The expo was huge and busy. They were open for only a few hours on Friday (3 PM til 7 PM) so the 10k runners had no choice but be there between those hours to get their bib. The half marathoners had all day Saturday as well to pick up. I didn’t like that at all. Thankfully, I made it just in time to pick up my bib. I normally get off work at 6:30 and that meant I only had half an hour to walk to Canada Place and pick up my package. That’s not a lot of time. What’s worse, only you can pick up your own bib. You can’t ask someone else to pick it up for you even if there’s consent. That’s not very accessible for people who work outside the city or even work at night. Other than that, bib pickup was fast. Walk to the next room and you get your free t-shirt. The next area is a large Brooks store filled with Rock n Roll merchandise… they were pricey though. I chose not to buy anything. The next room had more vendors (Running Room, Garmin, Oasis, Nuun, etc) and booths for various races. Another thing I didn’t like was that there were no ATM’s at the Expo and some vendors only accepted cash. You had to go all the way back to the lobby of the Convention Centre which was a pretty far walk since the Expo was held at the furthest rooms in the building. Plus, security was so tight, it made it difficult to leave without having to walk the full length of the expo twice just to get money out. It was a big expo and even though I was able to buy something I wanted, I wasn’t thrilled about the whole experience.

Course Review

The course is pretty straightforward: a Stanley Park seawall run, going clockwise. It started at the Inukshuk at English Bay. Getting there was pretty easy, very accessible by transit. There were so many people that my corral was actually 12th in line. We had to wait at least 20 minutes in the cold before we were off and running. The race ended at Devonian Harbour Park on the other side of Stanley Park. I should’ve paid close attention to the course route because I didn’t realize that at Lumberman’s Arch, there was a surprise hill that we had to go up and then back down again to the seawall. I guess they needed that to make it an even 10k I would also have known that the finish line would come sooner. I thought it would be further into the park but much to my surprise and relief, it wasn’t. If you haven’t run Stanley Park before, going clockwise to me is more difficult than going counter-clockwise. Mostly flat though. I was expecting great course entertainment but all I saw was 1 band and 1 Elvis. It was not what I expected. I could hardly even hear the band! Not impressed by the rock n roll-ness of this race. It’s like they just put all their money on the main event and tossed aside the opener.

Post-Race

The finish line was lined with cheering spectators so it was a fantastic sprint! I got an official photo taken shortly after I got my medal and then grabbed a bottle of water. There were lots of tents around and a main stage being set up. We went straight for the beer garden and had my free Stanley Park Brewing winter ale. It was fun while it lasted but we didn’t stay long since we had things to do. Pretty lively atmosphere though!

Swag

I love my Brooks t-shirt that came free with the race and the medal is one of my favourites.

Would I do this again?

Yes because I still want to do the half marathon course and get the full experience. I would also do the Remix challenge which means, do both races back to back. Participants get a third medal that shows you did both. I wouldn’t mind the extra bling :) I also noticed that they seemed to be frantically selling entries on Groupon the closer it got to the race so if you want to save money, it would be a good idea to look out for it.

Link to this review