I competed this morning in the Trek to the Top. My friends Mark, Tanya, and I comprised Team Water's Edge. The climb was up the 42 story First National Bank Building in downtown Omaha.
Mark and I had fun trying to find a parking spot. You would assume that finding a parking spot on Saturday morning wouldn't be a problem, but sometimes assuming things leads to assumptions. I guess that is kind of like irony being ironic. I digress...
We made a huge tactical error. Mark and I didn't think about starting near the front until it was too late. We both had some heavy traffic during our trek. I probably passed about 40 trekkers (which really slowed me down) and finished in 5:48. Tanya did very well with an 8:24 and Mark finished with a very respectable 8:56. Despite our poor strategy, Team Water's Edge was 12th out of 53 teams. We easily won the church division and beat such powerhouses as Omaha Fire and Rescue, Creighton University, and The University of Nebraska Medical Center.
I finished 7th out of 500 entrants. If I had started near the front and out of traffic, I most likely would have broke five minutes and finished in second place (second place was 5:19). On one flight of stairs I was delayed at least twenty seconds as two walkers were going side by side and there was nothing I could do except walk (very slowly) behind them. A shorter (about ten seconds) version of this happened a few flights later. I don't think I could have shaved off a full minute and five seconds and competed with the winner. That was a very fast time!
Anyway, it was lots of fun. The event was very well run for its first year and raised money for a great cause. The only suggestion I have would be to ask the participants for a recent 5K time and seed the faster runners. Team Water's Edge is excited about returning next year.
I didn't run today. I have run 73 miles in the last six days and figured the trek was enough. I had lots of work to do getting ready for tomorrow and spent some time with the family tonight as we watched the snow fall.
1 comment:
wish I would have been there on the team, but this body doesn't operate like it used to in my younger years. great job on the ascent!
I'm one of those "all out" guys so if I would have been there I think I would have been burning well before the top, not doing any stair training.
It will be awesome when I can pace myself to match others in showing them the goodness of God.
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