BURST
To celebrate her 40th birthday this June, Lyndsey Busch set herself a challenge: Run 40 races this year.
Four months in, Busch is ready and raring to go for race No. 11: The Vancouver Sun Run, joining about 55,000 runners, joggers and walkers — the highest number of participants since COVID-19 ended — at the start line on Burrard and Georgia streets Sunday morning.
“It’s my favourite race out of all the ones I’ve done, and I’ve done a lot,” said Busch, a personal trainer and Delta mother of two Friday, just after picking up her race bib and bright purple race T-shirt at The Sun Run expo at Vancouver Convention Centre East.
“It’s a great atmosphere, with great support, and it brings people from all around Canada to this amazing event. I’m just so proud to be part of it.”
Busch, a member of The Sun Run ambassador team, started trail running in 2017 and began dabbling in road racing six years later. She’s done trail races, half-marathons, the Tour de Cure cycling fundraiser, even a couple Hyroxes. But she’s a latecomer to The Sun Run because she’s always thought of it as her grandma’s run.
And that’s some big shoes to fill.
At 88, Renate Cheetham has ran The Sun Run for the last 15 years. She also does shot put and speed walking and competes across Canada, amassing a pile of medals and trophies along the way.
“She is my biggest muse, my inspiration,” said Busch.
She recalled an instance in the early days of COVID, when her family was trying to get ahold of Cheetham to make sure she’s fine and had enough groceries while in isolation. They couldn’t get through to her, and Busch started worrying. Then she learned her grandma had flown to Nova Scotia for a tournament, not knowing it was cancelled, and had just returned to Vancouver.
“Here I was worried about whether she can get her groceries, and there she is all the way on the other side of Canada.”
Cheetham has to skip The Sun Run this year due to health reasons. In her absence, Busch is set to carry on the tradition.
Busch ran her first Sun Run last year with clients, her first full 10-kilometre run. Her goal this year is to get to the finish in under an hour, beating last year’s time of 1:09.
Hands down, The Sun Run is her favourite race — equal parts challenge and celebration, with a route that rises and dips, and offers views of downtown towers, Burrard Inlet and English Bay, and the North Shore Mountains.
Plus, there’s live music, entertainers and cheerleaders on the sidelines, which this year will include her two children, ages 11 and 14.
For race day, Busch keeps to a couple of rituals. She carb-loads two nights before the race, always at Il Posto in Delta, and always the Hawaiian pizza.
She’ll wear the same all-black outfit: black Saucony runners, black socks and black Lululemon pants on race day — ready to race hard, chase a faster time and soak in the best of what Vancouver has to offer.
“You get to see so much of Vancouver, with the route over the bridge, the water and the city all around you,” Busch said. “There are so many distractions. Even in the hard parts, you’re looking around in awe at how beautiful Vancouver is in the spring.”
Registration for The Sun Run is closed after the event reached its 55,000-person cap. The race hit a record 59,000 participants in 2009 then dropped after COVID, said organizers. Since then it has steadily increased from 35,000 in 2023 to 50,000 last year.
There are still a limited number of charity bibs available at the expo until 4 p.m. on Saturday. The bibs are $100 with $50 going to a charity of choice from among 16 non-profit groups.