(Victoria, BC – October 10, 2010) Cloudy, damp conditions greeted 14,078 participants in today’s 31st Annual GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon – a record for the event.

As the morning progressed clouds gave way to windy, but sunny conditions for many finishers. The 8K Road Race had a record number of participants with 3,184 runners; the sold-out half Marathon had 6,800 registrants followed by 3,221 marathon participants. The Thrifty Foods Kids run & Marathon had 875 kids in the 1.2 km run. A new world age-group record was set in the Women’s Marathon, as well as a BC age-group record in the Men’s Marathon.

The men’s marathon saw a new winner – Kenyan Philip Samoei – in a time of 2:23:24. James Lander, who was predicted to win, came second in 2:23:57, and Benard Onsare came third in 2:26:50. Lander, who recently moved to Victoria from the U.S. wasn’t disappointed. “I was pleased overall, but it was the windiest race I have ever run,” he said. The somewhat windy conditions had an effect on the women’s race as well – which was a much anticipated battle between Lucy Smith, Cheryl Murphy and Suzanne Evans. Murphy was leading at the half way stage but dropped out, fatigued after completing Ironman Canada in August. This left the field open for Catrin Jones to win in 2:52:21. The Nanaimo native, who surprised the finish line crowd with her victory, had a clear 90 second lead over second place finisher, and three-time Marathon winner, Suzanne Evans from New Westminster, BC in 2:53:53. Third was Victoria runner Lucy Smith in 2:55:30.

The Masters category was won by Kevin O’Connor, from Vancouver (2:31:09). he placed fourth in the Marathon and was also the top Canadian and winner of the BC Marathon Championship. Lucy Smith also won the Women’s Masters category. Jones was the top female Canadian but as she now lives in Switzerland, the honours for the BC Women’s Marathon Championship went to Evans.

In the half Marathon, top seeded Jim Finlayson won in 1:07:56, with the 2009 8K champion Matt Clout coming in second at 1:08:02. Third was Steven Crane from Rainier, WA in 1:08:16. Calgary’s Lisa Harvey won the women’s race in 1:18:37, second was Mary Akor in 1:18:48 and third was Gillian Cook in 1:19:11. Harvey also won the Women’s Masters and Neil Holm from Courtney, BC was the Men’s Masters winner in 1:13:50.

The top three seeds in the 8K Road Race were true to form, although third seed Peter Corrigan won in 24:30, Kevin Friesen was second in 25 minutes even, and Dylan Gant was third in 25:04. Victoria triathlete Kirsten Sweetland won the women’s race in 27:39 – the fastest time in three years – second was Natasha Wodak in 27:55 and Care Wakely was third in 29:32. The Men’s Masters division was won by Kevin McGinnis in 27:24 – a title he also won in 2009 – and Karyn Mitchell took the Women’s title in 33:39.

The GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon saw a world record shattered with Gwen McFarlan winning the F75-79 category in 4:02:27, 47 minutes faster than the previous record for a 76-year old. Herb Phillips also set a BC record in the M70-74 category in a time of 3:06:08, beating the previous record of 3:29:01.

The event saw the highest number of finishers in the half Marathon and the 8K Road Race – 5,696 and 2,678 respectively. The Marathon saw 2,558 finishers and with the Thrifty Foods Kids run & Marathon the total number of finishers was 11,807 – another record for the event and an increase of over 13% on 2009.

The 32nd Annual GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon will take place on October 9th, 2011.

For full results from the 31st GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon go to: raceheadquarters.com