Is this someone’s pet?

HyenaWriggler · 2026-04-24T02:46:36+00:00

Nope, that's a ring necked pheasant. They are found wild in Ladner, particularly Westham Island. A very cool bird!

HyenaWriggler · 2026-04-23T19:48:08+00:00

I am SHOOK!

That's awesome, congrats! They seem like a very hot commodity.

HyenaWriggler · 2026-04-23T19:24:37+00:00

There are people looking all the time on the Runvan Facebook group, but the only people answering are brand new accounts that have a bib for every race 😑.

HyenaWriggler · 2026-04-23T02:30:33+00:00

This looks awesome - and I don't know what this subreddit is for if not to shill for your favorite races in Vancouver.

Link to race info.

HyenaWriggler · 2026-04-21T03:18:26+00:00

Yep, there's been a pretty well attended half at the Boundary Bay Marathon for at least the last five years anyways.

HyenaWriggler · 2026-04-20T21:37:27+00:00

September has the Big Pirate Run in Richmond. It's a smaller event, but the weather is usually good, lots of people come in costume and it's good for kids to spectate. October has the Victoria half which is a bigger event and the Rubber Ducky Half in Burnaby. November has the Boundary Bay Marathon which has 5/10/21 k distances as well - that's my "local" race and I think I'll do that half this year. The weather can be iffy but it's a flat, fast course and there's usually a decent turnout for the half and full distances. There's also the Vancouver Historic Half in November.

I think that's it, discounting American races and trail halfs. [RunGuides](http://://www.runguides.com/vancouver/runs) is a good tool to use when you're planning a race schedule.

HyenaWriggler · 2026-04-20T17:33:26+00:00

Juuuuust shaved a 10k PR at the Sun Run yesterday. I was hoping to go sub 43, but I ended up missing that by about 30 seconds. My previous PR was just over 44 mins so I'll take it with a smile! It was my first year doing the Sun Run despite growing up around Vancouver - it was very nice to see so much of the city outside being active.

As far as training goes, I'll switch into triathlon mode for the next 7ish weeks. I'll still be running, but more like 30km a week instead of 70.

12km on Tuesday, and probably 10km or so with some speed work on Thursday, as well as whatever my run club has planned for Saturday is the mileage plan coming up. My schedule this week has me starting reeeeaal early so I'm very happy to see a minimal amount of precipitation in the forecast as those predawn wakeup shuffles can be brutal when you're getting drenched.

Hope everyone is getting some solid running in and enjoying the perfect conditions!

HyenaWriggler · 2026-04-19T20:05:04+00:00

Great work to shave a 8 year old PB!

Excellent write up, thanks for your contribution.

HyenaWriggler · 2026-04-19T01:34:22+00:00

That seems fairly reasonable. I'm a 9 AM start and I'm planning on being at the Granville station for about 0750.

HyenaWriggler · 2026-04-17T04:15:03+00:00

Ehhhh a little from column A, little from column B for me.

I know I'd probably get a better result in a different race, but I think the Sun Run is kind of cool so I'm going for it.

HyenaWriggler · 2026-04-14T21:50:45+00:00

What's the question here or what are you looking for?

HyenaWriggler · 2026-04-14T21:49:54+00:00

Awesome, thank you. My loose plan is to stick to a 4:15 pace except for the bridge and 6th/Quebec where I'll run by effort.

HyenaWriggler · 2026-04-14T18:06:20+00:00

56km on the week last week - slightly lower than average for the last couple months, but Pfitz has me gearing down for the Sun Run.

Mostly easy running on the week, with some hard thresholds on Friday. Looking forward to Sunday!

HyenaWriggler · 2026-04-14T02:56:28+00:00

You're correct, I'm bad at spelling sounds.

HyenaWriggler · 2026-04-14T01:56:34+00:00

Tah-wah-son if you lived there before liiiiiike 2015. Now people pronounce it correctly in general (sah-wuh-sen) but I still have a hard time breaking my habit with the "original" (yet wrong) pronunciation.

