Kip Kangogo has won other races Victoria — he is a three-time champion of the Times Colonist 10K — but this was his first marathon win in the city.
Kip Kangogo proved Sunday he can still go go.
The 47-year-old veteran runner won the 46th Royal Victoria Marathon in two hours, 24 minutes and 28 seconds to finally break down the door that had been closed to him in previous close calls, including two second-place finishes.
“This is so sweet after so many times here knocking on the door,” said the 2025 runner-up.
It’s not that the native of Kenya, a Canadian citizen who resides in Lethbridge, Alta., hasn’t won races before in Victoria: He is the three-time champion of the Times Colonist 10K, in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
But the Royal Victoria Marathon title had eluded him until Sunday. He came close in 2013 when he ran a sub 2:15 marathon only to be beaten by Lamech Mokono’s still-standing Royal Victoria course record of 2:13:42. His favourite line: “I tell people I contributed to the record by pushing the pace.”
This time he not only pushed the pace but pushed down the finish-line banner.
“I’ve won the 10K in Victoria but I’ve always wanted to win the marathon here and now I have in this running community that is so welcoming to me and my family,” said the father of four, who also was third in the Royal Victoria half-marathon in 2023.
“There is no running community like the one in Victoria.”
Kangogo then quipped: “I am well liked here and maybe can run for mayor.”
Well, this is the month for that.
“I have been consistent and proved today I can run with the younger guys,” added Kangogo.
“The course was good and the weather brilliant. And to do it with my kids and family here made it even more special. My family keeps me going.”
Michael Zahara of Calgary was second in 2:28:30 and Alex Bowns of Maple Valley, Washington, third in 2:32:15 along the Dallas Road and Beach Drive waterfront course.
Fawn Whiting of Duncan, 40, was the first woman across the line in 2:48:48.
“This is so exciting and I am so thrilled,” said Whiting. “It was the perfect day in a great running community. It was so much fun.”
Fawn ran with her triplet brother, Dan Whiting, for 36 kilometres before pulling ahead. Both wore T-shirts emblazoned with the phrase: “Sibling Rivalry.” It followed their run together last year in the Toronto Marathon.
“I thought I had her this time but she’s amazing,” said Dan Whiting.
Both siblings qualified for the Boston Marathon, for which the Royal Victoria is an official qualifier, and they will be racing together in that storied marathon next April.
They dedicated their Royal Victoria Marathon run Sunday to their late triplet brother, Kevin, who died in an avalanche.
Fawn Whiting has also raced 10 Ironman triathlons — including Hawaii twice in Kona and others from New Zealand to Whistler and Penticton — so a morning marathon in the B.C. capital might be considered light work for her.
“Having done Ironmans, a marathon doesn’t feel that hard,” said Whiting, the mother of three, whose children are two-, four- and six-years-old.
The race Sunday was like old home week for Whiting on her home Island: “I’m a physiotherapist, so I knew many of the people out there on the course.”
Charlotte McNair of Banff was the second woman across in the marathon in 2:49:27 and Tessa Ladner of Calgary third in 2:52:02.
The Canadian women’s marathon record-holder and two-time Olympian Natasha Wodak, who was 13th in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic marathon, won the female Royal Victoria half-marathon title Sunday in 1:14:32. It was her fourth championship in the event, coming after half-marathon victories in 2018 (in a still-record 1:11:45), 2012 and 2011.
“I am grateful to still be out here and to win again,” said the 44-year-old.
“The course was fairly hard and undulating but it was beautiful along the waterfront — this is like my second home — and the weather was perfect. I could do this forever,” she said.
“In a world of craziness, we are all out here as a community doing the one thing we can all agree on, regardless of political views. This is just about running. There’s plenty of time afterward to turn the phone back on and see all that other stuff again.”
Brandon Vail, the former University of Victoria Vikes star runner, won the Royal Victoria men’s half-marathon in 1:05:39, Matthew Travaglini of Calgary the men’s 8K in 23:48 and Chloe Hegland of North Saanich the women’s 8k in 27:39.
The day was a full-circle moment for Tom Howard, the Olympian who won the first two Royal Victoria marathons in 1980 and 1981. Howard, 78, hugged his 19-year-old granddaughter, Annika Strom, after she crossed the finish line Sunday to complete the Royal Victoria half-marathon.
“I’ve got a great-granddaughter on the way and hopefully I’ll be here to see her run in the Royal Victoria, too,” said the elder Howard, who raced in the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games and also won a Pan Am Games bronze medal.
A record 17,596 participants from Olympians to duffers — more than 2,000 over the previous standard set last year — took part in the 46th Royal Victoria Marathon races over the weekend.
The breakdown was 4,927 in the marathon, 7,389 in the Outway Half-Marathon, 3,396 in the Westland Insurance 8K on Sunday, while Saturday’s Island Savings 5K featured 1,124 participants through Oak Bay and the Thrifty Foods Kids Run exactly 700 enthusiastic younger runners.
“It just keeps getting bigger and better,” said Royal Victoria Marathon general-manager and race-director Cathy Noel, noting that 10,000 of the participants were from off-Island.
“We got emails from people who couldn’t find anywhere to stay because the city was fully booked for the RVM races,” Noel said.
“From the recreational level to the elites and Olympians, it’s a village. The social aspect is so much a part of this weekend as people get out of their virtual workplaces and everyone can be a part of this, no matter their age or ability.”
That was the sort of spirit exemplified Sunday by blind runner James Kwinecki of Victoria, who has also run the Boston Marathon, and who completed the Victoria course in 3:13:58.
Evan Dunfee of Richmond walked the marathon course Sunday in 3:24:59, faster than many of the people who ran it. But then this is a guy who won the bronze medal in the 50K racewalk of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and was fourth in the 2016 Rio Olympics, not to mention gold and bronze medallist racewalker in the 2019 and 2025 world track and field championships, and gold and bronze medallist in the Commonwealth Games. So don’t feel bad if you’re a runner and Dunfee passed you while walking.
The Royal Victoria’s qualifying connection to Boston is well acknowledged. But the Island race has also taken a page from another Big Six marathon, replicating the London Marathon’s notable charity component. The Royal Victoria Marathon CHEK Charity Pledge program has raised $2.7-million since 2005 for 87 Island causes. This year’s program raised $180,000 for 25 charities.