Sun Run 2010

So this year I decided to do the Sun Run. It was my first time doing it and I signed up just a week before the run. You have to put yourself in a category based on how fast you will complete the 10km. I ran 5km near my house to figure that out and it took me 24 minutes. I knew that to do 10km my pace would be slower and that the Sun Run has a ton of people so they might get in my way too.

So I put myself in the 1:00-1:15 category, which meant I got a white bib when I went to pick up my gear on Thursday. The numbers start at 1 with the fastest group the blue group and then theres the yellow group, the green group, and then finally the white group starting at about 23000.

There were 51419 runners on Sunday and to keep track of them all they gave us a race timing chip. It gets attached to your shoe and then records your time across the start line and across the finish. This is how they can publish official run times for everyone in the Vancouver Sun. I heard that in the past you had to return your race chip or pay $40, but this year they were disposable.

There were a ton of people filling Georgia street for about 8 blocks. This is looking back from my spot about halfway along the start area. At 9am there was a countdown and then they blew a horn and the first wave was off.

Of course none of us in the white group could tell this since they were too far away to see. This is looking forward towards the start line from my spot in front of the art gallery. It wasn't until 20 minutes later after a couple more waves that I could see people moving. Then we got moved up and then stopped and then moved up again. Finally after about 50 minutes I crossed the start line. By then I'm sure all the fast blue group had finished the run.

I ran the Sun Run with an official time of 52:11.8. Since I started in the white group I passed a lot of people. I was still really surprised though that I came in 4607th place. Actually now it says 4629th. I keep getting pushed back for some reason. There must have been many people who underestimated the time it would take them to finish, since otherwise you'd expect me to have a place similar to bib numbers in the green group, somewhere between 9000 and 23000.

After the race I met up with Adam and we got some free juice, fruit, chocolate milk and red bull. We hung around for an hour and then I went home to take a much needed shower.

Well it was annoying waiting so long to start, the run itself was fun. It was a really nice day out, there was some music playing all along the course and some people dressed in some weird costumes. I think I'll do it again next year except I'll put myself in the green group, 50-59 minutes.

BarbeCURE

On Saturday, we had a BBQ as a fundraiser for cancer and the Relay for Life. My relay team is the Justice League and the relay is May 14th at 7pm to May 15th at 7am. I think this is my 4th year doing it and we always have lots of fun. We dress up in superhero costumes and many people want to take our photos.

Anyways, the idea was that everyone pays $10 for a burger and then we all brought snacks for everyone.

Many of my friends are on the relay team but also many that are not showed up to support it.

The first game of the Canucks' second round of the playoffs was on during the BBQ. They destroyed Chicago 5-1.

We made a lot of money at the fundraiser!

We're still way below our fundraising goal though. If you want to help us out, you can do it on my donation page.

Bunny Killing

Last weekend I got a strange email from my Swiss coworker Walter, entitled "Kill da' Bunny!". He was inviting friends to his place to consume chocolate bunny. He had a link to his website where he took many photos of his Swiss bunny around Vancouver, including removing its wrapping at Wreck beach. He said to bring our own chocolate bunnies or wine to go with bunny. I brought some little Swiss bunnies to go with the big one.

When I arrived I found we were having chocolate fondue before the bunny. It wasn't Swiss chocolate (or melted bunny) but it was still quite good.

We dipped pieces of apple, banana, orange, pineapple, and rice crackers in the chocolate.

His landlord brought a plate of ham and pickles

and one guy actually dipped a piece of ham in the chocolate.

The fondue set which was brand new apparently had a flaw in it, because out of nowhere the bowl of chocolate split right down the middle and fell off the platform.

Finally it was time to slaughter the bunny. We considered a few different ways to go about it and turned all the little bunnies away so they couldn't see.

We decided to do the classic beheading with a quick chop through the neck.

My boss had brought some ice cream that we ate with the chocolate. Also, Walter had some egg liquor which I've never heard of before. We poured it over the chocolate and it was very delicious.

Close ups of food always look weird.

We barely managed to eat the head between the 7 of us that were there. It didn't take long to feel like I'd had enough chocolate for the night. Walter gave me a bunch of pieces to take home though and I still have one.

Easter 2010

So for Easter weekend I spent Thursday night to Monday afternoon on Saturna Island where my family lives. It was a fun and relaxing weekend.

Thursday, April Fools, was my youngest sister's birthday so we had a cake for her.
She's now 13. I can't believe my sisters are in grades 7 and 8 already.

Around dinner time on Friday there was a power outage on the island. Ferries were not running to it for a short while (due to large waves) so some friends of the family never made it over. We played a French card game called Mille Bornes by candle light and it took a ridiculously long time to finish because everyone was being ruthless. The candle we used was only about a quarter of this size by the end.

My sister made a person out of candle wax.

In the morning my mom made some pancakes

by putting the frying pan on the downstairs stove.

The power came back on around 10am in time for the Easter bake sale. We took part in the cake walk many times like we usually do. My mom donated a cake to it.

We ended up winning two cakes. My sister picked a double decker one with oreos, nibs, and chocolate eggs on it. Here it is mostly demolished.

During the weekend we also played lots of disc golf at the course my dad made up on the school grounds. We played 5 times and I had an average of 0.4 above par with my best score of -4. It's the best score I've ever gotten on any disc golf course. Perhaps all the Ultimate frisbee play has increased my throwing abilities.

My brother managed to get a hole-in-one on Monday which is referred to as an eagle since it's two under par. During our first game on Friday though there was an actual eagle in our way that was hurt and could not fly away.

I took lots of photos of it and some video too. My dad phoned some animal care people and one of them came over with the coast guard the next morning. By then the bird had wandered into someones garage but they got it into a cage and took it over to another island to get fixed up. When it's good to go they will bring it back to Saturna and release it.

We also visited the SEEC outdoor site where they are still working on building the cabins for groups to sleep in.

They're on a crazy angle but the floor is level inside.

The windows look like old fashioned TV with circles at the bottom. The windows are going to have glass and only the little holes at the bottom will be able to slide open to let air in.

We came back to the site later in the weekend

and roasted some hotdogs and marshmallows over the fire.

This little frog hopped right through the fire.

While I was on the island we also played RoboRally at least once a day. I brought it with me and one of my sisters is addicted to the game. I just had to make sure that Triscuit didn't mess it up.

Of course we had a good family game night too. We played Probe which is like a multi-player version of Hang-man where you take turns guessing letters in each others words. I won the game!

On Sunday morning my little sisters hunted for Easter eggs around the house. They're still not too old for candy.They definitely don't feel too old for the annual large Easter egg "hunt" at Winter cove. It's not much of a hunt because the chocolate eggs are scattered all over the grass. My sisters got so many eggs they later walked around and scattered them near searching toddlers or kids that came late.

We also walked through the nearby park and out to the point

where the waves were quite big.

They looked a lot like waves you'd find on the west coast of Vancouver Island at long beach or Tofino, not here in the Strait of Georgia.

The ferries were back up and running fine though by the time I headed home on Monday afternoon. Now I have lots of work to do and it's time to get back to the reality of school.