Record Books

Event Records

Event Record Holders

Labelled as Canada’s Fastest Half, the First Half saw five runners break old course records at its most recent event in February.

Natasha Wodak led the pack in 2022 in 1:11:32. The Olympian and three-time First Half champion continued her win streak by setting the Canadian Marathon record in 2:23:12 in September of the same year, breaking a mark formerly held by fellow Olympian and BC local Malindi Elmore.

Elmore finished second at the First Half in 2022 and also enjoyed success later in the year by winning the Canadian Marathon Championships with Athletics Canada alongside Trevor Hofbauer, another 2022 First Half Podium Finisher.

1:03:25 is the overall event record set by two-time Olympian Lucas Bruchet in 2022.

With a clocking of 1:04:18 in 2020, Caleb De Jong broke the event record that was formerly set by Dylan Wykes in 2012. De Jong finished 50 seconds faster than his first attempt at a Half Marathon that had him on the podium of the 2019 BMO Vancouver Marathon. Dylan Wykes ran a 1:04:21 First Half in 2012, the same year he represented Team Canada in the Marathon distance at the Olympic Games.

Rachel Cliff formally held the female event record set at 1:12:21 in 2018. Just a few weeks later, Cliff would actually build on her impressive First Half to clock a 1:10:08 to break the Canadian Half Marathon record. 2012 and 2014 First Half champion, Natasha Wodak would go on to run even faster that year, becoming the first Canadian woman to run under 1:10:00 in the Half Marathon distance, setting a new national record at the time of 1:09:40.

In the First Half’s inaugural year of 1989 there were fast times posted by females, however, history shows that’s partly because the course actually ran shorter in distance and therefore, their times were not certified. Isabelle Dittberner was the event’s first female winner posting a time of 1:10:45 in 1989, following her win at the 1988 Vancouver Marathon. The First Half continues to build to Vancouver’s only Marathon.

Past Champions

Past Champions

Note: the 1989 course was approximately 800m short