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Red Deer man wins Woody’s RV World Marathon, again

May 20, 2018 | 2:34 PM

A Red Deer man has won the 20th Annual Woody’s RV World Marathon.

For the second year in a row, Craig Schmitt won the full marathon on Sunday, running a time of 2:46:26.

The 39-year-old says he’s run the marathon for about ten years now and is ecstatic to win it twice. 

 

 

“Brendan Lunty, I finished second to him, I don’t even know, four or five times,” recalls Schmitt. “Last year was the first time I won and then I felt the pressure to do it again this year and it worked out. A lot of people look at their time when they’re running but I don’t want to know. I just ran on feel and on effort.”

The win is especially sweet for Schmitt as he battled a leg injury all winter after falling on his hip while running the trails in Red Deer last August. He finished less than two minutes behind his winning time from last year (2:44:37).

“It kind of kicked in with about nine kilometres to go this year,” Schmitt admits. “So the last 9km was rather slow and I limped-in really but I’m happy and really proud of my effort more than anything.”

Schmitt is also proud that a local runner won the race again this year.

“I want local talent to win it and I like the community,” explains Schmitt. “Red Deer first of all, our trails are amazing, sometimes I do think we take them for granted but they’re beautiful trails, it’s awesome. It’s a well-run course, the Red Deer Runners are a great, happy group of people to be a part of and it’s amazing that we get a race this size for a community this size.”

Rhonda Loo, 42, of Lake Newell Resort near Brooks earned the top ladies time for the full marathon, running the 42.2 km race in 3:16:04.

Having previously won marathons in places such as Maui, Loo says Sunday’s race was her third time competing in the Woody’s RV World Marathon.

“I feel great, it was fun, I enjoyed myself,” exclaimed Loo. “I was reeling-in my pace and kind of not going out too fast, just enjoying it, not looking at my watch, just watching the markers and really enjoying it.”

After enduring a life-changing major accident in 2015, Loo says she now listens to music while running marathons, something she hadn’t done before.

“I can zone out and just sing and enjoy the music and enjoy the weather and enjoy the race,” states Loo. “It’s a beautiful course. There are very few courses I can say that are like this that I really enjoy.”

However, what Loo enjoys most perhaps is having her family with her, as her children ran the 1K kids race.

“Winning is awesome,” states Loo. “But having them and just hearing ‘mommy’ at the end and them being so proud and happy and they have medals too, that’s what I like about this. It’s great, it’s a real family event.”

Joedy Dalke won the male half-marathon with a time of 1:18:16, while Kristen Spady wom the female half-marathon in 1:21:49.

The top male 10K race time went to Kieran McDonald who ran it in 34:18, while the top female time in the 10K was Morgan Lawley who posted a time of 38:24.

Over 1,250 people took part in this year’s event.