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. 

Race Review: BMO Vancouver Half Marathon

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Wow, where has the time gone, already a week into May! This year was my 2nd year taking part in the BMO Vancouver Half Marathon (Race Review from last year). Early on, I had hoped I would be doing the marathon distance, but after everything that's happened since LA, it wasn't feasible so I dropped down to the half distance about a month ago.

A friend of mine, Brandi, and I were chatting on the trails a few weeks ago about the race and she mentioned maybe signing up and attempting to challenge her PR which was around 2:27... So I offered to pace her (as long as my foot held up) to a PR if she were to sign up and she did!

You can read about Brandi's running journey here.

The expo for this race is always fun, though very busy, be prepared to stand in line. I went on Friday and visited with one of my fellow RnRVAN ambassadors Tina! We had a great time visiting with other runners and checking out the Rock 'n' Roll Vancouver booth!

We even managed to get out for a shakeout run on my favorite part of the seawall in False Creek!

It was a gorgeously warm spring Vancouver day but I had heard that rain was headed in for the rest of the weekend.

When I woke up to pick up my fellow runners whom I was carpooling with on Sunday, the rain was coming down in sheets. I wasn't very pleased, since the Surrey Marathon, my tolerance for rainy races has diminished considerably. Obviously, we live in Vancouver and we know it rains, but it's still not something you hope for on race day, especially in Spring. I grabbed all my gear and headed out the door. I knew our timeline had to be spot on if we were going to make it in time to check our bags.

I picked up Lisa on time but somehow got a little turned around heading to Stephanie's house and that definitely set us back a few minutes. When we got downtown (intending to park near the finish line and take transit to the start line), the parking lot where I was hoping to park had now turned into a construction site... Thankfully, we found something nearby and very quickly made our way to the sky train with the mass of other runners. When we got off the sky train at King Edward, I remembered how far it was to the actual start line and so we began our walking. I admittedly panicked when we arrived and I couldn't see the UPS trucks with the bag check. We started running all over the place, only to realize we had walked right past them on the way in... way to go Krista.

We checked our bags with literally seconds to spare. Did I also mention that somewhere in the chaos on the way to the start line, I misplaced my bag check tag, thankfully the UPS volunteer had a piece of paper to write my bib # down and replace it.

We hardly had any time to stand around, never mind look for anyone else, before they were singing the national anthem and calling everyone into their corrals. Thankfully Brandi found me, and Stephanie jumped in at the last minute and off we went. At least, as Lisa put it, there was no time to stand around and get soaked in the rain.

Though, it also meant no time for pre-race photos so this blurry selfie is all you get!

As we got going, I felt really good, but I could tell Brandi wasn't feeling quite right and was worried about how fast we were going coming down the hill. The first 4 kilometers of this race are quite literally all downhill. I had hoped we could pick it up just a little bit here to gain a bit of a buffer with our time. As we crossed the Cambie St. bridge and saw some, how shall I say this, "exhibitionists" (ie. naked people) modeling in their apartment window, Brandi asked if we could pull back a bit.

I didn't want to kill her energy right off the bat, so we eased up and took our first walk break. After which it was time for the little out & back portion of the race by Science World that I really dislike. Today though, I was feeling good. I was surprised with all the foot issues I've had lately, how good I actually felt. We moved along up the first hill through Chinatown, then Yaletown, and around onto Pacific. I've always felt this race to be a great mix of some of the best Vancouver race's out there including First Half, Lululemon, & the Scotiabank Half, and because of this, it sort of feels like a run down memory lane. I kept talking to Brandi trying to distract her and keep her moving, she had mentioned that her stomach was feeling off and I didn't want her focusing on that.

I knew once we got to the park, the last half of the race, that would be the hardest part to maintain our pace for her to PR. Up until we reached the park in fact, we were on pace for a sub 2:22 and Brandi was doing great! Stanley Park and the seawall are beautiful on a sunny day, but on this day, it was pouring and the wind was ridiculous. My hands were frozen and I was sure wishing I had grabbed the rest of my gear (arm warmers, gloves, handana) before throwing it to the gear check dude in that mad rush.

