Crowning the ultimate recovery - bumrun 5K

        Bumrun aims to raise funds for and awareness of colon cancer. The fact that the Calgary version of their nationwide 5k races starts and finishes at Foothills Medical Centre is highly fitting for me, as nearly 9 years ago at FMC I had 3 neurological operations, the 1st of which was urgent. The opportunity for me to completely redeem myself is how and why I was at that start line on May 10th at 9am.   

     About a minute before the race began, an ambulance passed, fittingly with its lights and a few seconds of its siren expressing kudos to the 140 participants, not only just for me. 

       Having lined up near the front, my plan was to have the frontrunners as pacemakers - a means of ensuring that 5 minutes per kilometre would be the slowest I would run. Before the first road crossing, I also ascertained that there were 10 in front of me.

       After leaving the grounds of FMC, I was constantly checking my Garmin on the upward slope to confirm that my pace was not too slow. About halfway up the incline, I heard some squawking to my right. When I glanced towards the sound, 3 Canada geese overflew. A pleasurable sight and sound inspired me to impersonate them by arm-flapping as I ran past some nearby course marshal volunteers.  

       The Geese were just before I overtook another runner before the course flattened. After the corner at the top of the minor hill, there were more course marshal volunteers, including one at the turnaround on the small unpaved section who I briefly told that he was on camera.

    Going back down the early hill back towards the grounds of FMC, I recognized most of the buildings. This time as I crossed the road past a policewoman, I was 10th instead of 11th. 

        As I was approaching the finish line, I overheard the race host announce "he's got a camera on his head!" My official chip time later confirmed the GoPro evidence of finishing bumrun 5k in 22 minutes, 43 seconds. The average pace per kilometre was 4 minutes and 32 seconds. 

        Officially confirmed that I was 10th overall, it was out of a total of 140. There were 59 men in this race, of which I was 7th. Of the 11 men in their 40s, I was second. 

      A GoPro video edited and posted on YouTube has been a key part of every race I have run for several years. The most suitable music for this race and my recent backstory is Changingman by Paul Weller. Aside from the highly suitable song title, the most fitting lyrics are: "Our time is on loan, only us to borrow; But I can't be today, I can be tomorrow." As such, this race is dedicated to FMC's Doctors and Nurses who kept me alive.