The first ever was held on April 21, 1985.
Although the 4,027 runners who circled False Creek that day seems like a quaint number compared to the street-packed masses of 50,000+ that participated in the decades that followed, the race immediately became the largest timed 10km road race in Canada. The Sun Run has maintained that title to this day.
Starting at the Granville Street Bridge, 1985 Sun Run participants circled False Creek’s nearly completed Expo ’86 site before crossing the Burrard Street Bridge and returning to the finish line beside the still-gleaming white teflon dome of BC Place Stadium.
For over two hours, a six-block-long stream of happy runners filled Vancouver’s streets, ranging from elite competitors to families pushing young ones in strollers and even ten members of the Centipedes Running Club decked out in a yellow-and-green centipede costume. Celebrities running included future Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»mayor and BC premier Gordon Campbell. Five hundred volunteers assisted along the race route.
Every runner was handed a tongue depressor after crossing the finish line
No chip timing existed in those days. As participants crossed the inaugural Sun Run finish line, they were handed a balsa wood tongue depressor with a number written on it, which timers used to correlate to an individual’s finishing time. Why tongue depressors? Because they could be obtained for free through race starter Dr. Jack Taunton’s medical clinic and the 1985 budget was tighter than the short shorts many participants sported.
The 1985 race entry fee of $7 scored entrants a Sun Run T-shirt, a splash of Super Socco juice, and a chance to win a new Ford Tempo sedan.
SFU grad student Rob Lonergan won the men’s division in 28 minutes 46 seconds, while Coquitlam’s Sue French-Lee took the women’s in 32:38. Each was awarded $1000 prize money, an Inuit-carved trophy, and a trip to San Francisco. Lonergan was also given a used car as the overall race winner. The car proved a rusting clunker however. Lonergan was forced to call a tow truck just to move it and later sold it as scrap for 50 bucks.
How the Sun Run got up and running
The Sun Run was initially dreamt up by Achilles International Track & Field Society members Dr. Doug & Diane Clement, Lions Gate Road Runners Club members Jack & Cheryl Taunton, and Canadian Olympian Ken Elmer and his wife Janet.
The Clements wanted to continue building competitive opportunities for Canadian elite athletes and exercise for the public. At the same time, the Tauntons wanted to bring the "Lions Gate Eight," the Stanley Park seawall race ran by the Lions Gate Road Runners Club, into the city.
“The running craze was at its peak,” remembered Dr. Clement. “It seemed like we could do something that would reach people, improve the health and understanding of exercise, and at the same time provide some economic support for track and field.”
The Clements, Tauntons, and Elmers all felt Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»was capable of hosting a mass-participation race to rival the largest runs in the world. The only thing they lacked was the funds to do it. Using Auckland, New Zealand’s successful Round the Bays race sponsored by the Auckland Star newspaper as their model, they approached the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Sun. By coincidence, the Sun’s long-running fishing derby had just ended and they were looking to become involved in a new mass participation event. The timing was perfect and the Sun Run was born.
Early on, the Sun Run truly was a family affair. The Sun funded the event and spread the word to the masses through the newspaper’s readership, but left the Clements, Tauntons, and Elmers to organize the race itself.
Jack managed the hundreds of details that went into staging a road race from ensuring they had a certified course to securing the police needed for crowd control. Doug designed and implemented the incredibly successful walk/run program based on his groundbreaking sports medicine background. Ken sought out sponsors, directed the army of volunteers, and worked closely with the city. Diane, with her bubbly enthusiasm, was the perfect fit to drive the event’s media and public relations. Cheryl organized large groups of timers and later collated results for thousands of runners on her home computer. Janet managed the thousands of entrants’ cheques that arrived by mail, depositing each by hand at her bank.
Many elite Canadian runners have done the Sun Run
Over the years, a who’s who of top Canadian runners graced the winner’s circle including many BC Sports Hall of Famers such as Graeme Fell (1986-87), Lynn Kanuka (1987-89), Leah Pells (1993), Angela Chalmers (1996), and Canadian Paralympian Michelle Stilwell (2005-07, 2009-12). More recently, top Canadian international competitors like Natasha Wodak, Rachel Cliff, Justin Kent, and John Gay have earned Sun Run victories.
Many Vancouver-area residents of varying abilities and ages participate every single year. Some for decades. Among the inaugural Sun Run participants in 1985 was West Vancouver’s Eleanore Cross, 70 years young then and attempting her first 10km run ever.
“And I just kept going,” laughed Cross in 2014, by then the Sun Run’s oldest participant at 100 years even. She had participated in every Sun Run to that point in time except one in 2008 which she missed only due to open heart surgery.
'Potential to become a huge event in Vancouver': Sun Run race director in 1985
Forty years ago, no one could have foreseen how the Sun Run would grow and evolve.
“I think this has the potential to become a huge event in Vancouver,” inaugural Sun Run race director Ken Elmer told reporters in 1985. That may have been the understatement of the decade.
The Sun Run soon grew into an annual Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»spring phenomenon, attracting tens of thousands of participants from recreational joggers to elite international runners. In 2008, the Sun Run counted 59,179 registered runners making it the largest 10K race in the world. Three years later, the race topped 60,000 participants, which remains the Sun Run record to date.
To date, approximately 1.5 million entrants have participated in the Sun Run since 1985. A team of several thousand volunteers helps coordinate a race generating staggering figures. In 2013, the Sun Run used 32,000 litres of water, 350,000 water cups, 10,000 cups of coffee/tea, 200,000 safety pins, 50,000+ race bibs, 160,000 orange slices, 40,000 bananas, 50,000 mini bagels, and 18 bands/entertainers along the route.
The 2025 Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Sun Run is scheduled to take place on Sunday, April 27.
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