SPONSOR IN POORHOUSE  
AFTER RON FLINT WINS INAUGURAL TORONTO ULTRA

Ron Flint of Longboat Roadrunners made his debut in long distance racing by easily winning the inaugural Toronto 100K Ultramarathon on April 11 in 8 hours 57 minutes 32.25 seconds.

Flint, 34, with 17 marathons behind him including a personal best of 2:25 in 1976, was using the Toronto 100 as the starting point for preparation for the gruelling Western States Endurance Run upcoming June 27 in California.

His marathon split was 3:43; his winning time worked out to a pace of 8:36 a mile.  In the 1980 U.S. 100k rankings compiled by Nick Marshall, Flint's fine first effort would have ranked 41^st.

He was reeling off 120-mile weeks in training for the event.

Esmond Mah, 31, a relative newcomer to running, finished second in 10:49:24 following a marathon split of 4:16.  He had run one ultra before, a 50-miler in 7:49.

A duel for third place developed between Alan Woods and Georgs Kolesnikovs.  Woods, at 53 the oldest starter, had not been able to run for three weeks because of a torn calf muscle while Kolesnikovs, 38, the race director and sponsor, was in bed for much of the last two weeks with a bacteria infection.

Nevertheless, they hammered away at each other for most of the distance, with Kolesnikovs shuffling ahead to finish in 13:33:33 to Woods's 13:44:45.

The four finishers were all Torontonians running in their first 100k race.

Afterward, when runners, support crews and race officials consumed $303.60 worth of beer and other goodies, the race director and sponsor declared that enough was enough and set a limit of 100 on entries for the 1982 start.

The fifth starter was John Kendall of Burlington, Ont., one of Canada's most experienced ultramarathoners.  The 47 year old specialist in internal medicine is the only Canadian to ever finish the 100 mile Western States test and one of a handful of runners to have completed both the Western States and the Old Dominion Cross-Country Race in Virginia in under 24 hours.

Unfortunately, an old thigh injury started to act up after 30 km and Kendall dropped out at the 40 km mark.  All the more reason for him to return next year for another shot at what might well be Canada's only 100k bash.

Toronto 100k Ultramarathon
April 11, 1981

1.Ron Flint                8:57:32
2.Esmond Mah              10:49:24
3.Georgs Kolesnikovs      13:33:33
4.Alan Woods              13:44:45
  John Kendall            dnf

The course is one loop of 100 kilometers around Metro Toronto.  Half of it is on public roads, the other half on bicycle paths, hiking trails and a bit of beach.  There are a few hills and inclines here and there, and one bluff to climb.

The day started in a drizzle but then became mainly sunny with some light breezes.  Temperature was in the 10 to 20 Celsius range, unseasonably warm.