E and I left Saskatoon Friday morning to make the 8 hour drive across Saskatchewan and Alberta. We have driven across the prairie enough times now to know it's going to suck, so it actually wasn't too bad in a way. We arrived in Banff with plenty of time to check into our hotel, pick up our race bibs at Melissa's Restaurant, and grab some pre-race dinner at a Greek place right on Banff Ave. The calamari was excellent, as was the mountain view from our window table.
Now, the people at Melissa's Restaurant have devised a pretty great strategy for hosting a race. This event is mostly for fun. Start time is 10:30AM. Sure, there are some fast people who run it, but there was no 'pro' component to this race that I could tell. All the profits from the race are donated to charity. The race is capped at about 6000 people for the 10 and 22K events combined. Support on the course was minimal, but the race swag was pretty awesome (full suspension mountain bike!!!). Plus, there was a sweet afterparty at Melissa's Restaurant afterward. More on that later.
E and I wandered from our hotel over to the race site at about 10AM on Saturday morning. Since the 10 and 22K courses are completely different, the 10Kers lined up to start first.
All the crazies lined up for the 10K
I ran the 10K, so E took some pictures of me as I lined up since he was waiting for the 22K start. It was a self-seeded start. I really didn't have any goals for this race, since I haven't been training due to some motivation and IT band issues and I'm not used to running hills or at altitude. I basically wanted to keep it under a 12 minute mile just to keep myself honest (i.e. no walking). I mention this only because I couldn't figure out for the life of me why the self-seeding ended at 11 minutes. As such, I went to the back of the pack. I figured out later that this is Canada and we were seeding by km, not miles. At least I got to pass a lot of people.
Lining up for the start
The 10K course was mostly flat with one GIANT hill. I ran all but the very steepest portion of this mile plus climb, so I was pretty happy with my performance. After coming back down the hill (fun!), we were at about the 5K mark. Half way! I felt much better than I thought I was going to for the rest of the race. My only problem was hot spots on my feet from forgetting to lube them with Body Glide. Seems like I would have learned by now.
I crossed the finish line at 1 hour 11 minutes and change (11:41 min/mile pace). I hung around the finish line after that to wait for E to finish his 22K run. I tried to take pics of him finishing, but that is much easier said than done. He came in at 1:48:42 (7:54 minute/mile pace) which put him in the top 25% of his age group. Go E!
E's back as he finishes the 22K
After the race, we got our goodies, which were some of the most extensive I've ever gotten for a race (fruit, doughnuts, yogurt, granola bars, vitamin water, juice, slushies, beer!). We hung around the race venue to watch the age group awards and race swag giveaways. We didn't win any prizes, but there were some great ones, including 12 pairs of asics shoes and a Giant full suspension mountain bike.
As I mentioned earlier, Melissa's, the sponsor of the race, is a restaurant/bar in Banff. They hosted an afterparty in their bar aimed mostly at race patrons (we got the chance to win more free stuff). Since Eric and I had no other plans for the night, we went out to Mel's to watch the Riders' game and try to win some door prizes. Those of you that know me know I'm not a big bar goer, so you may be surprised to hear that I had a great time at Mel's. The Riders' won, the atmosphere was great, and the band was really good too! I'd probably go out a lot more if there were someplace similar in Saskatoon.
Lead singer of the Hot Tamales
dancing on the counter
dancing on the counter
One of the best parts of the afterparty was that fact that pretty much everyone who came out and stayed late won a prize of some sort. E got a $25 gift certificate to an Indian restaurant in Banff, and I won a free night's stay in a Banff hotel! We are already plotting our return to Banff to use our prizes :)
After packing up Sunday morning, we headed to the Banff Upper Hot Springs to soak away some of our DOMS in the mineral pool. I would love to say that the 29C water made me feel better, but my quads were pretty much trashed (still are).
With much regret, we left the park to head back to Saskatoon, but we have agreed that we would both love to run Melissa's Road Race again next year!
Congrats to you guys, it sounds like it was an awesome race and weekend!!
ReplyDelete