Evan Dunfee crushes first walk since London at Victoria Marathon

According to Olympic race walker Evan Dunfee, his competitive side came out over the weekend at the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon.  

The Rio Olympian from Vancouver race walked the course finishing in 3:23:30. That’s a lot faster than the 3:30 he says he was going for. Dunfee tweeted about his performance shortly after noting that he managed to complete the course nearly seven minutes faster than his aim. It was his first walk back since London. 

RELATED: Olympian Reid Coolsaet races Victoria Half as part of comeback from injury

“This is a beautiful course. The hills break up the monotony but I am sure they can be a struggle if you are having a bad day,” he said. 

He says he got through the weekend’s race mostly unscathed and is looking for ward to showing up in Toronto for the city’s fall marathon in two weeks time. Following that, he will be going to Australia in January to prepare for the Commonwealth Games. “Doing road races has increased the respect and awareness of race walking, which is good for the sport,” said Dunfee.

All smiles today at the @newbalancevictoria #victoriamarathon. Had intended to walk a 3:30 but my competitive natu… https://t.co/ymHxCbo9t3 pic.twitter.com/4Twk6RT4qU

— Evan Dunfee (@EvanDunfee) October 8, 2017

Daniel Kipkoech was the overall winner in the men’s race, making it four in a row on Sunday at the 38th annual event. Kipkoech, who trains in Lethbridge, ran a blistering race from the start passing through the halfway mark in 1:07, a full kilometre ahead of second seed Kip Kangogo. “Starting with the half marathon helped me set a fast pace and I ran the race alone,” he said. He finished in 2:21:04, five minutes ahead of Kangogo.

The women’s race mirrored the men’s with Lissa Zimmer from Vancouver finishing 10 minutes ahead of Andrea Lee, also from Vancouver. Zimmer finished in 2:48:33 and Lee in 2:58:23. Margreet Dietz from Squamish was third in 3:03:47. She was also top master. The marathon hosted the B.C. Marathon Championships this year. 

In the half-marathon, Sarah Inglis won the women’s race setting a course record in the 25-29 category. Her time was 1:14:20. Meg Lewis-Schneider and Catherine Watkins, both from Vancouver, were second and third (1:16:43 and 1:17:03). Both also set age category course records.

Geoff Martinson won the men’s half-marathon in 1:04:28. Second was Julian Florez in 1:06:00. Olympian Reid Coolsaet chose this course to make his comeback after struggling with injury. He placed third running 1:07:28.

A total of 7,956 runners took part in race weekend this year.For full results from the 38th Annual GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon, see here. 

With files from a Victoria Marathon press release.