I signed up for this race shortly after finding out I was pregnant, so I had no expectations at all. I thought it would be a fun way to motivate myself to stay active early in my pregnancy. During my workouts leading to this race and on the day of the race, I ended up feeling surprisingly good. It was pretty cool outside (the biggest risk in early pregnancy is overheating) and so I felt I could run a pretty decent race. The race uses a building inside Stanley Park so that meant access to real washrooms and the possiblity to do part of one's warm up indoor. There were also various promo stands and carts near the start line area and a fun makeup and photo booth. The lineup for it was a bit long, but it was worth it. There was some motivating music, a great pep speech before the start and an energetic high-school cross-country running team participating in this event. I could feel my adrenaline levels rising. I decided to line up at the front and see how things would go. The race starts on a downhill, so it made for quite an exciting and a little bit scary start. Once we ended up at the bottom of the hill, people started slowing down and settling to whatever pace felt right. An interesting thing about night races is that runners often end up running at a pace slower than normal because running in the dark makes you feel like you are going faster than you normally are. Once we moved out of the park to the seawall, I realized that I actually had built up quite a lead: there were a few boys just ahead and just behind me, but no female runner within sight. This got me quite excited and helped me with maintaining my pace once my legs started tiring and once I had to get up some hills getting back in the park. Once inside the park, I got to an intersection that seem to not have any race marshalls or clear signage. Confused, I turned right, but after a few seconds I heard someone shouting at me to come back and run straight. Thankfully that mistake ended up not being enough to allow someone to catch up with me: I did not want to finish this race with a sprint to the finish because I was pregnant. On the final hill to the finish line, which is relatively steep, I decided to look back to see if anybody was behind me and seeing that I was alone, to relax a little and celebrate my first ever overall win at a road race. I was quite excited, I think I even shouted. After that, I went straight back to the bag check to get my change of clothes and then lined up to get my warm post-race meal. The post-race buffet includes a free beer, but I had to find someone to give it to, so I am not sure what it tasted like. The food was pretty good and satisfying and included vegetarian options. I recommend that people line up as early as they can as I saw that, towards the end, they sometimes run out of some popular food item. Inside, there was music (a bit loud in my opinion) and overall party atmosphere. I waited for some kind of awards ceremony as I had seen pictures from friends who had won in previous years, but did not hear any announcements being made. decided to go check with some volunteers. They said there was no awards ceremony, which got me quite disappointed (it is less fun to win if your friends cannot cheer for you after and you do not get some prizes to go with the medal too). Then they told me I could get my 3rd place medal. Third place? That was not possible, I know the race was in the dark, but I could see the boys leading the race for most of the race and not any female runner passed me at any point. I told the volunteer that, but they got quite defensive and said they could not give me my first place medal as that was what the printed results they received showed. I asked to see the results and it showed two women as having finished together in an incredibly fast time and in front of everybody: including the boys from the cross-country team. So I found the high-school boys to ask them if they had see any women in front of them during the race and they said they did not. However, the winner said that he did see some women slowly walking across the line holding hands as he was finishing the race. I returned to the volunteers with that information and they seemed even more lost and confused, unsure about what to do. They also still seemed to not really believe me, which was quite hurtful. So I tried to figure out who I could see to get the results corrected if possible before I left for the night. I remember having to go to the finish line multiple times until I could finally get the person leading the timing system to remember that yes, some ladies walked across the finish line and that they actually went to the timing tent to say they had turned around before completing the full course and just walked back to the finish line. In fact, they had started with the 10k runners earlier, so their result should not have appeared in the 5k at all. The head of the timing team helped me get the medal from the volunteers, and, thank to my very patient and friendly running friend Zahida, I got to celebrate my win a little and take pictures with the official race backdrop. I later emailed the race organizers to explain what happened and was told they will change the timing system and team next year. I also asked that they should bring back the award ceremony for the sake of the runners who finished top 3 and their friends. Also, if there was a ceremony, I am sure none of the issues I had with finally getting the results corrected would have happened: those ladies would have re-explained what happened when their names were called or the other race leaders and I could have explained right there what we had seen. Else, until this issue spoiled a little bit of my fun, I really enjoyed the race, seeing the seawall lit up by hundreds of head lamps at night, and the pre-race and post-race party atmosphere.