Vancouver 10K Sun Run

May 9, 2010

This race was tough - both physically and mentally. I'd heard for years about how this is a very fast and flat race - so I was expecting a race that would result in a fast time.  I'd raced the TC 10km in Victoria two weeks earlier and I had a small PB at that race.  I was hoping to better my time and my race experience -- as my race at the TC 10km had felt difficult.

This is a huge race - the largest 10km race in Canada- with over 50,000 registered racers. Due to its size, it starts in various waves - each section dependent on your predicted finishing time.  Each section is tightly controlled with large fences between them. They are also packed - so once you are in your section, find your spot and wait. 

Luckily, my predicted time was fast enough to qualify me for the blue bib - which meant that I got to start in the same area as the elite racers, which included a large section to warm up in.  This was fantastic, because otherwise, I'm not sure where I would have had the chance to get a bit of a warm-up run in.  Just before this race, I also purchased a pair of light trainers.  Shane had told me many times that I should purchase a pair of racing flats - that I could likely cut some time off of my races by ditching my heavy shoes with orthotics.  So I caved, and bought a pair of flashy Mizunos.  They felt amazing - I'm not sure if it made me any faster, but it sure made my feet feel lighter, and they were a joy to run in.  After just one run, I'm sold!

Now to the race -- After a bit of a warm-up, we made our way to the start line and crowded in for the countdown.  The gun went off and the race was on.  The first km of this race is extremely fast.  It's a downhill start and quite a significant downhill.  My first km in every race is always fast, but with the added assistance of gravity I clocked a 3:35 km.  That's insane fast for me.  I didn't really fret it though, because I didn't feel like I pushed it too hard.  After that first km, I tried to ease into a comfortable pace that I thought I'd be able to hold for the rest of the race. 

However, the race started to feel hard early on.  The second km wasn't too bad, it had a slight uphill, and then turned a bend and there was the one view of the water that I remember (other than going over bridges).  The race course looks like it hugs the shoreline for most of the race, but I barely remember seeing water at all.  What I remember most are the gray buildings, and the very city-centric view of the race. 

My legs felt like they didn't have the ability to push hard, and overall I just felt tired.  I knew this would be a hard race, and my earlier visions of posting a significant PB faded into the distance.  Instead, I thought I might end up with a much slower time than at the TC 10km.  Irrespective, I tried my best to keep pushing, and not give up until I crossed the finish line.  Up until the end of km 4, the race was relatively flat.  Then, km 4 transitioned into km 5 with a pretty steep hill as we headed onto Burrard Bridge.  This felt like a killer and caused me to have a very slow km. However, once we got half-way through the bridge, it was a nice downhill for close to a km.  This would definitely not be a race with even splits.

The next few kms all blended together, as there were slight dips and rises throughout the course and lots of buildings to look at.  One thing about this race, was you were definitely never on your own-- there were tons of people running all around, passing me, and me passing them.  I wasn't even able to keep track of staying with any particular group of people, as it felt like it was constantly changing.  Running a race in a different town was definitely an interesting experience, as I had no idea how I was doing, based on the people around me.  Usually I have an idea of people who run around the same time as me, so based on who I'm with I can have an idea of my pace.  But, this was certainly not the case at this race, as I didn't recognize anybody who was running near me.

The next major milestone was a very straight section around km 8 -- I remember it going on for what seemed like a long time, as the road just headed straight forward - again without any interesting views in sight.    Then we had one more rise as we headed into the final km - as we crossed the Cambie Street bridge.  This rise really hurt-- I couldn't believe how slow I felt I was going.  I just tried to keep it together for the last km.  Almost done I kept repeating to myself -- almost done.

One final descent down the hill and to the finish line.  By this point I already felt discouraged and thought it had been a bad race, and I would end up with a slow time - so I didn't push as hard as I probably could have.  Then, just 100-200 meters before the finish, I saw the clock counting down.  I was still under 42 minutes! I might actually be able to get a PB if I pushed it!  This gave me the impetus I needed to sprint to the finish.  Officially, my finishing time was 41:44 -- a PB of 9 seconds,  it wasn't huge, but based on how I felt during that race, I was glad to have gotten a PB. My splits were: 3:35; 4:07, 3:31 (km 3 was short); 4:50 (km 4 was long); 4:34; 4:14; 8:24; 4:24; 4:03.

Unfortunately, many other racers also didn't have great races.  It seemed like the course somehow wore people down -- either that, or it was the fact of having raced the TC 10km 2 weeks earlier. Although, you'd think that 2 weeks would be plenty of time to recover from a 10km race.  There's lots of theories out there about why there were so many poor performances, but there's no one answer.  Like anything, it's probably very individual - and could be part mental too.

I was happy to have my last significant race completed for awhile.  I'll be doing a few other races in the next few months, but no key races.  The next goal is the Victoria marathon in October - which I will begin formally training for soon.