Bryanna and the City

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

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.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Are you afraid of the dark?

Two nights ago I had my third claustrophobic "episode" or what may be better termed as a mid-night terror attack. The first time I woke up in the middle of the night feeling short of breath and paralyzed with fear, was in this tent at Gambier Lake:


I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I was being suffocated by darkness. My first instinct was to rip open the tent, but I was afraid that if I moved I would actually start to panic. So instead I lay perfectly still on my back, focused on my breathing and waited for my heartbeat to return to normal. It finally did, but then the rodent came...however, that's an entirely different story.

The second time was in a hotel room in Whistler. Again, my first instinct was to run out of the hotel itself, but instead I concentrated on my breathing and slowly the feeling subsided...luckily, with no rat involved.

A couple of nights ago it happened again - the shortness of breath, the feeling of dread, the frantic need to be in an open space - even writing about it makes me a little nervous. I'm hoping that this isn't the beginning of a phobia of the dark and enclosed spaces...but just to be sure, I think I'll pick up a night light on the way home from work today.


Monday, April 02, 2007

365 days laters


One year ago today, Sean and I met for the very first time. It was a quick date. We met downtown for coffee and when my bus arrived he gave me a hug. No biggie. Just a coffee date.
It's so funny/strange to think back to that time when we were just two strangers, drinking coffee, making small talk on Granville Street - oblivious to the future and how our lives would become so entwined; that just a couple months later, we would be in love.
Happy One Year!