This article was published on October 8th, 2012
Photo Credit: Jay Minter
It was unseasonably warm on Sunday, October 7, 2012, as over 11,000 participants took park in the annual Goodlife Victoria Marathon events in Victoria, BC. There were eight course records broke, including two in the full marathon, five in the half-marathon, and one in the 8km races.
Photo Credit: Jay Minter
Race Results:
Men’s Marathon
- Thomas Omwenga 2:20:41
- Gilbert Kiptoo 2:27:01
- Graeme Wilson 2:29:17
Women’s Marathon
- Hallie Janssen 2:47:03
- Nadyia Fry 2:47:36
- Catrin Jones 2:49:02
Men’s Half Marathon
- Rutto Kibet 1:04:27
- Geoff Martinson 1:05:39
- Willy Kimosop 1:06:01
Women’s Half Marathon
- Natasha Fraswer: 1:14:27
- Lucy Njeri 1:14:27
- Esther Kipserem 1:18: 23
Victoria lawyer, Adam Campbell, finished the marathon in 2:35:53, finishing in sixth place and setting a new Guinness World Record by running the full marathon in a business suit. Adam smashed the previous world record by an outstanding 49 minutes.
Other notable results included a 4:32:38 for Frank McKenna in the Marathon in the M80+ category, shattering the record he set in 2011 of 5:03:50. Betty Jean McHugh set a world record for 84-year-old female runners with a time of 2:23:26 in the Half Marathon.
There were 10,076 finishers in the event; 1,720 marathon, 4,755 half marathon and 2,501 8km. There was also a record of 1,100 kids in the Kids Run.
Full results are available at www.sportstats.ca.
The 34th Annual GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon will take place on October 13th, 2013.
Photo Credit: Jay Minter
Personal Race Results
While my personal best sits at 1h 39m 36s in the April 1, 2012 April Fool’s Run on the Sunshine Coast, the Victoria event is still a solid personal performance, especially after completing the Surrey Half Marathon the weekend prior and having taken the summer off training.
The Victoria Half Marathon is almost three minutes faster than the Surrey Half Marathon event the previous weekend – mostly in part because there were less hills on this course. The Victoria course was hillier than I has anticipated, however, the course was extremely well marked, and volunteers and course marshals were at every intersection. Despite the sunny weather, it was a cool start to the morning and there were not as many spectators as I had anticipated for such a major race. This race by far has the best finishers zone, stretching over one-block in length with distinct zones for medical, medal, space blankets, flowers, photo opps, hydration and nutrition stations – definitely sets the bench-mark for other races to achieve to. Overall, it’s a great course and I look forward to returning again.
- Gun Time: 1h 42m 24s
- Chip Time: 1h 42m 22s
- Pace: 4:52 minutes / km
- Overall Placement: 536/4,755
- Gender Placement: 408/2,069
- M30-34 Placement: 66/250
