Finally my job has decided to enter this race.  There are many staff members and professors who run but it was not easy to get a team together.  First the coordinator left for a new job and then many had childcare issues and others just didn’t care to participate. In the end, we had 10 who committed to run.

Even I was hesitant being on vacation for 8 days prior to the race.  Would I be prepared?  Would I be tired?  Who cares…It should be fun, right? I had no goals for a PR.

The race is 3.5 miler and the course is similar to the Freihofers and Susan Komen but 1/2 mile longer.

There were 8,654 runners and 449 participating companies/organizations in the 2010 race!!  And even more this year!!

As I mentioned, I just got back from vacation late last night and I didn’t read my email during those 8 days. I brought all my race stuff to work because there would be no time to go home before the race. I thought we were wearing our Komen Team shirts which were the school colors, maroon & gray. Of course, I matched all my accessories to it.

When I got to work and read my email, I discovered that they ordered race t-shirts and there were white with lime green writing on them.  They were very see through also.  My black sports bra was not going to work nor my maroon & gray accessories.

So I rushed home during lunch & changed my shorts, socks, hat and added a tank top under my shirt.

The prediction originally was for thunderstorms.  But it seemed that the rain would hold off – it was near 70 degrees and very HUMID!!

The race was to start at 6:25 pm. My boss & I left our cars at work and started to walk to the start of the race around 5:15 pm. Halfway there, I realized that I forgot my knee braces and ran back to get them  (Psychologically I still need them.)

Holy cow!  I’ve never seen so many runners in one place!!! Over 9000 – CDPHP, the sponsor had a team of over 200 runners themselves.

I still arrived early and met our team captain who gave out our numbers.  There were no timing chips – too many people. unfortunately no one brought a camera so we could not take a team photo.

The announcers kept trying to get the runners to the start so I finally squeezed myself in somewhere toward the front (so I thought). As I was waiting, I was getting really sleepy – I  definitely prefer morning races!!

Finally the horn sounded and the race started although no one was moving.  It took me about 1/3 mile to get going.  The whole race was crowded but I just kept moving and increasing my pace steadily.

Some more pics – http://www.flickr.com/photos/altuwa/sets/72157626637494599/

I loved that the race ended with a downhill but I had no aspirations for a PR so I was pleased with my negative splits:

mile 1 – 10:36
mile 2 – 9:47
mile 3 – 9:34
.50  – 8:27

Garmin time – 33:41

I gave my time to our team captain who wrote it down and then went to collect my t-shirt and bag of goodies.  It was very well organized considering the number of runners.

I walked back to my car and took a photo:

It was perfect timing – my friends had gone to see Bridemaids (which I had seen during my vacation) and I met them afterwards for a well-deserved dessert.

Happy Running! Happy to be home & racing!