Story
Two 5Ks, One By Sea
While we were away in Vancouver and Alaska last week, we completed two 5Ks, one running and one power walking.
The first was a Parkrun at Central Park in Burnaby (Vancouver area), the morning of embarking on our cruise ship to Alaska. We met a veteran Parkrunner on the Metro, who had completed 90 something total Parkruns over the years. We chatted with various people pre-race and were amazed that the park was a lovely wooded area. After the run, someone brought cake for one of the local runners who had completed his 50th Parkrun. However, we couldn’t stay very long, as we had to book it back to our hotel, shower, gather our stuff, and head down to the cruise ship pier to catch our ship (the rest of our group was already boarding).
Me and @Dave_K at the Parkrun finish line
GPS track for the Parkrun
Scenery in Central Park, Burnaby
Alaska cruise group sailing out of Vancouver
The second 5K was on the ship itself. Holland America sponsored a 5K on our last sea day called “On Deck for a Cause: Alaska Parks.” This year, the donations went to Alaska Geographic, which is a nonprofit education partner of Alaska’s parks, forests, refuges, and conservation lands. We joined various other cruise ship guests on the Promenade deck to walk a little over 9 laps (3 laps/mile). The staff member continued to emphasize that this was a non-competitive event. However, we certainly had no plans to walk it slowly. We power walked our way around the ship, mostly sticking with a pair of women who had a lunch reservation to make (and therefore wanted to complete the walk as quickly as possible). They also helped us keep track of laps. We couldn’t rely on GPS, which thought we walked 3:24min/mi and a total of 16.7 miles (instead of 3.1 mi). The GPS track just looks like a straight line, as the ship was moving quite quickly (see my Sweet 1600 post for a neat spiral pattern).
Me, Dave, and his sister Laura (showing the back of our commemorative shirts)
During our walk, courtesy of Dave’s Aunt Cathy, who was cheering us on
Sign on the Promenade Deck
We walked so far and fast!
