A View From the Top - Rock n Roll St. Louis Weekend 2015

October brings a full race schedule for the Rock n Roll Marathon Series. For three weeks we have choice of two cities for the weekend. We'll ignore the fact that SOME people didn't make the choice this weekend but raced in both St. Louis and Denver.

Landing at Lambert International after an early morning flight gave us plenty of time to get to the hotel before going to the Expo. The Metro ride was convenient and dropped us off within a couple blocks of the Hilton Ballpark and we could go straight to the expo. The $4 for the 2 hour pass is worth it and saves a bunch on cab fare. 

This year, we didn't have to contend with the Cardinals being in the playoffs having being eliminated a few days before by the Cubs.  Yes, Back to the Future may have been right!

Yeah. I think we got this.

Even with the Cards done for the year, the water near the Old Courthouse was still dyed Cardinal Red. It made for a nice contrast with the crystal blue skies.

We dropped our bags at the hotel and a half mile walk to the Expo. First step was to find and congratulate our friend Jennifer on her recent engagement. We see friends at Competitor Group more than we see some of our own families, so this was a great way to start our visit.

This weekend saw the fourth round of entrants to Rock n Roll Marathon's Heavy Medal Hall of Fame, awarded for finishing 15 races in the calendar year. Sherry (right) and James would earn the medal in St. Louis and Leny got the coveted backpack and swag package in Denver. Leny also celebrated two major milestones over the weekend - her 100th half marathon and more importantly, 5 years cancer free!

Thanks, Grace, for the picture and for finding us the RNR pins!

We had a lot of prep for two races and were going on little sleep (especially Sherry), so we hit a quick dinner and tried to figure out what to do for the forecasted mid-30's starting temps for the 5K on Saturday. We should be used to this. Two years ago when we were here, it was almost the exact same weather. Thanks to Facebook, we even knew what we wore.

Saturday October 17th. 5K. 
Probably the best memory I had of our 2013 race here was the sunrise through the Gateway Arch. As we made our way to the start line, the sun came up. My wife is my sunshine in more ways than one.

The 5K was new this year. With about 1300 finishers, it looks like it has a good chance of being back in 2016. It was set up with the same start/finish as the half marathon, so logistics were great for the race.

We had some special guests this race. Amy (already a 2015 Hall of Famer) had a dozen of her family members join her. They ran and walked in memory of Amy's uncle Bill who died of cancer.  Hyalker has been running for young Katy (in the stroller) for years, donating his medals to her. She and four family members joined us as well.

Joining us just before the gun was the 2015 RNR race leader, Leah. She may have been trying to catch up on sleep or prepping for her flight out right after the 5K.  See, she was in town only for about 20 hours before flying to Denver to the the Rock n Roll Half Marathon on Sunday. She was awarded a de facto Remix medal for doing two races over the weekend, even though they were in different cities... in different time zones.

The 5K course was a nice out and back and gave us a chance to cheer for each other on at the 1.5 mile turn. I waited a few minutes for Susan and we waited for Hyalker and Lawrence, strollers in tow.

Hyalker's run with Katy was the first time he'd raced with a stroller. He's planning on doing the half marathon with her next year as long as he figures out how to keep his hands warm.  Lawrence said his puppy, Molly, was a real chick magnet.  Katy agrees.

Race 1 done. Obligatory selfie after trying a couple of the 76 flavors of Gooey Butter Cake for brunch at Park Avenue Coffee. One could argue which action was more sickeningly sweet. Heh.

We tried or  gave away White Chocolate Raspberry, Cinnamon Roll, Butterscotch Toffee, Triple Chocolate, Red Velvet, Turtle, Pumpkin, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Espresso Chip and of course, Original!

We caught up with Michelle and Ted at the expo and set up dinner that night at Charlie Gitto's. We also caught up with Jennifer, the Maid of Honor at our wedding 20 years ago when we were all in grad school at Wisconsin. Jen drove an hour and a half from Springfield to cheer us on at the half. 

It's always interesting to see how friends from previous lives integrate with our current circle. We kept telling Jen that we're not the craziest ones. We have crazier friends. The jury is still out.

The non-selfie turned out well. I'll use it instead!

About this time, Al was starting a Denver vs. St. Louis thread. With the magic of social media, it was nice to see what our friends were doing hundreds of miles away. Beth was in early and dining alone, so we sent a few encouraging comments and likes her way. Al noted Denver had "Zombies, Beer Festival, Perfect Weather, Bourbon Tasting."  St. Louis countered with "Marching Band Competition, Gooey Butter Cake and 50th Anniversary Gateway Arch tour."

