Just came back from my first ever Vancouver Sun
Run this morning. I'm not a runner. Never been, probably never will be.
Those who know me knows that although I'm into sport, I have no stamina for endurance work. I dash and sit and dash and sit. Hockey is more my thing, although it's been a while since I've played.
But this year, from the encouragement of my family med friends and Amy, I thought I'll try it out. Although it's a pretty benign distance for most runners, to me 10K of running still seems a lot, and I had no illusion that I was actually able to run it all without stopping. On top of that my plan of trying out a reasonable training schedule never worked out (they never do). With minimal training and not conditioned for distance running, I pretty much figured I was just gonna walk
most of the thing. I even sign myself up along side the baby strollers. Oh well, just to be part of the action.
It's nice, actually. The Sun Run is such a tradition to Vancouver, and to share the
city with so many people on the street is quite a treat. I feel more Vancouverite today. I feel like I'm part of the active core that gives this city so much of its youthful flare.
It turned out not as bad as I thought. Having never really ran even close to 5 Km continuously, I was surprised at how comfortable I was in covering the miles. All I need is to have 54,999 training buddies and I can do this every week, I'm sure. I think my motivation stems from having people to pass, having new roads to cover, and beating some kind of a slow clock. I actually felt quite good until about mid-way, when I finally felt the need to walk for half a kilometer or so before resuming. I wasn't fast, but I tried to keep with it. All
together I probably didn't walk much more than 1Km, and the rest I jogged, somewhat intermittently towards the end. But at the last K, peeling off the Cambie bridge having BC Place in sight, I realized that I actually had much more left than I thought. After covering 10 Km, I sprinted the last 400 meters or so. It was awesome. As I crossed the finished line, I felt a sense of accomplishment. I did my first distance run, and it wasn't so bad after all. In fact, it was kinda fun. I felt so proud that I managed to run most of it. I felt so alive, so active, and somewhat healthy.
I shuffled into BC Place and met with an impressive gathering of people. Pretty amazing. I scavenged the snacks and water tables and waited for Amy and Vicky. I ran exactly 1 hour today. Kinda cool. Maybe I will do this again next year. Now I have something to work towards.
