Vancouver Marathon

Truth be told, today might actually be one of my favourite days of the whole year.

For the third year in a row, Kevin and I set our alarm clocks and ventured downtown to hang out at the finish line of the BMO Vancouver Marathon and cheer on racers as they came in. This year, we had six friends racing, three in the half-marathon, three in the full.

The timing is a bit funny for the races. The half marathon goes at 7am and the full goes at 8:30. Since our fastest halfer was going to be coming in at around the start time of the marathon, that was when we aimed to get there and we got there right on time. We waited for only about ten minutes before he passed by us. Our other two friends running the half marathon course came by shortly afterwards.

We got to take a bit of a breather then and walked around the finish line area and down to the festival on the street below it. We met up with a couple of our friends/finishers and listened to their experience of the race.

Once we parted ways with them, we walked back around and got back up to the race just in time to see the men’s full marathon champion cross the finish line. That’s always a really exciting moment to experience. Shortly afterward, the women’s champion came through. Interestingly, the two are engaged to be married in just a few weeks’ time.

We got to see a couple of local celebrities finish the race.

Then our marathoner friends started coming in.

Yes, he is juggling while he is running or joggling as the kids – and his bib – say.

We got to see all but one of the people on my list finish the race. Unfortunately, by about 1pm, after we’d been there for 4.5 hours, Kevin was becoming weary and his injury was acting up from too much standing. We had to pull the plug on our cheer station.

As always, this is the best experience for getting a boost of motivation and get your head into the right mindset to get back on track. It’s such an inspiring place to be and you’re surrounded by non-stop, endless good energy.