running

Friday, April 20, 2007

Corporate 5k :: Recap


Marathon Chris and me after the race

My office is a 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM type of place. With the start time of the Corporate 5k set at 6:45PM I knew we'd never make it in time if we didn't leave early. I was able to recruit Ross, Trey and Val to join in the fun. We headed out the door at 5:30 PM and at 6:00 when we still hadn't parked, I was starting to feel a little stressed. I'm early by nature.

We made it with a few minutes to spare, enough time for potty breaks and then we made our way through the Citrus Bowl to the starting line.

Along the way, I located Chris' tent, but I didn't see her and I figured she was tending to her team of about 75.

Ross(23:15)wanted to get as close to the starting line as possible. That was probably a good strategy. There were a lot of people lined up where they shouldn't have been. It took me almost 2 1/2 minutes to get to the starting line and then the first half mile or so I ran on the sidewalk, because it was next to impossible to jockey around people. A 2 lane road is tad too narrow for 7,300 people.

The course wound it's way through a small residential area, an industrial area and past some Mom and Pop shops. Some of the area residents came out to see the commotion, but it was a much different feel than people sitting in their driveways cheering us on at the Winter Park Road Race.

As we passed through a retail area I saw a sign on my left that said "Hot Food". Across the street a man was chanting and shaking his fist triumphantly. I had my MP3 player on and I couldn't quite tell what he was saying. He was either said Je-sus, Je-sus or he was saying Cheese-burger, Cheese-burger. My group used that man as a reference point when recapping the race amongst ourselves. Val(29.32) told me he was definately saying Je-sus, Je-sus.

As we made our turn to start heading back to the Citrus Bowl, we were heading due West at Sunset. Genius me, totally forget to wash my face before I left the office. Direct sun, strenuous activity and mascara don't mix well. It felt like I had acid in my eyes. Not good.

About the same time I started feeling dizzy. I have never felt like that before. I was almost scared and my mind was racing. What if I passed out? Would people run over me? How would my crew know what happened to me? I won't finish and I would never live that down. I CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN! I HAVE TO SHAKE THIS OFF. After 50 yards or so, I started feeling better.

My team made arrangements to meet at the finish line as we completed the race, or at the Disney tent, because surely we could all remember that. I was anxious about finding everyone after the race. Ross, Val and I rode together, Trey (25:30) drove himself and we didn't find him before the race started. I was plesantly suprised to see Ross and Trey waiting together at the finish line chute. I was so excited to see them that I totally missed the water. Once I realized I had passed it, there were so many people I didn't even attempt to go back. I made my way around to join the boys and a few minutes later Val came through the chute. She joined us and we spent about 15 minutes people watching.

We saw the mullet guys and we were all happy about that. That is one entertaining group of guys.


The Mullet Guys and Friends

As we passed through the crowd gathered near the beer table, I handed off my two beer tickets to a group of people who were enjoying the brew. No sense in letting them go to waste... During the process we lost Trey again. Apparently he ran into some people he knew and stayed with them. I told Ross and Val that I wanted to stop by at Marathon Chris' tent and the next thing I knew, she was walking right beside me! It was perfect timing!

We chatted for a while took a picture, and then Ross and I were trying to decide if we should fill out a scorecard for our team.

I was in shock when I read Chris' post this morning that we took first place for a Co-Ed team in the Advertising/Media/PR industry. w00t w00t!

Wow!

My final time (net) was 27:51.

9 Comments:

At 9:17 PM, Blogger Susan said...

WOW! What a day. And I hope that your dizzyness is gone forever. :)

You make me really, really want to run my 10K already!

 
At 10:04 PM, Blogger ShirleyPerly said...

Congrats on your first place team result! Boy, it really sounds like you had fun, except for that dizzy spell. Hopefully it's nothing major.

I keep seeing that Mullet Marathon group name at the Track Shack races but have never seen them in person. Thanks for taking a picture of them.

 
At 10:52 AM, Blogger Cory said...

Great race report. Excellent work on the 1st place.

 
At 6:34 PM, Blogger David said...

and we have some winners! good job team.
I do not think we placed very well. I will have to look it up.
I made a bet with our captain. She wanted to beat me badly, being so much younger and fit. I smoked her by three minutes but will buy her lunch anyeay.
I wish I'd known you were there. I would have kept an eye out.

 
At 9:53 PM, Blogger Petraruns said...

Hey Maddy - great result! Dizziness maybe weather / food related? Pushing yourself hard after a day's work may well be a shock for your body. Wonderful that you met up with Chris - you both look wonderful. And I'd never heard of the mullet boys but they look fantastic - wish we had them here..

 
At 1:09 PM, Blogger Susan said...

The Nike Marathon seems to be sold out. I actually looked at it almost a month ago and was disappointed to see that it was sold out. We had practically planned a trip around it!

 
At 9:02 PM, Blogger CewTwo said...

Great report. Makes me feel like I should run a 5K soon. Of course, I'll finish the course, but I won't be first place. I will finish, though!

 
At 11:51 AM, Blogger Irish Blue said...

Great race report. Excellent job on your time and the team result.

The mullet guys are too funny!!

I have had the dizziness issue brought on from heat and lack of food and/or hydration. I also have low blood sugar problems...sigh...so I have to be careful.

 
At 8:32 PM, Blogger MarathonChris said...

Great race report. It was great seeing you there! I heard the guy yelling Je-sus - that is how I heard it.

Running west into the sun probably got you heated, especially if you didn't hydrate as well during the day. You still hit a great time (as did your entire team).

Congrats!

 

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