One of the major road races in the area was this morning. The Greenville News Run Downtown 5K. 31st year for this race today, so one of the bigger turn-outs in the area. Another race I had to talk Zach into :) It's not that he doesn't like the races; he just feels out of shape (bah!!) and hates running in the cold. And the running-in-the-cold thing is pretty possible for a race in January. Today certainly didn't disappoint. When we left for the race this morning, the weather was, as Zach put it, "overcast with a chance of freezing death." Translation: cloudy and 33.
So, yes, we did have to bundle up a little, but it wasn't windy (like last year - brr!!!) and once you got running, it really wasn't that bad. My time actually wasn't horrible, considering I've run twice in the past 2 1/2 weeks and have spent most of the past week trying to breath comfortably even when I'm sitting (stupid cold....). By my watch, I ran 31:34, so right about my 10 min pace. Can't seem to break that pace by very much, no matter the distance. Zach gets the biggest kick out of that. My best pace is 9:00 in a 5K and just over 11 in a half-marathon. Apparently I only have one speed.
Come to think of it, my swim coaches used to fuss at me for that too....
Races in downtown Greenville are always interesting. Whoever plans these courses always seems to put the worst hill of the whole route in the last mile. Doesn't matter the distance, or which race it is, or what - that last mile always has the worst hill. And the funny thing is, that these races all us different courses, so this Horrible Hill is not even the same one in each race! And it's not because you're getting tired - it would've been a horrible hill even if it was at the beginning of the race! Zach actually liked the rolling course. 'Course growing up in hilly central VA and going to school at VT, he's more used to the hills than lil' ol' flatlander me. I'll admit it - I don't DO hills. I'm a beach person at heart, and I like our races at the oceanfront back home :) I'm getting more used to hills having lived here for 2 years, but that doesn't mean I like them!
Running races this big can be fun, but I also had a few gripes this morning, that shows maybe I'm getting some experience with how races are to be run - race etiquette, I suppose. I know I should have started farther up in the pack o'racers than I did, so of course I had to avoid a lot of walkers, but at the same time, if your shoe comes untied, Don't stop in the middle of the course to retie it! Move to the side! Also, please watch the flow of runners. The slower runners/walkers should be toward the sides of the road, allowing the faster folk to flow down the middle of the road. Don't walk 5 or 6 folk across down the middle of the road! It makes it very hard to get around you if need be. I know I was a newbie at one point too, but at the same time, some of this is common sense and politeness...
Oh, and I almost forgot. Since this 5K is sponsored by our paper, The Greenville News, pictures from the race are posted online. There are already pictures posted tonight, and I'm sure there are more to come. Last year there were several albums from the race posted on the Greenville News site, so I'm sure there will be a bunch of pictures again this year. Don't know yet if Zach or I are in any, but that doesn't mean there aren't some neat pictures there anyway! :) Here's a sample from the start of the race:
And it's ridiculous, but something as simple and non-work-related as a 5K made me think of how much I hate my current job. This race was part of the Corporate Shield Race Series. The Corporate Shield events are races in this area in which teams of employees enter local road races. They enter the races like normal, and the company team scores points based on the number of company employees who finish the event, with more points in employees place. Over the season, points are accumulated and scored against other companies, with trophies given to the company with the most points at the end of the year. There are a lot of companies that do this - today alone I saw team shirts for several of the hospitals in the area, MetLife, Michelin, a computer system design firm, GE Engineers and Fluor Engineering.
Anyway, we were talking last summer at my office about getting the company involved in the community. One engineer (no longer with the company) started a blood drive, which is still held at our office even though she's no longer with our office. I suggested sporting events, like the Corporate Shield races teams, or helping to sponsor a race (get our logo on the back of the T-shirt or whatever), or sponsoring a hole at a local golf tournament - whatever! There were several other community-involvement sort of ideas proposed, but these are the ones I remember.
Now, I understand running's not for everyone. I'm not asking them to run with me. But at the same time, the community involvement ideas (save for the golf tournament) were met with almost open hostility and disregard. Eye-rolling type responses. It's things like this that are bugging me more and more about this company. I mean, just because our branch manager doesn't have (and doesn't seem to want!) a life outside work, doesn't mean that the rest of us don't want to get involved, or that the community wouldn't respond well to the ideas put forth. It's ridiculous how anti-change these people are! Just because you've never done it that way before doesn't mean that it isn't a good idea. You should be accepting of new ideas, not quashing them in a display of teenage disgust. I'm sorry, but if you're over 13 (he's 40-some), you shouldn't be rolling your eyes as much as our branch manager does! The man still makes snarky comments about the blood drive too. It's ridiculous!! We don't ask him to give blood, he doesn't need to do a blasted thing for it. But somehow, I suppose, it offends him that people are taking 30 minutes from their day to do something good for the community.
I think it bothered me so much this morning, thinking about it, because I was seeing all those shirts from companies big and small, including other engineering companies (granted, other types of engineering). Companies that actually do get out there into the community and do something, encourage their employees to have lives outside the office. Not like my company. Soon after I started in this office, the joke was made that "In the president's mind, what are Saturday and Sunday? Two more work days til Monday!" If only I'd realized then how true that was...
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