Corporate Challenge Race

Hello everybody. I thought it was about time that I jumped in and blogged too. I am still feelilng the effects of last nights race at RIT. I entered and ran the infamous JP Morgan Corporate Challenge race which began Thursday night at 7pm. The rain was threatening all evening and held off until 5 minutes befor the race began. I've never participated in an event quite like this. As I predicted, I was bumping elbows with runners from start to finish which offered a rather different prespective to usual 5k-type races. Also, with the constant downpour, I had the combined relief of not overheating or sweating but the strange sensation of being"waterboarded" because I found myself swallowing water every minute. It was a strange and wonderful event to run with 9,000 others. My final time in the 3.5 miles adjusted for the 2 minutes wasted before I crossed the start-line was 29:39, or basically a 8:20 or so minute mile pace.Afterwards I had a meal with my tent which was the RCSD,unfortunately I didn't know any of them. When it came time to leave thousands of unhappy campers stood in a light rain- again- and waited for buses to shuttle them off. If I learned anything from my years of observing dad in a crowd situation, I learned that #1) He hated them, and #2) He did anything to avoid them. I could see that I could be a hapless watersoaked victim in this katrinia ll senario or I could be adventureous and try to get into one of the academic buildings. I choose the latter and in my second attempt, a door was open in some gym. I roamed around refreshing myself in climate-controled air, enjoyed hot water from a sink and in general killed time waiting for the crowds to disperse. The hot showers were very tempting but I decided to not press my luck. Afterwards I stopped by Peggy's apartment, as planned, and spent the night so I wouldn't have to take the long trek home. WIll I ever participate in that particular event again? I got a year to think about it.