We had over 70 people attending the Victors year-end party and awards celebration at the Albion Hotel on Oct. 22. We celebrated a great year of running, some outstanding race performances, lots of workouts together. We also honoured long-time Victors leader and member David Brooks, who moved away earlier this year.
Our five major award recipients
- Usher Posluszny Award (for outstanding single performance): Julie Fordyce, for 3:31 run at Mississauga Marathon, a Boston-qualifying time
- Vic Matthews Award (for club contribution): Karl Cottenie, for devising a new system for timing our 3K track time trials this year.
- Grit and Determination Award: Hannah Sine for completing the gruelling 100K Down Under ultra race in Australia.
- Multisport Award: Lindsay Robinson, for racing five triathlons this past summer (from sprint to half-Ironman distances) and qualifying for the World Triathlon Final in the Olympic distance, next August in Edmonton.
- Roger Bannister Award (for community service): Ed Ross, for his volunteer work with Hope House scrap metal collection and Coldest Night of the Year fundraiser.
David Brooks gets a tribute
We honoured and thanked long-time Victor David Brooks for his contributions to the club for many years. Several people recounted stories and memories of David, and some of his Bootcamp stalwarts even led a song in his honour.
David goes back to the very early days (1980s) as part of the training group led by Vic Matthews and Usher Posluszny, before it was called “Victors”
David organized our time trial timing for many years, at first with a chip time system he borrowed from Sportstats, where he was working part-time, and last year, with a hand timing system
David led the 6:45 outdoor track workouts for several years, building it into a popular session that sometimes rivalled the 6 pm session in size
David organized and led the Runner’s Bootcamp fitness classes for many year, which many Victors attended and benefited from
Throughout all of this activity, David has been humble and quiet — never blowing his own horn or announcing his successes, or even talking about his own running and health difficulties. He’s just been David — the guy who gets things done and motivates runners to be their best.
He also has an awesome capacity for learning and remembering names!
11 sock award winners celebrated
- Mary Catherine Stewart: for sub-40-minute 10K race at Sporting Life
- Cassandra Kerr: for consistent track attendance year-round, and for leading a warm-up clinic in the spring
- Brandon Guild: for an outstanding 3K time trial personal best of 10:10
- Mike Hammond: for a great race year, regular at track, and running one hour for 15K in Cambridge
- Elizabeth Waywell: for setting yet another Canadian master’s record, running the 10-mile in 1:10 last January
- Aidan Kelly: for consistent track attendance, missing only one workout (which was cancelled!)
- Stacy McMillan: for stepping up to the ultra distances, and running 9 hours for the Foxtail 50-miler, 1st place woman
- Kurt Hundeck and Natalie Intven: our rookies-of-the-year award, for doing 5 peaks race series, and delivering positive energy at track workouts
- Sara Frangos: our young runner award, a U of G student who was a year-round regular with us in 2019
- Andrew Catton: for donating a kidney to his three-year-old son, and then running a PB (one kidney) at the recent Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon
A summary of our 2019 club finances and activity
- 137 total members this year (up from 126 last year)
- 39 track workouts (indoor and outdoor) and time trials
- 357 Facebook closed group members and 410 mailing list subscribers
- $7,642 collected in dues and garment sales income
- $7,145 spent on track rental, insurance, coaching honoraria, website, awards night, university scholarship and parkrun start-up grant
- a projected bank balance of $1,912 at year’s-end
— thanks to Natalie Intven for party photos!