More on the Vancouver International Marathon - A Directors View

A good friend, running partner and one of the Directors for the Vancouver International Marathon, Paul Adams, answers questions about the 2007 Vancouver International Marathon (VIM).

Q. Paul, I know that you have been involved with certifying the VIM course in past years, but now that you are one of the directors, what does race day look like to you?

A. Even though I never actually got to run the marathon, the work on Sunday putting on the marathon was a marathon effort in itself.  I was out on the course at 3:45 AM putting up signs and still at BC Place packing up at 6:00 PM. 

Q. Were the VIM participant numbers up or down this year?

A. The race was very successful even though our total numbers were down about 12%.  I think we were affected by the passport issue and the strong Canadian dollar for runners coming from the US.  our Canadian numbers were also down, but I think that was the usual ebb and flow.

Q. Who were the favorite contenders for this year’s marathon?

A. We’ve had some very fast runners from Ethiopia (a couple of them had run 2:11 last year - 2006), but unfortunately they didn’t get their visa application in on time and weren’t allowed into the country.  Our male winner was Thomas Omvenga 2:25:27.  But the awesome performance was 1st place woman, Claudia Camargo with a course record time of 2:35:50 - she was 3rd overall.

Q.  Was there any new about the 2007 VIM?

A. This year we added a marathon relay and although we didn’t advertise it until late in the year we had 64 teams compete.

Thanks so much Paul for taking the time to answer my questions.  I’m noticing that the female and male winning times are getting closer and closer.  I’ve been in the VIM 3 times now and just love it.  It is well organized, support is fabulous and the views are awesome. Being a local I could be slightly biased, but I wouldn’t choose to live anywhere else. Am I up for a 4th VIM next year?