, and currently, 16 teams are challenging for positions. Only four teams are currently qualified.

Clubs must field three women and three men at any race to earn points.

Speedfarm are the two-time defending champions and will be difficult to unseat.

VIRA Cup

The VIRA Cup, which is a competition where the highest score wins, sees the usual suspects in the top three with the Prairie Inn Harriers Running Club with 1865 points, closely followed by Speedfarm with 1742 in second and in third is the Ceevacs Roadrunners with 1707 points. The way the points tally works, the VIRA Cup is essentially a three-way tie between these clubs. Each race matters.

Bastion Run Club, which hosted the Bastion 12K Sunday, is not far out of the picture for top three with 1380 points, but they will need all hands on deck to catch up. However, it is possible. There are 127 teams or clubs listed. However, just 26 have at least 100 points.

The Island Series Cup is all about fielding fast runners overall, while the VIRA Cup is about earning as many points as possible within the age groups.

Individual standings

Amanda Polus with the Prairie Inn Harriers Running Club is winning with the overall points, having amassed a total of 780.5 to date.

The top three are Polus, Kim Coscia (755) with Run to Beer Comox Valley and Emily Bugoy with Bad ass Chicks Run Trails (745.57). The race between these three can come down to the wire. It is that close.

The top three men are Paul Auton with Bastion Run Club with 737.79 points. He was closely followed in by Jerry Loeb of Esprit RC with 734.79. Finn Feschuk of Bastion Run Club is in there with 731.72 points. He is competing in the 16-19 category.

Points earners not qualifying for series standings include Russell Pennock, who earned 892.54 points in his only races so far this season. He won the Harriers Pioneer 8K on January 12 in the time of 24:01.

Samantha Jory is the first female who is not going to qualify, she picked up 892 points at the Cobble Hill 10K and BC 10K Championships. She won the race in the time of 34:25 and finished behind only 13 men.

The year prior, Glynis Sim clocked a course record of 33:23 and finished behind just 12 men.

The 2024 series individual champions were Jennifer Erickson and Brandon Vail, both with Speedfarm.

Currently, there are 37 runners with 600 or more points. There are seven with 700 or more. Eighty-seven have 500 or more.

Most prolific runners

Bruce Hawkes (STARR) in the 80-84 category has not raced this season, however, he is the most prolific runner with 238 Vancouver Island Race Series races complete. Considering there is typically eight races each season, he has run for 30 consecutive years.

Currently, the second most prolific runner is Comox Valley Road Runner Keith Wakelin with 201 races.

The third most prolific is Hazura Sangha with 190. The three most prolific who continue to finish events are Wakelin, Gary Duncan with the Prairie Inn Harriers Running Club and Rob Hare with Team West Coast. Duncan has raced 186 times, while Hare has 179 to his credit.

Bob Cook, who is not far behind, raced 178 times. Wakelin, Duncan, Hare and Cook all races the Bastion 12K.

The 2025 Bastion 12K

Previously known as the Cedar 12K, the event was to run in Lantzville in 2025 for the first time. However, the weatherman had something to say about that and caused a postponement with the race moving back to Cedar for one more year.

Even though several runners could not make the new date and with the reschedule, there are three races in three weeks, still 309 showed up and 309 finished the event.

Dusty Spiller from Cowichan Valley Running won in the time of 40:08, clocking an average pace of 3:21 per km.

He was followed in by Nathanael Tabert with Speedfarm, who finished in 41:03, and taking third was Joshua Koromei with his 41:30 performance.

Julia Tschanz won the women’s race in the time of 44:58. She is also with Speedfarm, as was second place finisher Jennifer Erickson clocking 46:40. Emily Bugoy with Bad Ass Chicks Run Trails took third in 47:01.

Jim Finlayson continues to return to form. He is racing in the 50-54 category and won the masters, 40-plus competition with his fifth overall finish recording a 42:05 performance. Finlayson is the head coach with Esprit RC.

Kate Guy with Speedfarm was the first master female in at 47:17. She races in the 45-49 age group.

Forty-one athletes clocked under 50 minutes or 4:10 per km.

