We had a work group that were going to meet under the S in SunRun. Good Luck. Our meet time was 8:30, I was ther before 8 (thankyou skytrain). There were already close to 10,000 people in place and warming up. One quick phone call and I know we were no more than a couple of hundred feet from each other. That was as close as we got. I never saw any of them. Oh well, I had lots to concentrate on. My original goal when setting out was to finish in about 1:45. This is a quick walk, maybe the odd jog in there as well. When the gun went off I was in the middle front of the pack. It still took nearly 10 minutes to get to the start line. It's a crazy feeling, and you do get swept up in it. I did a nice slow jog for the firtst 1/2 k, enough to get my legs moving and to figure out the pace and how to stay out of people's way. A combination walk, jog for the next 7k. Probably about half and half. An amazing feeling with all the supporters cheering on people they don't even know. You are never more than 5 metres from anyone, usually more like a foot. Surprisingly, I felt quite good. This is about 3 k longer than any of the warmups I had done. When I got to the south end of the Cambie St. bridge, I could see the 9 k sign. I brought it up to a quick (for me) jog and actually sprinted the last 150 yards. I finished in 1:27:37, so a little ahead of the pace I projected. This put me in about 25,000th place. That sounds terrible until I realize I beat 25,000 more people. I know it's not about the race, but when you start, it is.
Great organization and great volunteers, it made the day quite memorable. I'm feeling all of my 53 years today, the muscles are quite sore, but I kind of expected it. Should only last a day or so and then I can start to run a little bit more. Maybe next year I can take another 15 minutes off that time? Hope you all join me, it really is a good feeling.
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