I had definitely forgotten about all the little rolling hills when you cross through the center of the park, but I for one was pleased we weren't on the outside of the seawall anymore getting tossed around by the wind and rain, I don't think Brandi felt the same way though... I'll let her tell her story on her blog about how she was feeling but I am really proud of her for pushing through a tough race. Did I mention she has run 3 half marathons in the past few weeks?!? We all have bad days and she still made it to the finish line within mere minutes of her PR and I do believe if she had been feeling better and more rested, she would have gone sub 2:22, perhaps even sub 2:20.

I enjoyed pacing someone during a race even though we didn't succeed this time. It was fun to not be worrying about my own PR goals for once and focus on someone else and follow their race journey.

Our final time was 2:29:24.

Race Review Summary 

Package Pickup/Expo:
Okay. Though it is one of the bigger expos in Vancouver, I'm betting Rock 'n' Roll Vancouver will top it for sure.

Price/Value: $119
It was cheaper the earlier you registered, and I of course downgraded, so even though I paid way more for the full marathon, I had to pay an administration fee to switch. It is a nice race, there's no doubting that, but that is crazy expensive.

Aid Stations: 
Plenty of them and they were all fully stocked this year.

Course Difficulty: 
It's moderate. Not totally flat, but relatively so. The downhill at the beginning is a great time to pick up some speed.

Medals:
They are nice and a good size as well.

My foot is feeling pretty good right now and I'm starting to formulate some goals for my 25th half marathon, Rock 'n' Roll Portland, in a couple of weeks. My lovely readers are eligible to receive a registration discount of $10 with the code 'KRISTARUNSPDX' now until May 11th!

Race Review: Vegas Mustang 50th Half Marathon

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Wow, has it ever taken me a while to sit down and write this. I've just been so busy there hasn't been time to think about blogging, never mind actually doing it! We had a great trip to Vegas and a nice mini vacation, but now it's definitely back to real life and of course training... but more on that later this week.

Let's rewind back to the Saturday before last when I woke up and headed towards the Las Vegas Motor Speedway to run a half marathon! As I headed down the elevator of Planet Hollywood to catch a taxi to the shuttle pick up point, most people were headed back to their rooms quite intoxicated. I got a taxi fairly easily (yay Vegas!) and the driver asked me if I was headed "home" for the night, where I insisted that no, believe it or not, I just woke up! I suppose it's rather unusual to wake up at 5:00AM in Vegas.

Anyhow, thanks to the taxi driver knowing exactly where to go, I found the shuttle between the Luxor and Excalibur quite easily and hopped on the first bus. I was keeping my eye out for Brandi & Kendall, but never spotted them in the dark.

I knew it was a bit of drive as I'd been there once before, well near there anyway, so I did my best to sit back and relax and not worry about how warm of a day I heard it was going to be...

When we arrived, we made our way through the tunnel and into the speedway. I've been to a drag strip before, but never inside a Nascar stadium. It was definitely a sight to see, way bigger than I imagined. The sun was coming up and even though it was windy and chilly at first, it warmed up quite quickly. They drove the winner's prize through the crowd of people standing around while everyone ooooh'd and aweee'd. Personally, I don't see what all the fuss is about, but obviously I didn't win the car lol!

I spent the next 20 minutes scanning the crowd for Brandi and Kendall and I finally found them in the restroom lineup! It was nice to see a familiar face and of course take some pre race pictures!

It sure was a gorgeous sunrise!

As we got ready to run around the Nascar track, which we would do twice during the race (once at the beginning and once at the finish), I started to think more about the course... I had looked at it very briefly and realized that we wouldn't be going very far away from here, so there was a very likely possibility that this was going to get rather repetitive.

