“Nearing the end, you start getting hungry and you’re fantasizing about the snacks.” – Kyra Ives, winner of the 2019 Summit Run female half marathon
Participants of the Prince Albert Summit Run crossed the finish line on Saturday holding hands and cheering.
The 15th annual run consisted of two-kilometre, five-kilometre, 10-kilometre and half marathon races.
Director Lisa Evans said there were 482 registrants, who got massages, yoga, food, drinks and medals at the finish line.
They also had face painting and balloon animals for kids, many of whom were excited to be competing in the two-kilometre race until they got tired and their parents had to carry them.
You couldn’t tell if best friends Kyra Ives and Sehjal Bhargava were exhausted after finishing—and winning—their races.
Even though Ives has ran in several half marathon races before, this is her first time winning. She completed it in about an hour and a half.
Ives said her mindset changes throughout the race.
“My mind’s kind of blank for the first three quarters of it,” she explained. “I always start out like I’m just going to do this for fun, no pressure. And then I kind of get into it and get a little competitive and then the last 5K is just like ‘Is it over? When will it end?’”
“Nearing the end, you start getting hungry and you’re fantasizing about the snacks,” she said.
This is the first time Ives and Bhargava have taken on the Summit Run together.
Ives is from Prince Albert and Bhargava is from Saskatoon. The two competed in U of S cross country for their entire undergraduate degrees in kinesiology.
“We just can’t escape it,” said Ives about running. “We just do road races whenever we get a chance to.”
The pair just finished their first years as medicine students at the U of S.
“It’s not about the winning. I just love to come out and have a good time and be in the community again. It’s such a sense of home and belonging to be part of the running community,” said Bhargava, who won the female five-kilometre race.
Evans said she’s been a runner herself for many years.
“When I moved to Prince Albert in 2002, I got approached as to whether I would be able to start a race here and I thought it would be a fantastic thing to offer Prince Albert and it’s just grown over the years to the race that it is today,” she said.
Evans said they donated all of the proceeds from this year’s Summit Run to the Rose Garden Hospice: “It seemed like a great cause for the community and a great way to give back.”
She said the Summit Run has collectively raised $100,000 for the community since it started.
My camera and I survived a very rainy 15th annual #summitrunpa. Race Director Lisa Evans said there were 482 registrants.🏃🏻♀️💦 #Sask #SK #news pic.twitter.com/Usu7s7WC7h
— Jayda Noyes (@jaynoyesSK) June 15, 2019
