Energizer Night Race 5K race report

Submitted by Sarah Diamond @voxpax2

I have often seen the spirit of running during the day, but I began to wonder what that spirit or core of us looks like at night. I found out mine is green. :)

The Energizer Night Race 5K on October 13 was my second run since being inspired by Sean, and this one I think was just as much fun. However I think I have some plans for next year on how to make it even better!

It started off with myself arriving early and meeting a few people off the bus of which ended up us walking around the lagoon lake and doing at least 3k just to get there... I hope i haven’t tired myself out before the run LOL. I could hear the music playing and I must admit, I felt a little self conscious as people were already looking at me with wires on but you could tell they weren’t sure what to think.  The wires surprisingly were much lighter than expected and I had practiced a few times with just the wires taped on before I sewed it, so I could get use to the extra weight of the battery pack and running at the same time.


In practice, it had taken me 1hour, and then 1:01 I’m sure you saw my tweets of frustration of wanting to get my time down so I wouldn’t be “swept” from the race. According to the Rules 5K’s had to be completed in the 1h period so I wanted to be able to accomplish that.

We as a group did a warmer and I was approached by a women who wanted to take a photo, I said sure and when she did, she said she was from the national post. (How cool is that?) but she moved quickly on, so I didn’t get a chance to say anything else. At about 6:30pm the 10k’s began their run. 5k’s started at 7pm so I turned on the suit. Once the suit came on, I had so many complements and questions about how I had done the suit, and to be honest it was the perfect way to introduce #run3rd. I got to talk to a lot of people about it.

The ran began, and about near the 2k, I began to have some issues...

1. The light-up glasses that I was wearing began to fog up and I couldn’t tell people from the road and just where my light was. Which means by the time I had figured this out, I had run near the full K blind as a bat. That’s when the glasses had to come off. I had planned for this so I just hung the glasses around my neck and ran without them, with vision all good again. 
2. The asthma kicked in. In my excitement I had forgotten to take my meds before the run. So I slowed down to grab my inhaler and guess what... yep I forgot it at home. This sent me into a direct walk for the next K just to maintain my breathing. It was only because of my training I had realized my body was about to react, I was able to slow down enough for my body to try and catch up, but I knew I was going to pay for it by the end of the night. I did, but worth every wheezing moment. :-)

When I reached the 4K I decided I wanted to see if I could speed up to save the time I had lost (thinking I must be nearing the hour and had to hurry) I began to walk for a minute and then jog for a minute and I kept doing this as much as possible, as the asthma was intermittent in its threats of full out wheezing. The last bit I decided I was so close I just wanted to speed things up so I went all out. The 5K and the 10K all merged and as I came around the corner at the junction, I heard

“woh!!! STICKMAN RUNNING!”
“DUDE YOU SCARED ME”
“WOW FULL BODY SUIT”

I couldn’t help laughing out loud, but it spurred me on to the last final bit. The 10K’s and 5K’s suddenly broke out into a full run, I was caught up with them, and crossed the finish line in a full out run. My time was 49 mins. (I had beat my goal!)

As I grabbed my water bottle from the volunteers, I hear another voice: “Hold it, can I take another shot?” It was the national post lady again. I laughed, and posed again for her. This time as I moved out of the crowd, I was able to quickly come up behind her and ask if possible to ad the hash tag to the photo. I gave her a few words of detail and then left. I didn’t think anything else of it.

I was walking around to stretch again and cool down and again was swamped by people wanting to know about the suit. One kid told me I had scared her and I looked like a running skeleton. hahah, after I showed her the wires, she seemed much calmer unlike how she looked when she approached.

I was asked to take a few photos with people, which I don’t mind and again was able to use the suit as an intro for #run3rd. So hopefully people are beginning to be aware of it in Vancouver a bit more. After I grabbed my bag from the checkout area and was preparing to leave, I heard the voice once more... “do you mind just one more shot?” It was the national post lady again. I said sure, and again she took the photo. After that she said, “Now that’s the shot I have been waiting for all night.” She showed me the photo and I must admit it looked pretty cool. All I could see was the lights and even my face was gone. I realized just what people might have been seeing when I was running.

They were seeing the spirit of running at night time and of course, mine is green.