Question: Anyone going to do
Vancouver? Done it before? Six weeks and counting.
Answer:
This will be my 7th Vancouver. Great new course, wonderful scenery and
terrific spectaters. Organization? Well, they promise this year will be
a big improvement over last year.
Ran it last year. Rained from an hour before to an hour after the marathon.
The jaunt out through Stanley park is nice.
The food was Spartan, bananas and big dry warehouse type muffins.
Water and Gatorade at the end was pour-your-own.
If it wasn't for the 3 days in Seattle before and 2 days up at Whistler
after, it would have been an uneventful, lackluster though well managed
race. Vancouver itself has plenty to offer, we liked that part of the stay.
Last winter and spring were unusually wet - even for Vancouver. So far
this year, I've only been rained on once during my weekend run and things
are dryer overall - I'd say your odds are good for decent weather.
Enjoy the race! I'm not doing it this year (ran it last in 1995 on the old
course), but will be out cheering :)
Yes I am planning to do it...never done this one before. Did one in
Sacramento (my first) last December. I'm very much looking forward to it
because I've been to Vancouver a few times and I love the place.
Last four weeks I've run very little, though, due to persistent arch
pain. I've been self-treating, with slow but steady improvement over the
past four weeks. Marathon in Vancouver on May 7 now looks problematic at
best. But there is a 1/2 marathon option, and I have enjoyed those races
in the past.
What does anyone think...Can one who is in generally decent running
shape, but who has not been doing the long training runs, still get it
together and run a marathon in six weeks? I mean of course I could run
it...but would it be stupid?
Well, I've done 4 marathons, with Vancouver '98 being my first. It's very
scenic, but still doesn't seem to have its "footing" like a Portland
Marathon does. Having said that, I watched last years' with unseasonably
cold and rainy weather. Yes, we get rain here, but it's mostly gone by
early May. Last year saw a deluge and about 3 degrees celsius.
Anyway, I trained like hell and had a good race. Did Portland in the fall,
trained a bit less and lost about a minute and a half. Did Seattle the same
year, got sick, ran it anyway, had been doing too many races and bonked,
bigtime! I skipped almost a year, did Kelowna in the fall with spotty long
runs and had a PR 3:06.
I've decided to do Vancouver with almost no training, other than my 1 - 3
tempo runs a week. I've done spotty long runs and have just been pulling
together my long runs. Did 20 last week with nothing longer than 14 miles
prior to that (and 4 weeks earlier to boot) and I felt great. I'm going to
up my mid-week mileage a bit, do about 3 more 20 - 24 milers and go for it.
