There were new winners, old winners and Canadian winners at the2023 North Olympic Discovery Marathon.
Along the way, there was also pain and tears of joy as runners pushed themselves to their limits and maybe a bit beyond.
Runners had near-perfect sunny conditions with a bit of headwind in the final stretch in this year’s edition of the marathon, the 21st year of the event, held June4. The Sequim Gazette, Peninsula Daily News and Olympic Medical Center are all title sponsors.
Sunday’s races included the full marathon that began in Blyn at 7 Cedars Resort and finished at the Port Angeles City Pier, a half marathon that began at the Agnew soccer fields and the team relay marathon. On Saturday, organizers held the 5k, 10k and kids marathon.
Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Runners break from the starting line of the full North Olympic Discovery Marathon in Blyn on June 4.
The winner of the marathon was 33-year-old Derek Binnersley, of Victoria, B.C., running in his first marathon. He crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 48 minutes, 47.51 seconds.
“I’m pretty exhausted,” Binnersley said. “I’ve been training quite a bit for the past six months for this.”
“It was a beautiful course. Pretty flat. There was a little bit of a headwind, but other than that, it was perfect. The wind really picked up along the waterfront.”
Victoria runners dominated the marathon, taking three of the top five positions.
Michael Thelander of Portland, Ore., was second in a time of 2:54:04.85, and last year’s marathon winner, John Mauro of Port Townsend, was third at 2:54:48.19.
The winner of the women’s marathon pushed herself so hard she got sick at the finish line. Sara King of Shoreline finished in a time of 3:12:17.49, which was the seventh-fastest time among all runners and 17 minutes ahead of the second-fastest female runner.
Sara King of Seattle grabs an early lead in the North Olympic Discovery Marathon on June 4. King won the women’s division of the full marathon and was seventh overall, finishing in 3 hours, 12 minutes, 16 seconds.
It was just her second marathon. She had previously run the Seattle Marathon.
“It was a lot hillier than I thought. I’ve never thrown up before, after a race,” King said. “I was slower than I was in Seattle actually. It was a lot harder than I anticipated.”
Second among women was Laura Ferreira (3:29:08.55) of Victoria, B.C., and third was Emily Granger (3:29:33.08), also of Victoria.
The winner of the half marathon was a familiar name in local racing circles: Keith Laverty of Bainbridge Island.
Laverty, who has previously won the NODM full marathon and 10k, crushed the rest of the field, winning in 1:13:01 — a pace of about 5:36 minutes per mile — nearly 10 minutes ahead of second place.
He said the race conditions were great except for an “intense headwind the last two miles.” By then, he had built a huge lead over the rest of the pack.
Photo by Jay Cline / Keith Northington, 84, of Sequim, races in the North Olympic Discovery Marathon on June 4. Northington finished in 7:18:02. The oldest runner in this year’s race, Northington cruised to a win in his age class (men 80-89).
“I ran solo wire to wire. I don’t take anything for granted when it comes to races. You never know who’s going to be in it,” Laverty said.
He added he likes coming out to the NODM because he has a partner who is from Sequim.
The half marathon winner, Heidi Roberts of Selah, was in tears at the finish line when she saw a long-lost brother waiting for her.
“It was emotional,” she said. “I hadn’t seen my brother in years. I didn’t realize he was even alive.”
Roberts had run some marathons before, but this was her first half-marathon victory.
“It’s beautiful. I love that course,” she said. “The volunteers are all awesome. I highly recommend it.”
Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Tom St. Amand of Port Angeles grins as he makes his way up a hill at Whitefeather Way during the June 4 North Olympic Discovery Marathon.
Roberts’ goal was to run a half-marathon under 1 hour, 30 minutes, which she said she hadn’t done in a few years. She crossed the finish line in 1:29.
The winner of the team relay was a local team of college men and women, most of whom attended Port Angeles High School.
The team of IGS (“I’ve Got Speed”) won with a time of 2:56:24.02, winning by a whopping 45 minutes. They consist of Kynzie DeLeon (Warner Pacific), Langdon Larson (Port Angeles High School), Lauren Larson (Boise State), all of Port Angeles, and Campbell Faust and Sophia Hachett, both of Portland State.
Lauren Larson won the NODM women’s 10k Saturday (and was third overall) while Langdon was second in the men’s 10k.
10k, 5k recaps
Though runners young and old tackled the Olympic Discovery trail for Saturday’s North Olympic Discovery Marathon 5k and 10k races, it was youngsters that led the way.
