August 31 - Race Day!

Well, here we are! Sunday, August 31st, and at 7pm tonight I'm going to start running my first ever race! It's a little crazy to think about where I was five months ago, or even a year ago. So much has changed since then - mostly thanks to the goodness of God and His plan for my life - and thanks to His mercy and grace, I'm still here and breathing! ;)

I never thought that one day I'd be saying, "I can run and finish a 10K race", but here I am, ready and willing and able to do so!

Thank you God!

Today I dedicate my race to God, for: "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace." (Acts 20:24)

Can't wait to post how it went tonight!

The Human Race 10K
Wow, what an incredible event! There were red shirts everywhere as my Dad and I arrived downtown at 5:30pm. Found an awesome parking spot just 3 blocks from the starting area, walked over and got our hand stamp and went into the warmup/wait area.

There was free samples of Starbuck's latest blended protein drinks being handed out (I got a Mango one), along with fruit, nuts, water and other goodies. I decided to stop with the protein drink, as I'd already eaten before leaving, and had been drinking water all afternoon (where ARE those portapotties?!?). Took my Advil and sat down to rest, pray and listen to my iPod.

Waited until 6:30pm to use the facilities (nothing like a slow moving 5min herd line up towards 50 portapotties to pass the time), and then made my way over to the starting area. At 6:50pm they opened the gates and began letting all the runners head 3 blocks down the starting row.

Banners for each of the run segments marked off where you were supposed to go stand. I found a nice spot to stand a few feet back from my wave (Wave 6 - 55+ min). Someone came up to me and asked if I had any Tylenol - their legs were hurting already - I had lots of spares, so I shared. :)

About a block-and-a-half in front of me was the actual starting line, and at about 7pm there suddenly was a lot of loud music, and the MC of the race began getting the first wave to jump up and down, do jumping jacks, and run on the spot. Was quite funny to see about a thousand people with their heads all popping up and down without going anywhere. Wish I could have taken a picture of that!

Then - in true Vancouver fashion (being the non-violent, anti-gun type country we are) - the sound of a dying air horn broke through the air (someone MUST have been playing with it a lot before the race, because it sounded more like a moose mating call), and we were OFF!

Okay, well, maybe not. Wave 1 was "off" and running. The other 10,000+ of us weren't able to start moving for another 5 minutes or so. Then slowly each wave began to move through the gates. By the time our wave started, we all pretty much walked a block and just got to start running as we hit the starting timer pads.

Weather was perfect - cool but sunny - and just a sea of red winding through the city, over bridges and beside False Creek. It was very inspiring, and quite a difference to run with so many people (as opposed to running solo during training). There were local residents and race volunteers all over the race course, cheering us on, waving, watching and clapping. It was very encouraging.

I had no idea how I was doing - pace, time, distance - I spent most of the time either lost in my music, or just focused on not tripping up anyone in front of me as I made my way through the crowds. During the first half of the race I was passing a lot of people (How the HECK I ran a 5'15"/km pace during the first 2.5km I'll never know!). I didn't stop to walk and take a drink until about 4.5km. We had hit a hill at a local park, and the grass was long and a bit swampy - made running difficult, so I figured "good time for a drink break!"

I hit my stride and felt good by 6km. The sun was nearing the horizon at the 7km marker at the bottom of the Burrard Street bridge. The bridge itself is a huge steady hill climb for about 0.75km, and then down the other side about 0.20km, with the 8km marker just around a corner at the base of the bridge. Before the race, and as I hit the base of the bridge, I had told myself "you are NOT walking this bridge - you are running this bridge!" I did manage to run the entire bridge (okay, so lots of people passed me - but hey, I passed a BUS!), and that felt really good hitting the crest at the top. Took a short walk and drink break past the 8km marker.

By about 8.5km I had significantly slowed. Street lights were coming on, the sun had set behind the skyline and would be gone quickly. At 9km we went through the starting gates (that was a bit anti-climactic), and there were huge crowds cheering us on from that point to the end of the finish line. However I was just trying to keep moving at that point - the whole last kilometre is UPHILL to the finish line (who the heck designed this course anyways?) - but I did manage to keep running.

As I got within sight of the race clock at the finish line, I was squinting to try and read the time (I don't run with my glasses on). My brain suddenly said "Hey, does that clock says 1:06?!?" - normally I run 10km with a pace of about 7'30", so I was expecting to finish this race with a time of about 1:15, but here I am nearly beating my best time by 10 minutes?!?

Sure enough, I crossed the finish line at 1:07:26 (the official race clock doesn't reflect my true start to finish chip time which was even better at 1:04:47!), and quickly entered the herd of runners being handed our participant medals and guided towards the refreshments area.

After a few minutes, I had managed to get my legs back, grabbed a drink and downed my energy beans (think spiked jelly beans). Found my Dad back at the finish line looking for me, and got him to take a picture. We chatted back to the car, I changed out of my sweaty clothes and we headed home.




Thank you God, that was one challenging but fun race!


Today's ONLY Run
Distance 10.0km - Duration 1:04'47" - Pace 6'45" - Cals 814
(evening - my official Nike Human Race 10K Results!)
Distance 9.22km - Duration 1:03'48" - Pace 6'54" - Cals 802
(evening - my Nike+ SportBand results - started my timer late! AAARGH!)

Ended up ranked the 1,048th male, and 1,784th runner across the line in Vancouver, and 122,553rd across the finish line world-wide!


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