2.4°C Cloudy 
Though he couldn’t quite reach another record-setting Comfortably Numb time, Adam Campbell won his second title in three years at Saturday’s (June 27) race. With the challenging trail in good condition, fun to run with sticky roots and rocks, Campbell charged to victory with a time of one hour, 55 minutes and 28.28 seconds, besting his own winning 2007 time by three minutes.
“That’s a very respectable time,” race co-director Kevin Titus said. Though Campbell couldn’t break through Aaron Heidt’s diabolically fast 2008 time of 1:49:50, which smashed Campbell’s record, this year’s winner breezed across the finish more than seven minutes ahead of repeat overall runner-up Mark Bennett, who posted a time of 2:02:46.76.
Seamus Frew finished second behind Campbell in the Under 40 Men category, and third overall, with his time of 2:03:31.20. Aaron Pitt finished 11 minutes behind Frew to claim third in the category with his time of 2:06.56.71, followed by Ben Biswell and Norm Hann.
Bennett, who also crossed the line second in 2008, won the Men 40 to 49 age category, ahead of Kevin Holland in second with his time of 2:04:32.26, which was good enough for fourth overall. Roger Shirt finished third in the category with his time of 2:05:21.60, followed by Jason Shorter and John Davies.
Squamish-based endurance athlete Jen Segger was the first woman across the finish line, pounding to a time of 2:20:01.57 to win the Under 40 Women category over female runner-up Cheryl Beatty. Segger, though, feel far short of Kristina Rody’s Comfortably Numb women’s record of 2:05:25.
Segger wrote in her blog that she loves the trail, and she enjoyed being out on the course against Beatty, a strong Vancouver athlete. Segger’s Camelbak water hose stopped working, so she drank and ate nothing, but she found an extra gear and powered up after spotting Beatty behind her on some switchbacks around the 17-kilometre mark on the 25-kilometre trail.
“The trail was in perfect shape,” Segger wrote, calling the course “one of the best running routes out there.”
Alison Taylor finished third in the Under 40 Women’s category, followed by Bethany Dyck and Catherine O’Neill. Ghlee Macleod won the Women 40 to 49 category with her time of 2:39:14.37, followed by Michelle Lewan, Nancy Watson, Andrea Horte and Donna Macintosh to round out the top five.
In the 50-plus categories, Kent Williams and Martha Heintzman were the men’s and women’s winners. Barry McClure, Walter Wallgram, Daniel Havens and Brendan Kennelly finished in the top five in the age category on the men’s side, and Grace Blok, Connie Sobchak, Katherine Wagar and Tess Geddes rounded out the top five women.
A few rookie trail runners who decided to take a crack at the epic run said they found the trail “a little bit turny (and) too rocky,” Titus said. But they were accustomed to road running, and most of the approximately 100 racers “really enjoyed it,” he said.
One competitor from Lake Tahoe approached Titus after the race to tell him how beautiful she thought the trail is, and how much fun she had. Though tough and often tricky, rife with potential for crashes or injuries, the Comfortably Numb trail is “certainly a great way to experience typical B.C.,” he said.
Co-director David Higgins said the event ran smoothly under solid conditions, with rain having recently dried to leave the trail nice and sticky.
“It was a great race, (and a) great day for the race,” he said.
Titus said some of the new features introduced for this year’s edition of Comfortably Numb, namely the early start for runners expecting to finish in around four hours and the shift to a Saturday date, worked well. The soft start at 8:25 a.m. put those runners in the thick of things at the finish, and many of them really liked the change.
“I think they liked being out front for a while,” Titus said, so he expects that addition will be back next year.
For complete results and race information, check out comfortablynumb.ca. Comfortably Numb is the second event in the Sea to Sky Trail Running Series, after the Whistler Valley Trail Run.
