I managed to sign up for this race with a discount code from one of the West Van Run Crew members. The website is very informative, well laid out, and I think they did a great job marketing this race. Package pickup was at Park Royal South, easily accessible via bus from downtown Vancouver or you can drive and park at the mall. It was pretty straightforward, just look up your bib number and let the volunteers know. I received my bib and an awesome West Van Run water bottle. They did have a bag check available on race day but I didn’t need to use it.

Course

The starting line is just a couple blocks north of Dundarave Park on Marine Drive. The route takes us east through some residential area and around Park Royal. After Park Royal, it’s off to Ambleside Park where we were able to catch some nice views of the Lions Gate Bridge and Stanley Park. There was a double back part through Ambleside for about a kilometre before heading back to Dundarave Park via the seawall. I liked the course, it was fairly flat with very minimal hills. It was a nice mix of city and natural beauty… my favourite part was running along the seawall. It was a gorgeous day for it and we even had a double rainbow at the finish line (nice touch WVR 😉 ). There were only 2 aid stations along the course, with volunteers handing out bottles of water. I thought they could’ve used a third one but that’s just me. Maybe I didn’t hydrate properly beforehand. One thing I didn’t like was the out and back at Ambleside Park. I understand that they probably had to do that to get the full 10k distance, but it just wasn’t my thing. I would definitely recommend this course to first timers, it’s worth the drive.

Post-Race

Dundarave Park had a lively finish area, with a race announcer and lots of spectators cheering. Unfortunately there were no medals (would’ve really loved one for this specific race) but runners were treated to other things. Each runner got a bag of food that included a banana, yogurt, croissant, and muffin (hope I didn’t miss anything). This was a welcome sight. There were other vendors there with booths and lots of people milling around or relaxing at the park. They posted results on the wall as they came too.

I definitely recommend this race. It was a lot of fun and very organized. Perhaps you'll break a personal record as well :)

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