So I have made it to Vancouver, fully trained and ready to run this year’s Marathon. And I have decided not to run it this year.
‘… wait, what?’
I’m not hurt. I’m in shape to run the race. I did make the decision during the week before I arrived. I’m still here on vacation, of course. I still went to the Expo to get my bib etc for posterity, hence the picture you see here.
So, I have a recurring skin rash condition on my left arm between the elbow and wrist that has come and gone each of the last several summers since I’ve returned to Vegas.
At times it gets infected and I have to get antibiotics to get it to pass. This time, it came earlier than usual (it usually hits after mid-May) and it’s not so bad at all. A litany of remedies and tricks have slowed it down before it got worse.
I have made all sorts of dietary and lifestyle adjustments to prevent or reduce its recurrence, but it always seems to come back each year. Since it disappears and recurs rather than refusing to go away, and there’s no telltale marks on my arm, I ruled out skin cancer. I also ruled out any of the illnesses that can include a skin rash, like lupus, as I have none of the other symptoms. I have ruled out exogenous causes like scabies or ringworm, as I don’t have other key symptoms for those either. Bedbugs or mosquitoes would have bitten me elsewhere, and my bedding’s clean.
I have deduced that the extended sun exposure in the high UV summer Vegas environment is a factor in why it recurs. I have finally learned that even going outside for walks during work breaks in med-high UV is too much exposure (sunblock has no effect on the outcome), so I mostly have to stop doing that. Even driving home can be a problem because that arm is right next to my window which tinted or not gives it a lot of UV. (I’ve recently began wearing compression sleeves to reduce this).
But in any case, even though the Vancouver sun isn’t as bad for a bunch of reasons, spending 5-6 uninterrupted hours in it may not be a good idea right now. An hour or two is fine. Six hours is not, even wearing sleeves. And go figure, the forecast this year has settled on mostly clear and sunny skies on marathon day for the first time in a while (it’s almost always cloudy/overcast).
I obviously was still looking forward to visiting Vancouver, and wasn’t going to cancel the trip. So I decided I would just enjoy the vacation, do a bunch of more casual running as training while here (I can still go out in the sun for a couple hours at a time, even more in the AM), and keep building endurance once I return home through the summer… maybe for a fall marathon. I’ve got a couple fall marathons in mind (and no, the Vegas Marathon is not one of them). Nothing is in stone. We’ll see.
Meanwhile, if anyone reading this is planning on running this year’s mostly-sunny Vancouver Marathon (which of course I’ve written on before), I decided to offer some extra tips on known traps people tend to fall into running the race. I was completely scouted and ready to handle all of the above this year before the weather and my skin convinced me not to.
This will be a brief and less formal list than the ten things I wrote about before. You are welcome to give all of this a grain of salt or less. (After all… I haven’t successfully run this race in a while, and that will have to wait at least another year.)
The start of the race is actually slightly uphill. Start slow. Because the elevation map emphasizes the big downhills and uphill, many of the smaller but meaningful elevation changes don’t stick out any more than the flatter sections of the course.
One of these is actually the start of the race. The excitement of starting a marathon always gets runners to go out too fast in general, but here in Vancouver it’s especially damaging because Midlothian-W 29th Avenue heading towards Cambie is a slight uphill. So you’re actually working even harder when you start fast, at a time when you need to get your aerobic and fat-burning systems going (… which they never really do at their optimal level if you start too fast).
I would always start at the back of the corral in this race, knowing I was going out slower than anyone else… before I ever realized that we were actually running uphill. It turns out my instincts were correct.
In fact, with all the shifting elevations before UBC, you shouldn’t worry too much about hitting pace until then. Once you turn onto Cambie, the course remains a bit uphill, then slants a bit downhill, but then tilts back uphill a bit, staying this way through the turn onto W 49th, where eventually you hit the first big downhill. Even once you hit the bottom and turn, Marine Drive tilts between slight uphills and downhills before turning uphill as you turn onto Camosun and then really head uphill.
