Vancouver Island has been good to Whitehorse runner Logan Roots.

The 18-year-old earned first-place rankings in five Island Series races en route to finishing his Shawnigan Lake School career with a win in the Annual Chemainus Legion Twilight Shuffle last spring.

Last weekend wasn't much different for the young runner.

Roots was one of 65 Yukoners to take the Air North charter south to run in the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon on Thanksgiving weekend.

He won the 15-19 age category in the half marathon with a time of one hour, 17 minutes, 48 seconds, good enough for 18th overall out of 5,147 runners.

Roots finished last year's half marathon, a distance of 21 kilometres, in the same time, off by a couple 10ths of a second.

"I wasn't so pleased with my time. But my time compared to how I felt when I finished, I thought it was pretty good.

I was by myself for lots of the race, and I didn't have to push myself super hard. I thought it went all right.

"I wasn't keeled over and gasping, but I felt pretty good.”

In May, Roots shaved a minute from his time in the Oak Bay Half Marathon. Also on Vancouver Island.

"I was really looking forward to it, and it didn't disappoint,” Roots said of the Victoria Marathon.

"It kind of makes me want to go back down there, because it kind of reminded me how much fun it was,” Roots said. "It's great to do races with more people, and I love the weather there, so it's just perfect.”

Whitehorse's Keith Thaxter, who was the top Yukoner in the full marathon (42 km), said Roots is one of the territory's best young runners.

"He ran a really good time,” Thaxter said. "He did really well, which means it's promising that he's going to improve as he gets older.”

Thaxter finished the marathon with a time of 3:07:52, which was a few minutes off his time last year (2:57).

"I started out good, but then my foot started to get a little tender, so I backed off for the last half,” Thaxter said.

"I think also, because I had been taking it easy with the injury the last couple of months, my fitness level probably wasn't as good as it should be for the marathon.

So I just need to get back into training and get more focused. Otherwise, I'm still happy with it, but you're always wanting to do better.”

Failing to finish a marathon, however, is not an option.

"I don't think finishing is ever really a problem for me,” Thaxter said. "If I had to, I'd crawl. I've had runs where I've been more injured and actually still pushed through the finish. You can always slow down and take it easy and just finish and enjoy the day. I pretty much conceded after about maybe 30 km that my foot was hurting, so I said, ‘I'm just going to slow down, keep on pace and just enjoy the day and not worry about pushing too hard to hurt my foot.' It was good; it was still nice.”

Yukoner Simon Lapointe finished fifth in the 35-39 age category and 41st overall in the half marathon with a time of 1:20. Whitehorse race walker Bonnie Love was the fastest walker with a personal best time of 2:22.

In her first marathon, Yukoner Sheri Hogeboom qualified for the 2013 Boston Marathon.

"You always get up to about half a dozen who will look to go run Boston every year,” Thaxter said.