MEC # 2 Birds Hill Park Race

MEC # 2 Birds Hill Park Race
MEC #2 Birds Hill Park 2017 3rd Overall After A Sprint Finish!

Monday, October 8, 2012

Surrey International World Music Marathon 5K

On Sunday, September 30, I ran the 5K race in the 1st Inaugural Surrey International World Music Marathon. The full marathon started at 7:30 AM, the half marathon at 8:00, and we took off at 9:30.

I got there early by Skytrain, and talked to many other runners including Dan Cumming from my club who was running with 101 year old Fauja Singh as part of his entourage. He told me I'd have someone my speed to run with, as former Olympian Carey Nelson was also doing the 5K. I told him the only way I'd be keeping up with Carey was if I was allowed to attach a bungie cord to him and he pulled me on a skateboard.

We started off on University Drive on the SFU campus, and Carey and a few other guys took off ahead of everyone else, and then after about 200 yards 2 other fellows who looked to be in their 40s went flying by me trying to catch the lead pack, and I didn't expect to see them again. We were winding along the streets, and I was going great guns, hoping to run a PB, when we hit a hill at about the 2K mark. It wasn't too steep but a few hundred meters long, and myself and the others with me slowed down considerably. It took awhile to get my legs back after cresting it, and finally I did, but then we hit a fairly steep but short hill.

There were only about one and a half kilometers to go when we hit level ground again, and I looked ahead and saw a couple of familiar shirts. It was the 2 guys who'd flown past me at the race beginning, and I was reeling them in. I wondered if they'd speed up after I passed them to try to keep up or repass me, but as I went by them they were both struggling badly attempting to keep up their pace, and I never saw them again.

Next I came up on a young fellow who'd been running ahead of me since the beginning of the race, at one point about 200 meters in the lead, and went by him fairly quickly too. Soon I heard the familiar cheering and race announcer extraordinaire Steve King calling out people's names as they crossed the finish line. I'd been closing a bit on a runner ahead of me, but he had too much of a lead, and I saw him finish before I hit the chute. As I crossed I heard Steve call out Craig Premack's name, so I now knew who I'd been chasing, and then he called out my name and said big things were expected from me as I'd won some other races, which was pretty cool.

The young fellow came in about a minute after me, and it turned out he had just run his first race ever, with no training. He was working the Body By Vi booth at the Expo and had signed up the day before on a whim. Besides not training, he'd gone out for some beers the night before, and I told him all things considered he'd done fantastic, and he might want to think of training and trying some more races, as he certainly had some natural talent.

Next we went and got some refueling done, as they had water, energy drink, coffee, and chocolate milk, plus various energy bars, cookies, bagels, bananas and oranges to replenish us.

Fauja Singh was surrounded by his entourage protecting him from the surging mob of media and supporters, but I managed to get one picture of him when he was briefly out in the open walking. While I was at it I also took the opportunity to get one of Popeye too! The papers said he ran the 5K in 40 minutes, but we heard it was around 36, which would seem to be correct as Dan Cumming's time was 35:55. Fauja wasn't wearing a number in the picture I got after the race, and our timing chip was on it, so I'm sure that's why there's no official time for him in the results.



They got the awards going, Carey had finished 2nd in the 5K, but he told myself and Drew Nicholson that he was leaving when we talked to him after the race, as he'd heard there were no awards for the 5K. He was partly right, as they were really stingy with awards, as only the first place finishers were acknowledged, including the 5K. Drew won the marathon, and here's the article that was in the Vancouver Sun
  • 1 Oct 2012
  • The Vancouver Sun
  • CAM TUCKER ctucker@vancouversun.com Twitter.com/camtuckersun
  • VANCOUVER SUN

Surrey resident is first one to cross the line


Drew Nicholson scored himself a hometown victory in the inaugural Surrey International World Music Marathon on Sunday.
Nicholson, a Surrey resident, completed two circuits of the 21.1- kilometre course in a time of 2: 36.20. Jeremy Waters of Coquitlam placed second in a time of 2: 47.27, while Chris Barth of White Rock finished at 2: 50.27.
The top female competitor in the marathon was Kendra Braun of Langley. She crossed the finish line in 3: 04.10.
A total of 236 participants — 150 men and 81 women — took part in the marathon.
It was expected that more than 2,000 people were to participate in the overall event, which also included a half marathon, relay, five- kilometre walk or run and a kid’s fun run. The Surrey marathon was one of 20 Boston Marathon qualifiers in Canada this year.
Sunday’s musical marathon also came with a large international flavour to it.

Each mile of the course was sponsored by a different country from five different continents, and featured an array of international decorations, cultural themes and music for participants and spectators to enjoy.
______________________________________
Jerry, the Body By Vi guy, won his age group, but when he went to the table they told people to go to for their prizes, they told him the prizes were only for kids.

I ended up finishing 10th overall out of 356, and 2 of 15 in my age group, with a time of 20:35.

My next race was the 10K at the Okanagan Marathon at 8:15 AM on October 7.

1 comment:

Eva, Alfie and Elwood said...

Hey Gord,
That sounds like the most fun race ever! What a great concept! Good job and all that of course, but I have to say, it's Mr. Singh !!!! woohoo! who stole the day. The Daily Mail said he was running with four generations of his family and they're claiming a time of 35 minutes.
Go Mr.Singh Go!!!
Here's the link, including a great photo:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2211641/Worlds-oldest-marathoner-Fauja-Singh-101-runs-race-Canada-5k-time.html
Cheers,
Eva, Timmy and Pashmina