Ireland day 1314. Sunday 04 May 2025- Vancouver 3

Today’s summary	An early start to catch the no. 3 bus up to Queen Elizabeth Park for the start of the Vancouver Marathon and Half Marathon. Val did the half, James and Rob did the full. All three completed safely and speedily. Katie and I supported from various points round the route. All met up at the end then went to Stanley Park Brewpub to meet with Rob’s friends for beers and late lunch and to celebrate Val and my 40th wedding anniversary(!) which coincidentally was today. Uber back to accommodation afterwards then a quiet evening while the heroes recovered
Today’s weather	Perfect. Clear blue skies and full sun but quite cool all day. Westerly wind. Appx 16c in the sun but much colder in the shade

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Vancouver Marathon support team

Commentary

Today was a Big Day, for all sorts of reasons. First off, it was Val’s and my 40th wedding anniversary (yes, really!). And second because it was the day of the Vancouver Marathon, with James and Rob doing the full marathon and Val doing the half (sadly my hip surgeon won’t allow me to attempt it!). Katie and I were the official support team today.

But all this activity required an early start. Val had to be up at Queen Elizabeth Park for a 7am “gun time” start – and to allow enough time for registration beforehand, that meant we had to catch the no. 3 bus at just before 6am. For once, having 8 hours of jet-lag worked in our favour, meaning that getting up early wasn’t too painful.

It was a stunner of a morning – the weather really couldn’t have been better. Although, out of the sun, it was actually quite cold. So Val appreciated the disposable poncho she’d brought with her, to keep warm while waiting to start.

Her “corrale” eventually crossed the start line at 7:30, and immediately she was gone, I set off downtown to cheer her at a suitable midway point. As I was leaving the park, I bumped into James Rob and Katie who were on their way up for their 8:30 am marathon start.

I wanted to try and see Val as she sped through Stanley Park, so caught the no 3 bus to the Science Centre, then the no 19 towards Stanley Park. It all worked smoothly enough – there were no long waits for either bus – but progress once actually on the bus was painfully slow. There were a lot of road closures, and a lot of extra traffic, all related to the Marathon.

Eventually I made it to the Park, but just missed Val going through Second Beach at km 13, so crossed over to the other side and saw her as she left the park near the rowing club at km 20. She finished soon afterwards, at a very creditable 2h 35m and I met her down near the waterfront – medal in hand – by the bag-collection area.

But I didn’t really let her feet touch the ground, because as soon as she was changed, we both headed back across to the False Creek side of town, to cheer James and Rob as they came over Burrard Street bridge. They sped through, looking in much better shape than I would be if I’d just run 30km, and headed off to do their own circuits of Stanley Park.

At this point, we re-traced our steps back over to the north side of downtown, to meet up with Katie on the final (uphill!) stretch of the race course, leading to the finishing line. James and Rob duly made it past us, lost in their own worlds of pain, I suspect(!) and barely noticed us yelling words of encouragement from the sidelines. Anyway, I was delighted that they, like Val, both finished the task with flair, and in good times, too. James at 3h 57m, and Rob at 4:15. Amazing. I’m very impressed! You can see all three heroic finishers in the banner image at the top. I’m actually quite amazed that they are all still standing.

After a suitable recovery period (which included coffee and doughnuts for me, and turkey sandwiches and Gatorade for the runners), Val and I walked back west to make our way to the Stanley Park brewpub. Val somehow dug deep enough to walk there with me, whereas the others, perhaps more wisely, went by Uber.

There was a good gang of Rob’s friends at the pub, and we had an enjoyable couple of hours with them drinking beer and getting something to eat. As icing on the cake, James and Rob actually made a short speech to toast Val’s and my anniversary. It was a lovely touch and very much appreciated! Eventually, though, weariness set in and the three Dawson runners elected to call it a day.

We all shared an Uber back to our accommodations (Rob’s apartment is only a couple of blocks from our AirBnB) where the footsore started the relaxation and rehydration process, and then we all got early-ish nights. I think we would all go to our beds tonight feeling, in different ways perhaps, immense satisfaction with the day – and in Val and my case with the last 40 years. For all of us, it was a job well done.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Val taking her first steps – her “corrale” crossed the start at 7:30am	Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park – I raced backwards and forwards along the shores trying to catch up with Val (with partial success)

A happy medallist!	James at 30km

Rob about to get the 30km high-five	In the pub in Stanley Park at the end

Bright eyed and bushy tailed at Elizabeth Park. We had to get a bus before 6am in order to be certain that Val could be registered by 6:15am, ready for her 7am “gun time” start. It was quite handy actually, to have 8 hours of jet lag to fall back on to assist with the early alarm