Mikky Keetels sets a Vancouver Marathon record of 2:33:02 as 25,000 run the city
The Dutch runner took 85 seconds off the event record on 3 May; Kosuke Fujiwara won the men's race in 2:22:03 and Natasha Wodak set a half marathon mark.
More than 25,000 people ran the BMO Vancouver Marathon weekend on Sunday 3 May, the first Sunday of May as always, with more than 3,000 volunteers on the course. Two of the four event records went.
Mikky Keetels of the Netherlands won the women's marathon in 2:33:02, under the previous event record of 2:34:27. Canada's Dayna Pidhoresky was second in 2:33:27 and also inside the old mark. Madison Hibshman of the United States was third in 2:39:52. In the men's race Kosuke Fujiwara of Japan won in 2:22:03, thirty seconds ahead of Canada's Russell Pennock, 2:22:33, with Zachary Anderson of the United States third in 2:23:30.
The half marathon was quicker still. Natasha Wodak won in 1:12:01, breaking her own event record, from Danielle Jordan, 1:15:43, and Sammie Kidder, 1:16:19. Max Turek's 1:03:29 is the second-fastest time ever run on the half course; Santiago Gaitan Caballero, 1:04:39, and Thomas Broatch, 1:04:46, made it a Canadian sweep of the men's podium.
Runners raised more than $260,000 for charity through the race's RUN4HOPE programme this year, taking the total since it started past $17 million.
A city marathon with 25,000 people on the start line and a course record at the front is a healthy race. Vancouver is one of the ones that keeps growing.
Sources: BMO Vancouver Marathon; BMO Vancouver Marathon.
