travels, races, and other musings

This race was a little different because it is in the evening and it is part of a larger series of races - one a week for 12 weeks. I only did one of them (though I'm now tempted to do the last one next week). I was running the race with one of my coworkers, James. We used to be Mac OS X Product Champions together. He's now in the call monitoring and analysis group (listens to phone calls for "quality assurance" and all that stuff). At about 5:45 yesterday it started raining like crazy. Great. So I found a little plastic baggie to put over my iPod shuffle. At 6:15 we left work to head for the race and the rain let up. By the time we got to the race site at 6:30, the rain had completely stopped. We registered at the sign in table and paid our entry fee and walked a bit of a course for a warm up. At 7 we lined up at the finish line. James and I were near the back of the pack which was fine with me because I knew I would be pretty slow. I heard the airhorn go off and...

My First Race This is my account of my very first race - a 5k portion of a marathon relay. My morning started at 5 AM. Yuck. I got ready and drove over to Apple to meet my other teammates at 6. The 5 of us divided into 2 cars and headed down to the race, which started at 7 AM. The first leg was a 12k and the runner taking that leg, Laura, was an experienced one, having run in several half marathons, among other races. She told us she was running a 10 minute mile, so she anticipated finishing in about an hour and ten to an hour and fifteen minutes. (The first team to complete the first leg finished in about 38 minutes. Scary!) After an hour and twenty minutes, she still hadn't crossed and we were beginning to worry a little bit. Finally we heard the announcer say our team number and name ("Team 34 - Need Air"). Laura came in at 1:22:52. When she arrived back, she said it was hot, humid and brutal. I started to get worried. Next up was Sherilyn. This was her first r...