Random Hallmark Moments: Track Catches Up with Me

   It's no surprise to anyone who knows me that I mayyybe tend to overdo things a little, all in the name of fun. And as if I needed a reminder, my fortune in the KC Star recently read: "You often push beyond normal limits, exhausting yourself. You need time to detach and relax." Oh yeah? Well, normal limits are for sissies!!!
   Track week for KCCC tends to create some late nights, and this week was no different. The earliest I left the stadium was 10:30, the latest 11:30, and each night I was never able to get to sleep before 1 am, given that I had to eat dinner and try to come down from my adrenaline rush every night when I got back home.

   This morning I awoke on the couch, in my track uniform (I had at least removed my shoes before reclining last night). The birds were singing and the room was bright... not a good sign. Checked my watch and... AAAAH!!! 7:45!! Exactly TWO HOURS after I normally get up to go to work. And I had a 9:00 group staff with my boss & team. Not good.

   I raced through my morning routine, bolted out the door, and arrived at work with a couple of minutes to spare. I jetted to my desk, dropped off my purse, and headed to the room. Through the peephole I could see that one of our senior managers had joined our meeting, and was talking. @#&*!!! Now it was going to look really bad that I was late... or was it?

   I gathered up my nerve and walked in, and immediately heard Paul talking about making fritters. What the...? Turns out he just returned from Italy and had taken a cooking class there, and was sharing his story. So when he looked at me, without missing a beat, I said, "Well, fritters are about the last thing I expected to be discussing in staff today." Everyone laughed. Crisis averted. Note to self: thank my lucky stars that I have a sense of humor (and so does everyone at work!)

Off to the Races

  Tom, Aaron, and I met a bunch of our newest recruits at Shawnee Mission East to start getting in shape for the meeting coming up in June. I sort of lost track (excuse the pun), but I think we ran an 800m, 400m, 1600m, 400m, and an 800m, with short breaks in between. I forgot my Nike+, so I don't know my times, but I was really pushing the last 100m of each lap, and I can already feel my legs tightening. Good thing we're practicing!!!
   Joe offered to loan his son's mountain bike to me, which I'm very excited about. A chance to test one out before I decide what to buy. So I can start triathlon training eventually...
  Our biggest track star, Danielle, may be out with an injury this year, which is a huge bummer. Who's going to take on her nemesis?! Probably not me, unless her nemesis is also injured... which is the only way I'd ever catch either of them!

  The perfect after-first-KCCC-track-practice meal: whole wheat pasta with roasted butternut squash, sausage, creamy pesto sauce and goat cheese crumbles. Yum!

Mean Muggin'

    Funny coincidence: I was just talking about KCCC (Kansas City Corporate Challenge) last night with a fellow athlete, and this morning Janet sent an email that her photos are now online! I'll get to work on posting some of the best. Right after I stop cracking up about what an idiot I am!

KCCC night five: the mile

Tonight's event was the mile run & the 1600m relay, rescheduled due to the torrential rain last Tuesday night. After my race, I took a few more photos, including these from the closely-contested rematch between Danielle & Kate. The old guy with the starting gun was a real hoot!

   Kate managed to edge out Danielle this time, probably because she was still so frustrated that Danielle beat her last week. Danielle gave her a good run for her money, though. Here's a shot using my camera's "sweep panorama" mode:

Lining up for the next relay:

   After each event, the results were eventually posted on the wall outside the snack bar. Since Tom suspected that I placed in the top 10, I was pretty excited to see the outcome. I tend to get into a zone during a run; I hardly notice who is ahead of me, who is cheering for me, and what the clock says as I cross the finish. It's kind of bizarre. Usually when I run I listen to my iPod shuffle, but since that isn't allowed in KCCC, my mind goes all zen.

   According to the final results, I was 5th place in the mile—overall—in my age group with a time of 7:15.660—which is easily the best I've ever done in competition. I had earned another 8 pts for Hallmark. In the mile relay, however, we were second to last in our heat and 32nd of 51 teams overall—with almost 50 seconds separating us from the first place finishers. All four of us in the relay ran the mile tonight shortly before the relay, in which we each had to run a 400 (once around the track). We did our best but didn't have much gas left in our tanks. But now I had two relays under my belt, and only one way to go but up!
   By the time I got home (after 10 pm) I was prepared to eat everything that wasn't nailed down. I can't eat before a run, so I had to wait. And speaking of waiting, the medals eluded me, so I guess I'll have to try again next year!

