Tag: Vancouver Sun Run

2020 weeks fifteen + sixteen

Books Read
17. Why Did I Ever – Mary Robison
18. Wallace Stevens: Collected Poetry & Prose

Kilometres Ran
week fifteen – 70.8
week sixteen – 74.7

2020 to date: 1,022 KM

I went to Costco the other day and as I arrived a busybody announced to everyone waiting to pay for parking that we might was to check the line to get in because it was an hour and a half long and they damn sure weren’t waiting in that nonsense but I was sure I had a book or twenty on my phone so standing around for 90 minutes didn’t sound terrible and besides I was sure they were type who believe that two metres is six feet so I wasn’t going to take their word for it. Why Did I Ever is the perfect book to read while waiting in line because it’s basically like reading through a moderately interesting person’s Twitter timeline except at the end of it you get to flout that you read an actual book rather than wasting your time endlessly scrolling on social media even though most of the time you have no clue what the fuck Robison is talking about. For instance:

65
I say to myself, “Stop it.” Or so I say. It doesn’t work.

Or:

165
I say to myself, “Damn you, damn you, God help you, help you, help.”

I liked this book in spite (or out of spite?) of not really knowing what the hell was going on. But it’s poetry month and also Easter came and went so to celebrate the resurrection I woke up Easter Sunday and pulled out my copy of the collected works of Wallace Stevens and flipped through to “Sunday Morning” as the warm spring morning sun shone in through my apartment window and it was perfect. Everybody loves WC Williams or (that Nazi sympathizer) Ezra Pound and don’t get me wrong because I like Williams a lot but Stevens is my guy. Frost? The guy who overthinks a hike? GTFO.

On a my long run yesterday out along the Central Valley Greenway to Burnaby and up Willingdon to Confederation trail and then back under the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge through Strathcona and then home somewhere along the way I passed 1,000 kilometres so far in 2020 and while I’ve been conscious that it was coming up rather quickly it was still a bit of a surprise just how quickly it came up. So I checked. Last year I made it to one thousand on May 24 while I was on vacation in Paris.

In 2018 I made it to one thousand on May 27 while I was on vacation in Tallinn, Estonia.

This year I made it to one thousand on April 18 while I was running through Burnaby.

Today was the day that the Vancouver Sun Run was supposed to go but was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I had no intention of running it. I did have a goal to run a time fast enough to get a seeded bib (sub 38:00) but I knew it wasn’t going to be this year so I didn’t even sign up. Today after a mid-long bike ride to recover from yesterday’s long run, I set out for an easy jog over Lions Gate Bridge and back. My intention was to run 9 KM to get to 200 KM for April, but I hit 4.5 heading out in the middle of the bridge I wasn’t going to turn around mid span. So I jogged to the end then back home for a pretty casual 10KM in 48:53 reminiscing most of the way about running my very first race five years ago today when I Sun Ran and finished in 52:57 and thought I was going to die. Nostalgia weekend for sure.

2020 week eleven

“Books” Read
7. You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack – Tom Gauld
8-12. Money Shot #1 – #5 – Tim Seeley & Sarah Beattie

Kilometres Ran
week eleven – 88.8

2020 to date: 675 KM

The COVID-19 crisis has become a worldwide pandemic and while many online suggest this is a great time to get some reading done my attention span is on lingering around comic books and video games. So I read some comic books and played a lot of XBox. Tom Gauld graces the cover of many a New Yorker collecting dust on my coffee table, and I picked up this collection from Pulp Fiction Books in the fall. This little book collects from his eight years of weekly comics in the Guardian. Dark, quirky, genius. I’m a fan. I’m also a fan of Sarah Beattie on Twitter and Instagram and (also) back in the fall she started talking about a new project with Tim Seeley. Money Shot takes place in the near future “amid an anti-science presidential administration and public apathy.” A group of five scientists cannot secure research funding and resort to raising money by producing pay-per-view intergalactic porn. Fun, funny, smut. I’m sure I’ll get back to being Mr. Serious soon enough, but for now it’s comics and XBox.

Because everything is cancelled. First, Boston got postponed, which I was a bit relieved because I was expecting it to be cancelled. I expected everyone to get deferred to 2021 and then make it virtually impossible to qualify for Boston #125. But it was postponed, for now. Then the cascade started. Yesterday’s St Pat’s 5K was cancelled, followed by the Vancouver Sun Run. I wasn’t registered in either, but disappointed regardless. Then goal race April Fool’s Run half marathon on the Sunshine Coast was postponed until August and I was really disappointed. And then the BMO Marathon in May was cancelled and I was pretty demoralized. I had registered to run it to try to get a BQ for 2021 but didn’t talk about it except with my partner and coach, and had sworn them to secrecy for various reasons. Now I’m in limbo. I had wanted to run Berlin at the end of September and enjoy it rather than put the weight of BQ onto it. Who knows if it will even happen now. So for now I’m back to running like I did in the weeks following CIM – running for the sake of running and just enjoying it like I did way back before I became hyper-competitive with myself. And that’s okay, but I’m going to miss racing, and it seems my race-each-month goal is not going to happen this year. My next races are Scotiabank Half Marathon on June 28 followed by Summerfast 10K in mid-July. If they go ahead. We’ll see.

