A late entry was the first finisher at the 14th annual St. Albert Fall Challenge.
Chris Schwarz was the half-marathon runaway winner after paying his entry fee before the 9 a.m. start time.
"I came here at the last minute. I just signed up today," a fresh-looking Schwarz said after completing the 21.1-kilometre race in one hour, 19 minutes and 33 seconds on a miserable Sunday morning.
The course on the Red Willow trails was a tune-up for the Toronto Waterfront Marathon on Oct. 16.
"I'm tying to PB there so I just need a couple of the half-marathon races to kind of get me in shape," Schwarz said. "I did the Edmonton half-marathon (Aug. 21) and I got a PB there, just a little under 1:20 (at 1:19:35 for 15th overall as the 13th fastest male), and today I PBed again. I even shaved a couple more seconds off my time so I'm pretty happy."
The Fall Challenge was the second half-marathon of the season for the Sherwood Park runner.
"The full marathon is my event. That's what I specialize in but I do a lot of halfs to train for the full marathons," said Schwarz, who hopes to eclipse his personal-best of 2:47 and change in Toronto. "I'm feeling ready for my big race."
Schwarz, 46, was running solo at the halfway mark, the Kingswood Park Gazebo, which also doubled as the finish line, and his time of 40 minutes was more than four minutes ahead of Braden Kulczycki.
"I just try and maintain a steady pace to lock in at," Schwarz said. "If I start off too fast then I find I will pay for it in the later kilometres.
"This is a perfect race for me today because I was able to maintain that pace for the whole thing."
Schwarz was pleasantly surprised by his first Fall Challenge experience.
"It was great. I really enjoyed it," said the project manager with Alberta Health Services. "I was a little worried because with St. Albert you might think it would be hilly but staying along the river path the whole way there wasn't a lot of hills other than this one, the finish on the hill (to the gazebo), so that's about it."
Kulczycki also made the most of his Fall Challenge debut as the runner-up.
"It was a good time," the Edmonton resident said of his 1:28:10 result. "It was a tough run. Windy. Cold. A lot of hills. It was good experience though. It's good to see St. Albert."
A brisk wind and frigid temperature at race time was followed about 90 minutes later by sporadic rain.
"It was tough. I was trying to draft off (Kulczycki) but I lost him," said Reina Ainsworth, the third-place finisher and fastest female for the third year in a row.
Ainsworth was clocked at 1:29:43 after going 1:27:56 last year, 1:30:33 in 2014 and 1:33:26 as the second-fastest female in 2013 for seventh place.
"It's a great race. The terrain isn't exactly flat so it's a good training run out here," said Ainsworth, who is preparing for the Oct. 9 BMO Okanagan Marathon. "I kind of used it as a simulation run for my marathon I'm doing in Kelowna. A few guys here are doing Chicago as well."
Ainsworth, 35, is back in training mode after a lower-body injury sidelined the pride of Daysland in July.
"I did an ultramarathon and few mountain relays and overdid it a little," said the winner of the 2016 Loop For The Troops half-marathon at 1:31:15 in June at Edmonton. "I wanted to break 1:30 so I'm happy with this time."
The Fall Challenge was the third and last half-marathon for Ainswoth before next month's marathon.
"I have maybe a few 10-mile races in me but this is it," said the 127th finisher in the Pacific Road Runners Half Marathon in February as the 22nd fastest female at 1:26:42.
"I've definitely slowed down a bit but it happens."
Ainsworth's first ultramarathon, the 50-km trail race at the Cooking Lake Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area, was her main goal of the season.
"It was good. That was kind of my goal of the year," said the Edmonton runner.
Race results
The Fall Challenge, hosted by the Sturgeon Valley Athletic Club, featured 53 half-marathon finishers, 50 runners and three walkers, plus 43 10-km and 28 five-km runners/walkers.
There were 66 half-marathon finishers last year, compared to 91 in 2014 and 130 in 2013.
Paul Anderson of St. Albert was the top 10-km runner at 48:02 and Karon Huising of Edmonton was the first female at 51 minutes for fourth place out of 43 participants overall.
Monica Ballentine of Leduc was the five-km winner with an unofficial time of 22:50 and seven-year-old Easton Herman, a Grade 2 Keenooshayo School student, was the first male to cross the finish line at a blistering 28 minutes for third place out of 28 overall competitors.
Last year there were 50 finishers in the 10-km run/walk and 49 went the distance in the five-km run/walk.
