Great city - very charming, very friendly. Good restaurants. I probably ate more than I should have. The weather really cooperated for 2008; it was gorgeous. Course was good. I like the out-and-back because we had so many of our Eastside Runners friends there and you could pass them coming the other way. Highly recommended.

I ran the Victoria Marathon last year and set a PB. I am returning again this year because of the scenery, organization and fan support.

Although, it down-poured near the end, nothing beats running down Dallas Road, with the breathtaking ocean views. If you love old character, this course provides it too.

Living in Edmonton, the hills were really quite mild, gentle and rolling to keep the muscles fresh. The first couple of miles I found the hardest for hills, just long and gradual.

The fan support was great and the guy who ran back into his house to get me a shot of gin for my return on the out-and-back... you rocked!

There are enough participants to make it feel like a race instead of a training run, but such is the case in Edmonton.

I look forward to running it again in 9 days, and I hope to make it marathon number 14, a personal best.

This course definitely provides the opportunity!

This lived up to the hype of a "must-do" marathon. The coastline is spectacular and the course flat, with some gentle hills. I found the gels without a problem, although a sign "gels ahead" might have helped. The shirt was a tech long-sleeve with zip that will be a regular in my winter rotation. As far as hospitality, it seems that everyone I met around town wanted to make sure that I enjoyed my stay in Victoria. It's a great eating town. Special kudos to the marathon staff - extremely responsive to questions and concerns. Second half rain gave me the shivers, but no one promised that it would be easy.

This was my third marathon in last two years! It was a nice course - mostly flat, great scenery. The weather sucked - rained for over half of race. Racer and spectator friendly!
Nice finisher medal. After-race food was nothing to right home about! Great announcer - Steve King - 1 of a kind for sure

Small and well organized. The first half was sunny, and the second was very wet. All the fans that were there deserve 5 stars, yet, there are very few of them... The route is beautiful along the coast with the only drawback being that you end up running the same way you came from. (that is really ok when you run along the coast, but not through the city)
Pre-race and post-race conditions are very confortable since Victoria is a small city and everything is within walking distance from the start/finish line.
They offerred the possibility for an early start if you run in 5 hours or more... that sounds great, but it has its problems since there is no traffic control for the first hour or so, and no water stations either.
The post-race goodies were really nice, so was the medal and specially the official shirts.
We recommend this race highly if you don't mind runnning in a little rain, specially because canadians are great hosts.

I really enjoyed this marathon! I have done five marathons and am always looking for a beautiful location. I'm not a huge fan of out-and-back courses but this one was pretty and flat and I was surprised how much I enjoyed this course even though almost all of it was in a constant, light rain.

The website is well done and everything about the organization of the race and race weekend events were well planned and well carried out. As mentioned previously, some of the aid stations were a little close together. I did not see the gels at mile 8 as promised, but not a big deal for me.

Something that made a big difference for me and needs to be mentioned is the early start time for the slower racers. I had finished four marathons at about five hours, so this info is for others like me. The start time for the marathon was 8:30 but if you take longer than five hours to finish, then your start time was 6:30. Not a huge problem, but something to note. At 6:30 a.m. it is dark still, and for about 3-4 blocks we actually ran on the sidewalks. I stood at two intersections waiting for traffic, which was mildly frustrating and kept me from a PR. Now for the plus side to the early start. There was a lot less congestion for me from start to finish and the aid stations were ready and well maintained. I enjoyed for the first-time running at the head of the pack. Of course the winners ran past us but it did not intrude on my race. The spectators were supportive and numerous considering the size of the race.

I can recommend this race for slower runners because of the unique early start - you will not be asked to move to the side of the road late in your race.

If you feel that running on a few sidewalks in the first or second mile and waiting for traffic will detract from the race, then this marathon is not for you. The bonus of being a slow runner and being treated to the front of the pack is something that will probably bring me back to this marathon. This is a very enjoyable, flat (but I trained on hills so maybe it just seemed that way to me) and pretty race that I will be recommending for years to my running friends. Well done!

I really enjoyed the 2006 marathon. I was impressed when the race organizer, Mr. Rob Reid, shook my hand and congratulated me by name. It felt very personal. I was also really impressed with the Dri-Fit technical shirts. A huge improvement over last year's hideous sweatshirts. I have had lots of compliments on the shirt. I was grateful for all the water stations, although I was confused at their placement. Sometimes they seemed very far apart and at other places they were too close together. I have run this marathon for three years now and really enjoy it. The whole city seems alive with marathoners, half-marathoners and 8K runners during this weekend. Unfortunately the weather turned damp for the race and that reduced the number of fans out on the course. In past years there have been many more fans. I also really like the results format and can proudly say I earned the little green tick this year as a Boston Qualifier. Keep up the great work, RVM!

I've run RVM 4 times, and everyone who complained about the sweatshirt was right - last year's was SPECTACULARLY ugly. But this year, they had great-looking, long-sleeved New Balance technical shirts, in sizes that actually worked for women. This has always been a beautiful course and a terrific group of organizers and volunteers; this year's shirt proves to me that they also listen, and are always trying to make a great race even better. Highly recommended.

This was my first marathon. I thought it was well organized. The weather was bad, drizzling rain for the majority of the race, so I'm afraid this deterred more spectators from coming out. The course was nice and I personally liked the out-and-back. The expo wasn't anything to get too excited about, not a lot of vendors but that was O.K. (I didn't run for the expo!) I would suggest the race to anyone looking for a scenic run with not too many people. The volunteers were great too!

The RVM is an excellent marathon for either first-timers or those who've done many and want to find something different. The only 'knock' on it is the out and back course layout; however, it's a lovely course, so seeing it twice doesn't hurt that much! The volunteers are *superb* and lots of people come out - particularly in the lovely town of Oak Bay. I've run this race 5x since 1996 and am already making plans for a 6th time in October 2006. Victoria and Vancouver Island are beautiful and it's well worth spending a week or so in Victoria and on the island. Vancouver and Seattle are also close, as are the many lovely smaller islands.