Race Review: Spirit of the Shore Half Marathon

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A week ago I ran the Blue Shore Financial Spirit of the Shore Half Marathon. I didn't really tell anyone I was doing it because I was definitely nervous, this being the 1st half marathon since I'd had Violet, but I felt like I was ready.

I got up bright and early and headed to the North Shore. I opted to pickup up my packet on race day, so I wanted to make sure I had lots of time. I arrived around 6:45am and the sunrise was just beautiful.

Package pickup was super quick and easy. I took a look at the course map they had on display and headed back to my car to stay warm. Although, you could have stayed inside at Blue Shore Financial. They had lots of seating available.

I didn't really have that long to wait before it was time to start. I had been debating all morning whether or not I needed a long sleeve, I didn't, but I wore one because it was a chilly morning. Unfortunately, I had a bit of wardrobe mishap when I realized that I had torn my pants at Mudderella the week prior, but because it was such a tight material, I did not notice until I had them on in the car.

Fortunately, it was only on my knee so I could run in them. Still, I was a little bit choked since they are my favorite racing compression crops from CW-X and they're over $100. I knew I shouldn't have worn them at Mudderella but I was nervous and I wanted my favorite gear. Alas, it is nothing like the incident back in 2012 when I ran with a pin holding together a hole in the groin region of my pants :O... It ended up being fine but it wasn't exactly how I wanted to start my morning.

I made sure to position myself at the very back of the crowd lining up for the start. I knew I was going to be slow. Before I knew it, we were off and going. I had to keep reminding myself to stay back and not pass people. I knew that if I went fast in the beginning I would be dead around 15k since that's the farthest I had ran at this point post-pregnancy. I eased into a steady pace, around 7 min/km.

If you know Park Royal, the race starts in the village parking lot, right in front of Blue Shore Financial. We then headed up over the parking structure to the North side of Marine Drive at which point I knew we were right around the corner from the BIG hill.

It's literally the only hill in the entire race, but it's no joke. It was steep and I wasn't trained for it. I've been dealing with a bit of a back injury for the last few months, and the chiropractor advised me to run on flat surfaces as much as possible, as you can imagine, I was totally OK with that, LOL. Anyways, I could definitely tell some hill training would have come in handy here.

Once I made it to the top of the hill, I felt a lot better, knowing that the toughest part of the course was behind me. I continued on back down towards Marine Drive, at which point the course headed East towards North Vancouver, and then under the Lions Gate, along a nice and peaceful running path.

At this point, the race was very spread out and I had lots of space, it felt like I was out for my usual Sunday long run, which was nice, definitely what I needed that day. You could tell it was going to be a spectacular weather day. The air was cool and the sun was warm.

I kept my pace and kept to my 10/1s, and once I was warmed up, I was feeling pretty good. At about 10km, we headed up over a pedestrian overpass and onto the Spirit Trail. I'd never run this part of the North Shore and I really enjoyed it. There was a turnaround here where we headed back on the route we came, towards West Van.

Over halfway through the race and I was feeling pretty good. I stuck to my rhythm until about 15km when we were on the seawall near Ambleside. My knees started to ache and not surprisingly, I was struggling. I was now beyond my training since having the baby 7 months ago. Even after 26 half marathons, training is what matters. I knew I could do it though. My heart took over and I did my best to ignore the pain in my legs. It had been such a trying week personally, I hadn't realized how much I needed to just get out there and run, it may not have been my fastest, but it was the perfect race in every other way.

Coming into the finish I pushed, but my legs weren't moving very fast. It didn't matter, I felt good, and I knew I that I had made it.

Despite my time (2:36:43), a half hour slower than my half marathon PR, I'm so proud of this race. After having a baby a short 7 months ago and a really trying week for me personally, I came out and ran 21.1 km. Yes I've done it 26 other times, but this one was a big one for my confidence. I look forward to returning again in 2016!

Race Review Summary 

Package Pickup/Expo:
I picked up my package right before the start and I had no issues.

Price/Value: $79-99 (depending on when you register)
I thought that this was fair. There was tons of support on course and the swag & medal were worthy of the price. The photos are great and as an added perk Blue Shore Financial had a cool finish line photo booth after the race and they posted the photos the next day on their Facebook page.
 
Aid Stations: 
There were 5 water stations, all with water and Gatorade. I don't think I even touched my hydration pack. It was great.

Course Difficulty: 
Easy. Other than the 1 hill, it is almost entirely flat. In my opinion, it would be a good course to challenge a PR.

Medals:
Huge medal for a smaller local race, I LOVE IT. We also received an Icebreaker toque with the event name in lieu of a shirt.

Please note: Spirit of the Shore Half Marathon offered me registration in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.