BMO Vancouver Marathon Report from John Atkinson

Guys, Hot on the heels of Kate & Janette’s praise, I just wanted to belatedly second (or I guess that should be third?) their words of thanks and appreciation for all your great support out there on Sunday: Fresh in my memory are Jo, Mary, Drew & Ellie sending us on our way at & just past the start; Coach Johnny, Sabrina, Bonnie, Sharon, Marty & Rory (& Ellie again) cheering us through the first 10k (& passing young Davey Palermo as he led the way in the 8k); high-fiving young Brian (Irish) in Gastown; a drenched Denis & Enej riding with us on the way into Stanley Park, then firing us up as we exited it; Davey Seabrook pumping us up just before half-way; Coach Johnny shouting out our half-way splits on Stanley Park Drive (& his twin brother doing the same on the run-in to the finish); passing Jay & Kim on Pipeline, then posing for Rick at the Corner of Lost Lagoon; high-fiving Sharon & Marty as I turned to tackle Burrard Bridge for the first time; then feeding off the energy & support of Emily, Bonnie, Sabrina, Mike & Amy Wood, CP Chris, Helen, Anne-Marie & Susanne during the tough stretch through Kitsilano. The turn onto Pacific (after negotiating Burrard Bridge a second time) and sprint for home was all a bit of a blur, but I know many of you were out in force again along Pacific — including ace photographer Rick, who (as you’ve seen) did another sterling job in capturing some of those magical (and sometimes painful) marathon (& half-marathon) moments. And what about those performances? Graeme was 3rd overall in a mind-blowing 2:28:17 (only 20 secs from a PB, I believe); Guy ran a NEGATIVE SPLIT! in posting a 2:47:02 (only around 4 mins shy of his PB); Dave broke 2:50 (2:49:48) despite missing a stretch of training through injury; Mikey P. knocked almost 2 minutes of his best BMO VIM (2009) time in clocking 2:53:37; I snuck in a few minutes behind in 2:56:33 (a PB by just over a minute), Kristin set something like a 4-minute PB in running a stellar 3:15:02; Janette was just behind in 3:20:43, another solid effort off less-than-perfect training; and Kate showed SHE’S BACK, cruising under 3:30 with a time of 3:29:13 which put her (more-or-less) in the top 10 of the field. There were also notable performances from Ian (1:14:34 and 3rd M30-34), Katrina (1:21:56 and 4th overall female) & Shu (1:27:29) in the half, and the young Welsh-Italian stallion, Davey Palermo, who took second overall in the 8k (27:23), just behind honorary VFACer Ben Maas. Sorry if I missed anyone out there. We may not have been blessed with the sunshine of 2009, but your terrific support and those sterling performances still made it a day to remember… and one I’m going to dine out on for quite a while! Cheers, Johnny A Editor’s Notes: -Graeme won $750 for 3rd overall, plus $500 as 2nd Canadian -Guy and Dave were 1st and 2nd in the Male 50+ -Janette was 2nd in the Female 40-44 -Charles Mackey resumed his long career with a respectable 3:49:35 (just to prepare himself to come back to workouts and to get to indulge in the 4-5 pints that follow)