Race participants offer stories that inspire
Superheroes, bananas, a sausage, Grinch, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cross finish line
Among the first fleets of runners to finish this year’s Vancouver Sun Run was Brendan O’Brien.
The sweaty-browed, fatigued O’Brien clutched his stomach after he huffed and puffed his way across the finish line of the annual 10K in less than 40 minutes along with several members of his New Balance North Delta running group. What’s impressive is that O’Brien is just 12 years old.
His was just one of many impressive stories to be told from 34th annual run held under brilliant blue skies Sunday. A total of 41,645 participants registered for the race, the largest 10-kilometre run in North America.
Teammate — and full-grown adult — Daryl MacLeod was wowed by O’Brien’s performance.
“He’s our inspiration. We’ve got to beat him now,” MacLeod said through a wide grin. “There are not too many chances left.”
Shari Boyle started the race with other elite women and was among the first people to cross the line. It was the Calgarian’s first Sun Run and she said she found it hard but felt she performed well.
Unlike most routes, this one starts off with a lengthy decline where a runner can easily stray from their race plan, she explained.
Paul Willier ran the Sun Run with a group of friends who were all dressed in cow costumes. “The cows decided to go on the run,” as one explained while penned inside the yellow corral at the start line.
Willier finished the run ahead of the rest of the herd and waited for them to catch up at the finish line where he paused to reflect.
“I missed it,” he said of running. “I’m really happy to be here.”
Willier was diagnosed with cancer several years ago and had missed the last three runs. This year, his doctor and surgeon gave him the green light to run the race.
“I was one of the lucky ones,” he said. He encouraged others to remember that no matter what the day may look like, they ’re still here to see it.
Willier and fellow members of the herd wore green and yellow ribbons in honour of members of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team.
The cows were hardly alone in running the route in costume. Joining them were superheroes Batman and Robin, several supermen and women, a half-dozen bananas, at least one hotdog and one sausage, a Grinch, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, and a chicken, who explained why he preferred to run in costume.
“Nobody wants to get beaten by a guy in costume,” said Tilman von der Linde, explaining that he just wanted to motivate the people behind him.
Then there was Postmedia’s Gord Kurenoff, a Sun Run blogger rarely spotted running in anything but costume. He recorded his best time in four years, costume free, and explained that he’d been pulled along by others in his group.
“They’re the runners, I’m the clown,” he said. No red nose or rainbow curls needed to convince us of that, Gord.
Alex Loewen came from Winnipeg to run. He was easy to spot, proudly running to the finish line in — what else? — a Winnipeg Jets jersey. The 57-year-old said he has done the Sun Run 10-15 times and this year he did it in an impressive 50 minutes.
“It’s a fat guy’s time,” he joked. Archaeologist Sean McKnight ran the Sun Run as part of his preparation for the May start to this year’s field season.
McKnight and other colleagues at Stantec Consulting spend the summer months hiking through B.C.’s mountainous forests searching for physical evidence of human activity like stone tools or depressions in the ground.
He ran the route in 46 minutes — three up from his previous record a decade ago. Asked what took him so long, he said extra weight was to blame. “We’re pretty sedentary during the winter,” he explained.
Teo Mitchell, soon to be four years old and sporting a bib with the number 1 on it, had one of the best seats in the city for the race — a swift looking stroller pushed by his mom Kina Jeong.
“This is a great way to introduce him to sports,” Jeong said near the start line, adding that she planned to walk the route with Teo while her husband ran ahead. It was to be Teo’s first time in the Sun Run.
Linda Phillips, Julie Jackson and Denise Adams, all from Boston Bar, had made the trip to the coast just to join the other runners who were all treated to a spectacular day for a run.