Corporate Challenged

It's the Corporate Challenge, a 5.6km run at work which most people in the office do.  As the resident office "runner" I have to be seen to do well.  One year when I was less fit I did 46 minutes.  This year I am targetting 23 minutes.  It may be possible based on some of my recent 5km performances.  Though recently I have been a bit sporadic with my running due to injury.  Oh, and it is very hot.

I line up at the front of my pen.  I get a good start and run evenly.  I am not suffering too much and crack on.  My form is good and the crowds are not too bad.  I think towards the end I am going to really open up.  Just past the 4km mark I start to push on.  The last 600m I do keep pushing.  I don't feel too hot and I am running hard.

I cross the line and look at the watch.  24:42.  Hmmmm.  Only 12 seconds faster than last year.  That would be around a 21:45 5km which is where I was running last year.  These days I can manage a 20:30 5km.  So disappointing.  I beat all my colleague comfortably apart from one of the grads who did 23:13 (a cracking timme).  Thought if I had hit the 23 target..Though this was always a stretch goal.   So a bit of a disappointment.  So what went wrong?  At the end I was as fresh as daisy, so maybe I did not push on enough.  Perhaps it was the heat and my body would not let me push through the heat.  I was thirsty at the start and didn't sweat much during the race.  Still I like failure and disappointment these days, it allows me to come back harder.

Still I am one of the first back to the tent and then drink a *lot* of wine and beer

5.6km 24:42