Everybody loves a parade, so grab your friends, put on your most fabulous red-sequinned Brooks Adrenalines and follow the yellow brick road to… Richmond! I’d say the Emerald City but you’d need your passport, so the Richmond Olympic Oval will just have to do.
Starting at Broadway and Fir the route climbs slightly up and across 16th Avenue to Marpole Avenue and then up to Angus Drive where it joins the Angus bike route at Mathews Avenue. Roll with the bike route due south for 4 kilometres where it turns into East Boulevard before taking a left turn on 64th Avenue and then a right on Adera Street. Follow Adera to 70th (or turn left with the bike route at 68th and take Cornish Street to 70th). At some point cross to the south side of the street and turn right at Oak Street and cross the Oak Street Bridge on the west sidewalk. Take the first off-ramp onto Sea Island Way and turn left at the big intersection onto Garden City Road. There is a sidewalk on the east side of Garden City and a bike lane on the west. Take your pick. Turn right at Cambie Road and follow it all the way to River Road and turn left onto the Middle Arm Trail on the top of the dyke. It’s about 1.5k to the Oval. Find some water, turn around and take the same way back.
For the 20-mile version of the run continue along the dyke to the parking lot at Terra Nova Rural Park before turning around.
For more info, check out the City of Richmond’s trail system map and the City of Vancouver’s bike route map.