Well here's the answer, it did. As far as courses go, I hated it. I ran 6 kilometers much quicker than I should have, like 33 minutes and then I found myself here.

An ugly dirt hill on the outside of the Nascar track and behind the drag strip. This is where they park all the motorhomes when there is a race, so the pavement is all rutted and dust was blowing in my face and yea, it was getting really hot.

I ran another kilometer and then I did something I've never ever done in a race, I turned around and ran in the opposite direction. I knew Brandi and Kendall were somewhere behind me, and I no longer wanted to do this by myself. I ran for a bit in the opposite direction then got tired of the people asking me what the hell I was doing, and parked myself for a few minutes to try to spot them.

Thankfully, they showed up shortly thereafter and off we went together. Brandi and Kendall had both just done a half marathon 6 days earlier, so their plan was just to finish and at this point, that sounded great to me.

For what I thought was going to be mostly a flat course, there were a few hills in there that surprised me. As we came up on this one though, we got the best view of the day. You can see the Las Vegas strip in the distance.

It was at this point, that we turned the corner and were back once again at the entrance to the Nascar track and the 2nd time we saw the mile 11 marker when we were not at mile 11...

Now we headed out onto the "roundy-round" track or the road course which was basically running or walking a lot in cone circles... Not exactly very entertaining. Here, Brandi demonstrates how it felt:

I guess we were about 13 kilometers in when they changed the flag from green to yellow because it was getting very hot. We continued on, stopping to take pictures whenever we felt like it.

My favorite part of the race was running down the drag strip.

After that, we came back out onto the road to once again enter the Nascar track which we would have to circle one last time before coming into the finish. It was just before this that I caught possibly the best picture of the day!

Way to go Brandi!

In the end, it certainly was no PR, not even close in fact, but I really did have a lot of fun and with my foot the way it has been, that's all I could have hoped for. So with a finish of 2:56:41, here's to another one in the books!
Thanks to Kendall and Brandi for getting me through another very hot race.

Race Review Summary 

Package Pickup/Expo:
There really was no expo, just a room to pickup your package at Mandalay Bay. For a one-off race, I expected some merchandise for sale, but there was nothing.

Price/Value: $95
For an out-of-town race, it was a pretty standard price. If they were going to be doing this race again, I would be griping more about the course, but it was part of the theme I suppose.

Aid Stations: 
There seemed to be lots of them for the size of race it was.

Course Difficulty: 
Wasn't very complicated other than the uneven broken pavement in places.

Medals:

I'm glad they put some effort into these, I think they turned out great!

Why do I do it?

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One of the questions I get asked most often is why do I run? How can I possibly enjoy running that far for that long?

I'm sure people run for a multitude of different reasons...

Health?
There's many great health driven reasons to run. It's good for your heart. It's a great form of exercise. People often ask me if I do it to lose weight? Honestly, running has never helped me lose a ton of weight. 99% of weight loss for me personally is diet (as evidenced by my 5lb weight gain since the marathon... oops). But I sure do feel a lot better running then when I did here, on bed rest and 7 months pregnant:

I can't believe I'm even posting this hideous picture...

Because Daft Punk's "One More Time" is blasting in my ears?
Music is a great motivator for sure. It might even be possible that I have had a few dance parties on the treadmill, but music can really only take you so far.

Because I like to be in pain?
Definitely NOT. I don't relish the feeling of leg cramps and not being able to move one more step, which definitely has happened more than once during and after a race.
I felt a lot like this after the Surrey Marathon:


Because you meet cool people?
You totally do, but this isn't why I run, it's just a wonderful side affect :)

I run for "the feeling".
It's the only way I know how to describe it. During the Surrey Marathon it was when that biker came up next to me and told me I had no choice but to keep going. That feeling where you don't need music, and it doesn't matter how much it hurts, or how much it's raining, or how much further you  have to go, you're just going to do it.

That feeling when you realize you're running a PR race and didn't even know it.

That feeling when you cross the finish line.

