Nearly 80 Yukoners are registered to run in the Royal Victoria Marathon on Sunday, according to the event's website.

That number is up 17 from last year when 63 Yukoners reportedly took to the Victoria course.

The race cap for the marathon and the eight-kilometre road race is 4,000, the half marathon cap is 6,800, and the Thrifty Foods kids run tops out at 1,000.

Longtime marathoner Keith Thaxter said the Yukon contingent heading to Vancouver Island this weekend is remarkable.

"That's a crazy number; it's the most popular event for Yukoners that go anywhere,

I'd suggest,” he said, adding, "We host our own marathon and only get 300 runners for a local event.”

The 48-year-old has run marathons from Berlin to Boston to New Orleans and just about everywhere in between.

Thaxter, who now runs in the 45-50-year-old group, ventures he's participated in up to 70 marathons.

Marathons in Vancouver and Calgary attract a handful of Yukoners, by comparison, he says.

"It just happens to be a nice place to go on a long weekend and a great destination where people have a lot of family and friends, and the weather is also really nice and cool for runners,” Thaxter said of the Victoria marathon, which has been hailed as one of the top 10 destination marathons in North America by Runner's World Magazine.

This year, the group from the Yukon has chartered an Air North flight to Victoria leaving Friday and returning on Monday, as well as organized hotel deals.

"It is a lot of fun, except for the three hours of pain of running,” Thaxter laughed. "But that's a small sacrifice to go.

"Those people who are runners who haven't done it will really enjoy the course – it is a really scenic course. There's a lot of rolling hills but there's no big hills, like when you run in Boston,” he said, noting that unless a runner is willing to travel south, the Victoria marathon marks one of the last opportunities people have to run a marathon in this country.

The Boston Marathon, which takes place the third Monday of April, Patriots' Day, is the world's oldest annual marathon, and the most prestigious to enter, Thaxter said.

Unlike the majority of marathons yearly in North America, excluding the New York City Marathon, runners must qualify for the event.

For the majority of marathons on the continent runners are selected through a lottery or simply by registering.

Thaxter has qualified for both the Boston and New York City Marathons in the past.

Qualifying time for his age group is under three hours and 30 minutes; qualifying times vary for age and gender.

The best he's done in the Victoria marathon is roughly 3:10, he said.

"Anything under 3:10 I'm happy with,” Thaxter said.

"It's a great long weekend, and also it's a beautiful course, because a lot of it runs along the waterfront and through the parks. It's a very scenic course. And if somebody is trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon, I would suggest it's one of the faster ones in western Canada.”

Sunday will mark Michael Richards first road marathon, though he's no stranger to hoofing it.

Most recently, Richards won the men's open 2010 Yukon River Trail Marathon in 3:13:37.

He's also entered Iron Man Canada three times, most recently in 2000.

"It's something I've wanted to do desperately since 2003 but I haven't been able to do it until now,” Richards said.

Ideally, training would have started 18 weeks prior to the event, but due to other variables, Richards has had to undergo a 12-week program.

But that hasn't gotten him down.

"It's going to be an absolute blast,” Richards said, adding that he would like to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

"Qualifying for Boston, regardless of whether or not you go to Boston, is almost a bit of a rite of passage for a marathoner, kind of like the honour just to be nominated.”

Joining the impressive contingent of Yukoners heading down to Victoria will be a Yukon exhibit at the marathon's race expo, which will be headed by Thaxter and Richard Zral.

The expo features roughly 100 exhibits, Thaxter said, and is set up so that all the runners must attend to pick up their race kits – some 20,000 including general visitors.

The Yukon exhibit will showcase tourism, vacation planners for Whitehorse, and promotions of running events such as the River Trail Marathon, the Trail of '98 International Road Relay and the Mayo Marathon and plugs for Athletics Yukon and the Arctic Ultra coming up in February.

"It just makes for a long day the Saturday because you've got to sit around for about eight hours and talk to people. It's kind of fun, but it makes for a tired next day when you have to run,” Thaxter laughed.

He added that the Yukon exhibit usually gathers a lot of attention.

"I'd suggest that in the past we talked to hundreds of people, if not handed out 500 to 1,000 flyers promoting our events,” Thaxter said.

"Plus we have a great big 30-foot backdrop with lights on it…so people come to us and go, ‘Wow, that's cool,' and then they go, ‘So where is that?'”

The 80 Yukoners heading down will be focused on marathon – and finishing.

Richards added: "A marathon is a cool thing for any of us to be doing, and it's going to be a great time for all the people from the Yukon going down, and I wish everybody luck. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what time you do or what place you get, it just matters that you go out and have a good time and finish.”