I never saw myself as a runner. In high school, it was all about team sports. In university, I focused on soccer. When I moved on to my career, sports became more of a social thing like playing squash, tennis or golf.
When I moved to Vancouver in 2008, I took up running. The seawall was right there – it was too hard to resist. What started as 30 minute jogs along Coal Harbour, turned out to be longer runs to the “girl in the wetsuit” statue in Stanley Park. Eventually, I tackled the entire Stanley Park seawall and at that point I knew I was ready for my first Sun Run.
Three Sun Runs and two half-marathons later, I decided to sign up for the big one. We have a corporate team at CTV so there was no excuse not to do it. We have a solid team of mostly half-marathoners but five of us committed to the full.
The training has been awesome. I joined my first running group with the fantastic people at the Running Room on Denman. The leaders of the group are super helpful and encouraging and running with others – as opposed to on my own – was a refreshing change. It’s motivating to hear everyone’s stories – from the experienced ones to the first-timers. It’s reassuring to hear that others have the same concerns and apprehensions. It alleviates the fear of trying to complete 42 k. It may be an individual goal but we are all in it together. And it pushes you even harder during the training.
I have learned a lot already – the importance of pacing, nutrition and recovery. And now I cannot wait until race day. Fittingly, the finish line is a stone’s throw from my condo. So I’ll literally be running home for my first ever marathon.
Congratulations to all the participants and good luck! The new route looks spectacular – hopefully the weather will be the same.
Bio: Jason Pires is a Sportscaster for CTV News at Five and CTV News at 11:30 at CTV British Columbia. In his spare time, Jason enjoys running the seawall, trying to improve his golf game and sampling the diverse selection of great restaurants Vancouver has to offer.