They started out by revealing the Sounders new banner to hang at Century Link field for winning the US Open Cup this year:
The game was close and tied for awhile. Our goalie has been pretty bad this season but he saved our butts many times this game! Luckily Marco Pappa came in towards the end of the game and scored TWICE for us for the win! I think I had seven heart attacks though. It was so exciting!
Afterwards my dad picked us up in our car and we headed north towards America's hat (Canada). It was right after the game that Andy was looking through the papers and found the expo where you get your packets was closing at 5:00. Seriously? Every other one you've had until 8 or 10pm to get your stuff. It was stupid and I was freaking out until we talked to our friend Daric who we knew was also at the game and going to the race and his wife has done 10 rock n roll races and he said you can pick them up the next morning. Phew! We were still sad to miss the expo though, but we didn't want to miss that soccer game.
It was raining pretty good, and we were worried about running while soaked. We got to the border at Blaine and I saw a familiar sight: the Peace Arch! I used to come up here when I was in girl scouts (grades 4-6) and you would make "swaps" (little crafts like bead geckos) and swap them between people from both Canada and the US at a huge event once a year. While we had been to Canada several times since then, we never went through this border crossing so it was a nice flashback. The line through the border was about 45 minutes though and I had to pee bad. Ugh.
We got through the border and went about a half hour to Vancouver. I took a photo of the road because I thought it was cool they had lights as the lane dividers which is extra helpful in the rain.
We stopped at the expo to see if anyone was still there, but just saw this sign :( Oh well.
Nothing says Canada like this sign "washrooms" so I had to take a picture.
We got to our hotel which was perfect- right downtown and had parking for free if you were a guest (parking there was expensive and hard to find). It even had a pub attached where we watched the Vancouver Whitecaps game and ate delicious food: fish&chips, shepherd's pie, and a chicken pot pie.
We woke up nice and early the next morning for our race. We ate bagels at Tim Horton's conveniently across from our hotel and headed to packet pick-up, which was a breeze. Andy dropped us off at our race start in Stanley Park, and drove back to the hotel to walk to his (his was quite close to our hotel). It was a bit chilly, but when the sun rose, it was PERFECT weather. Upper 50's so we don't get too hot, and it was sunny, so no wet shoes (which means no blisters).
We waited in our corrals and finally the race started at 7:45. Dad took off ahead of me but I found a good slow pace since I have never run more than 5k before, and this was 10k and kept with it. It was BEAUTIFUL running along the seawall at Stanley park. There were ships out in the bay, mountains, and the city skyline. I cannot wait to go back soon and walk the boys around it. Seriously, I took the liberty to google photos of it and you should click here to see it. I didn't take my phone since I didn't want extra weight and I'm not a music person (the beats throw off my pace and I don't have enough experience to know what songs match) so I didn't take any photos.
We pretty much did a loop around Stanley Park, and the half-marathoners ran the opposite direction through the city but our finish was the same. It was interesting because my slow jog pace (12 min mile) is about the same as the people that walk then run off and on so the whole race was just passing then getting passed so it was tricky learning how to manage that and not get bumped into the ocean ;) When I hit the 5k mark and still felt good I was so proud! I wish my legs were longer though, when I run with people, I have to take 2 steps to their 1 step since I have the legs of someone like 4'7" and I'm 5'7" lol. My goal was just to finish though and try to jog the whole time if I could...and I did!!! Canada goes in kilometers vs miles and the last K I started to break down a bit. My feet bones which have injuries) were starting to kill me along with my right knee and lower back. I was able to push through those and very pleased I didn't get a side cramp or get exhausted!
I met dad at the finish and though I thought they were funny at the summer races, we really appreciated those foil blanket capes they have at the end since it was cold and windy once you stopped moving. My dad ended up finishing in about an hour and mine was 1:15. We got our free beers and headed back to the hotel. We were sad to not be able to watch Andy finish or take pics with his phone but the hotel wouldn't let us check out later than noon and we would not have been able to shower or even make it back in time since the walk back was a half hour and his race started 1/2 hour after ours and was twice as long. We ended up heading back, showering, and since we were able to pick Andy up in the car, he could as well. I took a picture when I got back in my gear lol. People were calling me "fancy pants" since I have pink pants. I also ran in a hat for the first time which was awesome since it was cold and was under armor so it wasn't sweaty.
After we all were clean, we went to find food. Andy had asked the night before when he saw a sign "what's poutine?" Ummmmm it's like the dish Canada is famous for! I guess people that aren't Canadians like us (did you know I'm half since my mom is?) aren't as familiar with the famous gravy fries, but they have them almost anywhere. We happened to be right by a place called the "poutinerie" though and it had FANCY stuff. Usually it's just fries, gravy, and cheese curds. This had special toppings you could add in addition to that stuff, so Andy got the 3 pork and dad and I got some with onions, mushrooms, peas, and bacon. IT WAS SO GOOD!!!
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| There are a ton of fries under there, I swear. This was pre-mix |
We decided to head out and drove though the beautiful city of Vancouver. After a Costco stop and a few more stores for some candy bars (seriously, Canada has WAY more and better candy bars) we got back to the border.
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| this is where the canucks, the hokey team, plays |
The wait was like an hour and a half, but it was nice to be back where we know for sure our money works ;)
