Race Review: Chilly Chase Half Marathon

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I signed up for this race towards the end of December because it fit with my full marathon training schedule and I really wanted a rematch with my 23rd half marathon. I was supposed to run the Vancouver Historic Half at the end of November but I wasn't feeling well and ended up not doing the race.

On Saturday, we went to Whistler to visit my family for the day.

After a total of 5 hours of driving that day (there and back) we didn't get home until around 9:00PM. After putting Griffin to bed I quickly gathered my stuff for the race the next day so that I could get myself to bed and hopefully get some rest.

This Nathan hydration pack (Torchlight HPL 020) has been on my wishlist for a while and it finally went on sale this month! It arrived this past week so I was eager to try it out on Sunday. I know you're not supposed to try new things on race day but it's not like it is any bigger than the pack I normally carry (in fact I found it to be a lot lighter), and I had a lot of faith in the product. I have to admit though, when I was filling the Hydrapak bladder I was a little nervous it would open up because it opens/closes really easily but I had no problems at all!

The race didn't start until 9:00AM so I didn't have to get up too early which was nice because I'm still struggling with going to bed earlier... which was part of one of my January goals which I think is going to have to roll right on into February...

Anyways, I found some street parking when I arrived in athlete's village (the old site for the 2010 Winter Olympic athlete's). Apparently this was lucky as most people paid for parking and I'm also probably quite lucky I didn't get a parking ticket for being there longer than 2 hours.

I headed into the Creekside community center to find some Twitter turned IRL (in real life) friends who were also running this race. Unfortunately for me, I was the only one running the half. Everyone else I knew who was there was signed up for either the 15k or the 10k.

This was Lisa's first 10k since having her 4th baby! She did awesome with a new PR :)

After wishing everyone good luck, I headed over to the starting chute.

It was incredibly foggy yesterday. So foggy that even though I know Vancouver quite well, I felt slightly disoriented. I knew Science World (picture below from a couple weeks ago with my son) was right in front of us but I couldn't actually see it.

I had seen many pictures of people running the day before with these beautiful clear sunny skies and I was sort of hoping that's what we'd be looking at during the race. As we got ready to start, I kept trying to remind myself that this was just meant to be a training run and to avoid racing or going too fast but I find that really hard most especially at the beginning of the race. I mean, I'm not a fast runner by any means, but during a race, it is hard to not at least try to go faster than your normal pace.

Anyways, off we went around the Seawall and under the walkway around Science World, through Yaletown, and onto the English Bay portion of the Seawall. I felt pretty good just moving along making sure to stick to my 10/1s.

I like the Try Events races for a different reason than why I like most other races. They're quiet, and a lot of the same people run all the races. I often find myself running around the same people as the previous races which is kind of comforting in a way. It turned into the most peaceful race I've ever run. The fog was thick but beautiful especially in and around Stanley Park.

It was the perfect race to use as a training run because with the fog being the way it was, I mostly felt like I was out there running by myself. I was keeping up a decent pace until the last 4 kilometers, which makes sense because I haven't run longer than 17km since November. I so wished that I could see my old apartment across the water but it was way too foggy. I used to run this same route all the time way back in 2010, well more of walk/run really as I was just learning. Because of that, I know the distances between the bridges REALLY well. It's nice and short between Burrard and Granville, but from there to Cambie appears to be deceivingly shorter than it is, that's how it feels at the end of a half marathon anyway!

I took my phone out to get one more picture of the fog clearing and Science World in the distance, not far from the finish line.

And as I went to put it back in my pack I dropped it at just the wrong angle and the screen shattered into a billion pieces. I wanted to look at it more because I was angry and upset that I had dropped it, but I knew I had to get going so I slipped it in the pocket and started running again. The whole rest of the way to the finish I started thinking about how much this was going to cost... iPhones are so expensive and my contract isn't close enough to being up so that I can get a new phone. This might seriously cut into my Dopey 2015 budget...

I had no time expectations for this race as my goal was to just keep a steady training pace. However, I had thought it would be nice to keep it under 2:20 and that's exactly what I managed to do. 2:18:03 is the official time, which I haven't been able to do since last June. With only a few weeks of training under my belt, I'd say that's a win for me. This finish line photo however, is not a winner... yuck.

Photo courtesy of the Try Events Facebook Page

Do I really look like that when I'm running?!?

I immediately called Cody to tell him about my phone problem and thankfully the phone was still operational. He said that we could get the screen changed out or we could trade phones and he could get a new one. We haven't figured it out yet, but I'm so glad buying a new phone won't be necessary... which means the WDW 2015 Dopey Challenge is still on the table!

I celebrated by stopping for my favorite post race meal at the White Spot Carhop including a chocolate milkshake, yum!

Race Review Summary

Package Pickup/Expo:
Cody picked up my package this time and said it was nice and quick. They have separated multiple package/group pick up from personal pickup which has definitely made things more efficient. They also added a pickup in the Fraser Valley which saved me a drive in to the city! New this year, were the souvenir hat and gloves. Though I liked them, the gloves are entirely too large for anyone to wear. They have promised to send new gloves and also offered a discount for any of their upcoming races. There is no expo for this race.

Price/Value: $65.00
Pretty much the same cost for all of their races. Considering you get the photos for free, assuming they captured a picture of you crossing the finish line it isn't bad. There was also great signage and many volunteers on course this time around.

Aid Stations: It depends on the distance how many you will pass, and it is an out and back so you pass them more than once. It seems to me there was 3 x 2 for the half course, but I could be wrong as I didn't need them with the hydration pack. One of the main things missing for me at these races, is chocolate milk at the finish line :(

Course Difficulty: Pancake flat and beautiful. There weren't many people running the half so I noticed on the way back the seawall  had definitely gotten busier with pedestrians and bicycles so that was difficult to navigate through at times.

Medals: Love them, they're always simple but nice.

Did you have a race this weekend, how did it go?