I was invited to attend the 2023 edition of the Banff Half Marathon, which took place on June 18.
The Banff Half marathon is a journey that flows from Banff Central Park, runs past Vermilion Lakes, up the Bow Valley Parkway and finishes in beautiful downtown Banff.
The scenery was breathtaking and I got to experience many different interpretive, geographical, wilderness and historical stages along the way.
Although the run took place in the beautiful Rocky Mountains, the course was not too grueling with a slightly rolling and relatively flat terrain.
I say relatively flat because there were a couple of good hills there and one of the hills was a bit more challenging on the way back. I admit, I walked part way up it.
Rather than flying, I opted to drive to Banff so that I could see more of the breathtaking scenery along the way. On the way there, I spent the night in Merritt and then I stopped at Lake Louise for a few photo opportunities.
Stopped for some photos at Lake Louise on the way to Banff
In Banff, I stayed at the Rocky Mountain Resort, which actually offered the best rate out of all the accommodations that I looked at prior to booking. It was a very nice place to stay and didn’t break the bank. It ended up being under $500 per night which I was happy with. I’d definitely stay there again if I get to come back in the future.
Leading up to the event, I got to walk around Banff and enjoy the scenery. In Banff, you can take in the breathtaking views of the Rocky Mountains wherever you are.
Enjoying the scenery the day before the Banff Half Marathon
I picked up my race package on Saturday and got an upgrade to VIP. I recommend the VIP package if you are going to do this event because you don’t have to wait in the washroom line ups. The VIP group gets their own washrooms which was very nice. The expo was smaller than I expected but it was cool to check out some of the booths.
The next thing I knew, it was race day. I wasn’t sure about the weather because it was cold at the start. Originally, I was going to run in a sports bra and shorts but I ended up leaving my sweater on for the duration of the half marathon.
During the race, we got to see the beautiful mountains and it wasn’t too crowded even though there were a lot of people in the sold out half marathon. There were some narrower sections throughout the race but everyone was super awesome. I got to chat with a couple of people along the way.
I ended up doing a few short walk breaks during the race to regroup. At km 17, I got a bit overheated and somewhat regretted leaving my sweater on. I was contemplating taking it off but I didn’t want to have to carry it. So, it stayed on.
Given the elevation and the fact that I was off running for 4 months in 2022, my goal was to finish the half marathon under 2 hours. This is far slower than my 1:28 personal best but I have to consider everything that I went through just to get on the start line of the Banff Half Marathon.
I ended up finishing the Banff Half Marathon in 1:54:07 (chip time). Even though I took a few short walk breaks, I’m happy to report that not a single km was over 6 minutes when I looked at my splits throughout the race. I placed 179/1190 overall, 65/727 women and 14/159 in my age division.
This beautiful Banff Half Marathon finisher medal is now on my wall 🙂
On race morning, everything was well-organized. Kudos to the race director for putting on this super fun and beautiful event!!
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