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.