According to seasoned marathoners and race finishers, Run the Rock on Texada Island is one of the toughest road marathons in North America. The 42-kilometre marathon, half-marathon and eight-kilometre runs will be held August 20. The main event starts at 7 am.
“Take your best marathon time and add an hour,” said Lucia Capretti, quoting what the last race director said about the race.
Capretti has taken on the challenge as Run the Rocks’ new race director, citing that she “wanted to run the eight kilometre, but no one was really organizing the event yet.”
So she volunteered to take the lead.
“The marathon itself is quite a lot of uphill,” said Capretti. “The loop starts at Shelter Point Regional Park, then onto the High Road [middle of the island], some of it being gravel, to Van Anda and back around.”
Capretti emphasized that it’s not a trail run but also not a city marathon by any means.
The half-marathon begins in Van Anda; runners will be on a paved road, running to Shelter Point Regional Park, and the eight-kilometre race starts at Texada Island Airport and continues along a paved road, ending in the same place as the marathon and half-marathon.
This will be the 10th year for the race, which has drawn participants from Vancouver Island, the qathet region, and even Europe. This year Capretti expects most runners will be local or from qathet and Comox.
The event is volunteer-run and organizers will be providing a shuttle from the ferry terminal at Blubber Bay and back. Since the full marathon starts so early, runners will either have to camp or find accommodation on the island.
“I’m pretty excited about reigniting local interest in the race,” said Capretti. “The eight kilometre is reasonable for most runners but the 42-kilometre marathon, with one-third being uphill, is for more seasoned runners who have ‘tried it all’ and want to push themselves to do something harder.”
For more information, go to http://www.runtexada.ca/
