This is a sequel to my post from Australia where we watched one daughter do a triathlon – Next time we should walk to the triathlon. Being back at home we decided to drive yet again to participate with our other lovely daughter, who was signed up for the Vancouver half-marathon. We had to set the alarm for 5:30 am in order to get to the starting line by 7 am and see her off.

We parked 1 km from Queen Elizabeth park and ran to starting line, since we got off a bit late. There were 8563 people there for the half-marathon and another 3984 assembling for the full marathon an hour later.

Can you see her? Maybe that’s her up there at the starting line (blue banner in the upper left corner)

Oh well. Let’s run to the car (remember – 1 km), go park near the Cambie Bridge, and walk to the finish line. We’ll cross the runners’ route a couple of times and maybe we’ll see her.

Nice walk, but missed her here, too – just some stragglers remaining on the bridge.

(Brisk walk continues and the runners pass us at a cross street)

Oh look! That’s the building where she lives. Maybe we should just wait here.

Getting closer. Stumble into the emergency vehicle compound (are they waiting for A? Us?) and they won’t let us through. Slight detour necessary.

Fortunately nobody seems busy here.

About a 6 km walk from the car, we find a spot at the barrier not far from the finish line. We peel our eyes and get the cameras ready, as the runners approach the end.

It’s hard to spot even your own daughter among 8563 sweating runners, but she’s definitely not in this group either.

Where IS she? Her expected time has passed. Who was that calling me on my phone? I can’t answer it because I need to have it poised to take a photo?!

Hmmm. Maybe I should check my voice mail. Suffice it to say that she had finished the race (1:54:16, her first time running this distance), collected her medal and goodies and was at our designated meeting spot. After further searching through the back alleys of downtown, THERE SHE IS!

RUN, so I can take a picture!

We all went back to the finish line to watch the elite marathoners finish their races. (They started an hour later and ran twice as far.)

The full marathon winner laps many or most of the half-marathoners

The Vancouver Marathon was over. But ours wasn’t! First walk 5 or 6 km back to the car, stopping en route to buy a suitcase at Winners. Husband kindly carried it. This bag is for my non-walking trips.

This is a wheelie for my boring business trips

Then, much to my surprise, he was willing to take on another adventure this afternoon. Here is the starting line for that grueling event…

You have all been here before

You also know that you cannot get out of the building without walking at least 5 km.

That wasn’t the end – we stopped at Home Depot and Safeway as well but I didn’t have the energy to snap photos for the blog.

Our total walking for the day was probably around 20 km. Length of the half marathon – 21.5 km.

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NOTE 1: Blogging from the phone app is much trickier than from a laptop. It isn’t so much the size of the keyboard/screen as it is the lesser functionality of the app. Thus what was supposed to be a “Local Draft” managed to get uploaded unbeknownst to me, until a loyal reader texted me desperate to learn the end of the story.

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