David Shanks, who races in the 80-84 age group, clocked in at 1:38:52. There were two women in the 80-84 age group, Jill Davies in at 1:24:53 and Mei-Sheng Shanks with her 1:40:24 performance.

There were two men in the U16 age group, Sebastian Flynn and Locke Legear, who finished in 1:01:02 and 1:07:35, respectively. There was one female in the 16-19 age group, Sricherni Gaddam, clocking in at 1:33:53.

The Cedar race started in 1989 as a 15K race and ran at that distance until 1999, however, two shorter versions ran, one in 1997 at 7K and 8K in 1995, likely due to snow. The race switched to a 12K in the year 2000.

Currently, the series results date back to 1985. The series board of directors, mainly Maurice Wilson and Chris Callendar, continue to digitize and upload results going back to the beginning of the series, which started in 1980.

The 1985 edition of the Bastion/Cedar race was the Bastion 15K. The only runner who took in that race and ran the 2025 edition was Keith Wakelin, who finished in 52:53, nearly one minute per km faster over the longer distance 3:32/km versus 4:24/km today.

Bob Cook of the Bastion Run Club missed the race 40 years ago but was actively competing. He ran today in the 75-79 category. Brian Connon, who is travelling, raced then and will be racing Comox, so he continues to be active as well. he ran 51:46 in 1985 as a 36-year-old for the Prairie Inn Harriers.

Jim Finlayson

Jim Finlayson, the coach of Cameron Levins, North America’s all-time fastest marathon runner with his personal best of 2:05:36 from Tokyo 2023, continues to run well.

Finalyson raced the Cedar 12K event as fast as 37:11 during the 2011 edition. He has also run 37:30 and 38:26 twice. His 2011 performance is an 89 per cent age-graded finish time. This is pre-super shoe era.

Finlayson has run in the 93 percentile at least twice and over 90 several more times, including clocking a 1:05:42 Comox Valley RV Half Marathon in 2005. He finished in second place to three-time Olympian Jon Brown, who holds the course record at 1:03:57.

The next race is the 2025 Comox Valley RV Half Marathon.

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Ambassador media: Cedar 12k recap – AKA what to do, and what not to do

So the third race of the 2024 Vancouver Island Series, the Cedar 12k, fell on the day after another event in my calendar, a retirement party for local sporting legend and SMUS teacher Ian Hyde Lay. Let’s just say that a good time was had by all. Those who visited the Bard and Banker that evening, and let’s also say that when my Sunday morning alarm went off, racing 12k was far, far from my mind. 

But, mainly because I volunteered to drive the carpool (sucker!), off I went. I said to one of my club mates that I was going to take a wait-and-see approach. And after a cup or two of black coffee, a bite to eat and some last-minute hydration on the drive up, I was feeling good enough to toe the line. Not good enough to challenge my PB, mind you, but still OK. In the back of my mind, I thought “Well, let’s start at a minimal effort pace (5:00/km for me), and see how we do.” And then the horn went on the start line, and away we went…

Sean Mitchell finishing the Cedar 12K. Photo credit: Christopher Kelsall

And of course, all those good and sensible ideas got thrown out the window. Truth be told, I got into a comfortable rhythm and managed a respectable 4:30/km for the first 5k. After getting to the one standout ‘hill’ at that point (and waving at Brandon and Dusty already headed back…), I took a bit of stock of my condition and felt pretty good, truth be told.

I decided on the way back to see if I couldn’t get progressively faster on the return. And I ended up doing just that, negative splitting by almost two minutes (26:53/25:07) to finish right around 52:00, which would have been just 5 seconds off my PB. If it hadn’t been determined later that the course was approximately 90m short. Ah well. That time was still good enough for 10th place in the horrendously competitive M50-54 age group. So I was pretty pleased overall. And the warm hospitality and snacks from our friends at Bastion Run Club made it a great day. 

Sean’s Strava race stats: https://www.strava.com/activities/10743274292

Cedar tips: What to do

  • Have fun
  • Run the rolling road to your advantage
  • Run the tangents – every little bit helps!
  • Hang around and socialize afterwards, and cheer on the award winners 

What NOT to do

  • Neglect your hydration and race prep as I did
  • Get too excited with the first 1k downhill – hope you didn’t go out too fast!

