Miami 5k Corporate Run

I participated in the Downtown Miami Corporate Run on Thursday of this past week. It sounded like a good idea when I signed up for it last month. I thought, "ya, I got four weeks to train, shouldn't be too bad." Of course, it wouldn't have been bad, had I included running in my training. Walking around Disney parks, surfing at Newport, and playing Nintendo Wii baseball just didn't cut it.

As the day of the race approached, I began to get nervous. I knew it was going to be tough but at the same time it was only a 5K. It's not like I was going to die. If I got tired and absolutely couldn't run anymore I could easily just walk with the other 10,000 people. I did have a back up plan if I hit the wall and absolutely couldn't run more then a couple of miles: that being my house. We ran past my building a little after 2 miles so that was comforting to know.

I actually became very excited once the race day came for one simple reason, I compared it to the Jog-A-Thons we would do back in elementary school. You're in class (work) for a little while and all you and your friends (co-workers) can think and talk about is the jog-a-thon (corporate run). You size up the people in your class (finance department) and then wonder how you'll do compared to the kids in other classes (Marketing, HR, etc.). It may sound silly but once I started to make those comparisons, I was pretty excited. I always did pretty well at the jog-a-thons, for sure the top three every year, but always behind Danny Capper (I should facebook him). When he told me he was moving to Hawaii after the third grade, my initial thought was, "Well, I’m going to miss my friend, but this gives me a very good chance at winning the jogathon next year!"

My support crew. I had the most beautiful support crew there

I've always enjoyed my Uncle's reports from their marathons and other races so in a feeble attempt, I will do the same.

Pre-Race
- I got to leave work a little early so I could go home and change (I live four blocks from home and two blocks from the starting line so it worked out great). They already have the music blaring over the loud speakers, playing Jackson Browne's "Running on Empty." I think, "yep, that's going to be me tonight, 'runnin' low, runnin' on empty."
- The very next song was Tom Petty's "Runnin' Down a Dream." Looks like their playlist has a pattern!

Walking to the Race with Jackie
- I showed her the course and where I would be finishing so she could get a sweet action photo of my finish. I was trying to think of the song that could possibly be playing and I thought about the Boss with "Born to Run" or maybe even the Dixie Chicks singing "Ready to Run." To my surprise it was Roy Orbison with "Pretty Woman." I thought that was random until I heard the "walking down the street." Now they're stretching it. I guess it is a 5k run/walk so the song counts. That opened up a lot more options like "Don't Turn Around" by Ace of Base ('just walk away!') as well as "Walk the Line" by Johnny Cash. Unfortunately, I didn't hear either of those songs the rest of the day.

Right before the race, standing in front of the Citi building

The view from the Citi building

The Race
Mile 0 - 17,000 runners started at the same time. My guess is that I started in about 10,000th place. It took me about a minute or two just to get up to the starting line. Even then I couldn't really move because we were still packed in there tight.

Mile 0.3 - This isn't going to be very bad. We had just made our first turn and I kept on the right side of the road because it appears to have more room to dodge and weave. I'm on the street, then I'm in the grass, on the sidewalk, back on the street. I'm used to cycling where I always know how fast I'm going and how far I've gone. Since those tools were not available to me, I decided to gauge my speed by how many people I was passing. At this point I was probably passing at least 120/minute and getting passed by about 5 people/minute.

Mile 0.6 - I hopped over the 3 foot wall on the bridge so I could run on the sidewalk. My pace has slowed a little at this point, closer to 100 people/minute.

MIle 0.9 - I run by Guillermo from my office and give him a what's up.

Mile 1.2 - Warm, gross water for free at the tables. I took the effort to throw my cup in the trash can but soon realized nobody else had as I ran over a 1,000 hard, plastic cups.

Mile 1.3 - 60 people/minute

Mile 1.6 - Why the heck am I wearing this free head band. It's making my head so much hotter!

Mile 1.8 - We run back over the bridge and my cycling mentality takes over. "If I can just get up this hill as fast as I can, I can just coast down the other side." I got to the top and unlike cycling, I had to keep moving my legs if I wanted to keep moving. As sad as it sounds, I hit "the wall" at this point. I want to stop so when I get to the bottom of the hill I move over to the side and pretend I need to stretch my leg out. Did I really need to stretch it out? Nope. But did it feel good to stop for a second? Ah yeah!

Mile 2.2 - I'm locking in at about 50/minute

Mile 2.3 - Warm, gross water again. Not this time!!

Mile 2.4 - I pass an 11 year old kid who is stopped talking to what I assumed was his Mom on his cell phone. "I'm almost done! I'll be back in a little bit."

Mile 2.5 - That same little kid comes cruising by me. What a little punk.

Mile 2.7 - We make the turn on my street. Now I know we are super close. Oh my gosh, I see people handing out Otter Pops at the end of the block. "I want two!!" I told the lady. She has one in her hand but tells me the guy next to her will have the other one for me. I grab hers and realize something is wrong. I try to grab the second one but it falls threw my hands. And why did it fall through my hands you ask? Because it wasn't even frozen!! I've never gone from being that excited to being that down so fast. I downed the orange liquid and got ready for the final turns.

Mile 2.9 - I can hear the announcer calling out the numbers and companies of the people finishing. I can see the time board around the corner and see 28 minutes up there. D'oh! I was hoping to do under 25 minutes but that chance was gone.
Mile 3.0 - I slow down and swing to the left of the street so I can find Jackie. I wave to get her attention. If you look at this picture it looks a little weird because my knees aren't bent so it looks like I'm speed walking. I promise I was running pretty fast, at about 40 people/minute.
We got the picture and then I ran under at about 29 minutes 15 seconds. Overall it was a great experience. I'm still feeling a little sore but glad I did it.