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North Vancouver racer tackles World Mountain Running Championships

Teenager Austin Sutherland carries the flag for Team Canada
Austin Sutherland
North Vancouver’s Austin Sutherland grinds his way through a tough course at the World Mountain Running Championships last month in Snowdonia, Wales. The Grade 11 student at Collingwood School was one of the youngest racers in the junior division. photo supplied

One of the highlights of North Vancouver mountain runner Austin Sutherland's young career came when he bested his fellow elite competitors in a contest of skill, will and mental domination.

Or maybe it was just luck.

Sutherland, a 16-year-old Grade 11 student, had the honour of carrying the flag for Team Canada during the opening ceremonies for the World Mountain Running Championships held Sept. 12-20 in Snowdonia, Wales. A Canadian tradition at the championships is for one of the junior racers to carry the flag - there's also a senior division - and Sutherland emerged as the chosen one after beating his fellow juniors in an intense game of rock-paper-scissors.

"I'd like to say I'm an expert," Sutherland said about his rock- paper-scissors prowess, "but really I just got lucky."

Sutherland may have won the flag in a game of chance, but everything else that led up to it was earned through countless hours spent chugging up and careening down steep mountain trails. A runner since childhood, Sutherland segued onto the mountain scene after joining the track and field team at Collingwood School a couple of years ago. He also runs track and cross country for the Hershey Harriers club, but his true love may be in the mountains. Mountain running is similar to cross country and trail running with the obvious addition that a mountain must always be involved. Courses, which can include trails and roads, usually feature steep uphill and downhill sections.

"I tried a race and I liked it," said Sutherland. "So I tried another and tried another and found that I was good at it, and really sort of loved the trail running community."

It helped that Sutherland lives in a place where it's easy to fall in love with the mountains.

"It's mountain running heaven," he said of the North Shore. "You have the three main peaks right in your backyard, it's easy to go for a trail run on the weekend. I'm so lucky to live in North Van." It's a sport that takes runners through some beautiful natural settings, but it is definitely not a walk in the park. Running uphill on a steep mountain trail is a fairly simple yet potentially soul destroying proposition. "It's just fitness," said Sutherland. "Naturally your body will sort of adapt to the uphill. It's just through practice that I found uphill running form. Really I just sort of look at my feet and go one foot in front of the other and just try to get up the mountain somehow." Sutherland admits that he's 'hit the wall' during mountain races, though thankfully never in a major competition.

"Everything slows down," he said about the dreaded wall. "My legs feel like they're super heavy and I can't move them quick enough. My breathing feels like every breath is laboured." While uphill is always a grind, the trickier part, according to Sutherland, is going downhill. It's a matter of letting your feet go to reach top speed without going too fast for the terrain.

"It's kind of hard because if you let your feet go too much you'll face plant, and if you brake too much you'll lose spots," said Sutherland. "It's just finding the perfect medium."

There are other hazards out there as well.

"Last year I almost ran into a deer," said Sutherland with a laugh. "I turned the corner and it was right there. Luckily it was faster than I was and sprinted off."

Sutherland is happy it was a deer and not something a little more dangerous. "No bears or cougars. Those are my biggest fears."

Sutherland's young career crested July 18 at the national championships held right here on the North Shore at Cypress Mountain. Competing in the U19 division, Sutherland needed a top-3 placing to earn a berth in the world championships. He finished second. "I had suffered so much throughout the race and just had my eye on that goal of qualifying," Sutherland said. "It was amazing when I crossed the line and sort of realized that I'd qualified. It wasn't until a couple of days later that I fully realized the full force of what I did." Two months later he was carrying the Canada flag, shoulder to shoulder with the best mountain runners in the world.

"It wasn't until I sort of lined up with all the other flag bearers that I sort of realized how many people and how many different nations were competing in the championships," he said. "That was pretty cool. I was standing beside Italy and Belgium - it was interesting that despite speaking all different languages, we still enjoyed the same thing."

There'd be no podium for Sutherland at the worlds - he finished 57 out of 63 - but he was proud to again be the second-place Canadian finisher. Racers needed to be at least 16 years of age to enter, and Sutherland, just two months past his 16th birthday, was one of the youngest racers in the field.

"I worked my heart out," he said. "It was a tough race, both up and down. Everybody was just so fast."

Up next will be the high school cross country running season with the zone championships scheduled for Oct. 28 at Loutet Park and the provincial championships running Nov. 7 at Vancouver Jericho Beach Park.

After that Sutherland is hoping there will be many more opportunities to compete for his country. With his first world championships already under his belt as well as a recent exchange trip to train in Australia, Sutherland's career has really picked up speed over the last couple of months.

"It's just the start right now," he said. "It was a bit of an eye-opener going to these national competitions.... I definitely want to continue with it and continue competing at a pretty high level."