BMO VANCOUVER MARATHON PREVIEW

Vancouver BC! The final seven miles will consist of crossing the uppermost bridge on the left and then running along the
seawall that borders Stanley Park on the Burrard Inlet before wandering downtown.

My second full marathon is nearly here. I'm freaking out a little about it... even though I have already finished one, last October seems like forever ago and all the fears about can I actually do it, how much is it going to suck, etc. have crept back. I can and will do it though! The only way this anticipation and nervousness is going to go away is about mile three of the marathon itself.

The Vancouver Marathon will have 5,000 runners, so it will be a little smaller than Portland which had 7,000 starters last year. The Seattle Marathon only had 2,000 finishers this last year. So surprisingly, Portland is the largest marathon in the Pacific Northwest and I'd venture to guess that Vancouver is the second largest. So I'm excited to do another big race and hope Vancouver goes as well as Portland did!

Course map from 2013. Basically unchanged.

PRE-RACE

Alejandro and I will start driving north after I get done with work on Friday. We're going to pit stop at his in-laws house about an hour north of Seattle. So it will be a four hour drive or so and then we'll spend the night there. On Saturday we'll sleep in, have breakfast, then drive the final 90 minutes or so across the border into Canada. This will actually be my first time in Canada since 2002 and my first visit to British Columbia.

We'll visit the expo on Saturday and generally stay low key. My parents will actually be in Vancouver, BC so we might meet them for dinner or something. The race doesn't start until 8:30am on Sunday morning (score!) so we'll probably wake up around 6:30 or so and then take the bus to the start line. The course is more of a point to point, which should be unique and fun.

THE RACE

I'm not familiar with Vancouver BC at all so the course itself will be somewhat of a surprise to me. Payback for the mystery run I led everyone on? I've Google Street Viewed a couple parts of the course to try and get familiar with things though so it won't be a total surprise. Here is my basic understanding of the course:

The start of last year's race!

Miles One Through Six

We start in Queen Elizabeth Park on what looks like a two lane road, which might be interesting given the size of the field. Anyways, we aren't in there long, as we then dump onto Cambie Street and head south. Cambie looks like a nice wide avenue with three lanes in each direction and a grassy median in the middle. Should be able to get my legs here. Slight rollers at most. We then turn right onto 49th Avenue, which is a wide two lane road that wanders through what looks like mostly a residential area.

Almost five miles straight on 49th Avenue but a good three or so should be downhill. A chance to bank a little bit of time here. I'll have to make sure not to go too fast as the last thing I need to do is trash my legs this early. We eventually wander toward the University of British Columbia and Pacific Spirit Park by taking Camosun Street, which looks like a cute lightly used residential road... unfortunately this also contains the major hill in the race. All told we gain about 230 feet in two miles or so. Honestly, for me, not that bad at all. Certainly doable.

Part of the run through Pacific Spirit Park.

Miles Seven Through Fifteen

A bigger chunk of miles that will be run through Pacific Spirit Park and the campus of UBC. There is one part where we run on Imperial Drive through the park that looks really pretty, just trees on either side! We then hook onto 16th Avenue, a four lane road with median that looks pretty nice. Will be fun to run the edges of UBC and compare it to other universities. The majority of this part of the race should be pretty flat.

At one point there is a small out and back to get the appropriate mileage. I'm actually looking forward to that. It's a kilometre at the most (look, I'm Canadian!) and it's always fun to briefly see those ahead/behind you and cheer them on. Other than that, nothing much else sticks out from this part of the race. Just a scenic run around the park and campus. There is a nice downhill right before the half marathon mark where we get to ride out all of those 230 feet we gained. I should be feeling good through this section of the race; if not, I'm in a for a long day.

Burrard Street Bridge at dawn.

Miles Sixteen Through Nineteen

After exiting the campus and getting that nice downhill stretch the rest of the course is pretty flat. Looks like some rollers for sure, but nothing major. Once off campus we once again wander around on mostly residential two lane roads. Overall there doesn't appear to be any industrial sections in the race like Portland has, only residential, park, and downtown. So it should be fairly scenic! Although, come mile eighteen, more houses isn't really going to tickle my fancy.

One of the highlights of the race will be in this section, crossing the Burrard Street Bridge. This comes right before mile nineteen of the race. That should be fun and we'll have a great view of the Vancouver skyline. It should put a pep in my step right when I'm starting to feel worn down. My parents will be cheering for me right after we get off the bridge around mile 19.5. It will be fun to see them and I'm sure I'll look forward to it all race like I was during Portland. From there they have a mile walk to the finish line... I'll still have almost seven miles.

Part of the seawall portion. Hopefully the race thins out!

Miles Twenty Through Twenty Six

These are going to take forever. They are also the most scenic. So we'll see how that dynamic plays out. Once I see my parents I'll be looking forward to the finish line, but first I get to run six miles along the seawall. Now, normally, running along the seawall would be super cool. The final 10k of a marathon?  We'll see. I hope I am feeling good enough to at least semi-enjoy it.

It looks fairly flat and while the path isn't as wide as a road, the race should be spread out enough at this point to where it's not too crowded. At every turn I'll probably be hoping that we finally break off the seawall and wander downtown to the finish. I'm sure what feels like 89 million turns later it'll actually happen and we'll come streaming downtown for the slight uphill (ugh) finish. Should be a really energetic and fun finish line and super cool to finish right downtown like in Portland.

POST-RACE

I'll hobble around, get food, and then hopefully meet Alejandro and my parents. I think Alejandro and I will go back to the hotel, take showers, and then nap. Our hotel is only about a mile away from the finish line so we will probably end up walking there. That should be fun. I did a fair amount of walking after Portland though, and while not my favorite, overall it probably helped to move around a little.

Hoping this holds. Sunday looks perfect!

After that we'll have all of Sunday and part of Monday to explore. We'll see how good we feel. We're making the drive back to Portland in one swoop, so we'll probably leave Vancouver around 3pm to beat traffic on Monday and get home around 8pm. Probably more like 9pm though considering we'll hit Seattle during rush hour.

GOALS

"A" Goal: Sub 3:30. I give this about a 50/50 chance. This is the pace I will start out at, it will be a matter of whether I can hold it or not. I would be extremely pleased with this time!

"B" Goal: New PR, so sub 3:36:42 and preferably sub 3:35. This is my main goal for the race. It would be awesome to go under 3:30, but if I run a strong race and set a new PR there is nothing I should feel bad about.

"C" Goal: Try my best and finish. The marathon is still kind of an unknown for me. I don't have a ton of experience in them, so it's hard to get a real gauge on my abilities. I know plenty of people that have run dozens of them and every so often they have a terrible race for whatever reason. So as long as I finish and try my best I have nothing to be ashamed of.

Anyways, this might be my final post until the race, so wish me luck!