Vancouver Sun Run

The Vancouver Sun Run, sponsored by The Vancouver Sun newspaper, is a 10km race held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada each year on the third (sometimes the fourth) Sunday in April since 1985. The first Vancouver Sun Run in 1985 started with approximately 3,700 participants "Vancouver Board of Trade", [http://www.boardoftrade.com/vbot_sb_archive.asp?pageID=179&IssueID=112&ArticleID=1697&year=2003&sbPage=AD, Sounding Board November 2003 Vol 43 # 6] ] , and has grown each year since. With over 39,000 finishers in 2006, it ranked as the 9th largest race in the world [Running USA [http://www.runningusa.org/cgi/evbig-world.pl] Accessed November 6, 2007] and the 3rd largest 10km race, behind only the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta and the Bolder Boulder in Boulder.

The 2006 event took place on April 23 and 50,746 "Vancouver Sun Run on Canada.com", http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/sunrun/index.html] participants registered for the 10km Sun Run and the 2.5km "mini Sun Run", which was run by 2,000 people, mostly children and their parents, with some school teams participating as well. On April 15, 2007, the Sun Run had a record amount of participants, with 54,317 people registered to participate in the 10km and 2.5km races, making it the largest 10 km road race in Canada and the second largest in North America.

On April 20, 2008, the record was again broken, with 59,179 runners registered for the run making it the largest 10 kilometre race in the world. The temperature was a chilly 3°C (37.4°F).

The primary mandate of the Sun Run is to "promote health, fitness and community spirit and to support amateur athletics". The run is not a charity event; however, the organisers claim over $1.1 million in race proceeds have been donated to charities since 1985.

Amateur Radio operators from many clubs worked as a vital communication link during the race. They provided extra eyes in the crowd and helped with medical issues and helped locate missing children. Many of the Operators are involved in ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) programmes from the Lower Mainland. They include Operators from clubs like Burnaby Amateur Radio club, Richmond, Surrey, North Vancouver, VECTOR (ARES group), and many others.

Past winners [Association of Road Racing Statisticians [http://www.arrs.net/HP_Van10.htm] Accessed September 2, 2006]

* Note: Bold face text denotes current course record holder.

Charity

Since 1997, one dollar from each Sun Run registration has been contributed to "Raise-a-Reader", a national literacy campaign. The campaign went national in 2001, and has since raised over $10 million "Raise A Reader", [http://www.canada.com/national/features/raiseareader/index.html, National literacy campaign tops $10 million] ] "The Vancouver Raise A Reader", [http://www.canada.com/national/features/raiseareader/vancouver.html, CanWest Raise A Reader Day] ] .

Sun Run proceeds also benefit B.C. amateur athletics through the "Achilles International Track And Field Society" and " [http://www.harryjerome.com/ The Vancouver Sun Jerome International Track Classic] ", an annual track and field event that gives local athletes the chance to compete against some of the world’s best in their own province.

References

External links

* [http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/sunrun/index.html Sun Run Homepage]