Runners will move through Cedar Sunday, part of an Island-wide race series. (submitted photo/John Berger)

By Nathan Maley

road race

Vancouver Island Race Series set to pit stop in Cedar

Feb 11, 2024 | 6:58 AM

NANAIMO — Following stops in North Saanich and Cobble Hill in January, the Vancouver Island Race Series will make its way to Cedar for its third event in 2024 this weekend.

Racers will start at Cedar Elementary School on Sunday, Feb, 11, running 12 kilometres through the back roads of the community, before making their return to the school for the finish line.

Bastion Run Club hosts the Cedar leg of the race and club president Jonathan Behnke said it’s much easier for the club to do the race in Cedar rather than Nanaimo.

“Being out in a rural area makes things a bit easier in terms of effects on traffic as opposed to being within the city of Nanaimo.”

The Vancouver Island Race Series has eight events in 2024, with stops throughout the Victoria region, over to Port Alberni, and as far up as the Comox Valley.

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It will be the third year races have taken place since the pandemic, with only five happening in 2020 before the shutdown, and none in 2021.

Prior to the shutdown, Behnke was crowned a winner of the Cedar 12K race in 2020, a special moment for him to be able to win in his hometown.

“Coming back and winning the local race was a bit of a homecoming experience, so it was meaningful in that way.”

Behnke finished 2020’s race with a time of 40:05, 16 seconds clear of the second place finisher.

The series has been around since the 1980’s, arriving in the Nanaimo area in 1986. It made its way to Cedar in 1992, originally as a 15K race.

Check in for the race begins at 9 a.m. Sunday morning, before the race kicks off at 11 a.m.

A post race event will happen at 1 p.m.

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