Another old post. The first weekend in June, Justine and I did an early season race in Whistler. I ran the half marathon; Justine ran the 10K and despite the weather being less-than-ideal, we had a fabulous weekend!
I had wanted to keep up the running over the winter, so late last fall I signed up to do the Whistler Half Marathon. I had been OK - not great - with my training, but had not done nearly enough hill training for my liking. So I was concerned with the run. Justine had signed up for the 10k, and while she hadn't really trained much, I knew she'd be fine over the shorter distance.
The course map for the various distances. I did the Half; Justine the 10k.
We drove up Friday night, and were staying at the Crystal Lodge in the Village. It's very central, and was about a five minute walk from the start of the race. After picking up our race packages, we had a pretty relaxed evening, with the run in the morning and all.
It was a cold and gloomy day for a run.
Sadly, Saturday morning came and it was cold and overcast. Justine was starting about 20 minutes before me, so I left her in the corral, and headed up past the start line to watch her go. Sadly, it started to rain just as the 10k race was about to start. Thankfully it didn't last long - just long enough to soak everyone down. I saw Justine off, then headed for my own start.
My race started about 20 minutes later. The rain had stopped, and we were off on our way. The race course is really nice - except for one massive hill. It took me through parts of Whistler I had never seen, and overall I really enjoyed the race. It wasn't my best time, and I definitely needed to train harder, but it was OK.
After the race we went down to the hot tub at the hotel, and soothed our sore muscles. Then we headed out and wandered, as the weather had cleared up nicely. There was lots new at Whistler, and it's always great being there. We had dinner at our favourite restaurant that night, and after a big day called it an early night.
The rivers were raging with all the snow melt.
The next morning we slept in a bit, then headed out for some breakfast at the pub. As we had a late start, we were able to watch the Champions League final, in a surprisingly empty pub.
Breakfast of champions!
After brunch, we headed up on the gondola to the top at Roundhouse. It had been a big snow year, so we were curious to see the snow walls, and how big they were. Sadly, we were a bit too early, and the trails from the top of Peak Chair back down to Roundhouse were not open yet. So we had to be content with hiking up as far as the road was open, which was about half way. Still, there were some pretty big snow walls and it made for a fine afternoon, after which it was time to head home.
