{"id":941,"date":"2014-05-23T17:59:59","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T21:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/?p=941"},"modified":"2014-05-23T17:59:59","modified_gmt":"2014-05-23T21:59:59","slug":"ottawa-race-weekend-expo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/?p=941","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa Race Weekend Expo"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"Canada<\/p>\n

A view of Parliament Hill from Quebec. (Wikimedia Commons)<\/em><\/p>\n

Ottawa Race Weekend (ORW), the biggest running event in this city, is finally here. \u00a0Over the two day event approximately 48 000 runners will take to the streets and participate in a world class road race. \u00a0An amazing six events are scheduled: the family 2k and the kids’ marathon, plus the 5k, 10k, half marathon and full marathon distances. \u00a0And to make the weekend even more exciting, it is the 40th anniversary of the marathon. \u00a0In 1975 a small group (by today’s standards) of 146 runners – three of them women – participated in Ottawa’s first marathon. \u00a0This Sunday there will be 7000 runners at the marathon start line.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A view of Ottawa, Gatineau and the Ottawa River<\/em><\/p>\n

There are a number of reasons that ORW has become such a popular event. \u00a0The courses are beautiful and\u00a0take in all the major sights of Canada’s capital city, including Parliament Hill, The Rideau Canal (a World Heritage Site), and the Ottawa River. \u00a0Marathoners and half marathoners get to run in two provinces, crossing the river from Ontario into Quebec and back again. \u00a0It is a race that is known for its organization but is perhaps even more known for its incredible support from the public. \u00a0No matter what distance you choose, you are guaranteed to see throngs of people cheering you on.<\/p>\n

\"24<\/p>\n

The Ottawa Convention Centre, home of ORW Race Expo. (Wikimedia Commons)<\/i><\/p>\n

Race Expo started last night, so the boys and I headed downtown after school to pick up kits and do some shopping. \u00a0Thursday evening is definitely the time to go – check out this picture of the “lines” at bib pick up:<\/p>\n

\"No<\/a>

No lines at an event that has 48 000 participants \ud83d\ude42<\/p><\/div>\n

I had seven bibs to get for three different races and it couldn’t have been easier! \u00a0After picking up the bibs, we headed upstairs to get the shirts. \u00a0After last year’s nice light blue shirts for the 5k and the half marathon, the white shirts were a little disappointing. \u00a0Do people actually like white tech shirts? \u00a0If it rains they are virtually see through and once you sweat in them they never come clean again. \u00a0Thankfully though the full marathon shirt is a winner:<\/p>\n

\"shirt1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"shirt2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Expo had all the stalls you would expect to see and the kids were excited to spin the discount wheel for Running Room. \u00a0We stopped by iRun and filled out “bibs” to pin on the wall:<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>

My iRun because…<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Luke's<\/a>

Luke’s iRun because…<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Evan's<\/a>

Evan’s iRun because…<\/p><\/div>\n

I did a little souvenir shopping and picked up a comfy long sleeve t:<\/p>\n

\"shirt3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am also bought\u00a0for the first time a Columbia Omni Freeze shirt. \u00a0There are special tiny rings in the material that absorb your sweat and are supposed to cool you down. \u00a0Staff had sample pieces of material to put on your arm which they sprayed with water. \u00a0After a few minutes I could feel a slight tingling and cool sensation. \u00a0I’m hoping I can feel that when I am running in 20+ degrees Celsius.<\/p>\n

Being at Expo definitely brought out my nerves\/excitement (how\u00a0do you tell the difference?) for my second marathon. \u00a0This week has been busy enough that I have’t been as hyper-focused on the upcoming race as I was the first time I ran this distance. \u00a0Actually, I think I may have even been in a state of denial for the past several days. \u00a0But last night I had a tough time getting to sleep and when I finally did my dreams were about running and the race. \u00a0There is no more denying that on Sunday I am running 42.2 km.<\/p>\n

Next post, my goals and game plan… just have to figure them out first!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  A view of Parliament Hill from Quebec. (Wikimedia Commons) Ottawa Race Weekend (ORW), the biggest running event in this city, is finally here. \u00a0Over the two day event approximately 48 000 runners will take to the streets and participate in a world class road race. \u00a0An amazing six events are scheduled: the family 2k […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-running"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3amQ2-fb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=941"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":956,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941\/revisions\/956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}