Vancouver Half-Marathon Race Preview

This Sunday’s Scotiabank Vancouver Half-Marathon will feature an exciting showdown between three top Canadian women: Krista Duchene, Lanni Marchant and Natasha Wodak.

Krista Duchene

Defending champion Krista Duchene, a registered dietitian from Brantford, Ont., won last year’s race in 1:14:03. Earlier this year, she took first place at the Banque Scotia 21k de Montreal half-marathon in 1:12:27. This will be a key test of fitness for Duchene as she plans to represent Canada in the marathon at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow this August.

Lanni Marchant

Duchene’s friendly rival Lanni Marchant, a lawyer originally from Ontario who now lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, returned from injury with a very strong start to 2013. She ran a 1:12:17 PB half-marathon in Nashville on March 9, then won the Toronto Yonge Street 10K, and edged out Duchene by just 6 seconds for a 6^th-place finish at the Ottawa 10K. Marchant will also be heading to the world championships.

Natasha Wodak

Canadian Running’s July cover girl Natasha Wodak of Port Moody, B.C. will be a strong challenger to take down Duchene and Marchant, She’s run an incredible 25:28 8K, took the Vancouver Sun Run 10K title this year in 32:42, and placed 24^th at this year’s world cross-country championships in Poland. Wodak is running the 10,000m at the nationals tonight in Moncton, so we’ll see if she has enough gas left in the tank for Sunday’s race.

The Men

The men’s competition will see 11^th-place Boston Marathon finisher Rob Watson take on Lethbridge, Alta.’s Kip Kangogo, who won the Vancouver half in 2009, 2010 and 2011 (Reid Coolsaet narrowly beat him last year) and Kenya’s Paul Kimugul. Watson announced on Wednesday that he had changed his mind and decided to run this year’s world championships marathon after all, so this will be a good platform to show off his speed-endurance.