This coming Sunday, Feb 25th is the unique Hatley 8k, put on by Frontrunners Athletic Club on the grounds of Royal Roads University in Colwood. I say unique because it’s part road, part trail with a sizeable hill in between. This is a race to focus on effort, not pace or time, but don’t let that scare you – it’s a great course and a lot of fun. Hope to see you there! 

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Ambassador media: Karen McCullough’s A-game at the 2024 Cedar 12K

By Karen McCullough, series ambassador

How do you prepare for a 12k?

How do you prepare for a 12k race when you’ve never run one before? This was me going into the Cedar 12k. A 10k race, sure I know what to expect, even a half marathon. But a 12k? What was I going to do about pacing? I decided I wouldn’t worry about it and just go with “This is a 10k, but just a little longer.” Having just done a 19k long run in my training for the Comox Valley RV Half Marathon coming up on March 24, 12k should be a breeze, I told myself.

I knew it was a rolling, out-and-back course, and the hills weren’t going to be too bad. Now, I live near Mount Tzouhalem, so I KNOW hills! Doing some quick math on my way, I figured I’d try to stick with my 10k time from the Cobble Hill 10k. The second race of the series just two weeks earlier. And the plan was to just stick it out another 2k. My B goal would be sub-1:10 and my A goal would be sub-1:08. Shouldn’t be too hard, right?

Karen McCullough at the finish at 2024 Cedar 12K. Photo credit: Christopher Kelsall

My husband and I arrived good and early and had plenty of time to get his bib and get a 2k warmup in. We lucked out with the weather. By race time, the rain had eased up and I decided to go without my rain jacket and just the long-sleeved shirt. We all gathered at the start and, I guess I was too far back, but I didn’t hear a start horn or anything and everyone just started running. It’s a small enough race that this wasn’t a huge deal. It’s chipped-timed so it doesn’t matter when you cross the start line anyway, right?

Heading out, I kept it kind of conservative but still within my 10k pace. I saw a young woman pass me from behind and she reminded me of a friend in Vancouver, so I decided I’d stick with her and keep her in sight as long as possible. The course was so enjoyable. With a couple of turns in the first three kilometres and then gentle rollers to the 6k turnaround. I took note of my time at the turnaround and did some mental math to see what my finish time might be. By then, I knew what to expect going back and decided to kick it up a notch. I started passing people and it felt good. At some point between 8 and 9k, I even managed to pass “my friend.”

So at 10k, how am I doing?

At 10k, I was just a few seconds slower than my time at the Cobble Hill 10k. But I had enough steam in me to really give’er in the final 2k. With 1k to go, I saw my husband on the other side of the road running towards me. He had already finished his own race, and he ran me in with lots of encouraging words. When we turned that final corner, I could see the finish, I really let it rip and hoofed it to the finish to leave everything on the course.

I could see the clock as I got closer to the finish and knew I was not only going to beat my B goal of sub-1:10, but I also beat my A goal of sub-1:08. With a chip time of 1:06:48. This turned out to be good enough for 8th in my age category of F55-59. I received a beautiful red ribbon to commemorate that.

One thing I’ve really loved about the series is the absence of participation medals, but medals and ribbons for up to 10th place in each age category. Who needs another participation medal? Not me. This, I’m sure, helps to keep the races at such an affordable price. I wish other races would adopt this measure!

Even though my husband and I have only lived on the Island for five and a half months, we’ve already met so many amazing people in the Vancouver Island running scene through our local run groups and especially through the Vancouver Island Race Series. During the race, when I started seeing the runners who’d already turned around at 6k, I couldn’t believe how many runners I knew and could cheer on by yelling their names.

With a chip time of 56:46 at the Cobble Hill 10k being nowhere near my PB of 50:52, I’m still really proud of myself. I am proud of my race at the Cedar 12k. I’m in my late 50s now, and 5 years older than when I ran a 50-minute 10k and not every race is going to be a PB, and that’s ok! The important thing is this: did I have fun? You bet I did! Will I do this race again?

Abso-f’ing-lutely