Here's Brian looking pumped to be almost finished our 20 mile run on Sunday morning. This is taken about mile 17 or so. My pace is about where the road meets the horizon at the back of the pic. It was a great day all around. Bri and I left my place at about 6:30 and took it really easy over the 7 miles between my place and the skytrain. Here's a couple at the station and on the way to the race. Looking and feeling fresh!
Just a few folks waiting to get their tickets for the train. Note the abundance of reflective tape. An unusual amount even for Vancouver.
Truth be told, for having participated in North America's largest 10K (that's right, Peachtree!) , I'm embarrassed to say that I have no pics of the actual race. We were held up waiting for some folks at the train station and barely got downtown in time to check our backpacks before the race started. Gear check for the race was several Purolator cube vans with plastic bags color coded depending on the color of your race bib. When we arrived at gear check, there was some dude on a walkie talkie shouting at the driver to close the door and get going. I barely managed to get my backpack stuffed into the bag and on the truck. It cost five bucks and I literally threw $5 worth of coins into the truck along with my bag.
The race itself was pretty uneventful. Brian and I somehow ended up in the wrong corral and started with the group behind us. The race had over 59K participants so you can imagine it's a little crowded. Including a stop to er, relieve myself in an alley run time was about 47 min or so. I mostly wanted to run and have a good time and it was pretty clear from the get go that it wouldn't be a day to run fast. I was pretty pumped that even after a 7 mile 'warm-up' and a 45 minute train ride mt legs still felt really, really fresh. i ran the last mile at a little under 7 minutes and felt really relaxed and smooth. I just cruised it in, knowing that there were still 7 more miles on tap.
After the race, went to gear check and it was a gong show. So many people, so many bags, not enough volunteers. It was cool though, cause we were feeling good and the weather was nice. Bit of a scare though when we got our gear check bag back and there wasn't a backpack in it. My wallet, Brian's wallet, 2 cameras, a camel back, a pile of other running stuff was in that backpack! A volunteer let me 'backstage' and I finally found it, just sitting untagged. Sweet!
The post race expo was an insane mass of people so Gunner and I took advantage of the good weather to walk around downtown a bit, grab a coffee and hit a grocery store to grab a bite. Elected to buy muffins instead of ClifBars. A choice that would come back to bite us.
After a pretty good effort at the 10K, a long train ride, and a lunch of muffins, coffee and blueberry juice, the run back started slowly! Lots of sloshing in the belly and a good side stitch for the first mile. After that we just took our time, chatting and enjoying what was a beauty day in Vancouver. Sunny, warm, a perfect day for a long run.
Hope the weather cooperates two weeks from now when Brian, Parmi and I run the Vancouver marathon.
3 comments:
I'm just glad we found the pack. Oh and made it home.
that definitely sounds like a lot more fun than just heading out the door for 20 miles...
I'm glad you had a good time. I play drums in The Neurotics, the band at the starting line scaffold, and even after 15 years watching those tens of thousands of people go by never gets old. And I get to sit down! :)
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