Vancouver 1/2 Marathon Update:

You could not have had a better day to run the streets of Vancouver and Stanley Park! The sun was out and the temperature was 12 degrees. The scenery was spectacular and running in Stanley Park on a Sunday morning with no traffic was fantastic. I set my time goal for this first official 1/2 marathon at 2:20 minutes. My goal was to run a moderate pace through the 10K mark and run 10 minutes and walk 1 minute for the balance of the race. I ran through the first 10K and made it to the course halfway point without any rest periods. I felt strong so I decided to continue to run the entire race. I was running a 10:04 minute mile at this point. I continued to run through the Prospect Point hill and made some ground up on some runners who decided to walk the 200 metre climb. Any good 200 metre uphill is always followed by a 200 metre downhill... The momentum (Advil/Motrin) began to kick in as I ran out of Stanley Park to Beach Avenue and English Bay. Up Beach to Pacific and on to the BC Place Finish line. My final time according to my watch was 2:14:30 for 13.25 miles ahead of my 2:20 goal and as a bonus I ran the entire course. Now it is on to the Full Marathon Training schedule for the New York City Marathon November 2, 2008.