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The Wine Country Half Marathon made its return to Kelowna this chilly Sunday morning hosting over 1,200 athletes.
Returning to the Okanagan for its fourth year in a row, the Wine Country Half Marathon is the first event held by Destination Races outside of the U.S. borders and usually draws quite the crowd.
Of the 1,200 participants this year, 76 per cent of them were women. “I think that it being a wine festivals draws a bigger crowd, especially us women who like to drink wine,” said Erin Burrett, the first female finisher.
Burrett currently holds the women's race record for the Wine Country Half from her participation last year. Finishing the race with an impeccable time of 1:16:36, Burrett finished fourth overall, though she did not break her record from the previous year.
You may recognize the name of local man Brad Bickley as the third place male finisher from last year's race. This year, Bickley pushed hard and worked his way up to lead the pack and become this year's first overall finisher.
Bickley finished with an impressive time of 1:11:13, a mere one minute from beating the time of last year's first male finisher, Steve Dekoker.
Albertan Scott Jensen, the second male finisher, completed the race with an impressive time of 1:15:51.
American athlete Chad Portwood was neck and neck with Jensen throughout the race at times pulling ahead, but finishing third with a great overall time of 1:16:15.
The second female finisher was a local woman, Malindi Elmore, with a time of 1:19:26, while Calgarian Allison Blackmore finished with a time of 1:23:53 making her the third female finisher.
Many athletes had mentioned a struggle on 21.1 km course with their transition from tackling the rolling hills of our wine country to their descent into the valley.
“We’re always taken care of, the people out on the course are always cheering and it’s a great experience,” said Burrett.
Race day results can be found here
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