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The Royal Victoria Marathon (RVM) sold out earlier this week, three months before runners toe the line on Canadian Thanksgiving weekend on Sunday, October 13.
Race director Cathy Noel is pleased with the increased interest in the flagship marathon run. It has already bettered the global trend of 20 per cent growth.
“We are thrilled that we have been able to accommodate more athletes this year and have already sold out the 2700 spots for the marathon,” shared Noel. “That is a 30 per cent increase over 2023. There is now a waitlist so there is still a chance to get in. The other three races have some availability.”
The races
The RVM includes the marathon, half-marathon, and 8K on Sunday morning. On Saturday, there is a 5K race staged near the halfway point of the marathon route in neighbouring Oak Bay.
The course records are 2:13:42 by Lamech Mokono from 2013 and 2:37:56 by Lucy Njeri from 2011, both are Kenyan athletes.
Last year’s winners were Aidan Anderson from Courtenay, BC in 2:29:06 and Lydia Tay in 2:49:49 from Burnaby, BC.
The half marathon course records are 1:11:49 and 1:01:18 for the women and men, respectively.
Records
Natasha Wodak of North Vancouver took the women’s record in 2018. She is a two-time Olympian and Canadian marathon record holder at 2:23:12. Cameron Levins bettered three-time Olympian Jon Brown’s course record of 1:02:32 last year clocking in at 1:01:18. Levins is the Canadian and North American record holder in the marathon with his 2023 Tokyo run of 2:05:36. Levins lives in Portland, OR, however, grew up on Vancouver Island in Black Creek.
The 8K course is fast. In 2019, Justin Kent of Surrey, BC took Gary Barber’s course record. The record was run in 1989 in the time of 23:23. Barber won the inaugural race in 1986 and repeated as champion in ’88, ’89 and 1993. He is a former international athlete for Great Britain and Canada. In 2021, Scottish runner Sarah Inglis took the women’s record. She clocked a personal best of 25:35 which is just off Wodak’s 25:28 national best known time. Wodak ran the national best in nearby Central Saanich at the Harriers Pioneer 8K race.
Why Victoria?
The Royal Victoria Marathon is the provincial championships and offers a World Athletics-certified and AIMS-accredited course. For those wanting to qualify for other marathons like Boston or Chicago, Victoria is well organized to feel like a serious race, but not the mass size you will find in the six Marathon Majors events. Victoria is a great qualifying-type race. The marathon course provides a similar net gain and loss to the Boston Marathon.
New York City Marathon winner from 1983, Rod Dixon, loves the Victoria race, “Look at this start and finish area, you have the beautiful buildings, the harbour with the yachts, the sun in filtered, just a stunning place.”
The half-marathon event is the Canadian Masters Association (CMA) national championships, as it was in 2023. Athletes who are members in good standing with their provincial athletics association or Athletics Canada, as well as CMA, may compete for the age-group championships and prize money.
The races start and end in the picturesque Victoria Inner Harbour between the stately Empress Hotel and provincial legislature buildings known as the Parliament Buildings.