That feeling when you've inspired someone else and all of the sudden you realize other people are counting on you to keep going.

That feeling makes my heart happy. I live for it. So that's why I run.

Why do you run?

Race Review: Lululemon SeaWheeze Half Marathon (Part 2)

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You can read about the expo and pre-race activities here.

So having a little more to drink than planned the night before, I woke up around 4:00AM and started drinking water, endless amounts of water, despite the fact that I felt a little green...

It must have helped because by the time we got on the road I already felt a lot better. I ate a power bar, not my favorite pre-race food but because we were living out of a suitcase at this point I had to live with it. The drive in to Vancouver went well. Finding parking proved to me more difficult so we ended up having to valet at a hotel. Mind you the cost was only $3 more than parking in the same area.

My mother in law, Cindy, who was with me has only run one other half marathon, the Tinkerbell half back in January. I was very excited that she had also caught the running bug and was ready for another one!

We headed into the convention center where surprisingly there was hardly a line for the rest room unlike outside for the port-a-potties...

We thankfully ran into Nikki and another friend without even having to look for each other! So after a potty break and some organizing our headphones etc. we headed off to the start line. It was really crazy with all the SeaWheeze plaid shorts everywhere, it was definitely the most colorful race I've ever been to.

The start line was pretty exciting. I think the race was much bigger than last year. There were even some fully nude spectators on the balconies of the apartments above. I love seeing all the spectators but maybe with more clothing?...

I think we started a little behind schedule but I wasn't disappointed. Still feeling the effects of "over-hydrating" the night before, I wasn't raring to go run 21.1k. Thankfully the weather was perfect! It was beautifully cool and slightly cloudy. I love the sun as much as the next runner but last year this run was just way TOO hot.

As we ran over the start line I felt good especially thinking about how far I've come from the race last year. A full year of running has left me a lot more confident and strong. We ran over to the viaduct and just like last year, there were these bicycles on stilts, weird but awesome at the same time!

Next, was china town and over to the false creek side of the sea wall. I love running this stretch because it reminds me of where it all began. When I lived in False Creek, that's when I started running, where I first lived with my husband, and when I went to university. Since that time, my life has completely evolved, and here we are moving again.

It was also during the False Creek stretch that we ran into a twitter friend, Kendall! We stopped for some quick sweaty hugs:

She was doing an awesome job volun-CHEERing! Next up, was an incline up to the Burrard bridge, I haven't been doing hill training at all so I felt like jelly all the way up the hill but thankfully these lovely ladies were at the top waiting for us!

 

The Burrard bridge is part of a lot of local races. I wasn't thrilled about having to run over it because it always seems to go on for forever but it wasn't so bad this time. Maybe because the sun wasn't beating down us. After the bridge was a big Lululemon cheer station and water station. With my hydration pack I really didn't need to stop at any water stations (I think I only stopped at one that came up during a walk break).

We ran into Cindy again at this point. She had run straight through and we were doing our usual 10/1 intervals. We continued on and lost her again somewhere around a potty break for Nikki. She told me to continue on but I chose to take a little break because this race for me was a training run and for fun.

And quite honestly, I was just tired.

We continued on knowing all that was left was the sea wall around Stanley Park and then we would be nearing the finish. Last year, this was where everything fell apart, the sea wall went on and on and on. But this year with the weather being cooler, and after having run around Stanley Park so many times in the past year during different races, it went just fine. When we started weaving our way out of the park I was worried we had missed another friend who was volunteering and then all of the sudden, there she was!

 



The stretch between here and the finish line was the hardest for me this time around. I was tired and ready to be done. Even though this race had the feel of "just a training run", the finish line still seemed to take forever. Though cooler, it was starting to get quite muggy so when we finally crossed I was ecstatic to see that cool cloths were waiting for us. There was also a sage aromatherapy set which they attached to our metals with a clip as well as a set of skull candy headphones.

