While my race at the Calgary Half Marathon might not have been what I hoped, I really loved the event. The weekend left me with so many warm fuzzies that I had to share!
On Saturday morning I was up bright and early to knock out a short shakeout run, then I headed down to the Running Room at Eau Claire. Running Room’s founder John Stanton was giving a pep talk and leading a 3K friendship run. I arrived just in time to catch a few of his final pearls of wisdom for race day.
John is such a wonderful, friendly guy. He’s very encouraging and just wants everyone to discover how awesome running (and the community) can be.
There was an added bonus to hanging out at the friendship run…I got to meet up with some blog and twitter friends! Both Kaella and Kris were in town to run this weekend and it was great to finally meet this lovely ladies. They are just as wonderful in real life as you might think from reading their blogs.
I wish they lived closer so we could get together more often! We hung around inside the Running Room chatting (because it was actually quite cold out Saturday morning!) and more and more friendly faces kept arriving including Jen, Peter and Tina.
We then moved into Eau Claire market for the official Calgary Marathon tweet up where they were giving away socks and coupons for a free Jugo Juice.
I couldn’t stay long unfortunately but I’m really glad I had a chance to connect with everyone.
The social media team behind the Calgary Marathon really knocked it out of the park. They were continuously tweeting and instagramming photos and it really helped to get me excited about race day. They were also wonderful about interacting with people using their social media handle and it really helped to make you feel a part of something big.
Calgary’s East Village is going through a revival, with beautiful new pathways along the river, new condos (including Calgary’s first parking free condo) and the soon to open Simmons Building (home to Charbar, Phil & Sebastian Coffee and Sidewalk Citizen Bakery).
It is a really great part of Calgary…and East Village was nice enough to sponsor free race photos for us as we ran through. I thought that was really cool!
My friends on social media all made my heart swell this weekend too. Everyone was so lovely with good luck wishes, notes that they would be out on course cheering and then messages of congratulations after the race. Thank you so much to everyone. Running rarely feels like a solitary activity these days thanks to all of the wonderful connections I’ve been able to make both in person and online.
Another bonus of this weekend was being able to connect with my coach Angie and a few of my Team Tri Life friends! Angie was here to facilitate a coaching course and a few of us were able to meet up for beverages on Friday night.
So once again, thank you to everyone who helped make this weekend so awesome and special. And a huge thank you to my wonderful husband Neil who is an outstanding cheerleader. He supports my crazy love of training and racing, gets up super early on race day and is the best supporter a girl could ask for.
Tell me something that you love about your running community! I am linking up with MCM Mama, My No Guilt Life and Run the Great Wide Somewhere for Tuesdays on the Run.
I love this! It was so awesome meeting you Leana, you are so sweet! I think we need an Alberta blogger retreat or something because it was so awesome being together for even 5 minutes! 😀
Kris recently posted…May Accomplishments & June Focus.
I wish that I would have been able to join in more events this weekend as it all looked like fun! They definitely organized a fun race 🙂
Leigh recently posted…Training Tuesday
I’m sorry I missed seeing you Leigh!! How was your first race post baby?
Runner Leana recently posted…Race Report: Calgary Half Marathon
Oh man, this weekend sounds like it was so much fun in the city!
I was a bit bummed to miss out on all the awesome events, but had a great time in St Paul as well (minus the last 8 miles of the marathon…)
Ange recently posted…Minneapolis Marathon Recap
Looks like you had an amazing weekend. So awesome.
Abby recently posted…People over PRs! – Running – It Is All About Community
Great to briefly meet you at Eau Claire. I’ve never involved myself quite so much in the social side of the Calgary Marathon weekend, now very glad I did.
Peter recently posted…Finding it: Calgary Marathon 50k Ultra
Love your blog! I just found you through April’s link-up on Run The Great Wide Somewhere, and am enjoying reading about all your runs, rides, and hikes. My best vacation ever about 7 years ago was to Glacier National Park, Banff, Lake Louise, and Jasper. Incredibly beautiful! You are so lucky to live so close.
Elaine, thank you so much for your lovely comment! I feel so fortunate to live here in Alberta, so close to the Rocky Mountains. It is definitely one of my favourite places to be. I’m so glad you’ve had a chance to come out here and experience it!
Runner Leana recently posted…Friday Five: Why I Run