Calgary Marathon Weekend

Friday

First off, I was lucky enough to be the gorgeous Miss Tina's date for the Calgary Marathon VIP event at the Calgary Tower on Friday night!

Check it out, we're not in runners!!

Before we walked over we met Michelle, Terry, Lindsay and Ange for dinner downtown.  I loved meeting these smart, funny bloggy ladies in person - and in non running clothes.  Tres glam dahlings!

The first thing a person must do when at the tower is proceed directly to the glass floor for playing.

It was a spectacularly fun night, the running community of Calgary is exceptionally friendly.  I also met lovely Crystal and caught up with my bloggy friend Keith.  AND there was a familiar face visiting for the 50th anniversary, the awesome Bart Yasso!  I first met Bart in Kaua'i last year and it was amazing to see him again.

Dean Karnazes, Lanni Marchant, Ed Whitlock and Bart were special guests this year and we witnessed a Calgary white hat ceremony for them.  The organizing committee certainly knows how to celebrate a 50th.  The 50k, Marathon and Half all sold out this year with 15,000 runners participating in the weekend races.

Saturday

We arranged to meet Bart at his hotel for the Running Room Friendship Run on Saturday morning (I know!!)  On the way up we bumped into event host John Stanton.

Then we loitered around the lobby while our little group coalesced.

Another of Bart's patented selfies!

That guy in the bottom right of our pictures, Kip Kangogo, only went and WON the marathon the next day setting a course record in the process.  WAY TO GO KIP!!

It was a gorgeous sunny Calgary morning and I realized I would need a hat for the marathon the next day.  We ran a 3km loop across the Peace Bridge complete with pace bunnies, startling morning cyclists and dog walkers.

I had the chance to run with Bart, I mean could this weekend get any more awesome?

I need some practice at running selfies.  Hello all my chins.

Expo

We already picked our race kits up on Thursday night so this trip back to the Expo was for shopping and to hear the keynote speakers.  It's always hard to know how to spend the day before a big race.  Kev and I have been watching Boundless (and getting silly ideas about running Scottish hills from it) so I was quite overexcited to meet Simon Donato at his Stoked Oats booth.  Yes, we bought oats.

After that we went over to hear Dean Karnazes speak, he is an extraordinary athlete and you can't help but get crazy excited about running listening to him.  We had also met Dean before in Kaua'i and I wanted to ask if he had thanked Popou for the vanduzzi idea since that's what got me through that first marathon.  (I'm pretty sure Dean still thinks we're making it up).

My legs were hurting by this point so we headed home for afternoon pasta and a nice sit down.  I went to bed at 8pm in the very bright sunshine with 2 purry cats who didn't seem phased at all by the change to their schedule.

Tomorrow = marathon time!