Celebrating the 45th year of Vancouver’s only marathon, the ‘Legacy Talks’ video series interviews those who have played key roles in helping grow the event from its early beginnings. Today, we talk with Andrea Eby, board member on the Vancouver International Marathon Society.
The ‘Legacy Talks’ video series features those who have played key roles in helping grow the event from its early beginnings. With a more recent perspective, Andrea Eby talks about the course redesign in 2012 and the positive impact of the annual event.
“If you were to kind of think of a real pivotal moment it was with the two new courses that we re-launched in 2012. Two separate point to point courses – Marathon and Half Marathon – where we essentially shutdown 62KM of the city, and have just gorgeous, gorgeous views. We worked really hard, about three years, on getting these courses in place, because there are lots of stakeholders that you have to work with, and a lot of planning goes into even finalizing the courses…”
Vancouver’s only marathon has since garnered lots of local and international attention, including several notable awards from the likes of Forbes Travel, CNN Travel, USA Today and Canadian Running Magazine.
“In terms of why I’m involved, of course I’m a volunteer. And I believe that being a volunteer and giving back to the community is super important. I also love what this event does for the participants, for the stakeholders, for the community – the positive impact that it has. I think it’s really tough not to like this event… We have so many volunteers, actually the last number is close to 4,000 volunteers!”
“If you look in the events industry, this is one of the oldest events actually in North America, and definitely one of the oldest events in Canada. And there is something to be said about having that tenure in the marketplace, because I think what we have really (done) is built on experience over the years, and just really built this to be a fantastic event, and improved it continuously along the way.”
“Join in! RUNVAN®.”
To watch more Legacy Talks and BMO Vancouver Marathon videos, click here.