The weather conditions were perfect and the scenery breathtaking for the three Nicola Valley runners who took on the BMO Vancouver Half Marathon on May 3.

Merritt’s Mark Nendick, Colleen Mullin and Stacey Krajci were all successful finishers of the challenging 21-kilometre event that attracted a total of 7,850 participants.

Competing in the men’s 35-39 age group, Nendick finished the half-marathon distance in one hour, 30 minutes and 24 seconds — good for 177th place overall, and 29th in his category.

It was Nendick’s second BMO Vancouver Half Marathon. Last year, he completed the event in 1:29:47.

“This year’s race went well,” Nendick said. “I was a little bit excited at the beginning and took off a bit fast. I paid for it later on, and had to grind out the last part of the race.”

Nendick went through the halfway point (10.5 km) in a blistering 42:49, suitable for a 1:25 half-marathon finish. His second half time was 47:35.

“I did the first mile in 6:06, when I should have been running at 6:40 pace,” Nendick said with a laugh. “I learned a bit of a lesson.”

Scheduled to run with Nendick was his regular training partner and fellow Merrittonian, Kevin Black. Unfortu-nately, Black was sidelined a month ago by a nasty foot injury incurred on a trail run the two were doing as part of their build-up for the BMO half.

“It was definitely more challenging to keep at it without Kevin,” Nendick said. “Six days a week is tough. But it is what is. No excuses.”

When Black returns to full health, the twosome are considering trying to qualify for the prestigious 2016 or 2017 Boston Marathon.

“We’ve floated the idea around quite a bit,” Nendick said. “It’s a pretty big commitment. We’ve got to talk it over with our families.”

In the meantime, Nendick is definitely planning to take part in this year’s Merritt Country Run. The winner of last’s year’s 10K event, Nendick is looking to bump up to the half-marathon distance this time around.

“I’ll try to run my game plan from the BMO in Vancouver,” he said.

Training partners Mullin and Krajci are also planning to do the MCR in June following their recent success in Vancouver.

Competing in the women’s 35-39 age category, Mullin finished 776th overall and 31st in her division in a time of one hour and 44 minutes.

“It was a good race,” she said. “There was a lot of great energy with the crowds.”

Mullin has been doing half-marathons for more than 10 years, and only now feels like she knows her pace.

“Three years ago, I broke my watch in a race and had no idea of my pace. It was complete panic. Since then, I’ve been doing a lot of runs without a watch and learning to feel my pace and trust myself. It takes a long time.”

Kracji, who didn’t take up running until she hit the age of 40, finished the Vancouver run in 2:32:52. She was quite pleased with her effort, given that she’d never done a spring race before.

“This is the earliest I’ve ever begun training,” she said. “I didn’t put much pressure on myself for time. I just wanted to go out there and enjoy things.”

Mullin, Krajci and good friend Lisa Cavaliere from Merritt all have their sights set on the Whistler Half Marathon on June 6. The setting for that race is at about the same altitude as Merritt, and the course is quite flat.

“It’ll be our first time there,” said Krajci.