I had gone to sleep at about 3:00 after my long flight delay and gotten up at about 7:10. While waiting for the plane I was determined to run even if my flight got in so late that I had to get off the plane and start running. Luckily, I did get some sleep.

It was pretty cold, about 3 degrees. It had actually snowed earlier that weekend.

I ate a banana and a pecan butter tart and drank some mint tea. I got dressed and wasn’t sure whether to wear warmup gear to keep warm. I decided to just go longsleeve and no sweater. It was pretty chilly.

I also wondered about bringing my camera, but didn’t and I regretted it. There were so many crazy scenes that morning.

We walked down to the Starbucks. The one at Pender and Seymour. On the southwest corner, heh, heh. That’s where Chuffy was meeting his team captain and get his racing number and timing chip.

Then Ooms and I went to her old office and got our chips and numbers from Newst.

Then we headed up to Georgia to join the huge column of people waiting to start the race. Because there are so many people in the race, 59,179, they have to start it in stages. I was not in the green group like Ooms and Chuffy, so I had to go up to Burrard.

There are 2.4-metre metal barriers along the starting area. I walked along them outside, but when I got to Burrard there was no opening and a crowd gathering around the outside.

Some dudes were climbing over and jumping down inside the barrier. A dude beside me pushed up the top connector of the barrier module but couldn’t open the space. A woman tried lifting the fencing off the base, but couldn’t do it.

That gave me and idea. I lifted the fencing off the base and we all streamed into the starting area.
Before the race begins there are speeches and music and people leading an aerobic-style warmup. Soon the race started.

I crossed the start line about four minutes after the gun.

Even though I was in the second fastest stage, people with gold numbers like me were jogging, going slowly and getting in the way.

While the first person finishes long before the first person starts, if you packed all the people onto the race route, there would be about six people per metre of the course. It is pretty crowded.

We ran west down Georgia turned some corners and ran along English Bay, around and up over Burrard Bridge down to Cambie and over the bridge to the stadium.

It went a lot faster than last year, since I was already familiar with the route.

There were bands along the way mostly with fast music, but I heard a Sar Maclachlan song.

Last year I was in green and people were even slower so it was like swimming upstream to run at a reasonable pace and I poured it on at the end. This year I was able to go more steadily, but didn’t have mush left at the end. The sleep also probs played a role.

In the stadium I ate bananas, power bars, chocolate milk, juice, orages. A band played. I ran into Corey whom I hadn’t seen in about 10 years. He’s moving to Australia soon. We chatted a bit.

Then met up with Dave, Bob, Newst, Ooms, Chuffy, J and Niks.

I beat my time from last year. Ooms and Chuffy beat and hour. J and Niks beat … hmm 1:09.

And the UBC Nursing team beat the UBC Triathlon Club.

In Vancouver the Sun Run is a strong part of the city’s culture. Not just because it has a big proportion of joggers. Not just because tens of thousands participate, though that’s part of it. Everyone talks about it too.

When you go downtown the morning of the race, everyone is in running gear. People are in the coffee shop in reflective windbreaker and New Balance shoes or a lulu running skirt and a pink Descente zip. It is like a strange world made up of only jogging enthusiasts. There aren’t any cars around either because they can’t get past the race route.

When I picked up the paper with the race results and reports. Oh yeah, just a note about the Vancouver Sun Run. It’s not primarily named after Sol the star at centre of the solar system. It’s named after a newspaper that sponsors it. Also, that newspaper it is named after is not the the Sun newspapers in other cities.

So, when I got the paper, the clerk pointed to a dot in the thousands of people in the start line photo on the cover and said that’s me. I would have done the same, but I didn’t appear in the photo. I was there though.

The elderly lady behind me told us that she saw the runners and there were so many and it’s a great event. Later that morning people at the south terminal were talking about it.

It is kind of a big deal around here.