It’s Boston or bust for Blythe

conditions.

The physical toll started to kick in, however, on Monday morning, to temporarily dampen his enthusiasm.

“I’m definitely sore today, but my kids got me out of bed and took me to the park and got me moving around. Definitely, tomorrow will be the sorest day, then I’ll just try to keep my recovery going,” said Blythe.

there and run fast.

“It’s just kind of getting closer to the end of my running career, but it’s just kind of a crowning achievement to go to the most historic race in the world. It will be super fun,” said Blythe.

“My wife was on it immediately. That was part of the deal. I was hoping to qualify to go on a vacation together.” into Edmonton.

“I had lots of support from my teaching colleagues and from the runners in Lloydminster and family and friends,” he added.

Craig Blythe will be on a runner’s high until next year’s Boston Marathon.

The 36-year-old teacher at Winston Churchill School just finished the Edmonton Marathon on Sunday in a Boston qualifying time of 3:01:31 as a

35-39 age grouper. His wife, Laura, who is also a runner, was on hand to cheer him on and receive an honourable mention in his Facebook and Instagram postings.

“That should be enough to qualify for Boston! A painful adventure,” he wrote that Sunday.

“Thanks to my amazing wife for the support and the perfect nutrition/hydration plan. The Good Lord gave me wings today. For a brief moment, I felt like a sub 3 hour was possible!”

Blythe also set a personal best in the first half marathon of the race that took place under perfect

He and Laura are now scrambling to book a hotel in Boston for the 128th edition of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2024.

Registration for Boston opens on Sept. 11 at 8 a.m.

Blythe ran his first marathon in Edmonton in 2019 and was inspired to run it again by Lloydminster runner Mikey Dubz, who ran the 2023 Boston Marathon in 3:08:06.

He notes it was really cool to see Dubz go on his adventure down

Blythe ran several other races this year to prepare for Edmonton, believing he couldn’t have done it without encouragement from others in the Lloydminster Runners Club.

“I’ve been super happy with the support from the Lloydminster running fraternity with all the advice they’ve given me in training and up to race day,” he said.

Blythe says he put out a post on social media letting everyone know what his goal was going

Several other Lloydminster runners took partw in the marathon including Andrew Litt 3:29:08, Michael Davison 3:37:32, Cam Wheeler 3:59:13, Bonnie Christie 4:18:58, Garett Wyness 4:23:34, and Jay-Ar Maglalang, no time posted.

Seven local runners completed a half-marathon distance.

Blythe will join a slew of area individual and team runners who will compete in the Iron Horse Ultra in St. Paul on Sept. 30 and take on the individual 100-kilometre distance.

In June, he ran the 50 km Crazy Muley race on sand dunes near Edgerton to test his endurance.

TAYLOR WEAVER EDITOR

It was a big weekend for Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association (CPCA) driver Danny Ringuette as he won his first-ever Canadian championship.

Going into Sunday’s dash, Ringuette knew a penalty-free run was needed as he lined up against Logan Gorst, Luke Tournier and DJ King.

Tournier would be the first to cross the finish line at Halstead Downs on championship Sunday with a time of 1:15.63, but a 1-second penalty for the wagon starting ahead of the horn gave him a time of 1:16.63.

With the clean run he needed, Ringuette crossed the line at

1:16.24, claiming the Canadian title.

“Luke was strong all year, and I got lucky tonight,” said Ringuette on Sunday.

“It feels good, to be honest; I don’t really have words. This is what we all strive for, this is what we all want to do, win one of these, and I can’t take anything away from Luke because he ran a heck of a second half of the year.

“You gotta be good to be lucky and lucky to be good.”

Outriding for Ringuette were Tiegan Larouche and Tyler McKenzie, a pair he’s worked with for the majority of the season.

“Tyler McKenzie came back and I was his first call,” he said.

“He rode every run for me since the third show of this year. Tiegan’s rode for me most of the year, too, and he’s doing a heck of a job. They’re both allstars and they’ve been awesome.”

Ringuette also noted his horses did a heck of a job throughout the weekend.

“Tonight I had two first-year wheelers on, a first-year left leader, and an old right leader. They really ran their hearts out and I’m happy with my barn,” he said.

“The horses are the real athletes, the real stars in this. They deserve more recognition than me … I’m really happy they did it for me tonight, and all year.”

Ask any chuckwagon driver and they’ll tell you running clean is the key to success; Ringuette is no different.

“Consistency, consistency, consistency, that’s the name of the game,” he said.

“We had a couple of bad days here, but we had enough points to get into the dash, and like I keep on saying, we got lucky.”