Race Report: 2013 Calgary Corporate Challenge 10K

I woke up incredibly stiff after yesterday's Run for Water 10K.  Luckily, Goofy rewired my brain last year with how I look at back to back racing.  I figured I would run off the stiffness in the early kms of the next race...

My second race of the weekend was the annual 10k for the Calgary Corporate Challenge.  Once again, I was running as a "Fun Runner" for my company (which is CCC speak is like saying "Second class citizen runner") but I didn't care because a free 10k is a free 10k.

No rain today...in fact it was shaping up to be a beautiful day...though foggy...as I drove in

You can't see it, but there is a van just ahead of me here.

The race start was at Central Memorial again this year.  Our team was to meet at the school flagpole at 7:50 and they were pretty easy to find.  Because I don't want to bring my work too much into this blog, I won't be sharing any team mate pics...

I recognized a few people on our company team from last year, but didn't remember any names (and honestly, don't even recall them after being reintroduced today...my company is MASSIVE so maybe by year 3, I'll be able to start remembering).

This year, all of the Fun Runners had to bring food bank items so at registration, while the speedsters got their official bibs, we had to drop off the food bank items and get a ticket so we could claim our bibs and chips for the race.

Today, I would be Fun Runner 2217 (just don't try to look up my chip time...apparently my chip was a dud)

The start corral is quite different at Corporate Challenge.   The timed runners get to go first in two separate waves.  Then, the Fun Runners get to go last.  They aren't very delicate about how they handle the Fun Runners.  We are constantly told to not be near the start line while the timed runners go and then, when it is time...we are just told we can go. Like it's an after thought.  It threw me off last year when we were shooed away, but this year I was standing next to a girl who was running her first race ever and it really amplified it for me.

But a free 10k is a free 10k, right?

There was a zombie theme running through alot of the teams this year.  Even some zombie babies came out to send us off.

Once we were finally off, I was amazed at how fast my pace was.  It felt like, despite the stiffness, I was ok.  Or my magic pants were doing all the work.  Either way...I was going to run with it.

This is a huge race...if you click on the photos
you will see the hoardes ahead of me.

Maintaining my mindset of "comfortably hard" from yesterday, I kept going.   It was the same route as last year so we soon cut over into Glenmore Athletic Park and down onto the reservoir pathways.

It's not often you can see this many runners on the dam.

I took my first walk break on the hill after crossing the dam.  That sun was feeling pretty hot for 17C.  I was happy when we hit the cool of the trees before Rockyview

We ran through the trees and past the hospital.  The first u-turn is just past the hospital and then the course heads back toward Glenmore Trail...then it curves down to run along Glenmore into Lakeview.

As I was running along that stretch, I hit 5k.  My legs were so tired and it was just over 30 mins at that point.  I would need to pull a negative split out of my pants to do a sub-60 today.

Comfortably hard.  Comfortably hard. Comfortably hard.

Not going under an hour, but really don't want to be much over it.

I took another walk break and carried on.   So hot out there and having to wear a t-shirt instead of a tank is killing me.   I rolled the sleeves over my shoulders to help cool me down a bit.

Ok - legs are hating me but I keep going.  I start dreaming of an ice bath...yes, you read that right.  Actually dreaming of an ice bath.   The thought helps me cool down a bit, despite the sweating.

We run through Lakeview and then come back and cross over Glenmore.   The course marshalls are very encouraging and keep trying to pump us up.

It is in the homestretch now...I'm hanging in there.

Such a bad shot...

The course turns into the south access to the Athletic Park and then a quick turn and it is heading back to 50th Ave and the finish.  Normally, I'd take a walk break at 9k, but I really just wanted to push through and be done so I could stretch out my protesting legs.

With the finish in sight, I pushed through.

Done in 1:04:05 according to my Garmin.  That's all I have, though, since not only did the chip on my bib fail but my Garmin won't seem to download any of the extra geekery I usually drool over... :(

and then I sought out the shade of the Lost Kids Tent and stretched it out.

Garmin Geekery of the day...

SO, how do I feel about my back to back races this weekend?  Pretty darn good actually.  20k for a combined time of around 2:05.  That's not bad at all.  If I can stay in that range for one of my halfs in the next couple of weeks, I can probably run another km late in the race within the 7min range...that'd bring me in well within my 2:15 goal.  So, fingers crossed.  Fingers crossed so tightly.