Although specialising in the 800m and 1500m on the track as a youngster, I've never really been a huge fan of shorter races - in theory, the shorter they are, the faster you are meant to run, except that never really worked for me. My average marathon pace back in my younger days was only 10 seconds slower than my 5k pace, which meant I was either a really slow 5k runner, or an exceptionally fast marathon runner, neither of which was actually true.
My PR in a true 5km race is 18.42 - that was many, many years ago, and I cannot even get close to a sub 20 these days. But then I don't train for speed, which makes my slower times far more acceptable these days.
One of my goals for this year is to hit my 50th parkrun - I'm currently at 42, and I anticipate hitting that glorious 50 milestone sometime in late autumn, when my racing season is complete. I also have a goal of setting a new parkrun PR - this means running faster that 21.46 which I did back in 2023. So far this year, my quickest time has been 22.32, so I'm not really that far off.
Other than parkrun which isn't actually a race, there aren't many other 5km events that I feel motivated to do, but then when my former employer reached out to me to see if I was interested in being their emergency reserve for the Corporate Challenge 5km, I did of course say yes.
The Corporate Challenge 5k takes place on an evening during the working week, and it pits different organisations against each other in three different categories. Leduc County is in the yellow category, and the team of four can consist of any gender, whether that be four men or four women, or a mix of both. This year, our team was split 2/2, and even before toeing the line, we had a sense that maybe we could medal this year.
Getting to the venue on the night was a pain due to the traffic - road works on the QE2 caused huge delays, and then the Oilers were playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs that same night - I think I arrived with 10 minutes to spare, whilst another member of our team made it in even less. As is always the case, ti was also a toasty evening, and whilst wearing the team shirt always makes me proud to represent the County, they are not really ideal for those of us that are competitive runners - I was roasting again, and the shirt was soggy even before we started the run.
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| Pre-race and got there just in time! |
With 300 or so runners across the three divisions, that's alot of runners heading out of the stadium and the start is always incredibly crowded as we twist and turn around the narrow pathways down to the riverside. Some slower runners start too far forward, the faster runners get caught up in the mad dash, and it becomes a case of trying not to clip somebody's heals and causing an huge pileup of runners within minutes of the run starting!
Although I have been running my parkruns around 22 to 23 minutes, I can never find my groove at the Corporate Challenge, and I have never finished much under 24 minutes - still a respectable time, but for me, I always feel that it's terribly slow. This year was no exception - my time was yet again just under 24 minutes, and I finished 23rd in the yellow division, bringing up the rear for the team. But what was impressive was the team performance - all four of us ran under 24 minutes, our positions ranged from 13th to 23rd, and we had a sneaky feeling that we may have won the gold medal which would be absolutely outstanding! Unfortunately, there were some problems with the timing chips and they were unable to announce the results on the night and award the medals. It was over a week before it was finally confirmed that yes, Leduc County had indeed won the gold medal with 68 points, with second placed Capital Engineering finishing with 75 ... phew!
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| Post race chilling out - that was a hot one! |
I'm not sure whether I will have the opportunity to compete in this event again - I recently started a new job and my new employer doesn't partake in the Corporate Challenge - so it was great to win the medal and have a keepsake for those future memories in years to come. A week or so later, I ran the River Valley parkrun again, finishing in 22.55 ....!!
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| Yay - officially the gold medal winning team :) |
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