July 11, 2010 (Canmore, Alberta) – Scorching heat, 865 meters of vertical gain and angry grizzlies might not sound like a fun afternoon, but for the runners at the Canadian Mountain Running Championships, it’s just what they were looking for. The event took place the evening of July 9, at the Canmore Nordic Center, in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains. It was moved at the last minute because of an “aggressive” grizzly that had reportedly charged park workers at the Nakiska Resort in Kananaskis Country, where the race had been slated to take place.

According to Salomon’s Phil Villeneuve, who competed in the Championships on Friday and handled race-announcing duties for the Canmore Challenge race on Saturday, the course turned out great considering the late change. “It was hard enough to separate the men from the boys,” he told us.

For those who know the Canmore area, they’ll have no trouble believing him. The course started on the lower Georgetown trail, near the Bow River power station, then climbed up the ski trails to the Canmore Nordic Center stadium. There was a short loop back through the stadium to add a little extra distance to the 9km course before climbing again up to the top of ‘The Oven’ (a grueling double-track gravel climb that often reaches temperatures well into the 40 degree Celsius range). Not tough enough? The final 300 meters ascended a little-known hiking path before finally finishing high above the town of Canmore. Here’s a GPS track of the course courtesy of Villeneuve HERE.

The daunting height of the course didn’t seem to bother Canada’s Babikov, who blew away most of the men’s field to finish 3rd over all, losing just 24 seconds to first place Joseph Gray and in a virtual tie with second place Taylor Murphy. That’s a considerable accomplishment for the two-time Olympian, considering the field was limited to the top 75 mountain runners in North America.

Babikov is always ready for a race, but when asked whether he had any expectations going into this one he said, “No, not really, I saw those guys and thought I’d try to stay with them as long as I can. The uphill helped, since they have such a nice running technique on the downhill that I don’t have, but I didn’t expect much.” Even so, he was still looking for a good finishing time.

“It’s what I like – to run uphill – it’s fun for me. And it was also good training. When they moved it to Canmore, Phil called me up and I went for it. It was really tough with so much elevation gain over such a short course. It gave me flashbacks of the last stage of the Tour de Ski – the final uphill time trial.” Despite the impressive result, Babikov says he won’t be contesting the Running World Championships in Kamnik, Slovenia, in September.

Long time ski racer, Canada’s Brooke Gosling also placed extremely well, finishing 5th overall and the 2nd best Canadian woman behind Maria Zambrano. She said she was feeling a little out-gunned at the start. “I should have gone with the Americans in the lead pack…but I didn’t know where my fitness was and started a bit too conservatively. I just didn’t have the confidence to go with them and I definitely didn’t want to blow up in the first 1km! Tough course…so tough! The US women are incredible!”

The latter portion of her race went very well though, well enough to pull in some of the leaders and secure herself a spot at the World Champs where she’s very confident about her prospects. “I’m looking forward to training a bit harder and then going with them from the start at the worlds!”

Biathlete Scott Perras finished in 12th while Villeneuve placed 17th.

Results (brief0

Men

1. Joseph Gray (Lakewood) 31:31
2. Taylor Murphy (Napanee) 31:55
3. Ivan Babikov (Canmore) 31:55
4. Adrian Lambert (Edmonton) 33:02
5. Brandon Lord (Hixson) 33:08

Women

1. Brandy Erholtz (Bailey) 37:43
2. Megan Lund (Basalt) 38:05
3. Maria Zambrano (Quito/Calgary) 38:59
4. Christine Lundy (Sausalito) 40:18
5. Brooke Gosling (Canmore) 41:45