This 10k-ish loop from Distance Runwear at Main Street and 32nd Avenue, follows Ontario Street, 16th Avenue and the Arbutus corridor to the foot of Nanton Street. Back in the days of the old Broadway Running Room marathon clinics, Nanton was the favourite and most feared of the Arbutus corridor hills we would use for hill training.
Starting at Arbutus Street, Nanton climbs sharply past the Arbutus Club to flatten briefly at the intersection with the Arbutus Greenway and Maple Street before continuing sharply again for another couple of blocks before leveling out around Angus Drive. We turned around at Marguerite Street when we did hill repeats for a total of about 600 metres per rep, but this route being the Full Nanton, don’t stop there.
Named for CPR executive, Sir Augustus Meredith Nanton, Nanton Street actually begins at Yew Street just west of Arbutus, but that tiny stretch of road isn’t worth the potential wait for a light to cross Arbutus, so while our Full Nanton is technically half a block shy of a full Nanton, for our purposes, the *full* Nanton goes from Arbutus to Oak Street where Nanton becomes 28th Avenue. Yes, the section of 28th Avenue from Oak to Heather Street is marked with signs that say 29th Avenue Bikeway.
PLEASE NOTE: You will eventually need to be on the south side of 16th for the turn onto the Arbutus Greenway. There is no crosswalk at 16th and Wolfe, so unless there is a safe gap in traffic when you reach that point, continue along the north side of Wolfe/15th/Marpole and use one of the crosswalks at Granville, Fir, Burrard, Cypress or if you miss all of those choices, Arbutus.