Gibsons’ Kim Doerksen is becoming one of the brightest prospects on the Canadian marathon scene.
This past spring, the 23-year-old won the Vancouver Marathon in a stunning debut time of 2:36:59.
Considering Canada’s top female marathoner, Lanni Mar-chant, ran 2:49:14 in her debut, it’s no wonder organizers of the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon are excited that Doerksen will compete in their IAAF Silver Label race on Oct. 19.
“[Vancouver] was a great big surprise to me,” she said. “We had gone into it not really putting out a time goal, because it was my first one, and we didn’t want to have a negative impact and unnecessary stress. The way training had gone, in our minds, we were thinking I could do a sub 2:40. How far under we didn’t know. I would have been happy with a 2:40.
“Immediately afterwards I was thinking ‘what’s the next one going to be?’ But the first thing you think after finishing a marathon is ‘I am never going to do that again.’ Then once you catch your breath, you are plotting which marathon you are going to do next. I was thinking if I can do a 2:37 in my first one, and I keep getting stronger and smarter with the distance, then the world is your oyster, and who knows what can happen — as long as you stay injury free.”
The ‘we’ she speaks of includes her coach John Hill of the Vancouver Falcons Athletic Club, a former Vancouver marathon winner. It is an association that began in May 2013. While many of her contemporaries save the marathon distance perhaps for a few years in the future, she has dived in at quite an early age. It’s quite possible she can have a decade of running the distance, and that is a sumptuous prospect.
Although Doerksen played soccer at the University of Fraser Valley, she is currently a kinesiology student at Simon Fraser University. Her earnings for winning the Vancouver Marathon,, and being the first Canadian,, were put to good use, she confirms with a laugh.
“It was a lot of months of rent that I didn’t have to worry about,” Doerksen said. “It was $3,500 or $4,000, I can’t really remember. It went towards school and rent.”
Together with coach Hill, she opted for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon after looking at the race results from previous years and talking with some of her club mates. “Flat and fast” was the way she heard the course described over and over again.
Doerksen will line up against a stellar women’s field in Toronto including Aliaksandra Duliba of the Ukraine, Ethiopia’s Mestawet Tufa and Mulu Seboka as well as Canadian record holder Marchant.
“My biggest goal personally is I want to run with Canada across my chest one day,” she said. “I don’t know what event that will be in, whether it’s the Commonwealth Games or Pan Ams or worlds — or the O word [Olympics] always goes into every athlete’s mind. I want to wear that Canadian jersey so badly that I don’t care what event it is in.”
