Vancouver USA Marathon!

Quite a three day weekend of running events that started Friday afternoon at the Summer Brewfest in Esther Short Park. Picked up our packets for the Vancouver USA half marathon and Liberty for the Freedom 5K on Saturday morning. Love this park in my city and am there quite often all year round.

   After the pickup and some delightful beer at the brewfest, we went to Little Italy restaurant where we met up with some of our running friends and also Bart Yasso, who was  returning for the second time in two years. Always great to have him here in Vancouver!!!

   Saturday morning was off to a sad start as Liberty could not run the Freedom 5K due to being ill with a bug of some sort so I took her place and ran it instead. This was going to be a fun run as I had the half marathon the next day but I thought,hey why not try for a place in my age group and sixth out of the top 10 masters! I ran this race reasonably hard at a 6:44 per mile pace and came in 17th out of 281 runners,placing fourth in my age group ,five seconds behind the fellow in front of me. So close!! Great fun though and here are some pics from that day!

 Here in this shot with my new running friend Michael,whom I met at a Nike run earlier this week!!!
  This was his first ever race and he ran it well,clocking in under 29 minutes for a much deserved congrats!!!!

   It is rare to have a photo of me crossing the finish line but Ann shot these thankfully!!

   With my pal Rolf before the race started. He raced hard and took first in his age group!!!

   Yes, this fellow ran the race in his fireman's suit!!  I felt like a totally inadequate runner after seeing this!

                                            Michael and Ann with Bart Yasso before the race!!

 Then some carbs for dinner that night and an early day Sunday to run the Vancouver USA half marathon! We made it down there at 6:15am to see the full marathon peeps off on their race.

                                                     Ann with Jules before the marathon!!

   Tom and Kerianne before his race!!  He went on to qualify for Boston with a 3:28 time! WTG!!

  After they took off, we had a two hour wait till our half was to get underway. Here are some shots of friends and family as we waited!!

   

                                                            Here is one of Ann and myself:

   And this one of Rolf on the right and Ann's friend Donna in the middle. She came all the way from  Salem,Oregon to watch us race!!

                                                    And finally, the post race party pics!!!!!

                                                       Nice photo bomb there Jen!!!!!

  This was another great success by the Energy Events team and Vancouver USA Marathon! Now we  can't wait for next years race and even better things!!!