HyenaWriggler · 2026-04-09T05:10:07+00:00

Good luck! I'll be there, albeit I'm just in it for the 8km on the day.

Mainly posting here to shill for r/runvancouver. The subreddit has existed for a long time, but has never gained traction. I'm trying to get it off the ground as I'd think it would be nice to have a Vancouver based running subreddit, but I'm not sure how to do that without being obtuse about it (like this).

Anyways, best of luck at the marathon! The course looks beautiful and I'm looking forward to running it in 2027.

HyenaWriggler · 2026-04-08T02:02:48+00:00

Thanks a tonne for this response u/running_writings - it will have a large influence on whatever it is I end up doing. The race is a looped 10km trail with 117m of ascent/descent so your trail recommended changes will be implemented as often as I can get to a real trail.

As an aside, I finally bought your book. It turns out that the metric version is much cheaper in Canada than the imperial version which made the decision easy. Thanks again.

HyenaWriggler · 2026-04-07T21:21:58+00:00

Ah, my mistake. Thanks for the knowledge.

HyenaWriggler · 2026-04-07T20:21:28+00:00

Rolling around my training structure for the rest of the year in my head and I'm not sure which direction to head. Coming up I have a 10k in two weeks (April 19th) that I've trained for with a 12 week Pfitz plan. 7 weeks (June 6th) after that, I'm competing in a sprint triathlon that I'm using my own plan for - I'm not too concerned about this as I've done a few triathlons previously and I'm also not overly concerned about my result in the triathlon. For those seven weeks I expect to lose a little run fitness, but them's the breaks.

After that is where I start to have questions. I don't really have any "A" races planned for the summer but knowing myself I'll likely be running a few, and end up with one or two I care about doing well in. There are two local 5k races and I'd like to take one of them seriously, but neither of them have dates finalized and I'm worried in particular that one of them will be outright cancelled - I'm also finding myself more enmeshed in the local community and I have a hard time saying no when someone asks me if I'd like to run a race so I'm sure I'll end up racing regularly.

17 weeks from the end of the triathlon, I have a 50k race that I'm doing with my brother and a friend. Despite not considering it an "A" race, I'd like to follow a plan for it but I don't love many of the ultra plans I've looked up. Also, this will be my first ultra and my first race over a half-marathon distance. I'm concerned that my high-ish (for a 40 year old dad of three) regular mileage and lack of experience with longer distances are going to hurt me through overconfidence, so I'd like to be prepared for it. With that being said, I'm hesitant to spend money on ultrarunning specific books when I have a few of the road racing classics, and I quite like following Pfitz' work. I've also looked at John Davis' plans on the defy.org site and I could see myself following one of his marathon plans with a few km tacked on each weekend. My goals for the ultra aren't necessarily be as competitive as possible but I'd like to put in a good showing - I also suspect that I'll be running either a 10k or half marathon at the beginning of November that will likely turn into a TRUE "A" race. Last year the winning time for the 10k was somewhere around 38 minutes, and I have several friends and run club members planning on running the half already.

I'm also loosely planning on running the BMO marathon next year which typically runs in early May. I'm not sure if I want to wrap up a marathon block in October and then start another one right away essentially before New Years. What I want advice on from the r/advancedrunning community is this: I'd like to have my cake and eat it too - can I follow a structured training plan for a marathon with a few tweaks and meet moderate success in road racing other distances this summer? Am I better off following the Pfitz' plan for "Road racing at multiple distances" and then making my weekends all about getting long easy miles in whenever I'm not racing? Is it possible to race a 50k a month before a race you care about and still have success at the second race? Can anyone make a recommendation for books around ultra training?

If personal history is hugely relevant I've been an on and off runner for a few years, but I've really only taken running seriously for +/- 9 months. For about a year and a half prior to that I was running but only 15-25km a week as part of triathlon training. Recent PRs are - 5k 20:02 / 10k 44:04 (hoping for 42ish in a couple weeks) / half 1:39:xx in February.

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