What an upheaval the Olympic Games in Vancouver in February has caused on the local running schedule!
The First Half Half-Marathon, usually taking place in February, would fall smack-dab in the middle of the Olympics and had to cancel their 2010 event for lack of venue. The world’s 2nd largest timed 10K run, the Sun Run, has been bumped from the usual end-of-April slot to taking place after the Vancouver International Marathon, in mid-May. However fun it would be to gather our friends together for NPY’s first 10K, I probably will not be in town that weekend as I am traditionally in Halifax then.
So, I looked for different races other than “the usual” and came up with a mix of the old and the new.
Honestly, the colours for the Harry Rosen Spring Run-Off 8K was the tipping point for deciding to register. Besides that, the funds are raised for prostate cancer (more dear to a boy’s heart than mine), the route is a can’t-beat-this loop around Stanley Park, the price is right, 8K is the next logical distance for NPY, and we have a whole 8 weeks to train up to the March race. (The Victoria Times Colonist 10K takes place around the time Sun Run would have been but I won’t make the ferry ride over for just a 10K….)
And then, to save myself a paltry $5 that doesn’t even cover the blessed “processing fees”, I registered for another Canadian Running Series event, the Scotiabank Vancouver Half-Marathon at the end of June. I guess I will be in Vancouver at the end of June….
I had this fanciful idea of doing the super-fun Seattle Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon first as a marathon, then as a halfer. I’m not so inclined to train for a full-marathon this winter (or this year) based on my disappointing performance last year and I’d rather take in the Olympic fanfare in February than finding long running routes that don’t run into Olympic-restricted zones. (I could run to Richmond and UBC but, oh, I loathe that thought.) The Rock ‘N’ Roll half-marathon takes place one day before the Scotiabank half–I could do it if there was a week in between! Which pretty much tanks the fanciful idea of doing a couple of Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathons this calendar year and obtaining an extra heavy meDal. There’s always next year.
What about the summer? I don’t think the HBC Run for Canada is coming back–if they were, they could have really cool Olympic-inspired gear as they did in 2008 for the Beijing Olympics Canadian team. NPY is fond enough of Nike that we could do the Human Race 10K. And I always wonder what happened to the Canucks 10K. I really want that one to come back but as far as I can tell, the last one was in 2006.
Finally, what about running on 10-10-10? However great the shopping in city of Portland is, I won’t make the too-long road-trip for a third year in a row for the Portland Marathon, no matter the superb fanfare at an American race. So I could be convinced to return to Victoria for the Royal Victoria Marathon. NPY can do the 8K (unless he’s up for a half!!) and you can just imagine how thrilled he is that I’m planning all this for him!!
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