Vancouver was beautiful the day BEFORE the May 4th marathon. Snow-capped mountains stood out in the distance. Everywhere the foliage was a lush green, except for the rows of pink-blossomed cherry trees that lined the streets. Petals formed piles like snow drifts.The race Expo and talks were squeezed into the nooks and crannies of a busy shopping mall. The ever-present Jeff Galloway explained his run/walk strategy, and Rich Benyo (Editor of "Marathon and Beyond") told how that strategy helped him finish the Death Valley 300 (about which he has written a book). I picked up a copy of his "Making the Marathon Your Event" which may be worth a future review in the FTC Newsletter. Joe Henderson autographed a copy of his "Better Runs: 25 years' worth of lessons for running faster and farther", which may be the only one of his books not already on my shelf. I couldn't resist the "toys" displayed by a sports-medicine store, and stocked up on some hand strengtheners and an exer-tube (which came with a handy poster illustrating and describing 32 different exercises in both French and English).
To prepare for the ritual pre-race pasta-loading my Vancouver friends took me shopping at a farmers' market on Granville Island. The selections were incredible, in part due to the large Chinese population, second only in size to that in San Francisco. We stocked up on freshly prepared lemon-pepper pasta, ripe plum tomatoes, oyster mushrooms, mixed salad greens (many kinds of which I had never seen), along with warm multi-grain and sour-dough baguettes. The baguettes didn't make it to the car intact. I decided that a little bit of chianti with the dinner wouldn't harm my efforts at hydration. But I refilled my wine glass with the usual mixture of a carbo-load drink made up with Gatorade and supplemented with glycerol.
It rained all night. Following my pre-race warmup I changed into a back-up dry pair of socks and race shoes, but they didn't stay that way long. The start-finish was from a downtown stadium that didn't offer any cover for the runners or their left-baggage. There was a big contingent of Japanese runners, many clearly middle-aged, and it was quite a sight to see groups, all sporting yellow fluorescent caps, filing behind a tour leader carrying a banner in Japanese. These groups had their own warm-up tents. While we were lined up at the start, instructors from a local health club led us in warm-up exercises to music. Although it was crowded at the start, with the half-marathoners running with the marathoners, there was a considerable thinning after we passed the half-marathon turn-around point. This first part of the course was particularly scenic, including a forested part of Stanley Park. The course had a few rolling hills and 3 bridges with a maximum rise of 200 ft. There wasn't the usual mile-by-mile feedback of splits; the courses was marked in kilometers, with mile markers only at 5-mile intervals. It did have the advantage that the markers rolled by much more quickly, even if there were 42 of them instead of 26. I apparently ran a fairly even race, hitting the half-marathon marker at 1:45 and finishing at 3:31. Most of the race I was close to a fellow from Bank of Yokohama, but couldn't manage to strike up much of a conversation. The finish line announcer was particularly good, and used all of the information that you had provided on your application form; age, hometown, profession, number of marathons run, and if your time was better than your PR or projected time. At the end of this marathon you received a finisher's long-sleeved shirt that pictured the Lion's Gate Bridge. This was one of the few cool-weather marathons that I have run where you weren't immediately cloaked in a space blanket upon crossing the finishing line. I donned my after-race warmup suit, but by the time we had finished the slow shuffle back to the car my teeth were chattering. Don't let me discourage you. It is a nice race and I would recommend it. The weather is usually better, but it is well to be prepared.
Stanley Park had an out-and-back segment that allowed us mid-pack runners to see the front runners. Juan Gonzalez (MEX) won the men's division in 2:22:53, and Eniko Feher (HUN) the women's in 2:49:56. Some 358 runners finished ahead of me, and the total number of marathon finishers was about 2300. For a full profile of the Vancouver International Marathon including a description of the city and the race course, see the first issue of "Marathon and Beyond", Human Kinetics Press, P.O. Box 5067, Champaign, IL 61825. They take credit cards for the $29.95 yearly subscription by calling 800-747-4457.