St Patrick's 5k {Vancouver, BC, Canada}

Let's just get this out of the way first:

Time: 21:13 (a 17 second PR over my Pumpkins PR from October 2013!)

13/237 Age Group ( top 4.58%)

43/1011 Women ( top 4.25%)

171/1651 Overall (top 10.35%)


This was in no way a "goal race." Yeah, I've been training 6 weeks on a 5k plan, and I wanted to give it a good go, but I knew the circumstances wouldn't be ideal to hit the sub 20. And I was fine with that.

1. 5 hours in a plane left me feeling dehydrated. It also left my legs feeling sore and like lead.

2. We walked around Vancouver yesterday. My legs were still sore.

3. We went out with friends and had ramen, beer, a delicious vodka grape basil mojito type thing, a bourbon based mixed drink (Ginger Lady) and I finished the evening with a Canada Club 100% rye whiskey neat. Cheers!

4. Woke up this morning and my feet felt swollen still.

I wouldn't have changed a thing about yesterday! Because friends/family > running. Period.


Woke up to the predicted 85% chance of rain, ate a few small Nak'd bars and drank some Osmo and took a cab to the start because of the rain. I was going to run, but didn't feel like being soggy and cold for longer than I needed. Once out of the cab, I put on my trash bag and walked to the start area. I hung out under a tent for a while until I started my warmup.


I ran for 10 min easy + some strides as my warmup and took off my garbage bag when I realized it stopped raining and tucked in neatly near the front. After a quick countdown and listening to the pace car Maserati revving its engine, we were off!


I hit the first K in 3:50. Oops. That was a bit too quick even with the downhill! I was feeling great.

Hit the 1st mile in 6:30. 2nd k around 8:15, 3rd K around 12:30, and then I don't remember the rest.

The course was hilly, and gorgeous. The course was run around Stanley park and had nice views of sea planes landing, as well as downtown Vancouver. I really enjoyed that it was a loop and not an out and back.


I kept an even effort throughout but slowed. I'm sure I positive splitted the shit out of this race.

I was just really happy if stopped raining before the race started, because 30 minutes before, it was pouring freaking raining.



Post run, I got my new Granville Island brewing glass which also had the logo on it for the 5k and I paid $7 to fill it with their potato stout. Which was pretty good.


They had a cool indoor after party which was nice because I was damp, my feet were soaked and I was freezing my ass off.


After warming up enough, I walked back to the hotel and stopped at Blendz for an earl grey latte + monster cinnamon bun. Yum.


I'm really happy with how this race ended up considering everything. And I got to check a new country off the list of places I've raced!

This was the first race I've actually "raced" in a year!! I'm super happy to be"back" and know under better circumstances, a sub 20 will happen soon.