More than 200,000 runners, from Olympians to weekend duffers, have streamed across the line in the 44 years of the Royal Victoria Marathon races.
Public-address announcer Steve King has called out many of those names — the staccato rhythm of his voice steadily sending out a dizzying and encyclopedic array of past results and best times — to give almost each of the thousands of runners their own personal moment of glory at the finish line.
King’s voice, as familiar to the proceedings as the pounding sound of running shoes on pavement, will again call out the finishers this morning when the 2024 Royal Victoria races start with the 8K at 7:15 a.m. followed by the marathon and half-marathon at 8:15 a.m., beginning on Menzies and finishing on Belleville in the Legislature precinct. Road closures will be in effect through downtown, James Bay, Fairfield and Oak Bay.
“I love the energy and get so enthused by the people,” said King, who has called the Royal Victoria Marathon races since 1996.
“And that’s from the Olympians who have won here like Simon Whitfield, Jon Brown, Bridget McMahon, Bruce Deacon, Malindi Elmore, Natasha Wodak to those further back in the pack to whom this is their personal Everest.”
This is vertical integration at its best, where weekend Spandex warriors share the same roads in the same races as Olympians and other world-class athletes.
“It’s all about people’s personal achievements and desires being fulfilled, whatever level they are at,” said King, who worked the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games, and is also legendary in triathlon for his decades of calling Ironman ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ in his hometown of Penticton.
“It’s thrilling for me to call out the Olympians but just as thrilling to call out the achievement of somebody achieving a life-long dream like completing their first marathon or gaining a personal best time or winning the 70-74 age category.”
The native of West Ham in England used to call 45 to 50 races a year despite his full-time occupation as a clinical counsellor for trauma and addictions.
“That unmistakable sound of Steve King’s voice each year … he is the human finish-line AI,” said Keith Wells, executive director of the Greater Victoria Sport Tourism Commission.
King is now 75 and that has reduced him to announcing 25 to 30 racing events per year. “Victoria is such a great sporting community” that King vows it will be a regular stop for him as long as he is able to hold a microphone.
“Steve King is the best race announcer in North America and we are lucky to have him,” said Chris Kelsall, the Royal Victoria Marathon’s director of elite athletes.
King was himself a runner “from the first day at school at age five” and has competed around the world, including in the Royal Victoria Marathon and famed Comrades Marathon in South Africa.
Meanwhile, the weekend of racing began Saturday in Oak Bay with Russell Pearson of Calgary heading the field of 875 runners to win the Royal Victoria 5K in 15 minutes and 30 seconds with Islanders Jack Screen and Michael Barber second and third across in 15:38 and 16:03, respectively. Chantal Abbott of Collingwood, Ont., was the women’s 5K champion in 18:37 with Hilkka Kontro of Calgary second in 18:46 and Isabel Chant of Toronto third in 19:30.
Equally as important in the King equation of racing was Roger White’s Royal Victoria 5K course-record time of 27:14 in the 70-74 category – another personal Everest conquered.
Also Saturday, Canadian and North American marathon record holder Cam Levins of Black Creek, who this summer contested the marathon at Paris in this third Olympic Games, honorarily counted down the 552-participant Royal Victoria Thrifty Foods Kids Run at Willows Beach.
The 2,800 spots in today’s Royal Victoria Marathon, and 5,250 in the half-marathon, sold out over the summer. The 8K still had starting spots open but those were expected to sell-out by the close of registrations Saturday evening. The registration numbers across all races this year stood at 12,352, the third-highest total in the four decade-plus history of the event.
