the Sun Run

A moment of such sublime happiness this morning that I was overcome. The most perfect day - sunny and mild with a breeze. The Sun Run started just before 9 a.m., a 10 k. done by 65,000 people - yes, 65,000 - and they all go right by Bruce's front door. The elite women start early and went by first, then the superhuman, the Africans and one white guy keeping up somehow, lean running machines, all muscle and sinew, stunning, like human cheetahs. Then the elite men, then the fast men and the fast people and then wave after wave of normal people running their hearts out, including little kids, Sikhs, someone dressed as a big pile of moss. The two man band across the street was at one point playing "Dear Prudence" - "It's a brand new day ay ay" - groups of dragon boat rowers skimmed over the water, the music, the mountains, the ocean, the runners, I'm dancing and singing and weeping for the joy of being alive on this beautiful amazing planet.               Click to enlarge

 The Africans and one white man - grace and strength

 the elite men

 from Bruce's balcony going ...

 ... and coming

.

And coming some more. These are the normal runners. Multiply this by many thousands. Fantastic.

Chris and I went for a long walk. He wanted to avoid the runners so we went the other direction and of course ran into them everywhere - we passed B.C. Place, the huge stadium where the race finished, an enormous pile-up of people outside and loud cheering and music from inside.

Chris admires a garden full of colour; he smells every flower we go by and greets every dog. It's spring!

B.C. place and the dragon boat parking lot.

We walked all around False Creek in the hot sun and ended on Granville Island where he bought himself a beautiful huge glass vase at Circle Crafts to celebrate the fact that he's getting through his crisis, talking almost normally and learning a lot about himself. I celebrate that too, with all my heart. We got the ferry back to his place where he fed me divine Ottolenghi Waldorf salad made with his homemade mayonnaise, and another piece of the lemon meringue pie that I would crawl across broken glass for - his own lemon curd and Italian meringue - OMG. And while we ate lunch, I was doing my laundry at Chris's. Laundry is a big deal when you're on the road.

Now my clothes are clean, Bruce's NYTimes awaits, the sailboats are crowding English Bay, the mountains are purple in the distance, and in a week and a bit, I'll be home where there are none of these things. And yet I'll be overjoyed there too. Aren't human beings miraculous?