Sarah Inglis three peats and improves own course record

Mathew Travaglini and Leanne Klassen won the Royal Victoria Marathon half-marathon, while Reid Muller and Sarah Inglis took the 8K event on Sunday.

Inglis, a Langley-based school teacher, represents Scotland when she competes internationally. Not only did she set a new course record for the second year in a row, but she also ran within seven seconds of the all-time Canadian best of 25:28 set in 2013 by Vancouver’s Natasha Wodak. Inglis clocked a 25:35.

More interestingly yet, she has suffered a few niggles and injuries during the summer, yet ran that performance after a short block of good training. She finished seventh overall.

Sara Inglis of Langley winning the 2021 Royal Victoria 8K. Photo credit: Billie Design Co.


“[I had] no real expectations coming to race,” shared Inglis. “Just really raced to see where I am at. It was a summer of injuries and over the past five weeks finally got in a big block of base training. Lots of hills, tempo runs, and trail runs which makes it hard to gauge specific fitness. So, I surprised myself with race time actually.”

She ran a positive split effort, going 12:45 during the first 4K, then clocked a 12:50 coming back into a headwind.

“It was a bit windy and the course was rolling.”

“I was in no man’s land most of the race until the last 2K where I caught Ron (Loewen) and another guy. Then was able to race the last mile with them. Over that last mile was one of quickest of the race so it was good to finish strong.”

It was three in a row. Her previous course record was 25:35.

The top master was Victoria’s Andrea Minter (34:19). An age group record was also set in the W70-74 by Gwyneth Woodson (39:26).

Next up for Inglis is the Toronto Scotiabank Waterfront 10K as part of the weekend marathon event, which boasts a very strong field upfront. She will be running in the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in China in March 2022.

Athletics Canada West Hub athlete, 1500m specialist Mariah Kelly finished in second place in the time of 27:05. Finishing third was Rebecca Basset, who was a surprise top finisher after battling injuries for a few years.

The men’s race

Reid Muller finished in the time of 24:00 for the win. He was followed in by Kevin Friesen and Theo Hunt who finished in the time of 24:10 and 24:21, respectively. The two split halfway together.

Travaglini, from Calgary, won in 66:44. He was closely followed in by Coquitlam’s Brendan Wong in 66:53. The third-place finisher was Logan Roots from Courtenay clocking 70-minutes on the nose.

The top master was Jeff Vogt from Kelowna (1:14:24).

This was Travaglini’s first time running the RVM Half Marathon. He came to the race confident having won the Calgary Half Marathon last month in the time of 69:04. “This course was gorgeous and one of the best I have raced,” he said. “There was a headwind particularly between 17 and 21 kilometres which made it interesting.”

There was one age group record: Rory Switzer in the M60-64 (1:22:13).

Klassen – also from Calgary – was a favourite to win and she didn’t disappoint hitting the tape in 1:17:15. Second – and top master – was fellow Calgarian Maria Zambrano in 1:18:16 and third was local athlete Chloe Hegland finishing in 1:18:40. Klassen hadn’t done a lot of running during the pandemic, training on her own and running mainly virtual time trials. “Not having done any racing for 20 months it is so cool to win,” she said. “This was my first time running here and it was a beautiful course but challenging with the headwind. There were so many on the course cheering us on it felt great.”

There were three female age group records: Zambrano set an age group record in the W50-54, Jillian Fong in the W55-59 (1:22:03) and Roslyn Smith in the W70-74 (1:46:25).

For full results go to: https://www.runvictoriamarathon.com/results


The Half Marathon had 2,715 registrants and the 8K 1,704 for a total of 4,419.