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.

Time for an Altitude Adjustment - Rock n Roll Denver 2014

There isn't much of a thread holding this weekend together, so Susan suggested going with the alphabet (or as far as "D").

A is for Altitude.

For the second time in 2014 we were racing a mile above sea level. With Susan hitting an altitude sickness wall at mile 8 in Casper and four more weeks of travel for four races, so including the wave start, this was likely going to be another three hour tour (a threeeee hour tooooooour....).  Perhaps the altitude and light-headedness explains why I registered for the full marathon instead of the half. I only realized this when I went to pick up my bib at the expo and found myself in Corral 1. A 2:25 finish time (for the full) apparently gets you a pretty cushy corral assignment.

I wasn't the only one who made the mistake. Our friend Tamie did the same thing AND she also registered for the 5K, thinking it was another Remix event with the 5K on Saturday and the Half on Sunday. We blame the thin air (even though I'm sure we were at sea level when we signed up).

B is for Blue Bears, Boom Boxes and Bikes.
The Expo was held in the Colorado Convention center across the street from our hotel with the iconic Blue Bear. It was put in place as part of the Denver's Public Art Program in 1988, an Executive Order that 1% of any capital improvement project over $1 million would be set aside for some sort of art and design for the site.

If you're at a Rock n Roll race, it's hard to miss our crazy friends from the SA2LV group. Rounding the park near mile 5, we heard disco music. Only it was actually catching up to us. Kelvin (Boom Box in hand), Chris and Jessica had run the 5K, swapped shoe tags and hustled their way to the half marathon start. Kelvin actually ran the full. Quick selfie and they moved ahead to the strains of "I Will Survive".

Denver is one of the many cities we've visited for races that has a bike share program. Here it's called B-Cycle. For $8 you can buy a one-day access pass and rent the bike free for 30 minutes. Charges start adding up after that, but it's great to have if you want to skip the cab ride or have sore feet before or after your race. The rental period is not quite enough time to make a quick trip to a nearby restaurant (You know, for carboloading), but it does make for a good pictoblog.

Tawni, Tamie, Michelle, Susan and Al biked from the REI mega-store back to the hotels. We had to get creative with Al's check out time rapidly approaching.

In general, you can even get along without the bikes. RNR Denver is a really cozy race. Staying downtown at the Embassy Suites put us right across the street from the Expo, 4 blocks from the Start and Finish and within walking distance of the heart of downtown. 

C is for Crisp, Chilly (but not quite Cold).
Starting in the low 40's, Rock n Roll Denver was the coldest race we've done since Antarctica (there's a phrase I never thought I'd use!). Now that we're getting into the fall race season, our suitcases are getting heavier with the addition of gloves, long compression pants, and more disposable sweatshirts in case the space blankets aren't enough. It turns out we didn't really need the gear since the wind was light, but we'd rather have it just in case.

Come to think of it, this wasn't even as cold as Fremont last December. Why do we worry about these things?

C is also for Cheyenne (Wyoming)
My friend Michelle drove a couple hours to meet us in Denver. She and I go back to the old MySpace days. It dates me, I know. The last time we met was in San Francisco about 6 years ago when she was touring with her husband and boys. Years later, we subjected her to the second segment of our duathlon.  

Fortunately, she was rewarded for her adventurous nature with...

D is for Donuts
Those of you from the Portland, Oregon area may be fans of the VooDoo Donuts experience. The Denver location had a short line compared to the 45 minute wait we had in 2013 in Portland. That may have had something to do with some football game going on in town where records were broken (yay, Peyton!).  Again, the bikes came in handy. The baskets were just big enough to fit a box of donuts each.

E is for eating.  After lunch at Katie Mullens, our dinner consisted of the free happy hour food at the Embassy Suites and splitting a dozen Voodoo dounts.

Our race schedule is full for the next five weekends and Denver was one of the most relaxed and fun-filled trips we've had in a while. Going into a chilly fall race season, it was good to get that warm fuzzy feeling of laughing and connecting with good friends on this bizarre path we've put ourselves on.

Oh yeah. F is for Friends.  What would this journey be without them?

~//~

Rock n Roll Denver was first held under the Rock n Roll brand in 2010. It was previously the Denver Marathon (established in 2006) and has grown from just under 3000 participants in the 2006 to nearly 12,000 in 2014.  This year there were 8,129 finishers in the Half Marathon (median finish time 2:14), 1,711 finishers in the Full (Median finish 4:27), 1439 finishers in the 10K (median finish 1:07) and 599 finishers in the 5K (median finish time 37:30).

The course starts and finishes in downtown Denver with a few miles on the edge of Sloan's Lake Park where there are some really nice views of the mountains on a clear day. The course is not very hilly with a total elevation change of 381 ft according to my Garmin. About the most annoying thing is that the Half/Full split is at mile 12.5 and the first thing the full marathoners see at the turn is a good sized hill.  Weather this year started in the mid 40's and warmed to a pleasant low 60's with sun. It was pretty much perfect race weather.

Rock n Roll Denver was our 11th RNR event for 2014, leaving us 4 away from CGI's newly created Hall of Fame for 15 North American races.  This was Susan's 20th and Ron's 19th race at the Half Marathon or longer distances this year and Susan's 74th lifetime half. We've done well with the 5K and 10K's, but for some reason, I still don't think enough of them to count them in our race totals.

We haven't signed up for Denver 2015, but it's high on our list as we go after our fifth Rock Idol medals.