Vancouver Half & Marathon Postlude

A small VFAC group (no, I won’t go into why, will I John!!) took part in the BMO Vancouver Half Marathon & Marathon on another rainy Sunday. But good things come in small packages as 3 women were in the top 10 amongst 3682! female finishers in the 1/2, and (OK, not exactly small) Chris Downie finally cracked the 3 hour barrier in the full marathon. Rita Ivanauskas continued her money streak finishing second only to Suzanne Evans’ 1:18:28, with an very good 1:25:15 on the tough course, pocketing $500US. She picked up a further $100US in winning the W40-44, while Katherine Moore had a 3 minute PB at 1:26:52 to finish 5th overall and 1st, also for $100US, in the W25-29. Laura De Munain ran a 1:29:13 to finish 10th overall. Chris Drozda was 12th overall and 2nd M35-39 with a good 1:17:40. New member Gord Ahrens ran 1:28:46, while Rhys Howard at 1:35:44 and Kim Jow at 1:36:35 ran seasonal bests. The full was won in a there-for-the-taking 2:25:23 by Kenyan Thomas Omwenga, while Argentinian Claudia Camargo evened things out with a female record of 2:35:46. Chris D. broke 3 in style knocking off almost 10 minutes with a 2:51:10, good for 25th overall and 4th M35-39 amongst the ~3100 finishers. With a little more prudence in the early pace and an absense of pitstops, we’re going to see more PB’s from this guy! New member Patrick Gill ran 3:04:17, while Lilian Wong ran 3:51:34.