Skip to content

Couple capture Glory Days title

Fuelled by bananas and romance, North Coast power couple take to 10k title
web1_CrestGloryDays2017.SL-7
Judd Rowse and Max Erwin battle for first place in the men’s 10k, with Erwin capturing the title by the end of the race. Shannon Lough/The Northern View

Fuelled by romance and bananas, a running power couple captured the fastest 10k male and female title at the 32nd annual Crest Glory Days race.

The Rupert Runners organized event saw a rise in participants this year with the introduction of online registration. The route, which loops from the Crest Hotel, to Waterfront Park, through Cow Bay and up to Fourth Avenue East and back down to the hotel, saw 128 participants who came out in spite of the puddles and rain.

Two of those participants were Erin Mutrie, who ran the 10k in 49 minutes flat, and her partner, Max Erwin from Haida Gwaii, who crossed the finish line in 41:47 minutes. This was the first time Erwin competed in the race, and he was neck-in-neck with running legend Juddson Rowse, who won in the 50-plus age category with a time of 42:07 minutes.

“I had a really fun race with Judd,” Erwin said, who is known for fuelling his long-distance runs or bike rides with a minumum of five bananas a day.

Two days before the race, Erwin rode his bike from Masset to Skidegate to catch the ferry. The previous week, Mutrie and Erwin ran a half-marathon together in preparation for the Skeena River Relay on June 3.

“He was a motivating factor for me because I had a feeling he’d do well,” Mutrie said after she shaved 2:58 minutes off her winning time at last year’s Glory Days race.

In the 5k race, Lum Nguyen took first in the male division with 21:30 and Emma Payne won in the female division with 23:01.

For the second year in a row, organizers Jamie Komadina and Crystal Sawatzky pulled off a successful race event, complete with donations from businesses in the community for door prizes.

“It really went well. The online registration was a game changer,” Komadina said, noting that for the second year straight the runners competed in soggy weather.

“People were awesome and didn’t care about the weather because they’re warriors,” she added.

For the final results for all runners click here.

web1_CrestGloryDays2017.SL-55
Power couple Max Erwin and Erin Mutrie take top finishes in the 10k in the 32nd Crest Glory Days race. Shannon Lough/The Northern View