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Logan Roots ranks among army’s fastest

Logan Roots may be an officer cadet at the Royal Military College, but he’s a four star general in a five-k race.
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Logan Roots may be an officer cadet at the Royal Military College, but he’s a four star general in a five-k race.

The 23-year-old Whitehorse native took a second place finish at the Canada Army Run on Sept. 18 in downtown Ottawa.

“I loved the race. I haven’t spent much time in Ottawa so it was very neat racing in a city that is unknown to me,” said roots in an email to the News. “The course is beautiful and flat and the weather was perfect. I haven’t raced since May and I forgot how much I enjoy it.”

Roots placed second in the five-kilometre event out of over 14,000 runners, walkers, wheelchair athletes, military personnel and injured soldiers. More than 23,000 people took part in the ninth annual event that also included a half-marathon, raising over $400,000 for charities that benefit army families.

Roots crossed the finish line in 15 minutes and 27.3 seconds, just a half second behind the winner, Ottawa’s Alex Berhe. Roots was also the highest finishing member of the Royal Military College (RMC) in Kingston, Ont., where he is a first-year officer cadet.

Pretty good considering he went almost two months without running while at basic training in July and August.

“My personal best is 14:59 from 2.5 years ago but I was training a lot more specifically for running. I didn’t expect to run in the 15-minute range last Sunday considering the type of training I’ve done over the past 10 weeks. I’m motivated by how close I was, that I can get back to the sub-15 minutes form soon,” said Roots.

“When I arrived at RMC on Aug. 26th I started doing a lot more boot camp style training: pushups, sit ups, etc., but not a lot of running. I joined the running team at RMC in mid September and that training has brought back some of the running fitness I used to have.”

In his running career Roots has excelled at sorts of distances. He is a three-time winner of the Yukon River Trail Marathon. He placed third for his age group at last year’s Canadian Half Marathon Championships. In 2013 he became the first-ever Yukoner to reach an A final in athletics at the Canada Summer Games, which he did in the 1,500-metre.

He was also the first person to log a sub-16-minute time on Athletics Yukon’s certified five-kilometre course last year at the Yukon Five-Kilometre Road Race Championships.

He plans to compete at the Canadian Cross Country Championships, this year being held in Kingston, if he’s not too busy at the RMC.

“It’s a busy lifestyle but an awesome experience,” he added.

Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com