SPORTS
Last updated at 8:59 AM on 15/05/07
Weather plays factor in Clark's Toyota five-mile race
LORI A. MAYNE
The Journal Pioneer Gary Gates won the Clark's Toyota 5-Miler without breaking a sweat.
That owed largely to weather.
"There was a water stop. I was like - why? If I spill it on myself it might freeze up," Gates joked after finishing the five-mile (just over 8 kilometres) run in a course record time of 28 minutes 18 seconds.
Sixty-two runners participated in the third annual event.
Gates, 42, just moved to Hunter River from Florida this month; it was his first race on the Island.
"It was pretty darn windy - windy and cold," he said.
The morning brought a temperature of just under 8 C and winds of 32 kilometres an hour.
Gates liked the course, though added he's not used to so much up and down terrain running in the Sunshine State.
Gates received congratulations from wife, Danyele, and son Garrison, who at 13 months is already a runner.
"He's hard to keep up with," Gates explained.
Scott Clark of Linkletter finished second with a time of 28 minutes 36 seconds, followed by Mike MacKinnon with a time of 30 minutes.
The top female finisher, Rachael McCarvill, agreed the wind made for a slower run because she tried to conserve energy.
McCarvill, 25, is originally from Kensington though now lives in Charlottetown. Her time was 32 minutes 11 seconds.
"If there was no wind, I think I could've done at least a minute faster or two minutes faster," she said. "But I'm happy with that. I feel really good, but I don't think that I put 100 per cent into it."
Rachael and her twin sister Rebecca - who was the second female with her time of 32 minutes 55 seconds - described it as a flat course.
"Maybe I need to go to Florida!," Rachael joked, after learning Gates' found the course a bit more up and down than he's used to.
The third female finisher was Shelley Simmons-MacLeod of Summerside with a time of 35 minutes 14 seconds.
Simmons-MacLeod agreed it had been windy, but noted there's something fair about that.
"Everybody's running under the same conditions," she pointed out.
Proceeds from the run went to the Children's Wish Foundation.
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It was cloud and fog and 16 degrees.
