Jayden Kuijpers fought through copious amounts of rain and mud on May 31 to set a new record on the Comfortably Numb trail.
The Burnaby native bettered Michael Nangle's 2023 time by just over three minutes to set a new benchmark of four hours, 20 minutes and 44 seconds in the men's 50-kilometre event. Ross Reilly of Richmond wasn't far behind in second (4:25.39) and Squamish's Adam Harris placed third (4:27.36).
Kuijpers' breakthrough isn't necessarily surprising to those who know him well. He races long course triathlons as a pro and intends to enter an Ironman contest in Malaysia later this year.
Meanwhile, Kelly Young led a Squamolian sweep of the women's 50k discipline (5:06.32). Julie Van Der Hoop (5:16:48) and Tara Holland (5:39:45) rounded out the podium in that order, with Holland proving to be fastest among all masters ladies over 50 years of age.
"I’ve run the classic 25k at this race a few times but this was my first time racing the 50k, and I think it’s the perfect spring ultra," Holland said in a press release. "Charlotte Paul and Kristian Manietta have done such an amazing job with this event - it’s really well organized, the course is a fun and challenging mix of runnable and techy trail, the volunteers are amazing, the finish line food is so good and the general vibe is fantastic. For me, it comes at a perfect time of year: not too early when I feel I haven’t got enough long runs in, but early enough that I can recover and gear up for a longer ultra later in the summer. I highly recommend it."
Andrew Russell won gold in the men's 25k decisively (2:11:15), besting silver medallist David Vernon of Arundel, Australia (2:17:54) and Tom Jenkins with bronze (2:22:52).
In the ladies' 25k it was multi-sport competitor Andrea Burley who triumphed (2:32:50) over Oxana Korj (2:52:48) and another Squamish resident, Christian Di Iorio (2:54:50).
Each podium finisher took home prize money for the first time in Run Comfy Numb's history as athletes from Vietnam, New Zealand, Germany and Spain helped fill out the field. An honourable mention goes out to Alireza Beittoei from Coquitlam, who at 74 years old was third among male masters in the 50k (7:56:03).
"Kristian and I come from a background in competitive sports, and so we really love to encourage and reward the top runners," said Paul in a release. "However the Comfortably Numb trail is so tough, that for a lot of people just completing it is winning, and we applaud those achievements too."
More results are available here.
