Evan Dunfee to walk Vancouver Marathon…and likely beat most runners

Watch out BMO Vancouver Marathon participants, you may have an Olympian stroll right past you on Sunday.

Evan Dunfee, the fourth-place finisher in the 2016 Olympic 50K race walk, will race 42.2K and has his eyes set on a sub-3:20 performance. As preparation for the Pan American Race Walking Cup, Dunfee will walk the marathon course at a pace that would be fast even by running standards, let alone walking.

RELATED: Olympic racewalker decides to run, wins half-marathon.

The 26-year-old local, now sponsored by New Balance, is the Canadian 50K race walk record holder, a mark he set in Rio (3:41:38). That translates to a 4:25 per kilometre pace for a distance well beyond the marathon. (If his splits were exactly even, hypothetically speaking, his marathon time for that distance would have been 3:07:02.)

Canadian Running caught up with Dunfee ahead of Sunday’s race and chatted with him about the dynamic of walking amongst runners as well as conquering the course’s hills. He will be one of the many thousands of runners who participate in the weekend festivities with race also offering half-marathon, 8K and kids run distances.