Each according to his tastes.

Sunday, October 17th. Half Marathon Day
Early morning twilight is rough for the iPhone camera folks. The pictures we took were limited to an extended group selfie and a few more sunrise pics.

About 10 minutes into the race, my phone powered down because of the cold. Fortunately Susan's was fine. Fortunately, I was able to use the charcoal hand warmers in my Flipbelt to get the phone back going by mid-race.

The RNR loyalists at the start of the half in St. Louis. This group represents close to 200 Rock n Roll races this year, more if you include 5K and 10Ks.

Left to right(ish): Ron, Michelle, Ted, Sherry, Amy, Ilona, Susan, Hyalker, Carl, Irene, Jesus. I didn't catch the names for the other three gentlemen.

Some of the best stories come from pictures I take spontaneously. Amy runs for a reason. And her accomplishments this year are because of her dedication to the goal she set at the start of the year. She ran a personal best in St. Louis, beating her previous best by 3 minutes. This was her 16th Rock n Roll race of 2015.

I remember the half marathon course being pretty fast. There were some rolling hills, but knowing that we ended near the start, we knew that every uphill would give us a downhill later. It took a while to get warm, but the sun came out strong. By the time we were finished, it would be comfortable sweatshirt weather, at least in the sun.

There's a band I wouldn't have expected. Ukulele Fight Club!

This was one of my better races considering I wasn't actually pushing too hard after San Jose and Brooklyn. I walked the first 10K in 1:10:12 and had a slightly faster back half, hitting a good negative split for the last 5K at 34:33. I've got my sights set on RNR New Orleans for another shot at a PR, so I don't want to take the usual time off for the Eating Season (roughly Halloween through Easter).

Jennifer was using the Share My Location feature on our iPhones to keep track of our progress and it worked perfectly. I caught her on the side of the road just past mile 13. She was busy wowing the spectators around her with her knowledge of racing, race walking and technology.  Plus she had cool signs.

I don't always get pictures of Susan finishing, but when I do, its with her personal cheer squad.

This year, Competitor Group added Heavy Medals for 8 and 9 races, along with adding the 15 race Hall of Fame medal. However, anyone between 10 and 15 (or over 15) are in Heavy Medal Limbo. Amy took it upon herself to make a stack of homemade Heavy Medals with the RNR St. Louis logo on them, awarding them at the finish line.

Ilona hit 17. The scooter survived the race without issues, thankfully...

Carl also finished race #17. He said if Ilona's scooter had another flat tire, it would have ended up in the Mississippi. Maybe a good intro for an episode of Homicide Hunter?

Ilona awarded Amy her 16. Her Race Twin Ainsley received her Hall of Fame medal an hour later in Denver (below).

Amy earned her 15th in Brooklyn last weekend.  Now BOTH are Hall of Famers!

Susan and I hit our 13th. With 3 more races scheduled, we should finish with our second Hall of Fame in Las Vegas.

Michelle and Ted are at 11. They have four more races this year so if all goes well, they'll hit Hall of Fame in San Antonio.

Missing from this picture is James, the third Hall of Fame entrant of the weekend. I asked Amy at the Heavy Medal booth and she's guessing there will be 40 - 50 Hall of Famers this year. There may be a lot more, at least mathematically. We still have a month and a half left!

After a late check out and cleaning up, we took a tour of the Gateway Arch. Some of the pictures through the windows were really impressive. The view at the top was spectacular.

Half marathon #96 in the books. 

We're still feeling like we're on top of the world!

 ~//~

Rock n Roll St. Louis was held for the fifth year in 2015. This year they added the 5K for the Remix Weekend, but discontinued the full marathon. There were 5,758 finishers in the half marathon (median finish time 2:15:34) and 1,334 finishers in the 5K (median 35:51). Both times we've been there, starting temps were in the 30's (though the signs at the banks showed a starting temp in the mid to high 40's). Disposable layers are a good idea.

The race for the Hall of Fame continues. Unofficial numbers ("The Pannell Report") have 13 already in the Hall and potentially 94 total unless someone pulls off a Philly/Merida double. 

16 at 10

21 at 11

25 at 12

14 at 13

5 at 14

4 at 15     Hall of Fame

4 at 16

4 at 17

1 at 18

Rock n Roll St. Louis brought our half and full marathon total to 140 Rock n Roll races as a couple. We have a few more milestones coming up this year so I'm going to go back and verify our count. Given that this was supposed to be a one-and-done bucket list item, I think we're entitled to celebrate a few times as we keep going.

