Well, it’s that time of the year again, and this last Thursday I once again ran the Corporate Challenge.  This is a race sponsored by Chase Bank that is run not only in Rochester, but in 11 other cities, including Frankfurt and Johannesburg (
Africa
).  This year there were 9,300 runners (and walkers), which believe me was MANY, but no nearly as many as had just completed the race in Frankfurt about 6 hours earlier – there they had 63,390 participants from throughout Germany!  So running is alive and well in !

In past years I have related the experience of running this race. It is the only race that I try to “seriously” run each year (my third).  It is an interesting mix of emotions in the week before, because at one level I am looking forward to it, while at another level fearing what I know from prior experience – that as good an idea as it sounds before the race, actually during the race you know you are going to feel SOOOO bad, and only want to quit.  This only happens when you run the race at the limit of your ability, but it is very predictable, and sure enough, this time did not disappoint.

This year it was about 6 degrees (C) cooler than last year, and no sun – both good things from a runner’s perspective.  It is hard to say if I was better or worse from a training perspective – my weekly mileage this year may be a bit worse than last year (Masha and I ran 5 km almost every day), but I have been doing more peak mileage – several 11 km runs, and many 7 and 8 km runs. 

My “official” finish time was 26.14, and my course time (removing the 20 seconds to get to the starting line) adjusts to about 25:55, for an average pace of 7:24 per mile.  This was a bit 18 seconds off last years pace, so no personal best for this race.  On the other hand, I didn’t almost pass out this year either, and generally I managed myself better – so we will call THAT an improvement.  For people who have never done it, it is amazing how strongly you want to quit mid-race.  I am still amazed at myself that I didn’t.  Sure, you are tired, but your brain also plays some mighty funny games.  But I won the will power (or is it stupidity) battle and finished at pace.  I don’t know where I stood with my company team – there were 150 runners and walkers from Harris this year.  If I find out I will post it.