   On my way out to the parking lot I stopped to take a photo of the stadium. Makes me wish I had been aware enough to try out for track when I was in high school. I just didn't know anything about it, and didn't have any friends that ran, so I had no idea what I was missing. Cross country was a lot of fun; I'm thankful to Amanda & Keri for getting me involved. If I could go back & do it over again, I'd run a lot harder. At the time, I was happy to enjoy the bus ride with the team to all the meets, when one of the guys would bring a boom box & we'd pop in a Violent Femmes or Led Zeppelin cassette. We knew all the words. Keri & I even ran in the meets together, singing "Add it Up." Our coach yelled at us that if we could sing, we should be pushing ourselves much harder. At the time, that wasn't the point. Now, though, I'm curious about what I might have accomplished. Because for the second year in a row, I've surprised myself. AND I've enjoyed myself. I'm an athlete!

   The parking lot was lined with school buses, idle for the summer. I remembered the days when I would stay after school for Spanish Club, or National Honor Society, and would ride home on the bus with the elementary kids. I would sit way in the back, in relative solitude, and would draw the whole way home. Once the kids saw me my cover was blown. Every bus ride turned into a session in which I drew as fast as I could, to satisfy as many of the clamoring kids as possible. My only rule was that if they wanted a drawing, they had to provide their own paper. I loved it! I could go on & on about my experiences on the bus. Like when we were all especially wild toward the end of the school year, and Mrs. Hess pulled the bus over, stood up, and yelled, "You all are a bunch of horse's patoots!" Or when I caught a garter snake, tucked it into a pillowcase and brought it with me so that I could share it for show & tell. Ms. Hess wasn't such a fan of snakes, it turned out, and she kind of freaked out on me. But we made it to school & my teacher had a spare aquarium handy, so the snake was well-cared-for. Isn't it funny how one image can make all those memories flood back to you?

   And just like that, it was time to retire this year's track singlet, and I had wrapped up my first season of coordinator's duties without too much trouble. While I am very much looking forward to a few nights of sitting on my butt with my feet up on the couch, I am already excited about next year's possibilities!

   At the meet, one of the guys was wearing a t-shirt that said, "Sports don't build character—they reveal it." I agree. Any challenge can bring out a person's best or worst side. What I love about corporate challenge is that it's always the best side. We try hard, but we have fun. We cheer each other on. We bond. And so, a shout-out to Debbie Talboy at BRR Architecture: I'll see you at our weekly boot camp class at the gym! And to Kerri Powell of Perceptive Software, and Kimberly Harlan of North Kansas City Hospital: it was fun to meet you at the start lines for the 100m and the 400m. Kim, I hope your wedding in Mexico was everything you dreamed of! And I hope to see you all again next year.

A perfect mascot

   On my way home from the track meet, I finally stopped to get a photo of the sign at the school's entrance. TELL ME that that isn't a portrait of Taylor on the sign! Husky, my foot... it's a black-and-tan shiba!

In fact, I corrected it:

KCCC night four: sprint relay

   On tonight's roster were the sprint & distance relays. Although I hadn't originally planned to run either, I was slated for both, as other women dropped out. (How hard can it be, right?) The sprint relay was tough. It was the very first relay I've ever run. I was teamed with Melissa (also a relay virgin), and Aaron & John, who are experienced speed demons. I was hoping to replace myself with someone who was actually fast, but didn't get any takers. Boo. And to add insult to injury, we had to scratch the distance relay tonight, as one of our men was unable to run at the last minute.    I had left work for a dentist appointment, raced home and was racing to get to the race. And there was an accident on 69 Highway and it was at a standstill. By the time I got to the track there were less than 10 minutes remaining before our heat, the first of the night. Awesome—no time to warm up, and no time to practice handing off a baton. I got a crash course from the guys, lined up in lane 5, and we were off! I took the first 100m leg & ran my little heart out, handing off the baton to Melissa. She handed off to John, who blew around the track in no time & handed off to Aaron, our anchor leg. Aaron fought harder than anyone I've ever seen. He was on fire! And he used up every drop he had in the tank. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough for us to win, which I felt badly about, wishing I was faster & feeling like I let us down a bit. But my legs did their best given the workout they've had all week. In the overall standings we placed 32nd of 67 teams, almost 16 seconds off the 1st place time. Hey, I was happy just to not have dropped the baton!

