The winner of the inaugural Millarville half-marathon has been coming to the historic farmer’s market for years, but never quite in this fashion.
Calgary resident Duncan Marsden crossed the finish line first at the Millarville Run to the Farmers’ Market half-marathon on June 16. Not bad for someone who barely registered for the race in time.
“My in-laws live in Millarville and my mother-in-law has dragged me to the market a few times so she said I had to do it so I entered just at the last minute,” Marsden said.
It’s a good thing Marsden heeded the advice.
He finished with a time of 1:14.03 good for a comfortable victory over second place finisher Nathan Kendrick, but a couple minutes from his fastest run of 1:10.34 covering 21 kilometres at the Brighton half marathon in England.
“I mean, obviously, here you’re fighting with the hills and the altitude so it’s always going to be slower,” Marsden said. “I was really pleased with the time.”
Marsden said he and his closest competitor were neck-and-neck at the beginning, before he broke away for the lead he would not relinquish.
“We were chatting, we were quite relaxed and trying to work out what each other was aiming for,” Marsden said. “At about the (Turner Valley) golf course I could feel him dropping back a bit so I didn’t let off.”
The inaugural half marathon started at the Oilfields Arena in Black Diamond and meandered through the rolling hills to finish at the Millarville racetrack. The fastest runner on June 16 said the course was deceptively difficult.
“About maybe halfway and there was a nice, long, straight road downhill with the wind behind you and I was thinking this was going to be fast, but they left the hills until the end,” Marsden said. “There was a hill with about three miles to go and it was a really tough hill and you could see it coming for about two miles.”
The 38-year-old native of the United Kingdom said being the winner of the inaugural race is a nice feather in his cap.
“I’m actually quite proud of that,” Marsden said. “It’s something you can always look back on and no one can take that away from you.”
“Maybe in 20-years time I can sit and tell my kids I won this one.”
Marsden, who has competed in the Chicago marathon as well as a myriad of half and full marathon races in the United Kingdom, said he was far from 100 per cent healthy heading into the race.
“I’ve got a four-day trail race in Europe coming up in two and a half weeks time and this was a test to see if the hip could hold up,” he said. “It hurt, but it didn’t affect the performance.”
Marsden will need to recover in time for the grueling eight-day Trans-Alps race in September, a team event in which he’ll be partnered with Great Britain Olympic marathon runner Mark Steinle.
“I’ve really got to stay in shape to stay with him,” he said.
His globetrotting escapades won’t keep Marsden from the local racing circuit. Should the Millarville Run to The Farmers’ Market return next year, Marsden would be back to retain his crown.
“Absolutely, I’d love to do it every year,” he said. “I’m looking to come back and defend the title.”
Kendrick finished in second place with a time of 1:18.15. His wife, Melissa Kendrick, was the fastest female runner, finishing with a time of 1:21.46. Elsewhere, Dave Proctor out of Black Diamond was third with a time of 1:21.13 while Sheila Nykwist and Charlene Elliott finished second and third among women, respectively, with times of 1:29.08 and 1:34.45.
Rick Charlton, chairperson for the Millarville Run to the Farmers’ Market, said the event was a unanimous success on every front.
“I thought it was very interesting that the top four or five finishers really loved the course,” Charlton said. “They loved the enthusiasm of the volunteers, thought it was very well marked and they loved finishing at the Farmers’ Market, which makes us kind of unique in North America.”
He said the event contributed to what was the largest gate in several years for the opening of the Farmers’ Market.
“The vendors were very happy in terms of the business they were getting,” he said. “One of the most important things we’re doing is supporting our local agricultural producers through a raised profile of our Farmers’ Market and the race seems to really hit the mark in doing that.”
Charlton said he’d like the half-marathon to continue on, but the approval is needed from the board members of the Millarville Racing and Agricultural Society.
“We’ll be putting out a survey at some point here of all the participants and volunteers just getting more feedback because we do want to make this an annual event.”
For more information and full race results go to www.millarvillehalfmarathon.com.