If you try and hit pace at any point during all this, you will likely alternate between two feelings:
- You will find your pace rather easy… as you’re running slightly or more so downhill.
- You will wonder why your pace feels like such a struggle, not realizing you’re probably on an uphill (though on Camosun you’ll definitely know why you’re struggling).
Even after Camosun, as you go through the forest on Imperial Drive to W 16th the road will undulate between subtle downhills and uphills, then on W 16th you may not realize you’re actually climbing a bit once again.
Plan on not using a toilet until the halfway point of the race. In my experience (and yes this is consistent with many big marathons), lines form at the toilets at every fluid stop until the one at halfway, at the bottom of the UBC hill. Those toilets at halfway if anything tend to be open because the units are off-set somewhat far from the course in the nearby parking lot. But those are the first toilets I would have any hope of using.
The last station I’d plan on using a toilet at is the one after 28K right before the Burrard Bridge, in the park after all of the little left and right turns.
Most runners begin to feel a bit deflated on Marine Drive once they’re in UBC for a combination of sneaky reasons. That’s not just from falling prey to pacing problems early, but because of the combination of the rising sun hitting you harder than it did through the tree canopies of W 49th, Camosun and the Forest… and because you’re actually on a slight uphill after W 16th ends with a sneaky downhill following the last round-about.
The combination of all the above can lead UBC to feel a bit deflating. Just keep your feet moving consistently and don’t worry too much about the pace (the most common bit of advice I give any runner)
DO NOT HAMMER THE DOWNHILL OUT OF UBC. This hill is far too steep to take as a normal downhill. You will thrash your quads trying to use it normally, and you’ll still have half the race to go once you hit the bottom. Just coast, like a semi-truck in 1st gear coming out of the mountains, or a kid on a sled in the snow. Let the hill do the work and relax.
A couple kilometers after halfway, there’s a big turn right. Shortly after, there’s a short but steep hill. Slow down when you hit the uphill. It’ll send you back downhill shortly, and there should be a fluid station shortly thereafter.
This is a difficult race to negative split. Some people dream of Boston Qualifying. Personally, I dream of the year I can negative split this race. I don’t even think the winners let alone the other elites come close to neg-splitting this race. (5/6/25 EDIT: Go figure after I write this that 2025 Marathon winner Dominic Arce actually did negative split this race, and he was the only top 10 finisher that did. Well done, bro! A few others in the top 30 did as well, not to mention four of the top 10 women.)
The plan I had for this year would have made it possible for me, though implementing any marathon plan is difficult because countless anything can go wrong on race day. Alas, I’ll have to wait at least another year to do it (because of semi-random things that went wrong outside of race day!).
Your best shot at negative splitting this race, presuming you are properly trained, and you know for sure you can hold a given pace or effort for 42K/26mi (whether it’s your optimal marathon pace or not):
- Start the race as slowly as you can, and gradually work into your expected level of effort until the first fluid station.
- Don’t bother trying to hit a specific pace for the first half of the race. Go with the flow of the terrain. Eyeball-adjust the expected pace up and down as the terrain shifts.
- Take it super easy running on every single uphill, including Camosun, and try to stay in zone 2 (an easy/moderate effort). Just jog if that’s what it takes. But (outside of the fluid station 1/3 of the way up) don’t walk unless you must.
- Do not hammer any of the downhills… except maybe for the one after the Burrard Bridge. Take it easy and treat them as a moving rest.
- Walk one minute after every fluid station for the first half of the race. Walk optionally through all the ones in Kitsilano, and start jogging into your pace as soon as you feel ready to do so. Once you’re in Stanley Park, try your best to move through the fluid stations as reasonably quickly as possible. Please slow down to drink efficiently, but get back to a jog/run as soon as you reasonably can.
- Once you are on the Seawall trail, focus solely on keeping your feet moving consistently. Don’t bother eyeballing your watch and worrying about your actual pace. Keeping your feet moving at a consistent cadence should keep you at a consistent pace even as your stride begins to shorten with fatigue.
Good luck! Until next year… (for me! The rest of you have to do it Sunday! I’ll probably be having coffee.)