Trip Segments:

• Running the Ottawa Marathon itself
• Government Buildings in Ottawa
• Museums in Ottawa
• Food Scene in Ottawa

In November of 2018, I’d finally decided to sign up for my first marathon, and try to take a lofty shot at qualifying for the Boston Marathon. I signed up for the Sydney Marathon that September to pursue my goal, but I wanted a “warm-up” race first. Something far enough removed from the Hong Kong half marathon in February, but not too close to September, and preferably one over the 3-day Memorial Day weekend to maximize time in the race city. After some searching, I found that the Ottawa Marathon fit the bill almost perfectly. It wasn’t too many timezones to adjust from home but it was in a city I’d never been to before, and was a mostly flat course that was certified as one of just six IAAF Gold Label marathon courses in North America! Unlike Washington D.C. of the United States, Ottawa doesn’t have that many flights outside of Canada. Because of lower supply, fares can be really high. Roundtrips without overnight layovers were pricing out at nearly $1000, which is a crazy amount to be spending on a cross country flight. I was able to find a one-way flight back from Ottawa on United for around $170, with a long layover in Washington’s Dulles airport during my working hours the day after Memorial day. However, this left me needing a one-way to Ottawa, and literally nothing was pricing under $500 the Friday before the race. Mercifully, Westjet decided to host a sale and filed a one-way from SFO to Ottawa with a layover in Calgary for just $200, the Thursday before the race. Even though it would put me in Ottawa just past midnight, I wasn’t willing to spend hundreds of dollars for an option with better timing.

However, I lucked out with schedule changes on both of these itineraries. First, United moved my flight from Dulles to SFO back by an hour, which empowers me to pick any alternate flight that same day with open seats. I decided it would be a good idea to spend the afternoon back in our office, and changed to United’s first flight to Newark with a connection to SFO that would get me back at 11:30 a.m. Then, my Westjet flight from SFO to Calgary was pushed 3 hours earlier. My other option was a 4 hour layover in Vancouver with a similar morning departure, but I’d arrive in Ottawa at 9 p.m. instead of midnight. I happily made the change, as Westjet provided inflight Wifi for purchase that allowed me to work on the way to Ottawa. I had no lounge access in Vancouver, but most gate areas were pretty empty and I had 3 hours of intense focus after clearing Canadian customs and transferring to the domestic terminal. In the end, my flight itinerary looked like this, all in Economy class:

Outbound:

Westjet 737-700 Flight from SFO to Vancouver

Scheduled Departure: 8:00 a.m., Thursday May 23th, 2019

Scheduled Arrival: 10:00 a.m., Thursday May 23th, 2019

Scheduled Duration: 2 hours

Layover Duration in Vancouver: 4 hours

Westjet 737-700 Flight from Vancouver to Ottawa

Scheduled Departure: 2:00 p.m., Thursday May 23th, 2019

Scheduled Arrival: 9:30 p.m., Thursday May 23th, 2019

Scheduled Duration: 4 hours, 30 minutes

Return:

United CRJ-700 Flight from Ottawa to Newark

Scheduled Departure: 6:05 a.m., Tuesday May 28th, 2019

Scheduled Arrival: 7:40 a.m., Tuesday May 28th, 2019

Scheduled Duration: 1 hour, 35 minutes

Layover in Newark: 35 mintes

United 777-200 “Megabus” Flight from Newark to San Francisco

Scheduled Departure: 8:15 a.m., Tuesday May 28th, 2019

Scheduled Arrival: 11:30 a.m., Tuesday May 28th, 2019

Scheduled Duration: 6 hours, 15 minutes

The next important consideration was where to stay while in Ottawa. Although the metro area is pretty spread out now with nearly a million people, most of the places I thought I’d be interested in going were clustered near the Parliament buildings at the city center, all within a mile and a half of each other. My first concern was picking a place that would be close to the starting line, which was on Elgin street right in front of Confederation Park. I found an AirBnB for about $350 total over the 5 nights I had to stay in the Golden Triangle district, which is along the city’s famous Rideau canal and just a few blocks from the race’s start. A secondary consideration was proximity to cafes and restaurants, as I ended up having quite a bit of work I had to attend to while in Ottawa. Luckily for me, I was within a block of Elgin street, which was lined with cafes and bars. I didn’t end up having time to explore Ottawa itself much until after the race, but when I did I was within a mile walk of all the important government buildings and museums. At the time, 5 nights was a lot for me to spend in any one city, especially one as small as Ottawa. The time felt shorter because I spent half the time working, though, and I ended up being really impressed by the cafes and restaurants I tried. This trip also nudged me further towards taking longer trips to work remotely in certain cities, which I appreciate.