Record-breaking 25,000 runners race in BMO Vancouver Marathon

Organizers accidental a record-breaking fig of radical turned retired to tally successful the BMO Vancouver Marathon connected Sunday.

The race, present considered the largest marathon successful Canada, started successful 1972 with lone 32 finishers. Organizers estimated Sunday day that much than 25,000 radical from implicit 60 countries ran successful the marathon, fractional marathon and eight-kilometre and kids' races.

The lawsuit draws everyone from athletes to amateurs each year, each with their ain crushed for running, and galore with the extremity of fundraising for a cause. 

Running with family, to rise money

Cherie Ehlert and Drew Scollon ran the fractional marathon Sunday with 15-year-old Charlie-Anne Cox, who was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy astatine six months old. 

Cox has been portion of Canuck Place Children's Hospice, B.C.'s lone pediatric palliative attraction provider, since she was 9 months old. 

She wasn't expected to unrecorded past her archetypal birthday, but present astatine 15 years old, she's completed the marathon for the 5th time, and raised implicit $92,500 for Canuck Place — surpassing her extremity of $60,000.

Ehlert, Cox's mother, said the marathon represents hard enactment and is thing they tin bash to springiness backmost to a spot that gives truthful overmuch to them.

Over the past fewer years Cox's racing team, Charlie's Angels, has raised fractional a cardinal dollars.

"We conscionable privation radical to spot the carnal things that we're consenting to do, and the mode Charlie puts herself retired there," Ehlert said, adding that Cox kept telling them to "hurry, hurry, hurry" during the race.

"She's been the youngest marathon-goer for the past fewer years, her archetypal 1 was astatine 10. It conscionable means a batch to america to bash a carnal enactment arsenic a group."

Another runner, Katie Creel, said she was retired Sunday to honour her partner's parents, who person cancer. She ran the eight-kilometre contention alongside them, contempt herself having a recently dislocated shoulder.

"It was conscionable wonderful, they're strong, they're successful their 60s, and they're doing it," she said.

Increased security unrelated to festival tragedy, says VPD

Vancouver Police Department Insp. Jeff Neuman said Thursday that they would person 200 officers astatine the marathon to enactment alongside thousands of BMO contention volunteers.

He said the deployment was an summation from past year, but not arsenic a effect of a circumstantial menace to the event, oregon successful effect to the Lapu-Lapu Day festival tragedy.

One of the fractional marathon runners Sunday, Jusong Baek, said helium had friends who attended the Filipino assemblage festival last weekend.

"Thankfully, my friends were okay, but it was decidedly a increasing interest erstwhile it came to security," helium said. "When I was running, it was good, it was comparatively harmless and well-organized, but it was inactive a whiplash effect to spot this abrupt catastrophe hap retired of nowhere."

Baek said helium saw respective runners with Filipino flags connected their clothing.

"I was truly empowered to spot radical going done [with] it, contempt everything that's been going on."

CBC besides spoke to 2 different fractional marathon runners, Monica Wach and Amber Tulissi. It was Tulissi's archetypal clip moving a marathon, but some said they felt precise safe.

"Vancouver's done a truly bully occupation of making definite they've upped constabulary presence, and making definite that everyone does consciousness unafraid and safe," said Wach. "That incidental was precise isolated and I wasn't disquieted astir thing happening here."

Tulissi added "there was constabulary beingness everywhere, not astatine 1 clip did I consciousness unsafe — it was a large day."

Race results

The first-place marathon titles Sunday went to Dominic Arce at 2:14:33, successful the men's category, and Dayna Pidhoresky at 2:35:07, successful the women's category.

The fractional marathon champions were Andrew Davies, who finished in 1:04:10 successful the men's, and Melissa Paauwe, who completed successful 1:17:09 successful the women's.

Full contention results tin beryllium recovered connected the BMO Marathon webpage.