Why You Should Run The Vancouver USA Half or Full Marathon
The Vancouver USA Marathon was voted top 10 New Marathons by Runners World. It’s a great small town marathon and among other claims, it’s the only marathon with a Summer Brewfest and it enjoys a relatively inexpensive under $100 registration fee. I ran the half marathon slightly over a month ago, but I wanted to provide a race recap and discuss some of my training leading up to the race.
I last ran this race at it’s initial running in 2011. My time back then was 1:28:18, which placed me 6th among Masters (40+) and 29th of 1,427 overall runners. In 2016, there were not as many participants and I didn’t run as fast, finishing in 1:31:29 which was good enough for 10th overall males and 14th of 1,161 total runners. Although, I’m 5 years older, I was hoping for a better time (especially because I ran 1:27:59 earlier this year). The course is USATF certified and has a lot of uphills. Start and finish are at the same location, so it’s a net 0 incline, but the last hill at mile 12 really gets your legs. I can’t imagine what it feels like for those completing the marathon (which finishes alongside ½ marathoners for the last 11 miles).
I usually post my splits, but I’m having problems with my Garmin Forerunner GPS watch (it won’t sync up to the Garmin Connect site). I observed that at most miles I was running 6:55 to 7:05 pace, which is right inline with my finishing time.
Unfortunately, I came down with a bad cold at the beginning of the week. My frequent business travel finally caught up to me. Although I rested most of the week and ingested about 5 times the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C per day all week, I don’t think my body was fully recovered by race day.
Enough with the excuses….the Vancouver USA half and full marathon are great races. Bart Yasso from Runner’s World attends every year and helps to promote the event with pre-race shakeout runs and talks. Race day weather this year was perfect (sunny and low 60s). There’s many helpful volunteers throughout providing water, Gatorade and even energy gels. The course is well marked and there’s plenty of spectators cheering racers on. The mid June timing of the race fits well for anyone training for a Fall marathon. I also enjoy how close the race is to where I live and the fact that I can park about 3 blocks from the start (so I don’t have to stand in a line and check a bag).
The organizers are strongly considering moving the race to September. They’ve taken some surveys and observed slightly declining registration over the years. The concern is that the race interferes with Father’s Day and graduation activities. Personally, I think that with the race finishing in the morning (as most do), conflicts shouldn’t be an issue, but that’s my biased opinion and evidently not how others feel.
Training Notes:
This was the first race that I incorporated a 9 day cycle into my training. You can read about this concept in a post I wrote a few months ago. Because I view this race as more of a training run near the beginning of my marathon training, I didn’t start my longer (10+ miles) runs until about 45 days out from race day (beginning of May). I completed 2 x 10 milers, 1 x 11 mile and 1 x 12 mile run. I also completed 3 tempos of 6-10 miles (each with 1 mile warm-up and 1 mile cool down). My track work consisted of 3 sessions where I completed a combination of 200m, 400m, 600m and 800m ladder style workouts to improve my speed. A week before the race (just when I was starting to feel like a cold was coming on), I completed a track workout where I ran 2 x 2 miles at 12:50 and then 12:38. I completed strength work in the gym once per week and plyometrics/body weight exercises another time each week. Overall, I was pleased with my workouts and conditioning. I think that I was simply worn down from all my travel and my illness.
Lessons learned:
1) Get more sleep in the weeks leading up the race.
2) Run more tempo/lactate threshold runs at ½ marathon pace, which will help my marathon pace
I hope this race doesn’t move to September, but if it does, it may be reason for me to run the marathon instead of the half. I enjoy training for Fall marathons (primarily because the weather makes it easier and the long days give me more flexibility to run early in the morning or later in the evening). Regardless of when the 2017 will be held, I strongly recommend you consider adding the Vancouver USA Half or Full Marathon to your schedule. Registration fees are low and value is high.
Let me know if you’re going to be in town to run this race, I would love to link up and complete a pre-race run a day or 2 before.
