55^th Anniversary of the Miracle Mile 

 Hosted by Lions Gate Road Runners
Friday August 7^th, 2009
Balaclava Park, Vancouver

Following soon after the Police and Fire Games cross country races at Jericho just three days earlier, close to forty club members were on hand for the annual tribute to the great milers who took centre stage at the Empire Games in Vancouver back in 1954.  

We first tried out this event to mark the 50^th anniversary of the famous "Miracle Mile" race in 2004, so this was the sixth year we had gathered on the anniversary weekend. The location for our own event is the very same track on which Roger Bannister trained in preparation for his clash with then world record holder, the Australian runner John Landy.  For those who know the Balaclava Park track, you will realize that the old 440yd dirt and cinder track is by no means the quickest surface around.   

This year, after weeks of hot dry weather, the evening was a little cooler and cloudy but still dry and pleasant for running.  After grouping runners into two pace groups, the first heat set off led by Ky Quang, who set a strong 6-minute pace through the first two laps.  During the third lap, Lara Duke gradually closed the gap and edged into the lead with Linda Wong also gaining ground in third place.  These three battled it out over the final quarter, with Linda producing the strongest kick to hit the line first in a new PR of 6:15, closely followed by Lara in 6:18 and Ky in 6:20.  Hats off to Lara for her excellent effort with her two young boys watching from the sidelines and husband Kelly also a revelation running into 4^th place in 6:26.  So much for Kelly's claim to be out of shape with parenting duties taking up most of his spare time.  Other notables in this heat were Rae Gordon, in his first race after a long injury lay-off, Shelley Webster setting a new personal standard of 7:11 and her husband Jeff who bravely fought through his sciatic problems to finish the run.  Paul Fenz was a bit disappointed with his time but Alex Lau lopped nearly 30 seconds off his predicted time, evidently feeling the positive effects of dropping more than 30 pounds in weight over the past few months.  Stephen Emmerson also added a new dimension, running the mile "canine assisted" (or was it canine-restricted) - with doggie partners K91 and K92.  The first heat was rounded out by Betty Barrett and Will Ribi's partner Ruth who both finished to loud cheers and inside their predicted times.

The second heat was led off by 2008 "champ" young Garrett Webster with a scintillating first lap of 70 seconds.  Not far off the pace, though, were the Ribi brothers Daniel and Marcus and Dario Herrera.  In fact the entire field of this heat was pulled through the first lap in less than 80 seconds.  Despite the fast start, Garrett kept up a very strong tempo throughout to break the tape in bang on five minutes.  Daniel Ribi held off a strong third-lap challenge from Dario to come in second in 5:10.  Brother Marcus also out-kicked Dario in the final straight, placing third in 5:18 to Dario's 5:19.  Josh Tanner narrowly held off Matt Murdoch, both being given the same time of 5:29.  Josh and Matt were followed by a closely spaced group led in by Ray Barrett (5:35), Carlos Gaspar, Mark Williams and Tom Cardle.  The heat was rounded out by Leo Lam, defying his 55+ years in a great time of 5:54 and Tina-Louise Harris, also defying her master's designation to come in comfortably (easy for me to say) under six minutes with husband and young son cheering her on.

Once the dust had settled on the mile races eight brave volunteers stepped up to have a crack at the 4 x 440 yd relay event.  Rae Gordon helped out in allocating the eight names to two teams so as to match them as closely as possible.  As you can see from the results, Rae's judgement was bang-on. 

The 4 x 440yd relay teams were as follows:  

Team "A" = Rae Gordon, Josh Tanner, Marcus Ribi and Daniel Ribi

Team "B" = Ray Barrett, Tom Cardle, Leo Lam and Dario Herrera

The two "Rays" battled it out on the first lap Ray "B" prevailing by 67-73 seconds and establishing an early lead for Team "B".  The gap was narrowed big time on leg #2, though, as Josh closed to within one second of Tom (2-18 to 2-17).  Leo ran a "blinder" on leg #3 and despite an age gap of nearly forty years it took most of the lap for young Marcus to edge into the lead, handing off to his anchor runner and brother with a mere one second advantage (3-23 to 3-24).  That one second was all that Daniel needed, though, and despite a determined effort by Dario, the gap stretched ever so slightly.  The finishing times were 4-26 to 4-28 for a great effort all around.  Just out of interest, if you add the four fastest splits of 63 seconds (Daniel), 64 (Dario), 65 (Josh and Marcus), you come up with the fastest mile for the night of 4:17.  It just makes you realize what it would take to get under the still-magical 4-minute threshold.

As usual, a great selection of food was brought along by many club members, so thanks to all for their contributions.  Thanks also to Carlos for the tables and to Frank, Willi and Julie Ribi for helping with time-keeping and recording the results.  (Editors note: Not to forget Roger and Pam, who continue to bring this fun, low-key celebration of running together successfully every year.)

Mark your calendars for the first weekend in August 2010 and we'll see if we can get a bit closer to those wonderful historic mile times.  

 Results can be viewed here and Frank's photos here.