First 10km.

[Ogedei]

So a couple of months ago I went down with a co-worker to sign up for an urban orienteering team for a Corporate Challenge event here in Calgary.

There was a 10km race as well that was still 2 months away. I figured I could cobble myself into run shape in that time without to much trouble.

I signed up for both events, but had to drop from the urban orienteering as it was the same day as my gf's birthday. oops.

I work in a large company so our division required 6 runners. 3 guys, 3 girls to be timed. Thankfully I was not one of these and so got to run the race without the added pressure of it counting. In all I think we had 12+ people running from our company.

So now training. It was all going so well. Then we had a week off from work and I managed to translate that to being a week off from running. Coming back I was now a week behind my schedule. So I did a stupid thing a pushed it.

Of course this ended with a very sore knee, which I let heal some and push again and rinse repeat. Sometimes we are dumb.

The co-worker suggested I get new shoes. I put some thought into it and decided that yes that could very well be part of the problem. I went to the running store. No they don't have my size in stock. We can get them in a week from a different store. Ok. good to go.

Week 1. No call
Week 2. No call. I call them. Nope not in. They assure me they will call.
Week 3. No call. I buy a pair of nike's from the same chain, but a different store

We are now like 2 weeks away from the race at this point and I am not nearly ready to go. Training has been lack luster. Shoes have been a pain to get. Resistance training has been out the window.

My knee feels decent. So I set out like a beginner with 2 weeks to go and a 10km at the end of it. 1:00 on, :45 off. etc etc

My race concept was 500m run, 45 seconds rest.

Day of the race has come and I have been having decent training sessions, although it is painfully little. We had 700 timed runners, and I don't know how many actual, 1000+ at least I would guess.

We had a 2 lap course. Off I go. Run 500m, walk, run 500m walk. Pass, get passed. Over and over. I see one guy near the beginning that looks to be around the same pace as me, but quickly I lose him. Oh well. There are people that I pass and who do not pass me again.

At around 4km. I skip a 45second walk and run straight through it and the next 500m. At just shy of 5km, my time is 30mins. Well heck. I could do this under an hour.....

I continue on my plan. except I start dropping more 45second breaks and run way more in the second half. The knee does pretty well. At 7km I see the guy from the beginning of the race. I pass him. I pass a few people from the company. kick ass.

Into the home stretch, I walk the 45 and then off I go picking up my pace as I run for all I am worth. We have a small hill and then a straight stretch to the timing station.

Down the hill I see someone. I don't know them. But they work at the School I attended. All I know is that this guys is ALWAYS in his running clothes. Always. But I guess it is not his day, or he is just generally not that fast. I pass him. I can see the timing line. The Garmin says 59:30s. I am dieing, cause I have been doing a sprint essentially, although a slow one. I cross the line. I push the button. 59:45.

Well heck there we go. I managed to pull off a sub 1 hour time.

Certainly not the greatest time ever recorded by man, but considering I was expecting a time around 70mins or worse, I will take it.

I think the fastest time was around 34mins. (sick)

My knee was pretty damn sore afterwords, but felt better the next day.

All in all it was a great exprience and very cool to be in a race with 1000+ people. Especially one with such a broad range of skills.

[GG300]

Nice job sticking to your commitment to run it considering your training hurdles. Since I am a slow runner I only compare my run times to previous runs and attempt to keep getting better. Seeing the times of the real runners what else can us slow guys do. Congrats again