Last Sunday I participated in my second Scotiabank Half Marathon. The course includes running past beaches, over the Burrard Street bridge to finishing in Vancouver’s beautiful Stanley Park. Read on for my Scotia Half race review, including personal highlights…and low-lights.
My last Scotiabank Half Marthon was back in 2015 when I unbeknownst to me, I was pregnant . Obviously there are many things that were different this time around.
With a packed race schedule this spring, a cold at the beginning of June, and Tough Mudder the weekend before I went into this race completely unprepared. I had literally signed up for this while I was still riding the endorphin high of my BMO experience. This lack of preparation wreaked havoc on my mental game, I was berating myself the first 8km for my lack of training.
But things turned around after the 8km when I saw Adrian and Sweets cheering me on. I stopped for a high-five and some feel good vibes, it was at this point I pulled on my big girl pants. Obviously it would be unlikely for me to get a PB when I hadn’t even trained, so I decided to suck it up and have fun……which I did…..kind of.
Vancouver Scotiabank Half Marathon Route:
Everyone talks about this run being a fast downhill route, and there is a big downhill at Jericho. However I think its easy to forget that the first third of the race is at UBC, and that it is not entirely flat. There are some gradual but challenging uphill bits. And don’t even get me started on the soul crushing Burrard street Bridge. Then again maybe I notice the hills more since the majority of my training is done in ultra-flat Richmond.
What I like
Well-organized ( Really happy they added additional bus service for the morning)- Solid volunteer support
- Charitable component
- Awesome medals!
- The souvenir shirt was a great color and the fit is perfect.
- Good variety of post-race stuff
What needs improvement:
- The lines ups for the gear-check were redonkulous. They were so long they created congested trying to get from the finish line to the after party
Would I run the Scotiabank Half again?
It’s a great race, so I have no doubt I will be running this course again!
