What an incredible experience. The weather was great, the mass of runners were crazy, and I had a lot of fun. I walked with Rebecca to work this morning so we could pick up today’s edition of the Vancouver Sun to check out my time.
58 minutes and 26 seconds. I’m pretty happy with that. This was my first time ever running in an event like this. It seems to be pretty on par with the pace that I’m used to doing during my regular running routes. Of course, I took today off from my normal routine.
The one major complaint I have about the whole event was the waiting. The word was that access to the areas where you would be starting were going to be closed at 8:30AM, so Rebecca and I got in place around 8:20AM. I knew about the wave starts, but our group didn’t cross the start line until 9:44AM, or at least that was what my iPod told me.
I hate waiting in general, but it was the standing on the pavement that got to me. I could feel my knees getting sore and the lower portion of my back get a little stiff. It felt good to just start moving when we did start, but I didn’t feel really loose until I was around 3km in.
The route took us into the west end, through a slice of Stanley Park, up to the Barrard Street Bridge, into Kits and False Creek, and the home stretch taking us over the Cambie Street Bridge for a finish at BC Place. I parsed through the KatKam archives last night for the off chance that I could spot myself crossing the bridge. I found four pics that could be me. The one at 10:20AM seems most likely, but it’s hard to know. The clock on the KatKam could be off, and I was one of 50,000+ people.
The oranges and bananas they had at BC Place afterwards was awesome. With spring here and summer approaching, I think we’ll be making a better effort to stock up on fruit.
I wanna do more races like this. There seem to be a lot coming up this summer in Vancouver. We’re going through and picking some out. I might even be really brave and try a half-marathon. We’ll see.