The Royal Victoria Marathon, one of Vancouver Island’s biggest running events of the year, was held on Thanksgiving weekend. Traditionally this event includes its namesake marathon, as well as a half marathon and 8k race. This year organizers decided to forgo the marathon event itself, but participation was strong in both the 8k and half marathon distances as road runners were very excited to return to in-person racing. Overall there were nearly 4,000 participants between these two events.
Among these numbers, the Comox Valley Road Runners (CVRR) were well represented with many outstanding performances. In the 8k, the top local finisher was Ben Katerberg, who finished in 25:41 to take eighth place overall and claim second in his category. Alex Kennedy finished in 35:10 to place fourth in his age group. K Argyle was second in her category, finishing in 38:52. Bonnie Bagdan was third in her age group with a time of 41:12, while Tobin Kerr claimed second in his category in a time of 42:22. And coming in just under an hour was Helen Flynn, who placed third in her age group.
In the half marathon, the top local finisher was Logan Roots who finished in a time of 1:10 to claim third place overall. CVRR coach Neil Holm had a great day, finishing in 1:20 to win his category. Close behind was CVRR president Rob Kelly, who clocked a 1:23 to claim second in his category. It looks like there are more great things to come from Kelly in the near future.
Brian Stewart and Keith Wakelin finished seconds apart in 1:29 to finish third and fourth in their category, respectively. Not far behind were Danny Keyes, Kristine Kelly and Wayne Crowe, who all finished within three seconds of each other in 1:30. Keyes claimed fifth in his category, while Kelly claimed second. Especially notable was Crowe, who won his age group and finished just one second off the age group course record.
“It was a tough course, and very windy on the way back,” Crowe said.
Roslyn Smith was in excellent form, as she finished in 1:46. Not only did Smith win her age group and set a course record, she also set the Canadian age group record for the half marathon. Outstanding!
There are far too many results to report in full, so go to racedaytiming.ca for full results.
For more information on the local running scene, go to cvrr.ca