The 2024 version of Survivorfest, a fixed-time race held on a 400m monitor at Edmonton’s Strathcona Athletic Park, as soon as once more noticed a few of Canada’s high ultrarunners acting at their greatest, this time amid some wild climate. Exshaw, Alta.’s Wayne Gaudet, 67, managed a strong sweep of the Canadian males’s 65-70 class and captured 4 information in whole (pending ratification by the ACU): the 100K (10 hours, 35 minutes, 57 seconds), 12-hour (111 km), 100-mile (17 hours, 44 minutes) and 24-hour information (202.892 km).
A late bloomer
Gaudet, who was born in Victoria, informed Canadian Operating he wasn’t all the time a runner.”I had a sofa potato stage in my 20s and a biking section in my 30s,” he explains.”I began working after I was about 40, as I simply couldn’t discover the big time slots wanted for my bike.” Whereas Gaudet initially struggled to run across the block, a pal challenged him to run the 1997 Victoria Marathon. “I believed it went fairly nicely and that was that,” he says, however he was removed from completed.
“There was one fellow there who was working his twenty fifth marathon, and I imagined he was a bit daffy and couldn’t fathom that will ever be me,” Gaudet says. “However in some way, one marathon led to a different, which led to ultramarathons, which led to trails, and in the end a proposal of a place to run one thing referred to as a 24-hour race.”
Gaudet accomplished his first 24-hour occasion representing Group Canada on the 2011 Commonwealth Championship in Llandudno, Wales. “I in some way managed to steer the Canadian workforce in mileage that yr, so I used to be requested to the World Championships in Katowice, Poland in September 2012, and I suppose I simply by no means stopped.”
Gaudet initially competed at Survivorfest in 2021, and has returned yearly, this time with the hopes of breaking the 24-hour males’s 65-70 report. As he hit the 100-mile mark, Gaudet says he was astonished to be taught he had damaged a report; two hours later he was stunned once more when he surpassed the earlier 12-hour mileage. After capturing the 100-mile and 24-hour information, Gaudet started to battle with a extreme lean to the left, making working in a straight line difficult.”I managed 202 km and was grateful for the way my physique carried out for the ultimate 5 hours,” he says.
Alberta girl plans to run 50 ultramarathons, raises funds for sexual assault assist centre
File outcomes at 2024 Survivorfest
The primary version of Survivorfest, dubbed “a celebration of power, sacrifice and survival” kicked off in Edmonton in 2018. The race raises funds for Saffron Centre, a non-profit group based mostly in Sherwood Park, Alta., that helps these affected by sexual violence; race director Laura Sherrer-Townsend says that her dedication to stopping sexual violence is the primary cause she began Survivorfest Operating Occasion in 2018.
Since Survivorfest started, it has been a qualifier for athletes wanting a spot on the Worldwide Affiliation of Ultrarunners (IAU) World Championships, and recurrently hosts among the most completed ultrarunners from throughout Canada.
“This yr’s race can be identified for the climate, for certain,” Sherrer-Townsend informed Canadian Operating, explaining that Saturday’s climate included rain, wind and even some hail. “Fortunately, Sunday we have been rewarded with a stupendous dawn, and no extra rain and chilly–a pure instance of why athletes want to coach in each situation and put together themselves for no matter their race day will carry,” she added.
Together with the M65 information damaged by Gaudet, the occasion noticed Carla Rodriguez Dimitrescu breaking the ladies’s 12-hour Mexican report. (In 2023, Dimitrescu additionally set a brand new ladies’s 6-hour Mexican report in 2023, with 66.268 km.) 4 Canadian athletes additionally certified for the 2024 Canadian 24-hour workforce: Gaudet, Etienne Durocher, Mallory Rhicard and Adela Salt (a brand new Canadian, as of April 18).
As for Gaudet: he could also be hitting the monitor once more subsequent yr. “I believed I would retire, however now I’m pondering I can do higher, and heck, I can run 100K quicker than 10:35!” he says. “So, undecided but, however I doubtless can be at Survivorfest 2025.”
