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.