The 2019 VIRA Island Race Series Comox Valley RV Half Marathon will be taking place on March 24th (tomorrow!!). It’s the sixth event of the series and is also the longest.
This year’s Comox Valley RV Half Marathon is special because it’s the 25th anniversary of the event.
The Comox Valley RV Half Marathon is a beautiful, rural out and back course with stunning views of Mt. Washington, Forbidden Pleateau and Tsolum and Puntledge Rivers.
Runners of all levels are always welcome.
Early start is available for those who plan to take longer than 2.5 hours to complete the race. If you are doing the early start, your start time is 10:00am.
If you have never ran an official half marathon before, but have been training to do longer runs, then you should definitely do this.
If you can’t make it this year, then you should start making plans for next year’s Comox Valley RV Half Marathon.
This race is perfect for first-time half marathoners who are looking for a non-intimidating environment as well a seasoned runners who are shooting for a personal best.
I’ve always enjoyed this race (with the exception of 2016, where I probably would have been better off not starting due to illness and injury).
If I remember correctly, I’ve run this race four times now. Each time was a completely different experience for me.
When I did this race in 2015, I ran my half marathon personal best, which is 1:28:15. That day, I remember the stars aligned in my favor and magic happened at the finish line. I will never forget it. It was the only time I broke 1:30 and it was, in part, because of the course.
That day, when I crossed the finish line, I felt true joy in my heart like I haven’t in a long time.This joy came from being able to see the rewards of my extremely hard work that I’ve been putting into running.
In 2014, I also had a decent result on this course. My time was 1:31:34, which I still consider to be a good time.
In 2016, after a series of unfortunate events plagued my life, I ran it in 1:46. It was the only time where I felt that I should have sat out and cheered for my friends who were running it because I was sick, injured and exhausted from over-working and never recovering before the race. The course was, and still is, equally as great, but I just didn’t perform.
Then, I didn’t run in 2017 because I could not do the distance at all, unfortunately. I was very sad to miss it in 2017 but I knew that I would return one day and post a better time than 1:46. I was working hard to regain my health and was therefore optimistic that I would return to that start line.
In 2018, I went there with no expectations. To my pleasant surprise, I ran a 1:35:xx to become the 14th female to cross the finish line placing 2nd in my age group. Although it was still substantially slower than my personal best, I was happy with the result considering that I wasn’t sure I would be able to break 2 hours.
Me running last year’s Comox Valley RV Half Marathon. Photo by Ken & Lois DeEll.
The day I break 1:25 in a half marathon will be a great day. I don’t expect for it to happen tomorrow, but hopefully, I get closer to 1:30 and beat my last year’s time. Even if I beat my last year’s time by 1 minute, I will be incredibly grateful. I won’t be wearing my watch, so I won’t know how I will do until I get to the finish.
What the course is like and how to run it:
From what I remember, there are no significant elevation gains in this race.
Additionally, I don’t recall there being any super challenging nor overwhelming hill climbs. I remember that there is a hill after the turnaround point.
There are also a few small rolling hills but nothing terrible.
As we can see from the course map below, this course is not too turny, which I like.
Comox Valley RV Half Marathon Course Map.
Leading up to the turnaround, there is a very small elevation gain and primarily some rolling hills.
Chris Kelsall of Victoria Sports News, a fellow Lydiard coach, confirmed with me that this is a race where it’s OK to run the first 6k slightly faster than your goal pace. Then, as we start to approach the turnaround point, we should back off a bit on the rolling hills.
Therefore, we should run a little bit slower between kms 6-11.
Once you get past the turnaround point and have less than 10k left in the race, you can speed up as much as you can and give it all you got.
Once you get past the hill that’s after the turnaround point, it turns into a gradual net downhill course.
Every time I’ve reached the turnaround point, with the exception of the 2016 race (where I walked at least 5k after the turnaround), I felt great.
A few things to keep in mind:
Just because it’s OK to start this race a bit faster, doesn’t mean that you should start too fast. The key thing to remember is that “fast” or “slow” is relative to your past results, training and current fitness level.
Also, it’s important to pay attention to what is going on on the roads around you. While the race organizers take everyone’s safety seriously, it’s important that also you do your part in keeping yourself safe.
There will be aid stations at 4km, 9km, 13km and 18 Km markers. At each station, you will find water, Orange E-load Energy drink and porta potties. Additionally, you will find Honey Stinger gels at 9 km. You should keep yourself well-hydrated.
I look forward to seeing you there!! If you haven’t registered yet, you can still do so between 9:00am and 10:15am on race day.