(Several of the photos in this post – especially the ones at the start of the race – are courtesy of Lauren! Also, this post is long! Consider yourself warned )

Hi friends! I started writing this blog post from the beautiful ferry ride on yesterday morning. I miss Victoria already. What a beautiful, beautiful city. I cannot wait to go back!

So I guess you’re all waiting for the race report, hey? Sunday was such a great race day with perfect weather – overcast and about 10 C! I’m so proud of us all! Alarms were going off in our hotel room at 5:45 AM on race day and Leigh, Lisa and I bounded out of bed to get ready.

The three of us were fueled and dressed within an hour so we left to walk the two blocks to the start line around 7:00 AM. Our hotel was in the perfect location. Lauren didn’t start her marathon until 45 minutes after us but she was a good sport and got out of bed and came to the start.

Once there we had time to hang around and take some photos before the crowds of people really started rolling in.

I’m so glad Leigh french braided my hair! I wish that I had someone to do that all the time, it kept out of my face perfectly during the race.

I had been debating on my race outfit all morning and finally at the last minute I decided to send my coat back to the hotel with Lauren and just wear a t-shirt and shorts. This was a very good decision. Here we all are in our final race outfits:

Before long it was time to start running. Leigh, Lisa and I all had similar time goals so the plan was to start together and stay together as long as possible!

Mile 1 – 9:15

With around 5,000 runners this was a crowded race and we spent a lot of the first mile weaving in and out of people. It was definitely a bit mentally exhausting to start the race that way.

Mile 2 – 8:44

Around mile three we headed into Beacon Hill Park. Now, I must say, the website for Victoria marathon boasted a “flat” course but I would not call this course flat AT ALL! It had tons of rolling hills. Granted they were small hills and the highest elevation we reached was 100 metres, but it was still a lot of up and downs and I found that really hard on my legs and they got tired and sore fast.

I did a ton of speed training for this race but not a lot of hill speed training. I definitely would have benefited more from that – check out the elevation profile below to see all the up-and-downs we ran.

Mile 3 – 8:40

Mile 4 – 8:54

It was around mile 4, that we went up the first hill in the park and Lisa powered up ahead of Leigh and I. She was on fire and that was the last time we saw her until the end. She did SO awesome. Read her race report here.

Leigh and I stayed together running in front of one another or beside one another but not really talking because we were so focused on our goals (you can see Leigh just ahead of me in the photo below).

Mile 5 – 8:44

Around mile 5 we came out of the park and started running along the pacific ocean. Words and photos cannot describe how stunningly beautiful this part of the race was. It was amazing. I would highly recommend this course and would come back and run it again in a heartbeat!

Mile 6 – 9:06

Mile 7 – 8:47

At mile 6 I started playing mental games with myself. My 10K split was around 54 minutes and I started thinking “omg, I have to run SEVEN miles in an hour. I can’t do that, I can’t do that” I had to remind myself to take it one mile at a time so I started focusing on each mile individually and the goal was just to keep it under 9 minute miles.

Mile 8 – 9:08

At this point we were just zig-zagging through some residential neighbourhoods and the route was very rolling with the inclines. I was struggling and just kept telling myself to dig deep and push hard. Right before heading back out of the residential area I stopped to walk through a water station and I saw Leigh go up ahead of me. After I was done taking my fuel I sprinted to catch up with her. We then ran beside each other for a couple of miles.

Mile 9 – 8:47

Mile 10 – 9:12

We came back out along the water again at this point. It was so beautiful! Sadly I was running too hard to get a non-blurry photo

At mile 10 I turned to Leigh and said “fuck. My legs are killing me” the guy beside us was like “it’s just around the bend!” I’m thinking ha ha. I have a garmin, I know it’s another 5K! At this point my legs and the front of my quads were getting so sore that I had to drop back from Leigh and let her go.

I hit mile 10 in 1:29 and thought to myself “I have to run 5K in under 30 minutes. I can do that”

Mile 11 – 9:24

The last three miles were the hardest miles I’ve ever ran. My legs were so tired and sore and I had to dig deeper than ever before to get through them. I just kept reminding myself how MAD I would be at myself if I gave up mentally and came in at just over 2 hours. My legs were so, so tired at this point from all the little inclines and pushing so hard.

Mile 12 – 9:04

I wanted to stop SO BADLY at mile 12.5 but I forced myself to push on and reminded myself it would be over soon.

Mile 13 – 8:48

Mile 13 – 13.1 – 7:59

Final Garmin Stats: 13.24 miles / 1:58:20 / 8:57 avg pace

Final OFFICIAL results: 1:58:18, 814/3231 females, 83/277 in my age division

As soon as I crossed the finish line and saw that I’d beat my sub-2 hour goal I was ecstatic. But I came to such a sudden stop after sprinting in that I found myself stumbling around a little bit and getting dizzy. I was so, so sore from running so hard! I was immediately grabbed by a great volunteer and taken into the medic tent. They sat me down on the bed and without even being able to control it I started peeing!!!!!

