Saturday, June 21, 2008

Challenge, Corporate Style

The Corporate Challenge is a huge annual running race entered by employees of thousands of companies. It is held in different cities, and in New York, it is held on a 3.5 mile course in Central Park. I participated in this race on Thursday. It was my second Corporate Challenge.

At the end of the work day, I was getting changed in the bathroom when I realized that I had taken one of the wrong shoes with me to work! Somehow, my I had thrown one running shoe and one Chuck Taylor in my bag! I couldn't run like this! Not only would I look hilarious, but this would probably have been quite bad for my back, ankles, and feet. Wearing two different types of shoe at once tends to do that to you - plus, those Chucks are so old and worn out that I can't even wear them walking for long periods of time.

Luckily, I live near Central Park. So I dashed home to change, and walked back to where my company was stationed, waiting for the race to begin. Inevitably, I got lost finding it, but I made it just in time!

I really love running and I used to run several times a week. Lately, though, I've been lucky to fit in one weekly run. This, combined with the stress of the shoe fiasco and the fact that I'm only used to running in the morning, when I have little food and drink in my stomach, resulted in the worst side cramp I can ever remember having. I ran the first two miles while grabbing my aching side and, occasionally, walking. But by the third mile, I was pretty much OK. I'm really glad that I did it! I loved participating in such a huge event, and I LOVE the idea of bringing fitness to the sedentary corporate world.

Sam participated for the first time this year, for his company. It was awesome seeing him afterwards and stopping for sandwiches and frozen yogurt with him on the way home. We even trained together exactly once - last Saturday to be exact! Maybe for next year, we'll start training a little earlier. Like, perhaps, tomorrow! Then again, that's what we said last year, when I ran the race the first time and Sam decided to enter this year's race. So maybe I'm being a little optimistic. But whoever said optimism was a bad thing? :-)

3 comments:

Amber Leilani said...

if that had been me with 2 different shoes i would have decided the fates were telling me something,left,and gone for a glass of wine! that's awesome that you went back and participated!... if you see me running call 911 b/c someone of something awful is chasing me!

Susan Clinkscales said...

LOL Amber! Me too!

Way to go, Adina! I think it's great you participated (and went home and got the right shoe!) Congrats. :)

Squirrel said...

That sounds like a neat thing for the companies to do. Ugh shoe disasters are the worst!