It was a numbing experience for Ben Weir in Prince George last weekend.
The 17-year-old student from Glenlyon Norfolk school in Victoria lost his left shoe at the start of the boys six-kilometre race at the B.C. high school cross-country championship Saturday at D.P. Todd secondary, but it didn't stop him from capturing the silver medal.
"It was not even 200 metres into the race, I wasn't giving up at that point," said Weir. "It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be because, I don't know, with the snow my foot went numb pretty quickly and I couldn't feel it. It was a little hard getting a grip but that's life, you just have to push through sometimes."
With temperatures hovering around zero, Weir pushed through the three-lap course in 22 minutes, 35 seconds (22:35) with only his right shoe to try and grip the slushy, sometimes rocky, terrain. Tim Delcourt of Surrey's Kwantlen Park school (22:20) was the gold medalist in his final cross-country race at the high school level.
"The course was pretty good because the snow was kind of soft and the ground was kind of wet so it wasn't too bad, except the downhill was all rocky - that was a little bit of a challenge," said Weir.
Weir, hopping around on his right foot minutes after the race in the recovery room trying to bring feeling back into his left foot, toppled his fifth-place finish from 2011.
Weir's friend and training partner Liam Kennell placed third in 22:41 and gained new respect for Weir's perseverance.
"He's probably the toughest person I've ever met and he just pushes, so I'm not surprised," said Kennell.
Only 16, Kennell's third-place finish helped Oak Bay take first place in the boys' team competition. The bronze medalist moved up six places from finishing ninth in his Grade 10 season.
"I've never pushed that hard before," said Kennell. "It's a very difficult course. It was a good race, hard, there was a pocket of 10 immediately off the start with the top guys."
Weir's and Kennell's training partner at the University of Victoria track club, Thomas Getty, placed sixth in 23:32.
The top northern runner to complete the course was Alexander Nemethy of Nechako Valley secondary (NVSS) in Vanderhoof, placing 14th in 23:47. The 15-year-old said he was happy with his time.
"I did a really good job racing," said Nemethy. "It was really tough, especially at the start where you have to pass people to get into positioning but once I got to where I wanted to go I just ran my race."
The 14th place finish is the third best finish for any boy from the north central zone behind Geoff Martinson's second-place finish for Prince George secondary in 2001 and Ross Wiens of NVSS who was 10th in 2003.
Nemethy said he planned to start training Monday (today) to move into the top 10 next year.
Austin Bartell of Prince George secondary finished 73rd (25:54), Zachary Matyas of Duchess Park was 79th (25:59) and Isaac Goodrich of College Heights was 94th (26:24).
