Well in May everyone in the family ran a race to support diabetes research. I ran the Vancouver 1/2 Marathon, Naomi ran the Beat the Bridge 8k, and Oliver and Liam ran the Beat the Bridge Diaper Dash! How did we do? Well Naomi and Liam excelled. In barely any training Naomi ran a blisteringly fast 43 minutes and 59 seconds. And training on a diet of olives, pickles, and hot dogs Liam finished 2nd place in the 1 to 2 year old race. He loved it!
Oliver and I also ran, but our results were a little less impressive. Oliver appeared satisfied with his effort and wasn't worried that he finished in the middle of the pack in the 3 year old race, even though he is 4 and a 1/2. Watching him run, I think he has potential to be a great marathoner. He "paced" himself across the entire 25 yards.
My race was somewhat disappointing. My goal was to run the Vancouver 1/2 Marathon under 1 hour and 30 minutes. It was a brilliant day and I got the VIP treatment literally. I got to warm up in a special tent, got to use a private bathroom. I stood only a few rows behind the elite athletes. When I turned around and looked back at the 12,000 runners behind me it seemed as if they went on forever! After the gun went off I felt great for the first few miles. The course goes straight down hill into the city with amazing views of downtown and the mountains. Then you loop through China Town and at about 4 miles it gets hilly! What!? Hilly!? Seriously?! The course map said nothing about hills and my treadmill has never gone above 1.0 incline. As I went up the first hill I realized I was likely in trouble. I ran as hard as I could to keep under my goal pace and made it half way right on pace. But after a few more hills I fell off the pace. And then at mile 10 when I saw a huge hill in front of me, I thought my day was done. I even walked a little at a drink station at the top of the hill. Then I honestly kind of dogged it through Stanley Park. With about a mile left a guy pushing a kid in a baby stroller passed me. Well at that point I swallowed my pride and gutted out the last mile. And no the guy with the kid in the stroller did not beat me. I finished in 1:32:52 and in 219 place overall. This wasn't my goal race, the course was harder than I thought it would be, and I clearly have a lot of work to do to meet my goal of running a marathon under 3 hours.
While the race didn't go as well as I wanted it to, there were some highlights of the trip. First we got to hear a free New Pornographers (famous Canadian band) the day before the race and we all got to hang out in the VIP tent after the race. Vancouver is a beautiful city and if you want to run a beautiful but challenging 1/2 or full marathon give Vancouver a try. What's Next
Well life has obviously been busy since these races and its been hard to find time to post an entry. I am going to focus these next 2 months on really getting some helpful diabetes content. So stay tuned and get reading for some learning. A big thank you to Penni for her donation last month! This brings us to $600! Thank you to everyone who has donated so far!
I should have listed to your advice about how hilly Vancouver was Penni. Remember below is the fund raising link. Please consider donating! Thank you!
Click Here to Donate to Mike's JDRF Fundraising Page
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