J.R. Rardon

Gazette staff

PORT HARDY — London. New York. Chicago. Boston. Berlin.

Marathoner Ken Richardson has run them all. And now the 64-year-old Vancouver Island teacher can add a far more exclusive locale to his distance-running resume:

Holberg to Hardy.

Richardson, who took up running little more than four years ago, cruised to victory Saturday in the seventh annual Coast-to-Coast Foot Roast, covering 50 kilometres of hilly, rocky logging roads from Holberg to the finish line at the Port Hardy waterfront in 4 hours, 29 minutes and 35 seconds.

Jim Morton of Cowichan Valley, 50, was second in 4:35:42, and Foot Roast veteran Brad Holmes of Nanaimo, 53, was third in 4:48:20.

Marcelle Grant of Port McNeill was the top women’s finisher for the second straight year, placing seventh overall in 5:19:54.

Richardson, running his first Foot Roast, might have had a slightly faster time. But he stood in place for a delay of about two minutes when a couple of black bears crossed his path near the 25-km mark.

“There was a bear on the road, and she had a cub,” said Richardson. “They didn’t seem to be in any kind of a hurry.”

“That’s the reason I kept you out in front,” Morton cracked. “To clear out the traffic.”

The event drew 18 individual runners and walkers and an eight-member relay team from Marine Harvest. The total turnout was 11 more than the previous year.

“It’s a huge turnout, and we’re hoping we can keep it up again next year,” said Lance Gullacher, one of the event organizers.

Richardson last fall completed a two-year tour of the five international “marathon majors," which each draw tens of thousands of runners. Running the Foot Roast as a tune-up for the Seattle Marathon in November, Richardson noted it was a very different experience.

“Well, you don’t have quite as many people around,” he said. “I really enjoyed the run. My legs seemed to be suited to the softer ground, and the hills were fun. There was a lot of variety and challenge in the terrain.”

Holmes wrapped up a two-week stretch in which he ran more than 160 kilometres, starting with a run of the 59-km North Coast Trail and continuing with the 56-km Great Lake Walk around Lake Cowichan a week before tackling the Foot Roast.

“The longer the better,” said Holmes, who has run here several times. “I like this little event. And I think this is the best I’ve felt after a run.”

Morton ran the Foot Roast once before, in 2005. He also placed second in that race, though he improved his time this year by nearly four minutes.

At the other end of the spectrum were runners like Josh Dawson of Port Hardy, who ran with Richardson at the front of the pack for nearly half the race. Dawson had never previously run more than 15 km, and had been up until 11:30 playing hockey the previous night, but he made it to the 27-km mark in about three hours before limping into his support vehicle.

“I’m happy I made it 27k,” Dawson said. “But I’m done.”

Another Port Hardy runner, Douglas Johnny, placed sixth with a blistering finishing kick in 5:17:19.

“I’ve never run more than 15k in my life,” Johnny said. “Now I know I can do it, and I know I can do it faster.”