I immediately stood up and was like, “omg! I need to go to the bathroom. I just peed a little!” The lady laughed and said it was fine and took me to the nearest porta-potty. I’d felt the urge to pee the last 5K or so of the race and figured I’d just over-hydrated. Apparently I really did leave it all out on the course that day because I could not control the peeing if my life depended on it!

After I got that under control I went to find Lisa and Leigh! All three of us PR’ed! What a great day! Also please notice how Lisa is glowing in the photo below and Leigh and I both look a little sick. Ha!

We all hobbled back to our hotel room to shower and eat before heading back down to watch Lauren come in. It was so fun cheering the marathoners in and Lauren completely KILLED her race! She looked so strong after 26.2 miles of running – she also PR’ed! I’ll let her tell you about it on her blog

After the marathon finished the four of us got ready and went in search of some FOOD! Then we went back to our hotel and napped for a few hours before going out to two Irish pubs for drinks and appies that night. No photos but it was a really fun last night. We definitely had something to celebrate since all four of us got great PR’s in our races.

I got one last photo of Parliament all lit up on Sunday night. I am absolutely enamored by Victoria and cannot wait to go back. Hopefully soon!

Monday morning we all said our goodbye’s after an hour long bus ride and 1.5 hour long ferry ride to get back to our cars in Vancouver. I was truly sad to say bye to these girls. This weekend was just what I needed and I had so, so, so much fun. I miss them already!

Another great day full of great food and great conversation is done. Tomorrow is race day!

This morning there were no alarms set in our hotel room. We all started waking up and rolling out of bed around 7:30 – 8:00 AM and we were ready to head out the door by 9:30 AM. Not bad for four girls in a hotel room with one bathroom.

First stop of the day was John’s Place for breakfast.

Lauren’s friends recommended this restaurant to us and I’m so glad they did. It was one of those hole in the wall type of places that we never would have stumbled upon but ended up being so, so good. I had citrus pancakes (lemon and orange zest) with cream cheese maple syrup, and yes, it was as decadent and delicious as it sounds!

After breakfast we spent some time wandering around Victoria and window shopping as we slowly made our way towards the race expo.

Victoria is SUCH a beautiful city!!

Oh, and here is a photo of ALL of us to prove there actually is four of us on this trip

There was a cool orca whale in the grass by the Empress!

After a bit of walking around downtown we headed to the race expo to get our packages!

Then we went back to our hotel for a couple of hours to rest our feet after all the walking we’d been doing. It’s nice that our hotel is so central so we could do that! After a bit of a rest we sought out some gluten-free baking and our carb-loading dinner!

I had a lemon macaroon at Bliss Bakery and it was delicious!

Then we headed to Pagliacci’s for dinner. We arrived at 5:00 PM and there was already a line around the block.

But we persisted because it was one of the only Italian restaurants in the city that also had gluten free pasta and we’d heard really good things. We waited in line for 1 hour and 40 minutes before we were seated! I have never waited in line that long for a restaurant.

We passed the time on our iPhones and chatting. It went by fairly fast but I was definitely hungry by the end of our wait.

It was well worth the wait! My pesto pasta was super amazing and I completely cleaned my plate.

Now we are all wrapping up and getting ready to head to bed! Leigh just finished french braiding mine and Lisa’s hair for the race.

Leigh, Lisa and I start our half-marathon at 7:30 AM and Lauren starts her marathon at 8:45 AM (no idea why they did that but at least we will get to see Lauren finish!)

See you tomorrow with a day three report of Victoria. Sub-2 or bust!!!

***

Question of the day: What is the longest you’ve ever waited in line at a restaurant?

Hello friends. It’s late here so this will be a really quick post This morning Leigh got dropped off at my house and we made the 3-hour trek south to Vancouver. We hit some weird weather that included insane fog where we couldn’t see more than 10 feet in front of us.

We made it safely and met Lisa and Lauren at the lululemon factory outlet in Burnaby where I proceeded to spend way too much money. Then we grabbed a quick lunch and headed for the ferry.

We pulled up at around 3:45 PM for the 4:00 PM ferry and proceeded to sprint to make it on time! So I guess I don’t have to worry about missing my run this morning

The ferry ride was gorgeous and went by pretty fast!

After taking a bus into downtown Victoria we arrived at our hotel about 3 hours after leaving Vancouver! I booked our hotel a few months ago and while it looked a little sketch from the outside it actually ended up being quite nice and apartment-like on the inside!

After settling in to our hotel we headed out for dinner – one of my favourites – thai food! I was starving and dinner was so, so, so good! I had the vegetarian pad thai.

After dinner we sought out a grocery store and picked up some banana’s, bagels, peanut butter and a few other snacky things for the weekend and then wandered through downtown Victoria as we made our way to the Empress for some dessert and jazz music.

Victoria is a really pretty city. I’m excited to run through it on Sunday!

We wrapped up our great night in the Bengal Lounge at The Empress where we ate some delicious dessert, listened to jazz music and chatted!

It was a great first night in Victoria! I’m yet to get a photo of all four of us girls together so I’m making that my mission for tomorrow.

Hope everyone’s weekend is off to a great start. See you tomorrow evening for a recap of our second day in Victoria