A former Salmon Arm woman powered her way to the podium at the recent Squamish 50 race.
Sandra Kilmartin participated in her first 50-kilometre race on Aug. 16, where she ran to a 3rd-place finish for her age division and all women, and 28th overall out of 520 participants. With a time of 6:05:02, she was just minutes behind the 2nd place female runner at 6:00:15 and just under an hour behind 1st with 5:08:59.
Now a sports dietitian with No Sweat Nutrition, Kilmartin has been on track for this race since running cross country at Salmon Arm Secondary until she graduated in 2011, then eventually picked it back up in college with the UBCO Heat, and university with the UBC Thunderbirds.
Earlier this summer, Kilmartin sped to success at other events, including The Coaster Half Marathon (21.1km) on June 7 in Sechelt, where she was first in her category at just over 2 hours. On June 28, she ran in the Top of the World Ultra 28k at Sun Peaks, though results aren't yet available for that. In a social media post, she said that was her "longest training run at that point," that had her somewhat worried about the Squamish race 鈥� needlessly, given her 3rd place finish.
"A few more weeks into training now, I'm feeling much more positive about Squamish 50k but still somewhat terrified... " she said in a July 20 social media post. "I guess that's the whole point! I knew transitioning to trail running would be a big, scary challenge and I'm here for it."
