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SEE IT: First hometown winner in 34-year history of St. Albert 10-miler (7 photos)

Historic race win for Stuermer

Riley Stuermer did what nobody else from St. Albert has ever done before in the 34-year history of the 10-miler.

“It's really cool to be the first St. Albert winner and to represent my hometown like that. It's been a race I've kind of looked up to when I was young. You got to see fast finishers and I guess I get to be part of that now,” Stuermer said with satisfaction etched across his bearded face after crossing the finish line in a blaze of glory Sunday morning at the St. Albert Road Race, presented by Active Physio Works.

There was no stopping Stuermer from completing his first 10-miler with a winning time of 52 minutes and 56 seconds.

It's the fastest 10-miler since Travis McKay of Edmonton repeated in 2011 at 52:29.

“I was hoping for 52 minutes but anything under 53 was good and that's what I did so I'm happy with it,” said Stuermer, 20.

The St. Albert 10-mile record of 50:46 by Matt Norminton of Edmonton was set in 2007.

Eighteen minutes after the mass start in front of the St. Albert Curling Club on Sir Winston Churchill Ave., Stuermer was flying solo zipping down St. Anne Street between the mile three and four markers and nobody on the radar screen behind the cross-country runner for the Alberta Golden Bears.

“I just wanted to stay smooth throughout and try not to fade toward the end. I wanted to have something for the last five K or so. I just wanted to push hard at that point,” Stuermer said. “At about seven miles or so after that it was all downhill so you kind of work to get to that point and it's smooth sailing from there. You can try to lower your pace a bit and just have fun with it.”

Stuermer's teammates on the Golden Bears, Brandon Wladyko of Edmonton and Austin Moore-Payot of Sherwood Park, waged their own race to see who would finish second.

“We just couldn't keep Riley's pace. He's too fast of a runner. He's that good,” said Wladyko, a kinesiology student who turned 33 on race day.

A shoelace separated Wladyko (55.27.3) and the 20-year-old Moore-Payot (55:28.4).

“We helped each other through this thing, I don't think I could've run as fast with us not together like that. It wasn't clear who had the edge the whole way. We just kept going back and forth and it just came right down to that last half kilometre,” Wladyko said. “But what a fun race.”

Sunday's 10-miler marked the fifth year in a row for the rejigged course and start/finish line. The figure-eight rolling layout of two uphills and two downhills used to go north to south for the runners instead of current reversal in direction.

“It's a lot of fun. It's pretty flat but there's some nice little hills. There's those points where you just have to grind through those tough parts and a few downhills were it gives you a little bit to recover but it's just a great course,” said Wladyko, a Fort St. John product who ran cross-country for four years with the Grande Prairie Regional College Wolves.

Stuermer's last St. Albert Road Race appearance before taking a stab at the 10-miler was in 2016, where he took second place in the 10-kilometre at 17:17 to Luke Hanson's first-place showing of 16:19.

“This my first time running the 10-miler here and it was a fun race. The weather was nice and it's a fun course,” said the St. Albert Catholic High School graduate.

Stuermer, a former St. Albert Gators Triathlon Club member, burst onto the local running scene as the repeat winner of the Leading Edge Physiotherapy RunWild five km in 2015 at 18:32, surpassing his previous year's top time by 16 seconds.

In the second season with the Golden Bears, the engineer physics student placed 44th at the 2018 U SPORTS men's cross-country championship with the best run of any University of Alberta athlete in the 10 km at 32:39. The result was 13th best among Canada West runners.

“At cross country nationals, I was happy with how I did. I improved a lot from 2017 fall (98th at nationals in 34:03) to 2018 fall and I'm trying to get ready for next cross season,” said the Canada West second-team all-star. “I did track my first year and then I just kind of focused on cross but I will get back into track next year as well.

“As for cross this year, I just want to try my best and hopefully we'll get together a good team of guys and see what we can do.”

FAST TIMES: The second-fastest St. Albert male was Shawn Lywood at 1:00:34 for eighth place.

Seven out of the 108 finishers in the 10-miler were clocked in under one hour, compared to four of the 91 who went the distance last year.

Visit www.stalbertroadrace.com or www.zone4.ca for the 10-mile results.

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