Ever since I first read about the Edge to Edge Half Marathon last year, I’ve been wanting to do it (there’s also the option to do the marathon or the relay).
I have never been to Ucluelet before, so the thought of going to see what the Island’s west coast has to offer really intrigued me.
Last year, I won a two-night stay at the Black Rock Oceanfront Resort as a result of my participation in the Q’s Victoria Run Series (now known as the Christie-Phoenix Insurance Victoria Run Series).
Coincidentally, the resort just happened to be an accommodation partner for the Edge to Edge Half Marathon. Now, that’s what I call a trip to the ultimate BONUS-land!
Win stuff at races so that I can attend more races and write about the unforgettable experiences.
When I arrived at the resort, the beautiful ocean views were mesmerizing. My room overlooked the ocean and it was amazing.
The Wild Pacific Trail is just a few steps away from the hotel. As for the service at the hotel-excellent. I will definitely stay there again if/when I get the chance to be in the in the area in the future.
What’s even more amazing is that the start line was less than a km away from the resort. So, instead of driving to the start, I jogged there as a warm-up.
In fact, I did not use my vehicle at all once I got to Ucluelet. Everything was so close and the views were too nice to experience them while being stuck in a vehicle.
Once again, I ran into people I know at the start line. I was especially thrilled to see Mel-she is about my speed and it was awesome to run together the whole way. You can really get to know someone over 21km. 🙂
At the start, we decided to run together until the final 100m, where we will race hard to see who wins.
When we started, 4 guys immediately took off and we settled into a comfortable pace. We didn’t have any crazy expectations because we were told that it’s a challenging, hilly course, with some parts of it on the trails.
When we were about 5km into the race, there were no other women too close behind us, so we kept a conservative pace on the trails.
The advantage to being on the trails is that we get to hide from the hot sun. Later, we saw a lady emerging behind us on the trails, so we picked it up a little bit.
By the time we got back out onto the road, we didn’t see her. With that in mind, we started to calmly tackle a series of hills on the road. Just up and down…up and down…
On the way up one of the big hills, we passed one of the 4 guys that took off in front. The next time we saw him was after the turn around point.
By that time, we were about a km ahead of the 3rd place girl. Once we reached the 18k mark, we knew that we were almost there and that the 3rd place girl will not be challenging us.
In the last 2km, the heat was definitely getting to me. I felt like I was getting a little bit tired. Knowing that the full marathoners were still out on the course and probably had a long way left to go definitely made me feel less tired. I was glad that I chose to do the half.
Then, the next thing I knew, we were approaching the last 100m. I was still with Mel at that point and then she took off ahead of me.
I thought she had it, but then, suddenly, out of nowhere, I made the surge to the finish. I passed my running buddy less than 6 feet away from the finish line becoming the 1st female (out of 133 total) across the finish. Overall, I was 4th and less than 6 minutes separated me and the 1st place man.
They gave us awesome plaques!
Although we didn’t get PBs, we had a lot of fun. When people say that the Edge to Edge is a beautiful course-they are right.
There was a lot of great food at the finish line from fruit to bagels and everything in between. We burn roughly 1200 calories during a half marathon and I’m pretty sure I ate around that much after finishing. There were even Snickers bars and chocolate at the finish! How awesome is that??
We all work pretty hard during our 21k or 42k races, so it’s great to be able to eat.
I definitely recommend that you run this race. Even if it’s just once in a lifetime so you can see what Vancouver Island’s West Coast has to offer.