Since March, Linda and I have been focused on walking the sun run. She worked her way through her walk program by following it to a tee in the gym and on her own time.
The day was approaching and we made plans to ensure success. We planned for her to drive to my place and then for both of us to cab to the start line.At 9:30am she arrived at my place and in quick order we hopped into the waiting blacktop cab. Within minutes we ended up on Seymour (along with what seemed to be the world)
We made our way to the entrance of the event. Our bibs were pink which seeded us in the walker’s field which placed us in the last wave of over 55thousand participants.
We had to wait for a little bit but sure enough we began our journey. It did take a while to get to the actual start line, but once we heard the buzz from our timing chips on our shoes we knew we were on our way.
The start of the event sends you downhill to the west end – we headed over to the right hand side thinking that we would be slow but ended up using the open space to pass and stay on a really good pace.
The day was overcast and cool – perfect for our afternoon adventure!
We made our way around the back side of the west end on the packed road of walkers and runners. As we came through to the English bay side we saw the first water station. A quick stop and we were back on it. As the walkers started on Pacific Ave, we cut right again and headed down to the seawall. This route took us beside the walkers, but with way less traffic, we were able to chat and enjoy the water and beach. As we approached the Burrard Bridge, we cut back to Pacific Ave and joined the participants at another water station (perfect timing!)
The hardest hill of the day took us up and around the corner onto the Burrard Street Bridge. As we made onto the bridge we passed the halfway mark. 5km down and 5km to go!
There were lots of runner and walkers around us - lots of chatting with the passers by. We made our way down the backside of the bridge and turned left on 2nd Ave. from past experience, I knew this was great because we were close to seeing one of the final straight shots towards the finish.
We ended up stopping for a moment to stretch our calves and had a couple more sips of water.
As we made our way along 4th, the route turns into 2nd Ave again and one can really see all the way to the Cambie Street Bridge. Now Cambia Bridge is where you turn back towards the city and can see BC place – the finish of the event.
That last stretch of road was great. Linda powered along. There were lots of people around us. The bands were playing strong and the kids passing out water were in mid water fight!
We were consistent and we made our way onto the Cambia Street Bridge. Here was our last hill…the last long stretch of road which takes you down a soft right hand turn to BC Place.
There it was, the finish line...I felt goose bumps on my arms and down my neck. We could hear the announcer in the near distance. There was a big group on our left hand side and they all let out a big cheer and clapped as we made our way towards the line. With less than 50meters to go, I pulled out my camera and set it up. As we walked over the timing mat we could hear the loud buzz which could only mean one thing, this adventure was complete! We turned to each other and shared a big hug. I extended my arm and held the camera out (snap) the moment was captured and we made our way out of the finish area (now where’s a chair for us to rest!)
Congratulations Linda, you did a fabulous job and I am so very proud of you ;)
Remember our deal; now that you have one race bib, we are going to exchange it for another one from another event soon - Looking forward to it!
Sincerely,
Richard
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