The clever folks behind Vancouver’s only marathon road race came up with a way for more people to run the punishing 42.2-kilomere distance. They let runners do it in teams.
Two, three or four people could sign up together to complete the BMO Vancouver Marathon as a relay team.
This is what I did. With three other racers under the banner of the Vancouver Courier, we cobbled together one complete marathon.
I was impressed with my teammates, including an eleventh-hour, pack-a-day smoker with a bum knee. More about him in a second.
From the announcement of the relay, I was hooked on the idea of this race. I support any event that gets people socializing and exercising, especially if they’re the type that won’t exercise if there’s no socializing. I wrote about four impressive women on a team from the YWCA and talked to other recreational harriers who used the relay as a reason to move their soft butts out of their office chairs and get to know their co-workers and friends in a new context. Round of applause for them.
I ran the second leg, a beautiful 12km route along Marine Drive around UBC's Point Grey campus and down Spanish Banks to Jericho Beach Park, where Courier's online editor Naoibh O'Connor took the baton -- a timing chip -- and ran her 5k leg.
Every time I passed one of the full-distance marathoners, I wanted to point out the capital-letter RELAY bib on my back and reassure them I was only faking, that my faster pace was because I was running a fraction of their race.
It was a great day. The sun shone. One relay racer from Thunder Bay got lost on a 17km sideroute and his team still finished the marathon. They say they'll be back.
But first, a note of warning for anyone running next year: Don’t hesitate, do it! And, pick your team wisely.
I didn’t pick so carefully. Hence: fill-in smoker, a.k.a. our team hero.
Our team (these are the rules) should be disqualified. Not *should have been* disqualified but officially DQ'd because the people listed on our team didn't run with the team.
We signed up four women, all who have completed various road races at various distances.
On Friday, two days before the race as I was signing out our timing chip and team bibs at the expo in the Convention Centre, two racers dropped out.
We were past the deadline to replace one runner for another, but the runners who committed to the 12km first leg and 13km anchor leg left our team in the lurch. One because she didn’t feel fit enough, and the second because she wanted to run the half-marathon for herself. I told them the decision was selfish.
Pick. Your. Team. Wisely.
Now, for the replacements.
With little time to rope in other runners to cover the kind of distance most people can’t run without a little training or a whole lotta pain, I worked my contacts of personal trainers, coaches, athletes and running clubs. Many were already signed up to run the half- or full-distance race.
The first person to bite was long-distance runner Nicholas Browne, a member of the Falcons Athletic Club. He responded to a post on the Fraser Street Run Club. Nicholas, who qualified for the Boston Marathon, was going to be our ringer. He came through for a relative stranger because he loves the sport, wanted the relay experience, and had friends who were already part of the event.
Nicholas helped make it possible for our team be a team.
The next person to bite had had made an earlier offer, but only if I was desperate. I was desperate, and he met his commitment.
Alan Kollins has said he hates to run. An otherwise fit and athletic person who plays hockey and squash, he’s barely gone for a jog in 25 years. Two years ago in Mexico City, he managed to shuffle around a neighbourhood square when his jet-lagged legs needed to be woken up. He hated every step.
But one week before the race, Alan asked if he could join me on a lazy 5km ramble on the Sea Wall. He didn’t hate it.
A week later he was at the start line for the BMO Vancouver Marathon, cracking jokes about fanny packs and wondering how many miles he’d log before stopping for a vape break.
I ran the first 3k with him, loving the energy from spectators and the countdown to the start gun.
Over 12km, Alan didn’t walk.
He didn’t stop for a smoke.
Three weeks since the relay, he's been going for a weekly run.
