White Rock Marathon in Pictures

I already posted my review of the race in words, so here it is in pictures.  I carried with me a small disposable camera, not certain if or how well it would work (had an expiration date in 2007!) (yeah, did you see my post the other day about being a pack-rat?).  Here are some of the photos to share:

Runners getting ready and stretching pre-race inside the museum that our running group had reserved:

Waiting at and approaching the start (I used too many pictures here, mental note for next time!).  Including flames and confetti for each wave:

Boring opening mile alongside a stopped train:

Blurry pictures of other runners, taken early in the race on a street filled with pretty old homes:

A blurry view of downtown:

A new part of the course, running through the new arts district:

Leaving the arts district with an interesting sculpture (just turn your head sideways, I don't know how to rotate pictures, sorry, feel free to let me know if you do, I'm copying them from a cd from Walgreens that I got with my prints from the disposable camera):

Running along our street (a few miles away from our house), and a view of the streetcar

A line of flags in one of the two little "cities within the city" that we ran through.  I definitely regret not taking a picture of the firefighters who were standing on the other side of this line of flags:

And then a couple signs that were pretty good: 

If it's too hard to read, particularly sideways, one says Hey Mom, Run Like Your Shorts Are On Fire, the other says You Are Running A Marathon (with a picture of Dwight from The Office).  Other notable signs I remembered: Nipple Chafing is a Turn-On. Hurry up, I have to poop. Chuck Norris Never Ran A Marathon.  Wow, I wish I could remember all the others.  There were some great ones, and I didn't even photograph the best (usually too busy pointing them out to others). 

A view of downtown way in the distance from the north east side of the lake:

And the last pictures on my disposable camera, a photo of the sign saying you're on the "Dolly Parton hills", this is heading up the first one:

And a picture of the guys in between the Dolly Parton hills who work the water stop.  They all dress in drag with blond wigs and large balloons under their shirts.  Then they balance the water cups on top of the balloons.  Quite amusing:

And finally, the bling (hard to tell the shirt sleeves are diff lengths on the half and full shirts, but they are): 

And, not race-specific, but here was our post-race pizza (lighting is bad because it was SUNNY when we finished):

And then, at the second bar we visited after pizza lunch, two of our boot camp buddies celebrating their races (the guy with the big beer ran an amazing PR in the 3:30s, the woman ran a very strong relay leg) (again, very SUNNY). 

A fun day that yielded PRs and/or great races for many running friends!