With Victoria Day looming, and hopefully even spring weather, the Thanksgiving weekend and fall is the last thing on most people鈥檚 minds.
But it is top of mind for Cathy Noel.
The general manager of the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon kicked off the countdown to the 38th annual event Oct. 8 with a news conference Thursday.
鈥淲e held our first organizing committee meeting Wednesday, with 150 days to go, and now there are 149,鈥� she said, about how quickly time goes when organizing an event of this scale.
鈥淢uch like the runners, we basically work all-year round on this.鈥�
Noel has just finished a busy few weeks as the Liberal candidate in the Langford-Juan de Fuca riding. She finished runner-up to NDP leader John Horgan in Tuesday鈥檚 provincial election. On Thursday, Noel unveiled a series of initiatives, both old and new, for the 2017 marathon.
The Victoria race will again be a Boston Marathon qualifier, which has been a long-standing designation for the event. This year, the Victoria race has also been designated an official sa国际传媒 150 event. It means a travelling road show celebrating sa国际传媒鈥檚 sesquicentennial will be integrated into the festivities.
鈥淚t is an interactive display, celebrating sa国际传媒 and fitness, and will really add to the festival,鈥� said Noel.
The 11 charities for the 2017 GoodLife Fitness Marathon were also announced. The race has raised $1.7 million for charity since 2006, said Noel.
The reverberations go well beyond that.
鈥淥ur last economic study, in 2010, showed an $8-million annual impact on Greater Victoria because of the marathon weekend,鈥� said Noel.
The race annually winds its way through Oak Bay.
鈥淲e may replace tweed for Spandex as our cloth of choice,鈥� quipped mayor Nils Jensen, whose municipality also has the Oak Bay Half-Marathon on May 28.
This vertical integration in Greater Victoria, from producing Olympians to just plain duffers slogging the streets, has become a big part of the region鈥檚 sporting motif.
鈥淸These events] contribute on so many different levels,鈥� said Jensen.
The 28th annual sa国际传媒 10K was held April 30 with more than 8,600 pounding the pavement.
A total of 1,759 people have already registered for the 2017 GoodLife Fitness Victoria marathon, half-marathon and 8K races. The event has been capped at 9,200 spots, Noel announced, with the start times for both the marathon and half-marathon changed to a joint 8 a.m.
The elite runners will be chasing the course records held by Kenyans Lamech Mokono for the men鈥檚 marathon (2:13:42 set in 2013) and Lucy Njeri for the women鈥檚 marathon (2:37:56 from 2011). The half-marathon standard of 1:02:32 from 2002 is held by Jon Brown, fourth in the Olympic marathon at both Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, and the women鈥檚 record of 1:14:06 from 2012 is held by Olympian Natasha Wodak-Fraser. The male and female 8K records were set by Gary Barber and Ulla Hanson, both Canadian internationals and Commonwealth Games veterans, and are respectively 23:23 from 1989 and 26:24 from 1991.
