Boo!
It’s that darker, colder, but magical time of the year when even the running routes get dressed up to celebrate Halloween in Vancouver. Last Halloween, we ran a scary ghost back at the old cannabis store location. Our new Main Street neighbourhood around Distance Runwear brings new opportunities to carve out a new Halloween run option and this year, and after a little prodding from Madam Cassap-Hanson, I opted to go with a spooky skull.
The Skull-O-Ween 10k is a fairly simple route that gets the trickier eye and nose sections out of the way early before tracing the outline of the skull between Main and Windsor Streets to the west and east, and 23rd and 37th Avenues to the north and south, back to Distance Runwear. The missing tooth detour into the cemetery from the 37th Ave bike route late in the run bumps the route up to ten kilometres for you sticklers who have to run around the block at the end of your runs to round off your kilometres. (RunGo says the Skull-O-Ween is 10.09 kilometres, so I’m not guaranteeing you won’t have to run around the block anyway.)
Keen observers will note the route includes two sections in the Mountain View Cemetery. Running this route the night before Halloween this year, we’ll catch a bit of it, but if you’re in the area from October 26 to November 1, particularly after dark, be sure to check out the All Souls celebration at the cemetery.
Skull-O-Ween 10k
Starting at 32nd Ave, go NORTH on Main St — RIGHT on 30th Ave — LEFT on Sophia St — RIGHT on 28th Ave — RIGHT on St. George St — LEFT on 31st St — LOOK CLOSELY TO YOUR RIGHT FOR THE GAP IN THE HEDGE and enter the cemetery through the hole in the hedge to run the skull’s nose hole — LEFT on cemetery path — RIGHT at next path intersection — continue south past the first intersection and go RIGHT on path along the hedge parallel to 33rd Ave — RIGHT at next path intersection back to where you entered the cemetery to close out the nose loop — RIGHT along path and exit cemetery at northeast corner to Fraser St — NORTH on Fraser — RIGHT on 28th — RIGHT on St. Catherines St — RIGHT on 31st to head west across Fraser and close off the bottom of the skull’s eyes — quick RIGHT-LEFT on John Street to 30th to complete the skull’s eyes — RIGHT on Main — cross and go RIGHT on King Edward Avenue — next LEFT on Sophia — RIGHT on 24th Ave — LEFT on Prince Edward St — RIGHT on 23rd Ave through Tupper memorial garden path and continue across Fraser on 23rd — RIGHT on Prince Albert St — LEFT on 24th — RIGHT St. Catherines — LEFT on King Ed — RIGHT on Windsor St — cross and go RIGHT on 33rd Ave — LEFT on Prince Albert — RIGHT on 37th Ave — dogleg RIGHT-LEFT at Fraser to continue on 37th Ave bike route through cemetery — RIGHT into cemetery on first path after the concrete barriers to knock out the skull’s tooth — LEFT at first path intersection — LEFT at next intersection back to bike route — RIGHT to continue on 37th — RIGHT on Prince Edward — LEFT on 33rd — RIGHT on Main back to 32nd