Next stop, Rock n Roll Los Angeles and an epic costume race!

A Beautiful Beginning - The Inaugural Rock n Roll Vancouver Half Marathon 2014

On a weekend when most of our friends were in sunny Southern California racing in the Rock n Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon/moving costume party, we were headed north of the border to British Columbia, Canada. It was an inaugural race, so as much as we love doing the short trips to SoCal, we couldn't miss this one.

The forecast was looking like we made an bad choice. But with the string of hot summer races, the cooler weather in Denver last week was a welcome change. We would have to see how our legendary Weather Luck held out.  Just to hedge our bets, though, we decided to bring a good luck charm. If we were going to be under water, we might as well embrace our inner duck.

The Rock 'n' Roll gypsy reunion started even before we left San Francisco. Kamika had taken a red-eye from Kauai and was on the same flight to Vancouver. He got a first class upgrade, but we lucked out with a very empty exit row area.

Two adjacent exit rows to ourselves. The duck is watching Iron Man 3.

The SkyTrain was an easy way to get from the airport to Vancouver City Center station near our hotel. Kamika went one extra stop to meet a friend and head to the expo at the Convention Center station. Thanks to Kevin for the tip to save $5 by getting the day pass from the 7-11 in the terminal. Our hotel was right across from the BC Place stadium about a 1 km walk to the Expo. Our newly named Canuck the Duck was looking for photo ops.

There was some very cool decor at the airport. I missed taking a picture of the indoor waterfall closer to baggage claim.

Right about here, most tourist's trips would be complete!

Expo entrance. Canuck takes my usual race map picture.

When we went to Montreal last year, we bought the half-zip long sleeves at the expo and pretty much wear them everywhere. I'm glad they were good colors this time around because I plan to wear this one a lot too. It was good to catch up with Cathy while we shopped.

I didn't ask Jennifer if I could get a second bib for Canuck. Good thing too, because he didn't bring his ID.

Fellow SA2LV alum Kelvin hit his 15th Rock n Roll Race for the year, qualifying him for the new Hall of Fame. He and Joe Harris - running at RNR Los Angeles - were inducted this weekend. 

We met Kevin at the expo later. Apparently there's this new sports drink he's raving about called Pocari Sweat. Maybe it's just me, but I think the marketing department could have come up with a better name.

We ran into Mr. Clydesdale himself, David DeNeire. Having lived in Vancouver a while back, he gave us some good tourist tips. Maybe next time, we'll take you up on the trip to Whistler.

At David's suggestion, we took advantage of the light rain on Friday afternoon to take an Aquabus trip from the Plaza of Nations port to the Granville Island Public Market for lunch and some shopping. The Aquabus is a great way to see the city skyline and bridges and to scout out some good walking paths on the shore. Fares range from $3.25 to $5.50 depending on the route and day passes are available for $13 to $15. They even have "Cyquabuses" for ferrying bikes from port to port. 

We ended up at the Sandbar on a tip from the Aquabus captain. Ron had a craving for salmon. Canuck nearly got a bath from the waiter. It was chilly, on the porch but we had some good people and boat watching time.

Granville Island Public Market is definitely a good place to pass a few hours and load up on hotel snacks. Lots of fresh produce, prepared meals and eateries. There are a few dozen souvenir shops of handcrafted goods. 

Some items may not do well in the hotel fridge

The rain let up in the mid afternoon and we decided to cut the round trip Aquabus trip short to walk back along False Creek. Vancouver is a very bike-friendly city, especially along the water where bikes and pedestrians have their own dedicated lanes.  Fall colors were in full strength as were some of the Halloween decorations.

On the way back, I swung by the Olympic Cauldron from the 2012 Winter Olympics. You may recall the mechanical difficulties at the ceremony. It was moved to the current location after the games and is just as impressive in daylight as it was lit up at night.

We had dinner at Brioche Urban Eatery in the Gastown district. It was a small cozy place with room for maybe few dozen people. The pasta was made fresh and the veggies were very flavorful. The staff was willing to work on a custom dish for Susan since the marinara was prepared with garlic.  We passed on the signature cioppino soup, even though it had a lot of clams.

Chicken tortelli. Kevin is branching out a bit.  Note that Tea in Vancouver comes sweetened by default

Salted Caramel Torte and Mixed Berry tart. Counting the chocolates at Granville, this gave us our quota of 8 desserts. 

