The race was held at the Mission auto raceway, which means runners have to run 10 laps of the raceway to complete the half. At first, it sounded a bit scary, but it actually ended up being a lot more fun than expected and has its advantages: it was easy to pace yourself, the course is pretty much flat, you could decide when to get a cup of water or gatorade (vs. having to do it at spread out aid stations) and leave your gels on a wall along the tracks, you could see all the other runners in the race including the elites, and you would get cheered on by volunteers who would get to know you lap after lap. The views were actually not bad at all for an auto raceway as you could see the mountains in the horizon and part of the loop was along the river. The fact that the race is on an auto raceway brings with it a lot of potential to turn this event into an even more exciting event in the future with more music, food, fun cheering, etc. I am curious to see what they will offer next year!

Driving a few hours to just race a mile seems like a silly idea, but with the benefit of being able to see the Loggers Day parade and a world-class lumberjack competition after, I found it to be totally worth it.

The race:
The race itself is a family-friendly event with runners ranging in age from toddler to seniors and in speed from walkers to professional runners. The winner of the 8k, I found later, was a runner of Kenyan origins who only participates in races with prize money. When picking up my bib for the mile, I quickly realized I was the only adult who was not racing with his or her child. My little one was not yet walking, so I could not even sign her up at the last minute. Oh well, it would not be the first time: my first race ever was the 1k at the CIBC Run for the Cure that nobody told me was supposed to be a fun run for kids and moms with strollers. So I toed the line with the objective of not getting beaten by anybody under the age of 13. The race started very fast as it is often the case in kids run, but after a few minutes a young teen pulled ahead of the pack while the rest of the kids faded behind me. I decided to follow him from afar as I had not managed to find a map of the 1 mile course before the race. To avoid getting psyched out, I had also decided to run without a GPS watch. As I eventually passed a 1k marker, I started getting worried. If this is an out-and-back course, I had already gone too far! But the kid ahead seemed confident and the volunteers I passed before did not tell me to run back or take a turn. Then, as I could not see any finish line ahead, I got even more nervous. When I saw the leading runner turn around and shout that he passed the 2k marker, I got both angry and nervous. I waited for him to pass me and followed him, then told every kid I passed beyond that 1k marker to also turn around and follow us. I felt like that fairy tale piper leading the kids to the river... Some competitive kids did not want to just follow us, though and pushed to stay ahead of me. Once I had ran for about 1 mile, it took a lot of effort and all of my competitive willpower to not let them just stay ahead of me. Eventually, I managed to finish ahead of all the smaller kids as I had hoped... except one. As we crossed the line, we found out that one of the youngest kids and his mom who had started in the back got actually directed down the right path by a volunteer and ended up finishing first. He was so happy and proud of it: it was very cute. For the rest of us, we probably ran the hardest and longest mile of our lives. I told the race organizer about the issue and asked for a course map on the website, some signage for the mile race, and more volunteers at the spot where the milers are supposed to turn. The volunteer at that spot probably missed seeing us or thought we were actually running the 8k...

Post-race expo:
The post-race expo had one of the widest selection of quality snacks I have seen at a race. They also had the skilled and helpful Sea to Sky Physiotherapist

Medals:
Thankfully for the speedy teen who finished third behind a toddler and mom team, there were no awards ceremony for the Mile. Just a super cute medal shaped like a soldier ID tag for all participants and the choice of whatever cute sticker to put on it.

This race was one of my first after the birth of my first baby and I was planning on running it as a long run vs. racing it. A friend of mine from the West Van Run Crew was also coming back from a break in running so we made plan to run it together with the only goal being to start very slowly and, if feeling good, speeding up just a little bit every km. After falling on my chin when slipping on black ice when shuffling around my neighbourhood and hearing of race cancellations because of the snow, I was worried this race might be a bit risky. It was not at all: the City of Richmond staff did an amazing job of completely clearing the race course of any snow or ice. The day was beautiful and the race started early enough for the runners to get to enjoy the breathtaking sunrise on the majestic Fraser River. The course was a flat and fast out and back on road and gravel with just a few turns. I really enjoyed that most of it was along the river and, because I was not really racing, I even took a few pictures and videos during the race. In the end, my friend and I achieved our race goal quite comfortably and I could say this race was a great morale booster for us. The post-race celebrations included warm comfort food and massage treatments from Life Mark. There were many draw prizes and age group awards, so we got to cheer a lot, which is always fun.