Kansas City Corporate Challenge 5K - Run5k

Didn't line up early enough, had to start with the 8 minute milers. I told myself I would line up in front with the 6:30 group but I took a longer warmup than normal and didn't get to the starting corral soon enough. I wanted to push it down that hill and lost that opportunity. This was a major fail for me because the meet results are based on gun time, not chip time.

The gun went off and I had to navigate my way around the slower runners which was not easy since it was a narrow road with over 1,000 runners on it. Finally got about a mile into it before I had some room. I forgot the Garmin so I have no idea what my splits were.

I probabl ran close to a 6:00 that second mile trying to make up for the slower first mile. We turned the corner to start the climb to the finish which is just an anticipation of pain to come. That hill at the end is tough. I gutted my way up that hill, maybe passing one or two people. I don't remember being passed myself which was a big improvement over last year where it seemed like I got passed by a half dozen runners.


Line up closer to the 6:30 group.

After I crossed the finish line I stopped my watch and I thought it had showed a time of 21:35. My 5K PR was 21:08 so I thought, OK, no PR today. The humidity was 85%, temp was at least 75 deg F so it wasn't ideal conditions for a PR. But later I saw the printed gun time results and it had me down for 21:02. So I looked at my watch again and sure enough, it was around 20:35 so YES, a new PR!

Later I found out my official chip time was 20:32. Beat my previous PR by over 30 seconds under less than ideal conditions.


This race is challenging and packed with talented runners. The post race recovery food was good as usual, they have chocolate milk which is my preferred recovery drink. This race is mainly put on by the Johnson County Parks and Recs crew and they always do a great job.