Rock 'n' Roll Vancouver weekend report: day 1

I worked the expo and ran the Rock 'n' Roll Vancouver Half Marathon last year, and figured that I didn't really need to run it again. Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed the race in 2024, and I love Vancouver, but with so much else going on, and so many other races to run, I had decided to skip it in 2015.

But then a representative from Competitor visited our offices with a great discounted offer... AND the news that RNRVAN would qualify me for a "World Rocker" medal... and that I could run the 10K on the Saturday and earn a "Rockin' Remix" medal. Oh, and the half marathon medal? Well, it featured a sparkly orca. #SPARKLYORCA!!!!

I asked LSF Suz if she was up for a girls running weekend in the Great White North, and she readily agreed. 

We headed to Vancouver on the Amtrak Cascades -- always a lovely trip. 

Foggy!

Low tide!

After arriving in Vancouver we checked into our digs at the Hotel Listel, an artsy little place on Robson. There was a little confusion -- I had booked a room with two queen beds but had been assigned a room with one -- but the manager stepped in and quickly sorted everything out. 

We had a couple of hours to kill before the expo opened, and rumbling bellies, so we had lunch at the Winking Judge, which for some reason still sounds to me like something risqué. 

Then expo, which was a little nutty. I expected it to be pretty quiet, opening at 3, but a line stretched down the hall. Also, neither of us had remembered to print out our waivers... And we needed one for each race... So there was some frantic scribbling. 

the line to get in to the expo...

But we got in, had a little adventure getting our bibs (okay, we just lost each other for half an hour... with no phones...) but eventually caught up with each other in the Brooks official merchandise booth. 

Stuff was cute, but I resisted buying. I did almost buy a tank with an illustrated map of the course on it, but the print was yellow on midnight. Had it been white, I probably would have bought it. 

I did buy my usual pint glass and medal pin. I still have MASSIVE REGRET that I accidentally bought the magnet rather than the pin at RnR St. Louis!

Waiting in line to pay was funny -- lots of chatter about different races, apparel items, and running in general.A friend of someone else in line kept making runs for various people in line -- "Can you get me a medal pin?" "Can you pick up a pint glass?" etc.

We wandered the expo, getting our post-race beer garden wristbands (we were glad we did, later!), checking out new sunglasses, and such, but we didn't linger. 

After leaving the expo we wandered over to Gastown, ending up at the Blarney Stone at a really nice table next to the open  front windows, where we were really just going to have one drink... But the table was very nice, as was the cider... and they had a nice menu... did I mention that the baseball game was on, and all of Canada was rooting for the Blue Jays?

Then back to our hotel to sleep... we had a 10K to run in the morning!