BC Place was right across from our hotel. We had to take a picture of the souvenir shop.

Race morning was in the low 40's with a forecast for 20% chance of rain and some breezes by 10 AM. I keep telling myself that Antarctica was fine, but for some reason, we always over prepare for cold weather. We just caught the Half Fanatics pictures at the Cauldron at 7AM on the way to the starting line.

We decided at the last minute to spring for VIP to stay warm, especially since it was a point to point course. We also met up with fellow race walker Gary Baldwin from Portland. Between Gary, Kevin, Susan and me, I can only think of two or three other sub-2:30 half marathon walkers on the Rock n Roll circuit who aren't Olympic qualifiers. Granted, the gap between our 2:25 - 2:30 PR's and the Olympic 1:30 - 1:40 times is huge, but it's nice to have a niche. 

Canuck didn't want to miss the race. Fortunately, my race pack had a convenient pocket that fit him perfectly.

Dave was going to pace Shelly to about a 2:30 finish. We caught a quick group shot before the starting gun. RNR Vancouver held to wave starts all the way to the last corral to keep the crowd spread out on the narrow Seawall paths.

Vancouver had one of the most scenic courses we've ever seen. It had a wonderful mix of cityscape, water views, park and forest. Some commentary below, but most of it was just fun to look at.

BC Place comes up in the distance and made for some beautiful photos on the race course.

Short section along False Creek. The brick and cobblestones were slippery in some spots with the wet leaves, but easily manageable.

Susan caught this because it was our 12th Rock n Roll race for 2014. And it was pretty.

Lots of beach and shore areas have rock stacking statues. Apparently, Vancouver took this to the next level.

Entering Stanley Park. The smell of the fir trees was like a Christmas tree lot.

This turn had a view of the Lion's Gate suspension bridge. The 10K passed the iconic lions, but the Half missed it by a few hundred meters.

I caught this picture as the sun started breaking through the clouds in Stanley Park at kilometer 16. It was a good diversion since it was also the point where most of people's splits went to mush. The hills in the last 5K had most of us slowing way down.

More views along the Seawall on the way to the finish line at Devonian Park

The last kilometer along the marina. The people lining the right side of the path were giving us a much needed boost. 

We didn't feel a drop of rain the entire race and finished with temps in the low 60's. Devonian park was a bit muddy, but easily big enough to hold the 9000 or so finishers for the headliner concert.

Another SA2LV alum had a great weekend. Jessica PRed in the 10K, ran a mile back to the starting line and finished the half. Oh yeah, she got her Cascadia medal for having done Seattle and Portland too.

We haven't actually met many of the Race Ambassadors. Lisa gave us some great ideas for exploring the city and was absolutely thrilled to have Rock n Roll in her backyard.

It was a really good weekend for a race. Inaugurals can be unpredictable as far as quality, but Rock n Roll seems to have it down pat. This was the 10th Inaugural RNR races we've completed and we've enjoyed every one.  If this year's event was any indication, Vancouver and Rock n Roll are at the beginning of a beautiful friendship. 

~//~

The 2014 running of Rock n Roll Vancouver was an inaugural event at the Half Marathon distance, but was an acquisition of the previously known Cunningham Seawall 10K.  This year, there were 6337 finishes in the Half (median finish time: 2:09), 354 in an early start for those needing extra time to meet the 4.5 hour cut off, and 2808 finishers in the 10K (median finish time 1:06).

The course starts just south of Canada Place and heads east through the Gastown District before turning south and west on Prior Street on the way back to the trail on False Creek. The course follows the coast past Sunset Beach into Stanley Park and back along Lagoon Drive to cut north toward Vancouver Harbor. The last 5K are along Stanley Park Drive. As mentioned before, it's a bit hilly there, so thankfully, it's at least pleasant to look at.

Ron finished in 2:29:57, his 11th half walked under 2:30 and his 6th this year. Susan finished in 2:33:15 which is her fifth fastest race, so clearly the training this year is paying off, especially with the cooler weather. This was Susan's 75th lifetime half marathon. Twelve more events and she'll hit 100 for full, half and ultras. Ron needs a few races to catch up.

A few scary moments. We saw two runners down at mile 9.25 and 11. The first was receiving active chest compressions and the second was just being loaded into an ambulance when we passed. Thanks to the Half Fanatics group page, the last reports were that they are both recovering in local area hospitals. There hasn't been an update since then, but we are hoping for the best.

We haven't signed up for Rock n Roll Vancouver 2015, but it's one that would be high on our list for future races.