Today was the annual 5 km race that is part of the week long Sportsfest for the IBM location in Beaverton Oregon where I work.
The Sportsfest week is in its 4th year. I believe it is a tradition that was carried over from a Rational tradition before the company was acquired by IBM.
We had around 20 people show up on what happened to be National Run@Work Day...cool.
We lined up in the north parking lot near 11am, handed in our signed waivers and were given course directions. We had a count down and we were off! I think all of us went out too fast but the early part of the course is the only part on the road and you have to time it to make a pedestrian crossing...did not want to have to wait through another light cycle!
We then turn off the road and head onto the Nike campus for about a 2 mile loop on bark mulch trail. The loop has some nice ups and downs so you are never bored and also cannot ever pretend you are doing a road 5km. The hills kept everyone honest :-) The course if mapped out here.
This is my 3rd year doing the race and I think I posted my best time of 19:17. Last year I had to volunteer as I was out with my sprained ankle from pacing at Western States.
This year the Sportsfest was about 2 months later in the year so we had the most fun with perfect weather and it was so great to see lots of people from my team taking part or coming out to cheer (and laugh :-) ). I believe the Jazz team took 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th!
One idea for next year was to do a handicapped start based on the finish times from this year (or projected time). The slower runers start first with the fastest runners starting last all racing to be the first to break the tape at the finish...sounds fun to me!
All in all a great break in the day from the headaches of delving into the new world (for me) of Web UI development, JavaScript, Firebug and the weird differences between the different browsers and languages...fun fun fun :-)
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