A few days ago I was told about iPhone apps that use GPS to track routes for fitness. So I bought a seemingly promising app and tested it out. I ran around the work place again and here’s the map. Not bad. It also logs some other info like pace and calories burned, etc.
The app I bought was called Distance Meter Pro. It was relatively accurate, so I decided to bring the phone to Sun Run and log the whole run.
Here are the sun run route and log.
The weather on Sunday morning was pretty good for running. It was just slightly chilly, and no rain. I actually walked about 3.7km to get to the starting point from home instead of fighting the crowd on the bus. It was a good warm-up anyway. 55,000+ people registered for the run. I was in the green group, which was meant for people expecting to finish between 50 minutes to 1 hour.
The run started promptly at 9am — for the seeded runners who were expected to finish under 38 minutes. For us, we didn’t actually cross the starting line until 9:22am. (It actually takes a whole hour for the final group to cross) It was fairly chaotic after crossing the starting line, because apparently people needed to start walking 30 seconds into the race, and it was (again) all about looking for opportunities to pass people. I had to run from one side of the street to another, quite a few times, just to get some running space. As we entered the narrower part of Stanley Park, there was a pretty big jam where everyone had to slow down, and there was this guy telling us to be patient. I had to really focus on finding openings to pass people for most of the time. There was 1 steep uphill just prior to the Burrard bridge where people would walk, and it became a human wall for the runners to try to pass. The uphill on Cambie bridge was less steep, but longer. For every uphill, there was a downhill, but I found myself braking half the time in order not to run into people. At the end, I wasn’t able to sprint to the finish line earlier because of this also.
The good part about this year’s run was that I learned my lesson from last year not to use their gear check-in. I brought as little as possible. I didn’t have to wait in the cold for 1.5 hours. Instead, I walked home, and took some pictures along the way. I had a nice hot shower and I was in a much more pleasant mood for the luncheon with coworkers.
My calves were hurting because of a breakdown in technique due to all the maneuvering up and down the curb, on the grass and on loose gravel. I wasn’t able to focus on my steps as much because most of my attention was spent on not running into people. That was certainly unexpected. In the end, I wasn’t really out of breath like I was last year, so it wasn’t completely satisfying because it felt like I left too much in the tank, so I should have gone faster at some point during the run. By the finishing line, I knew I easily broke my 1st goal of 55 minutes. But I had no shot of breaking 50. I guessed that my time was between 51:30 and 52:00.
Dez was working a night shift last night, so she actually went out and bought a copy of the Vancouver Sun in the morning for us. We had a copy from last year, and now we have a copy for this year. She actually checked the results online prior to buying the paper though. Anyway, I actually did better than I predicted: 51:21. She was impressed, but I still didn’t feel very satisfied.
When I got to work, people were talking about the results in the kitchen/lounge. People were congratulating me and they were definitely more impressed than I was. My time actually ranked 2nd (that I was surprised, since I had checked ahead of time all the potential runners that could beat me, and they didn’t). The #1 guy was a new hire after last year’s Sun Run, so we didn’t factor in his speed. His time was just over 49 minutes.
I was proud of my improvement over last year’s 59:08, but I wasn’t content with the time itself. Nevertheless, I was very impressed with how much a change in technique helped shift the burden from heart/lungs to the calves/hamstrings, and majorly improved my time. And I only started doing it less than 2 months ago! Now more people at work wants to hear about this special technique, even though it’s not special, and I’m sure my supervisor has been telling people about it like he has told me.
The Boss said I should do the Canada Day run. Something about it also being 10K, or something. Anyway, maybe I should start looking into some more runs, while continuing to train. Since I already paid for the Fitness World membership, I will certainly be running on the treadmill for the next many months. My next goal would be somewhere in the 40s… maybe 45 minutes. That would be very ambitious though, because that would mean my best highschool 3K time/speed, sustained for 10K, except now I’m almost twice as old.
[side note: I was at Fitness World on Saturday, and it was devoid of people. I guess it was expected that lots of people were resting the day before the big run]
[side note 2: The iphone app actually logged 10.51 km for the run. So in theory, if I had a more optimal route, and fewer people, I could have run under 50 minutes. But next year I'll know better -- I'll time myself according to 10.51 km instead of 10 km, and the sun run time will more closely match my pre-race predicted time]
Anyway, some photos below. I’m glad I didn’t need to use the pit stop at the starting point of the race.