KCCC night three: 800m

   I CAME IN THIRD PLACE (in my age group / division) in the 800m run!!! My time was 3:13.530. 8 more points for Hallmark! I had a fight to the end, too, and it was a photo finish with me and another girl. I believe they gave the win to her (grumble grumble). Next time...
    Danielle also had a race for her life: her nemesis for the last few years was neck-in-neck with her for the whole race. In the last 200m they shifted into overdrive and it was incredibly close. A bunch of us from the team were leaning over the fence at the finish line, clapping & screaming for Danielle. And we couldn't tell who won. We worried that nemesis had leaned forward enough that her chest crossed the line first. But much to our deight, Danielle had managed to get her foot across the finish line just ahead of her & took the win. All her training & determination was finally rewarded!
   After that came the 800m relay, which I didn't run this time around. We placed 43rd out of 72 teams, 21 seconds behind the leaders.

KCCC week is here! 400m

   Tonight was the first of the track events, the 400m dash. And the day was indeed a mad dash, as I lost a few competitors early on due to injuries & had to scramble to fill all the spots! In the end, we had only 1 spot that wasn't filled, so it could have been worse!
   It was a BEAUTIFUL night to run; today was much cooler than this past weekend, and the humidity was in check. A perfect night, really. Corporate Challenge is a lot of fun because although the events are highly competitive, there's no bloodlust that would dampen the mood. Every single woman in the race was greeted with enthusiastic clapping & genuine words of encouragement as she entered the home stretch—from spectators & competitors from all the other companies. That's class. And I was happy to have the honor of representing Hallmark. 
   The women are grouped into 5-year-increments by age and placed into heats of up to 8 runners. I was in lane 6 of heat 3. Which gave me plenty of time to get my adrenaline pumping with anticipation. As our race was approaching, I lined up with the other women from my heat & we chatted. Looking down the line I saw one woman in particular who was built like a gazelle. She was the fastest-looking one in the field. There goes that adrenaline again! I had my work cut out for me.
   Another woman (who may have sized me up & written me off too soon, although she was so friendly I'll never know for sure) looked me in the eye and said, "You gonna win this?" 
   "Well, I'm sure gonna try!" I responded.

   We were up next, and were first lined up in our lanes by number, then staggered so that we were all running the same distance, accounting for the inside/outside lanes. I was way on the outside, wondering which lane would give you the psychological advantage: the innermost lane, because all your competition starts ahead of you, beckoning for you to catch up? Or the outermost lane, because you start in front and can push yourself hard as you hear feet pounding the track & heaving breaths behind you? Even after running, I have no idea which I'd prefer. But lane 6 must have been my lucky lane, because I came in SECOND out of EIGHT. I was pumping so hard I have no idea what my finish time was (Jennifer guessed 1:24; official time was 1:23.395, earning 5 points), and I didn't see or hear my Hallmark teammates cheering me on from the sidelines. I effectively had tuned everything out. The one thing I noticed is that I beat the woman who asked me if I'd win. More fuel for the fire, on that theory that setting your intentions BEFORE you take action is critical to achieving them. If you don't aim high you'll always miss the mark.
   Henry, who was not running tonight but came out just to take photographs & support the team, kindly met me at the finish line with a cup of water & a huge smile. Tom shook my hand & told me that I "looked good out there; (my) form was good and (I) maintained a consistent speed around the track." He said I was fun to watch. I was walking on air after that. I actually felt like an athlete.
   Did I earn a medal? No. Am I a talented runner? Hell, no! But it felt so good to be outside enjoying the weather, enjoying the camaraderie of the athletes, and challenging myself to see what I could do. Because unless you really give it a try, you'll never know.

   Being Hallmark's women's track coordinator has been a great experience so far. Yes, it has been a little crazy & a lot of work. But I've met some cool people and am so looking forward to the events of the next four days. Janet asked me if she could count on me again for next year. And without missing a beat, Emma volunteered to assist me. How can I say no? I'm part of a great team, and what could be better than that?