Sunday, June 10, 2012

OU Medicine Corporate Challenge 2012...

This was the third year the company I work for participated in the Corporate Challenge.  I love this event, it's pretty time consuming organizing everything, but it so worth it.

I was a little disappointed this year because I still had not been cleared to run, I had been looking forward to besting how I did last year.  I was set to go back to the doctor on June 5th and the Corporate Challenge was June 1-3.  So I got to do things other than run.  {I am not gonna lie, this completely sucked.  But, what can you do?}

My first event was Saturday morning.  It was the 50 yard women's freestyle sprint.  Two years ago I finished 3rd in our division, this year I finished 1st.  We didn't have a second girl willing to be a part of the co-ed relay, so I got to drive to Edmond, warm up and swim a 50 yard sprint and then head back to OKC.  It was pretty fun.  I didn't realize the locker room at the UCO field house would be severely lacking in adequate shower space.  Oh well, I was going to be hanging out at the track the rest of the day, so who needs a shower?

My second event Saturday night was the co-ed obstacle course.  Man was it hard.  You had to run through some tires, across a balance beam, jump a hurdle, kick a soccer ball around some cones, and then jump rope five times in a row without stopping.  I fell off the balance beam so I had to go back, I was painfully slow with the soccer ball, and then I could not jump rope five times in a row to save my life.  I have resolved that if I am going to be a part of the obstacle course next year that I need to practice.  It was fun though.

Sunday morning the girls and I did the one mile walkabout.  I was bummed to not be running the 10k again this year, but there is always next year.  I did sign up for the 5k bike sprint.  I have never done a bike sprint.  When Kendra and I did the Norman Conquest last year it was very laid back and just out for fun.  In the sprint triathlons and duathlons I have done the bike has already been fast {or me trying to be fast}, but not an all out sprint.  This 5k was one of the hardest things I have ever done.  It's a time trial start, which is nice, everyone starts 15 seconds apart and when you get up there they hold your bike so you can get clipped in and then they let you go.  It was a bit terrifying to have someone hold your bike and be clipped in and just thinking that when they let go you have to get moving before you fall over.

My goal was to finish under 12 minutes. I checked out the times from last year and I thought that might make me competitive.  I figured I can work as hard as I possibly can for 12 minutes, right?  That's half as long as running a 5k, so I just put it all out there.  I pedaled as hard and as fast as I could and I finished in 10:05.  Way better than I had hoped, and I was worn out afterwards.  I managed to finish first in my division too, so that was good.

My last event was the women's relay.  The legs are like this 100M, 100M, 200M and 400M.  I figured I could run a 400M, I know I had not yet been cleared by my doctor but it's just one lap around the track.  I hadn't been cleared yet just to give me more time to build up my quad muscle in my injured leg and I was two days away from going back to the doctor.  We were second in our heat when it was my turn.  I tried to chase down the girl that was ahead of us and for the first 200M I thought I might be able to.  After that my quads sort of freaked out.  It was like they were saying "What the hell are we doing here?  What is this strange exercise we are doing?"  After that I ran out of some steam and we ended up second in our heat.  My quads were sore for about 5 days after that.  It sure felt good to be running around that track though.  I'm not gonna lie to you.

It was a weekend full of cheering and supporting my co-workers in their events.  The weekend wound up with the dodgeball competition on Sunday afternoon.  Each of the four divisions played and the winners had a round robin at the end to crown an overall dodgeball champ.  It took FOUR HOURS!  We won or division, which made me happy but that meant I ended up being there two more hours waiting to cheer our team on in the overall competition.  We ended up third in the overall, but it really was fun watching our team compete.

It was a fun but tiring weekend.  I can't wait to do it all again next year.

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