The medals were wood and inside they have a little place for what looks like a photo, we asked around with the volunteers if they were taking photos to put in there but they didn't really know anything. I just found out the other day that there were photo booth's at the finish line! I wish I had known... :( Overall it seemed like the volunteers were uninformed.

The race went really well considering I was just using it as a training run. We came in at 2:25:59. I also got to run another race with Nikki and I'm hoping maybe Lululemon will be a tradition for us! There were minor issues this year with the race organization but I have to say it was much better than last year.

Race Review: Lululemon SeaWheeze Half Marathon (Part 1)

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Last year Nikki and I ran this race together, it was in fact our very first race together. You can read here race report from last year here.

Nikki and I at last year's race.

Last year at the expo, package pickup went smoothly but when I saw the line for the SeaWheeze Showcase Store I knew there was no hope of getting through it in a reasonable time so I left. Nikki stayed only to find out everything had been gone since early morning where people who weren't even runners bought most of the stock and then resold it on Ebay.

This year, I thought if we were even going to try to get to the store we had to be there early. So we were on the road by 6:00am and arrived outside the Vancouver Convention Center just after 7:00am. When we first came up from the parking garage, there was a huge line and it didn't seem like the right place as a lot of people were in costume. Suddenly we realized it was the lineup for the Pokémon World Championship also happening the same weekend in Vancouver. We couldn't pass up a photo op like that:

When we arrived at the right wing of the convention center, there was already a line up half way around the building. We got in line and waited for them to open (at 8:00am) we chatted with people in line and even got some sneak peek photos and insider information from a volunteer inside!

It was a beautiful day and because it was early it wasn't too warm out. I was a little disappointed when I heard they had more entertainment for people in line later in the day but I suppose because we lined up before they were officially open, I can't complain.

Once the doors were open, it moved pretty quickly inside and package pickup was in sight!

I'd say we were through in 20 minutes and then we were on our way across the room towards the massive SeaWheeze Showcase store. I was very pleasantly surprised with the amount of product they had.

 



I had only planned on buying one thing, but that soon went out the window. I loved all the colors and most of the product was really nice. As a die-hard Lululemon CRB (cool racer back) fan I was a little disappointed that they were all made of a different material than the usual CRB (a thinner "luon" that feels nothing like the original). But there were definitely multiple styles of shirts to choose from.

 

When I finally took a moment to gather the things I wanted and review how much I was going to spend this is what I came out with (including some gifts for other people):

We hung around the store for quite a while so that we could get what we wanted in the right sizes as they were restocking stuff on a regular basis but just as fast as it went on the shelf it was gone. I was shocked by how much stuff people were grabbing. Last year there was a 15% discount for runners and this year a couple of the volunteers mentioned the same thing but when we went to check out, that certainly wasn't the case. As we left I noticed there were people everywhere with massive piles of clothing on the floor, easily thousands of $ each. I love Lululemon but I guess not that much! We heard later that by 9:30/10:00 AM it was quite picked over so I'm glad we went when we did but I feel bad for those that missed out like I did last year.

 

Once we had all our goodies we headed back towards home as I had to get ready to attend a friends wedding later that evening. They had nooner yoga, mani/pedi's, and other various activities throughout the day but alas I had other places to be.

 

I was excited but nervous about staying up late and having a few drinks before a hot and sweaty half marathon the next morning. We hardly ever dress up anymore so that was fun even though it was REALLY hot outside!

 



 

My plan was to only have a couple of drinks... I (mostly) stuck to that plan including pre-race hydration with these delicious twisted iced-teas!

 

The wedding was fabulous and went off without a hitch, well except for the bride and groom getting hitched of course (pardon my horrible joke ha ha). So happy for this gorgeous couple who jetted off to Paris for their honeymoon a couple days later!

To find out what happens when you hydrate for a half marathon with alcohol you'll have to tune in tomorrow for the rest of my race recap!

 

You can read Nikki's very poetic recap of the expo here