A little bit of snow wasn’t going to ruin a good Sunday run for Derek Snider of Guelph.

He wasn’t even going to let three kilometres more than his usual training run bother him, either.

“We train in it year round, so it wasn’t that bad,” the Speed River Track and Field Club members aid after winning the 15-kilometre event in the annual Billy Taylor Road Races, finishing in 49 minutes, 46.0 seconds. “You just dress for the weather. I had to take my mitts off because I was running hard enough that I didn’t need my mitts any more.”

For the other runners, Snider disappeared into the flurries as he finished four minutes, 47.2 seconds ahead of runner-up Mark Linseman of Guelph. Matthew Ort made it a sweep of the top three for Guelphites as he was third in 55:16.9.

“I’ve never run anything more than 12K before,” he said. “I just went out and ran it, although every K I was going slower and slower and slower.”

The race was run on roads that Snider knows well, although he had never run that exact route before.

“We train out there every day – every Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” he said. “It was fun. I didn’t know that it went down Cooks Mill Road. I thought it went all the way out to Arkell, but when we turned left (onto Carter Road), I thought ‘Oh, this is pleasant, running along the gravel road that we train on through the winter.’ The roads around here in Guelph are amazing for running. That’s why we have so many high-class athletes.”