Monday, May 5, 2014

KC Corporate Challenge 5k 2014

No rest for the race-y.

We've entered the KC Corporate Challenge "olympics".  While it officially kicked off over a week ago, my first event was on Saturday with the 5k.  This marks my 3rd year participating in the event with my previous results of 22:41 (2012), and 20:28 (2013).  In 2013 the race as moved from Shawnee Mission Park to Ward Parkway.  Ward Parkway may lack the quantity of hills but it makes up in quality.  It has a nice long, extended hill over the first 1.5 miles.

I was on my own for this race (no TKB), so I took off around 6am to arrive around 6:30am to hangout with Bryan (the 5k and half marathon coordinator, as well as a big trail nerd) before the race.

We were trying to get a good group photo but it seemed like every time someone showed up, someone else would leave.  Finally about 7:10am we took one with whoever was there at the time.

Stolen from Bryan's Facebook Page

I wanted to spend a good 15 minutes warming up before getting in the starting corral.  I did some easy running and then strides before officially making my way into the start corral.

I lined up about 5 feet into the start corral of the 1st wave where I found Damien, who I worked for a few years ago.  I worked for him when I started picking up this running thing back in 2011.

This year was the first year they did corrals and they moved the first corral up about 100 feet before releasing us but, once they did, it was on!

1st Mile
I lost Damien in the mass of people in front of me pretty quickly.  He's always been faster than me and I didn't want to get swept up with his pace.  While I didn't have a goal for this race (not even set a PR), I figured I'd see how close I could get to 19:00, which required a 6:06 pace.  My first mile was 6:09, so a bit off.  The hill started to really pick up near the end, unfortunately, my pace did  not.

2nd Mile
I could see another DST'er in front of me, Scott (good name).  Once again, another guy who is faster than me but I decided to stay not too far from him.  Around 1.5 miles we turned around and started enjoying the downhill portion of that stupid hill.  Damage was done though: 6:26.  Sub-19 is out of hand unless I really kick it down this hill.  Unfortunately, I was breathing so loud I couldn't think.

3rd Mile
Thunk, thunk, thunk... go the feet.  Long strides, Scott, long strides!  It really didn't matter that we were going down hill, everything hurt.  Pretty soon I felt someone passing me and it was another company runner, Jeremy.  I would definitely consider him the fastest of everyone from my company, so was feeling somewhat good that he had just now passed me!  He's one of our track stars and has an amazing kick to bring him to the finish.  My kick isn't as amazing but I did go under 6 minutes for this mile, 5:59 (just barely, but I did!).

.1 miles
Please... let this be over!

Finish!
19:20 --- new 5k Personal Record (by 1 second)!!

Jeremy (18:59) and Scott (19:02) did fabulous.  Jeremy must have snuck in at the last moment.  I actually came in before Damien (19:59) but he's been fighting an Achilles injury for a few months.  He would have blown me out of the water normally, even with my 68 second improvement over last year.  Of course everyone did amazing on Saturday with our 25+ participants!

Overall: 60
Age Group/Division: 6th... nabbed a few extra points for the team!

The Proof
More Team DST peeps.  Scott is in the middle (blue shirt) and Jeremy is on the other guy in a blue shirt.
Bryan is in the blue stocking cap.

I stole this off of Scott's FB page.  I must have been warming up at this point.

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