Vancouver Half Marathon

Course & Elevation

The BMO Vancouver Half Marathon is a point-to-point road race held on the first Sunday of May as part of the BMO Vancouver Marathon weekend, with a marathon, an 8 km race and kids' runs on the same event. The half marathon starts at 7:00 am at Queen Elizabeth Park on Midlothian Avenue and finishes on West Pender Street between Bute and Thurlow Streets in downtown Vancouver. It runs on a separate course from the marathon. The organisers call it a fast, downhill course, and its route takes in Chinatown, Yaletown and the West End. Halfway at Jervis Street, runners continue on Beach Avenue, which becomes Stanley Park Drive, into Stanley Park to Second Beach, and then follow Stanley Park Drive around Brockton Point. The time limit is three hours. The half marathon was introduced in 1989; the marathon dates back to 1972, when Tom Howard of Surrey led 32 finishers around five loops of Stanley Park in the first British Columbia Marathon. The event is organised by RUNVAN, the Vancouver International Marathon Society. The half marathon course records are 1:02:36 for men, set by Paul Kimugul in 2014, and 1:12:53 for women, set by Jane Murage in 2015.