Didn’t die, didn’t embarrass myself

Ran a 9:28 pace pretty consistently (not discounting the 30 or 40 seconds it took to actually get to the starting line) for the 3.5 mile course, ended up with 32:32. My goal was to run a training pace and hold to it, and I did that for once. Much slower than last year, much less desire to puke at the end. For someone who literally hasn’t run in a month, not bad. I passed people, people passed me. The Corporate Challenge is different from charity races (though they did pick up a local charity to benefit this year), and as such there aren’t hoards of yelling supporters/volunteers/fans all along the course, making you feel good about what you’re doing. And there isn’t the chatter in the field. There’s pretty much just the sound of feet on pavement, more than 4000 people huffing and the occasional spit (hey, guys: SWALLOW! Bastids). There was water at less than a mile, and water at 3 miles, and the space in-between seemed long indeed. The temp was only about 74 and the wind was blowing hard, but it was a hot wind and didn’t provide a lot of relief, and I just found the whole thing to be very warm. Glad I went with the sleeveless shirt.

I actually don’t like this race, partly for the lack of charity but mostly because it starts at 6:30 at night, which is just too damn late for running. At least for me. I’m shot by 6:30. But we were doing in honor of one of our comrades who died a couple of months back, victim of a very vicious cancer. He used to run it. And we were with another guy who beat a very similar fate, and if he can come back after what he went through and run again, then I guess my little sore heel doesn’t really qualify me to beg off. Not that my time is any kind of help to the team, of course. The best thing about running is how you feel when you’re done. I don’t love doing it quite like I love cycling, but man it does make the dolphins flow through your blood.