Two high school students, a recent high school graduate and college runner all won the men and women’s 5k and 10k.
Runners from age 5 to 85, including a few babies in carriages, ran the 5k and 10k. Runners came from as far away from Florida.
There were both local winners and a winner from the Midwest. There had been strong winds all week long, which can be difficult for runners, especially on the parts of the trail along the Olympic waterfront. But the winds died down Saturday and runners all reported near-perfect conditions. The 5k and 10k races featured a showdown between the Lemrick family of Anacortes and the Larson family of Port Angeles.
The winner of the men’s 10K was Kaeden Peterson, a recent graduate of Kingston High School. He was hoping for a sub-35 minute time and just cracked it at 34 minutes, 52 seconds.
“I was feeling really good. When I was doing warm-ups, I wasn’t feeling so good. So I really surprised myself,” he said.
The 10k women’s winner was a familiar name in local racing circles, Lauren Larson, who won the race last year. Larson was a runner for the Roughriders and now runs cross-country for Boise State University.
Larson finished in a time of 36:51 beating the second-place women’s runner by more than a minute. She was third overall among all runners. Her brother Langdon, a runner for Port Angeles High School, was second in the 10k at 35:50.34 and her sister Leia, also a Roughriders’ runner, was third among women and 10th overall in the 5k with a time of 21:09.
“It was probably one my better 10ks,” Lauren Larson said. “It was a beautiful day. No wind. There were lots of people on the course cheering us on.”
“I would have liked to have gotten a PR (personal record), but it’s still good. I had a good time,” said Leia.
Leyton Larson, 12, finished eighth overall in the 5k and sixth among males with a time of 20:51.99.
Kolin Keltner, 16, is a junior at Kickapoo High School in Springfield, Mo., won the men’s 5k.
“It was tougher than I thought at the start, [but] the wind was very gentle,” he said.
Casey Lemrick, 17, came from across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to compete in her first non-school race. The Anacortes High School student was the women’s 5k winner and had the fourth-fastest overall time of 19:39. She is part of an extremely strong Anacortes girls cross-country team that finished second in the state last fall.
Lemrick said she was aiming for a sub-20 time and got in at 19:38.
“This is my first time doing a race like this, so here we are,” she said. She is also part of a running family as family members Chad Lemrick finished third in the 5k (19:27) and Lucy Lemrick, 15, was the second-fastest 5k female (and sixth overall) at 20:03.
In all, the Larsons picked up a first-, a second-, a third- and a sixth-place finish. The Lemricks collected a first, a second and a third. Mother Jeanne Larson was 12th among the women in the 5k.
There were 186 finishers in the 10k and 317 finishers in the 5k for 403 total runners.
Series continues
NODM is the third in the five-event Run the Peninsula race series.
Remaining events include the Larry Scott Trail 5k/10k/half-marathon set for Saturday, Oct. 14 in Port Townsend, and the Jamestown S’Klallam 5k/10k slated for Saturday, Dec. 3, on the Jamestwon S’Klallam Tribe’s campus in Blyn.
For more information or to sign up, go to runthepeninsula.com.
Members of the Sequim Wolfpack youth football team hand out water to North Olympic Discovery Marathon runners at an aid station off Whitefeather Way on June 4.
Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Runners break from the starting line of the full North Olympic Discovery Marathon in Blyn on June 4.
Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Seth Bailey of Spring, Texas, and other runners break from the starting line of the full North Olympic Discovery Marathon in Blyn on June 4.
Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Sara King of Shoreline hits the outskirts of Sequim early in the North Olympic Discovery Marathon on June 4. King won the women’s division of the full marathon and was seventh overall, finishing in 3 hours, 12 minutes, 16 seconds. Just behind King is Derek Binnersley of Victoria, B.C., who went on to win the marathon in 2:48:46.
Sequim’s Sarah Castell is all smiles as she’s greeted by friends and family near an aid station during the North Olympic Discovery Marathon.
Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Van Onishi, of Seattle, and other runners break from the starting line of the full North Olympic Discovery Marathon in Blyn on June 4.
Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Skye Jensen of Port Angeles and other runners in the North Olympic Discovery Marathon reach the outskirts of Sequim on June 4.
Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Michael Thelander of Portland, Ore., holds a lead about four miles in to the North Olympic Discovery Marathon on June 4. Thelander finished second overall in 2:54:04.
Sequim Gazette photos by Michael Dashiell Tom Wahl of Port Angeles and other runners in the North Olympic Discovery Marathon reach the outskirts of Sequim on June 4.
