Vancouver Sun Run 10K had 50,746 Registrants

'There's a smile on everyone's face'
Record-breaking Sun Run entices entire families to test their fitness levels and have some fun
By Wency Leung, Vancouver Sun (wleung@png.canwest.com)
Published: Monday, April 24, 2006

The Vancouver Sun Run, the country's largest 10K run, set a long-awaited record on Sunday, surpassing 50,000 registered participants for the first time in its 22-year history.

"I think everyone's really thrilled about it," said Jamie Pitblado, official spokesman for the event. "We've always set 50,000 as a record and this is a day of reckoning."

Organizers recorded a total of 50,746 registered participants, including 2,049 parents and children who signed up for the 2.5K mini Sun Run ahead of the main race.

The previous record was set in 2003, with 49,743 registered participants.

Pitblado attributed the record registration to strong community spirit in the Lower Mainland, and the public's keen interest in staying active. Forecasts of warm weather also helped boost the number of people who signed up for the event, he said.

"Spirits are higher when the sun comes out," said runner Mohammed Razak, 52, who was among the hordes of runners, joggers, walkers and wheelchair competitors jostling their way through downtown Vancouver, under clear skies and brilliant sunshine.

"There's a smile on everyone's face."

Isabella Ochichi of Kenya was top female overall, completing the race in 30 minutes 55 seconds. (Ochichi was 2nd in the Carlsbad 5000 two weeks ago and then won her fourth straight Crescent City Classic 10K in New Orleans last Saturday.)

An Olympic silver medallist, she beat the previous female Sun Run record by 10 seconds, set in 1996 by Angela Chalmers.

The top male was Gilbert Okari, also from Kenya, with a final time of 28 minutes 25 seconds. (Okari won the Crescent City Classic 10K in New Orleans last Saturday, April 15th in a time of 27:49. The fastest Masters runner was West Vancouver's Colin Dignum in 31:30, meaning it is likely that Houston's Sean Wade would have beat him.)

Upon receiving his trophy at the awards ceremony at B.C. Place Stadium, Okari told the crowd he was "very happy," echoing the sentiments of even the youngest participants.

Jessica Booth, 6, smiled as she pulled at an orange ribbon pinned to her shirt, a reward for completing the mini Sun Run with her sister Katherine, 10, and brother Marcus, 8.

She had only one complaint: "It was too easy."

B.C.'s Kelly Smith was first to cross the finish line for the 10K event, securing top place in the male wheelchair category for the seventh time. He finished the race in 21 minutes and two seconds. (Smith, a native of Amarillo (that Sun stated in another article), finished 3rd at the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 17th.)

As mini Sun Run participants took an early run through a segment of the course, 10K competitors gathered behind the starting line at Georgia and Burrard Streets.

Wearing blue spandex pants, Geoffrey Trotter, 24, stretched his lean muscular legs near the starting line. Behind him, the crowd spanned more than three city blocks.

Trotter already had a brief morning run ahead of the event, since he hadn't realized his bus would not travel its regular route due to temporary road closures for the race. The University of B.C. student ran across the Burrard Street Bridge to the starting line to arrive 20 minutes before the 9 a.m. start.

"I'm glad I had plenty of time," he said.

Pullovers and sweat pants, which were cast off to the side of the streets as runners warmed up, were picked up by Sun Run volunteers and donated to the Salvation Army.

At last, at the shot of an air pistol at 9 a.m., the first wave of runners were off, striding down Georgia Street. The route took them to the edge of Stanley Park, along Beach Avenue and across the Burrard Street Bridge, and finally across Cambie Bridge to the finish near B.C. Place Stadium.

Red-faced and perspiring at the end of the race, Andre Gerard, 53, recalled competing in the Sun Run in its early days. In its first year in 1985, the Sun Run recorded close to 4,000 participants.

"The whole running scene has changed so much," Gerard said, noting that serious runners aren't the only ones training these days. Entire families now participate, including his own.

Gerard's son Samuel, 14, was running the 10K race for his second time.

This time around was a little easier, Samuel said, but it was still challenging. "The hardest part was going onto the first bridge. You know you're halfway through, and you're going uphill," he said.

For Michelle Cushing, 23, this year's Sun Run was her first. She completed the route in little over 38 minutes.

"It was a personal best," she said, adding that the numerous musical bands located at various points of the course helped her keep pace. "It helped the fatigue a little bit," she said.

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, who was at B.C. Place to cheer on the participants, stressed the need for fitness.

"It's so important as we ramp up to the Olympics [that] we get serious about being more active and healthy," Sullivan said.

Eyeing the throngs of happy people in the stadium, the planned site for several events for the 2010 Olympics, Sullivan added: "Events like this give us a real sense of what the Olympics and Paralympics will feel like when they arrive."

The annual Sun Run raises money for the Raise-a-Reader Campaign for literacy and The Vancouver Sun International Track Classic for amateur athletics.

There were three (3) individuals over the age of 90 that covered the 6.2 miles -- one female (Eleanor Spry of West Vancouver) and two males (Bill Matheson of Sechelt and Abe Nobleman of Vancouver). Matheson did it in 1:39:01.