2020 week ten

Books Read
5. Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club – Megan Gail Coles
6. The Houseguest – Amparo Dávila

Kilometres Ran
week ten – 69.7

2020 to date: 591 KM

“February in Newfoundland is the longest month of the year.” So opens Small Game Hunting‘s synopsis on its House of Anansi page. Thank gawd February is over. I wanted to like this book and it was such a slog and I spent so much time wondering just WTF was going on that I just could not. It reminded me of reading Faulkner in undergrad, the echo of people much smarter than me lamenting greatness like tinnitus all the while just wondering what the hell is happening. Sometimes I get the urge to pick him up again. This reminded me maybe nah. Moving on, below the flat we let in Mexico City was an English language bookstore that -of course- I stopped in to browse. Inside was a wide selection of children’s books, high school and university textbooks, and various exam prep, as well as a small selection of local authors in translation. I picked up a few but this Dávila collection of short stories had a blurb that included comparisons to Hitchcock and Kafka. I like Hitchcock and Kafka. This collections didn’t disappoint, and Dávila’s comparison to Kafka is apt. I liked it quite a bit and it was fun to recognize references I would have never understood before visiting Mexico City. In a city with so much to discover, this was a pleasant surprise.

WestVanRun race weekend, about a mile into the Sunday 10K. The smiling did not last much longer. Photo by Debra Kato.

Race weekend in West Vancouver for the WestVanRun 5K on Saturday and 10K Sunday (today). I set a goal to run a new personal best and aimed for an under 19:00 finish. I had a pretty good morning. I got into a slightly uncomfortable pace that I thought I could hold onto. The course starts at the top of a pretty steep hill and then runs pretty much flat out through the Park Royal mall parking lot and then back along the West Van Centennial Seawalk to the finish. My middle splits were pretty even and I managed a bit of a kick to the finish and crossed the finish line 19:03 with not a lot left to give. When I checked my finish online it said I placed fourth in my age group. A couple hours later friends messaged to say I missed claiming my third-place age group award. The runner who finished second overall was first in my age group and instead of double-dip, the organizers bumped everyone up a spot. So I was third in my age group even though I was fourth. It seems so strange to claim an award that I got but didn’t actually earn. I guess now I know how people who wear those fancy Nike shoes must feel all the time…. Anyway! I am now 3/3 not being on hand to accept my age group award.

WestVanRun Saturday 5K PB times three for John Hamilton (L), Walter Downey (R) and me. Photo by Lindsay Maciver.

This morning was the WestVanRun 10K and after a 9/10 effort to get to 19:03 in the 5K 23 hours earlier (thanks, Daylight Savings Time) I dialed back my expectations. I’d wanted to try to go under 38:00 but that was a pretty lofty goal at the best of time let alone the day after a hard race. I decided instead to go out at 3:55/km pace for the first 5K and then hang on for dear life and at least beat the 40 min pacer. I hit half way in 19:36 – one second behind pace – and the hang on began. I dipped a bit through 7 and 8 KM then traded lead back and forth with Michael Prince. I thought I had him beat but he had a better kick to the line; I crossed the finish a few seconds behind him for 39:30 chip time and my second fastest 10K and second time running sub 40:00.

Mike Prince out kicking me at the WestVanRun 10K finish this morning. Photo by Maddie Wiseman.

Later today over-analyzing the weekend (as I tend to do) I’m sure that I have it in my to run a sub 38:00 10K but I have a bit more work to do to get there. I was really happy with how well I recovered between races, all things considered, and I wonder how I could have done in the 10K today if I hadn’t raced the 5K yesterday. I felt like my Saturday was a better day, but when I looked at the stats I found that today’s 10K was actually a better performance, which I still find really (pleasantly) surprising. I certainly do not regret racing both. I’ve decided to pass on the St. Pat’s 5K next weekend, and the Vancouver Sun Run in April and just focus on the half marathons I have lined up between now and summer. Summertime will bring the Mile2Marathon Chase the Pace 5K on the track followed by the VFAC Summerfast 10K around Stanley Park so I won’t have to wait too long to take another shot at going faster than I have ever before. Next up though, is the gruelingly hilly April Fool’s half marathon on the Sunshine Coast. If I can set a new PB there I’ll be ecstatic.