Just keep running!

The half marathon has come and gone. Not only did I finish and survive, but I even enjoyed it!

Eric flew in on Friday and I picked him up at the airport after work and we headed out on the road. It was a pretty easy drive (as I was the passenger the whole way) and we got to the border about 9:30pm. We only had to wait about 5 minutes. For some reason I was nervous... even though we weren't transporting any drugs, alcohol or little worker children... but I had never been through the border crossing before. Eric handed the lady our passports (got to use his for the first time!) and she asked us some pretty simple questions - Where do you live? Why are you going to Canada? Where are you staying? Is this your car? They let us through and wished us good luck on the race.


We were staying at a Hilton in Burnaby and got there just after they stopped serving the good food on the room service menu. So, we ventured out to a pub and got a burger and a salad to go. Good idea on our part... that was one delicious burger. It tasted like it was cooked at home... which is my favorite.


Saturday morning we woke up and had a little breakfast and coffee.

Eggs Benedict

I really liked the coffee mugs

Then we took the skytrain to downtown Vancouver and went to the race expo to pick up our packets. It turned out to be a beautiful day. We walked along the waterfront and found a place for an afternoon coffee.

You can't NOT want coffee from a place called BoJangles Cafe. :) Then we walked through Yaletown and found Robson street (known for shopping) and found another greatly named place.

I might argue the "world's best" but they were pretty good cream puffs and I'm a sucker for eclairs. We then headed back to the hotel to rest our feet before dinner.


We had dinner with my friend Catherine and her family who were also there for the run. We ate at Earl's (which I found out after we have one in Bellevue) and had delicious pasta, seafood, salad and burgers.


I didn't sleep great on Saturday night. I admit... I was a little nervous about the run! I woke up every hour between 2 and 5am... when we got our wakeup call. It felt early. We ate oatmeal and bananas, packed up our gear and met Catherine and her dad in the lobby at 5:40. We took the skytrain to Vancouver and it was surprisingly warm for 6am. We checked our bags, took some photos and I, of course, spent 15 minutes in line for the port-a-potty (nervous bladder!).


We lined up about 6:45 with the other 6,500 people... anxiously awaiting. 7am... start time... it took us about 2 minutes to get from where we were to actually cross the starting line (which starts the time on your chip). The first few miles is pretty hectic. It's a LOT of people! A lot of people running, trying to figure out their stride, where they should go, who they should pass. It's not an easy feat. The first half an hour was mostly chaotic.. trying not to run people over or get run over yourself.

The first 6 miles went by fairly quickly (at least to me). Although, I did find out that my ipod was a little off on the mileage. When we hit the halfway point, my ipod thought I had run over 7 miles. Oh well.


The second half was a little bit harder. But at least the people had thinned out a little bit, so you weren't tripping over someone all the time. We were down by the water at that point and it was a gorgeous day! Very nice scenery. We had our GU packs around mile 7 and prepared for the hill we knew was coming. It wasn't enough. That hill was HARD! Probably because I don't run hills too often and when I do they are small and I usually stop at the top. But I just kept running. I was afraid that if I stopped, I'd have a hard time starting again. At least once we got to the top... it went downhill! Oh thank goodness. There was actually a bit of downhill in the second half and I was grateful for it.

After the halfway point, they had signs indicating every kilometer. I'm not sure if it was the signs, or just that I was tired, but the 15 through 20 seemed to take a while. And for my metric challenged friends (me included) a half marathon is 21.1 kilometers. :) When I finally saw the 20km sign, I looked at my ipod. I'd been running for 1 hour and 57 minutes. My goad had been for under 2 hours, but as I found out, I hadn't been training as fast as I thought I had! I knew there was no way I would finish the last kilometer in 3 minutes, but I kept running strong anyway. I crossed the finish line as the clock said 2:05. I was relieved and tired and happy! Only later did I realize that my actual time was 2:03 - like I said.. it took us 2 minutes to get to the starting line - but the clock started when the race did. I'm even happier with 2:03.

I only had to wait a couple of minutes for Eric, who finished in 2 hours 11 minutes. We picked up our finishing medals and had our picture taken.

Then we headed to the food tent for some bagels, eggs and fruit and celebrated for a bit with Catherine and family. On a side note: my ipod said I had run over 14 miles when I was finished... you see what I mean about it being a little bit off.

We headed back to the hotel for some well-earned sit in the hot tub. :) And perhaps a little nap in the sunshine. But first... were my celebratory peanut M&M's. For anyone who doesn't know... they are my very favorite candy... ever. But as I seem to have very little control over eating an entire bag... I gave myself a New Year's resolution/Intervention. But after my 4 month hiatus, I decided they were a good reward for such an accomplishment. And they were delicious!

After some R&R, we headed to a movie and then a chocolate cafe called Mink.

We had yummy coffees and s'more fondue.


Eric perfectly toasted his marshmallows.

I started mine on fire. :)

After 2 perfect days of weather, we woke up to rain on Monday. And it rained all day. I'm glad it waited until then. :)


We got to the border around noon on Monday. And we waited.... for over an hour. It would have probably been shorter if people didn't feel like their time was more important than everyone else who had been waiting in line and found ways to cut in front them. Luckily, Eric didn't kill anyone (but he wanted to!). :)


Questions to get out of Canada: Where do you live? What do you do? What's your relationship? How did you meet? Apparently, Canadians don't do long distance relationships. :)


We stopped by the Abbey Garden Tea room on our way home. Eric wanted to paint ceramics, but we just had lunch instead.

We had tea and sandwiches and the most delicious scone I've ever had!


There will be a next half marathon! I'm just trying to decide when and where. Time to start training again. :)


Just a few numbers from my first half marathon:


Bib 8421
Place overall 2512/6526

Place in females 1150/4166

Place in division (25-29 y/o - I'm old!) 273/760
Finish Time 2:03:14
Pace 5:51 min/km

Days sober = 511