19. June 2022

Day 16: Banff 10k Event

10k Run

As mentioned yesterday, we were able to register for the 10k event at the Banff Marathon. This means we will run 10 km of the Marathon track, which is apparently one of the most beautiful Marathons in the world.

The race started at 09:45 for us (09:00 for Marathon, 09:30 for Halfmarathon), so we got up at 07:00 to have enough time. We had a quick & light breakfast and left around 08:00 to search a parking spot and then make our way to the start. The free parking was already filling up as we arrived. It’s always fascinating with races like this, it feels that the whole town is running, you see runners everywhere. Some of the people had the low numbers which indicated that they will run the full 42.2 km, I wasn’t jealous :)

We waited a bit in the car, to stay warm. I wasn’t sure if I should just run in the shirt or wear a rain jacket as well. In the end I decided to go with the rain jacket and it was a good call.

To find the start we did the classic trick, just follow the endless stream of people ;-)

As we arrived, the halfmarathon was just starting, so we saw the multiple waves going their way. We did a quick last visit to the toilet and then made our way to stay into the start area. It’s always a special feeling before a race, even though we hadn’t planned or trained for it and we just signed up for fun and not for personal bests. But there is this special kind of energy.

Then we went off, first 1.5 km was through Banff and then along the Vermilion Lakes, which was a beautiful stretch with the mountains in the back. I tried to pace Nicole for a sub 1h run, so we tried to stay at around 05:45 - 05:50 pace to have a little bit of correction potential. Everything went good, we reached the turn point at 5 km. Our strategy was to skip the food stations, as it’s not really required for a 10k and you just lose time.

The second half went also good, Nicole did a great job and we kept the pace all the time, the KMs flew by, 5 to go, 4 to go… and then we were back in Banff. There we saw a small elk just on the trail eating grass, so we had to doge him, felt a bit surreal..

After that it was a quick run through town and then we already saw the finish and we did it in 57:53. New record for Nicole!

Rest of the day

Beside of the Run, we didn’t do too much today. First we bought some after run food ( ice tea, beef jerkey, twinkies (crazy sweet stuff)), then went back to the car. We quickly visited Lake Minnewanka and Two Jack Lake.

Then we also did the short drive to Canmore, but there wasn’t much to see (or we couldn’t find it). We were a bit plan less, but that’s the nice thing when you have enough time, you sometimes can just take things easy and relaxed :)

Back to Banff we did a stroll through the Town, had a small Pizza and then made our way back to the campground. Made a fire and had some frozen dried campfood for Dinner, then again some Marshmallows over the fire.