Royal Victoria Half-Marathon Report

My adventure to the island over the weekend went well; I even managed to cap it off with a new pb with a gun time of 1:28:35! The weather was beautiful and the ocean side view on the run course was just fantastic.

A new PB finish!

The weekend started smoothly, Vincent Lavallee and I met up at Bridgeport station and were able to catch all of our transfers on time to Victoria, despite the fire incident on one of the ferry on Friday. There were also long line-ups spilling onto our ferry, since the noon ferry was taken out of service. Once the line kept moving, it wasn’t so bad and everybody got on.

Vincent and I checked into the International Hostel in Victoria which was just within 1-2 km from the race site. It was my first stay at a hostel, and I must admit, there’s not much privacy sharing a room full of complete strangers. One of my roommates, Michael who was doing the full marathon, offered ear plugs to everybody, which was considerate of him. I also have to thank him for waking me up at 5:30am in the morning because my watch alarm just too minuscule of a beep.

Race morning was breezy and dark. Temperature didn’t rise until the sun came out just after 7am. My calf-high Sugoi R/R compression socks were great calf-warmers and jel holders I’ve learned. People were complimenting my extra cargo space.

7:30am the gun went. I started 3 seconds behind the elites. Vincent had said earlier that he would attempt doing a blistering 37min for the first 10km, so I figured my best bet was not to keep pace with him. He was within sighting distance for the first three kilometres. Between us was a guy dressed in black spandex jammers and long socks with a neon-yellow cape that ran to his knees. This guy attracted quite the scene.

My heart rate started beeping at about the 2km marker when it peaked at 191 bpm. At about 3km that’s when I backed off my pace a little bit and lost sighting distance of the Vincent and superman pace group.

I was running rock steady with the group behind. At the turn around at 12km, I managed to see Vincent doing well going in the other direction and knew he was about 2 minutes ahead of me.
At about the 14km, Melanie Van Soeren, who was also doing the half, was looking very strong giving me a solid high-five as we passed each other.

Along the way at about 16km, a random guy yells, “great job super asian guy!” with lots of enthusiasm, which I thought was quite amusing.

The final three kilometres were a grind, and I managed to reel in a few more runners that I’ve been tail-gating for most of the race. For the final kilometre, I was surrounded by some more-or-less older dudes so I just moderately increased my pace hovering just above the 4 min/km pace to ensure I finished strong without the need for a final kick.

Final race thoughts.

It was a huge confidence booster doing this half; perhaps I can shoot for sub 1:28 in the Fall Classic. Congrats to all the UBCTC members for their impressive times. Vincent for his impressive pb time of sub 1:24 (by more than 6 minutes) and Melanie for her pb time of 1:44:48 (by 12 minutes 50 seconds). I also want to congratulate Ceilidh Curtis for his full marathon.

My average pacing (min/km)
1km 3:44
2km 4:09
3km 4:13
4km 3:57
5km 4:07
6km 4:17
7km 4:11
8km 4:02
9km 4:18
10km 4:01
11km 4:17
12km 4:11
13km 4:19
14km 4:08
15km 4:12
16km 4:18
17km 4:30
18km 4:11
19km 4:04
20km 4:04
21.1km 4:04

The complete results: overall, age group.