My first Sun Run

This past Sunday I ran my first 10K, which was also my first Sun Run experience. For those of you not-in-the-know, the Vancouver Sun Run is a huge annual 10K event. This year there were over 54,000 participants, which made it Canada's largest individual participation event ever.

Going into this event I had a few goals:

1. I wanted to break 60 minutes.
2. I wanted to beat Kevin, a co-worker.
3. I wanted to beat my sister who was also running her first Sun Run this year.

Coming in at 64.51 minutes, I only met one of those goals...the last one, but I ran every one of those 64 minutes and 51 seconds, which, to me, was enough to make me pretty proud of myself. (never mind the fact that I could hardly walk yesterday and I'm still quite sore today).

During the race I went from being naively optimistic (kilometres 1-2), to thinking I would never make it out alive (kilometres 3-6), to thinking that I might actually be able to do this (Kilometres 7-8), to getting emotional when I knew I would actually do it (kilometres 8-9), to thinking I was actually going to die 30 metres from the finish line.

After the event, Sean and I attempted to catch a bus home and then decided walk instead when it proved quite futile. This was okay until we decided to get some sushi for lunch. The first place we went to was closed and the second place (six loooong blocks away) had at least a 30 minute wait. As a child I rarely, if ever, had temper tantrums, but with my whole body aching, my blood sugar dipping to dangerously low levels, and the reality setting in that I would not be getting any freaking tuna and salmon sashimi in the next half hour, I was very close , at the age of 24, to letting my beaten body crumple to the floor in protest. Luckily, that never happened, and a short bus ride to Cambie St. later, I soon had a belly full of raw fish. Mmm...

So, that's how my first Sun Run went. I might be doing another 10K in May...that is, if my body recovers before then.