Omaha Corporate Cup - Run10k

I decided to wear my Governor's Cup long-sleeved T because I thought I might be a bit chilly. This turned out to be a false presumption as I started sweating the minute we got to the start line.

In order to set up the race properly I need to tell you guys what exactly our goal was this year. See, we started running the Corporate Cup in 2005 as a way to motivate ourselves to get in shape. We struggled through most of it and came away with a 10K of 1h 26m 03s. That was Brynn's time - mine was 1 second slower. The next year we were in full-on training mode and drastically reduced our times. We continued improving and in 2007 both set PRs - mine being my first 10K under 1 hour. This year was different, though.

Several months ago Brynn, my mom, and I were all chatting. I don't know what we were chatting about, but we got on the topic of running and somewhere in the midst of the conversation Brynn got the idea into my mom's head that she could run a 10K, namely THIS 10K, by the time it came around. I didn't think my mom would take her up on that offer - she had been walking a lot through her work and going to Curves with her friend, but I didn't see her as the type to just start running. Boy was I wrong! The thing is, she was not an athlete in high school. Started smoking, I believe, in her junior year, and continued for the next 37+ years until five years ago when she quit completely. She had tried and tried and finally, to my complete and utter surprise, was able to quit "cold turkey" by going to one of those hypnotist characters! Hey, whatever works I guess. So she had quit smoking but had started to battle most smokers' battle which is weight gain. As I mentioned before she had been walking and counting her steps with the pedometer she got through work, and going to Curves, and seeing the inches and weight come off, and the body fat percentage go down. When Brynn told her she could do the race - no, not do the race, RUN the race, she wasn't quite sure about it. She had mentioned it to some co-workers while they were out walking on their break one day and apparently one [or more] co-workers looked at hear askance. This was all the fuel she needed to add to her fire and she set about to make sure she did this thing to prove all the naysayers wrong. She had Brynn find a training plan for her and between my step-dad and my niece I learned that no matter what she made sure to get all of her running in. What an encouragement! Did I mention that my mom turned 58 only nine days before the race? That's right - her first road race at 58! Goes to show you can never start too late. All that to say that this race wasn't about Brynn and it wasn't about me. It wasn't about setting PRs [though one was set] and it wasn't about pushing my own limits. It was about my mom accomplishing something significant, proving to herself and some skeptics that she COULD do this, and that she WOULD do this. There was no stopping her.

Now, for the logistics of it:

We crossed the start mat, then we crossed the start banner [huh?] and had to squeeze in and out of some of the walkers that had managed to get ahead of us before we were able to get out there. Before the race I had set my ten watch timers to 4 and 1 minute intervals. That would be our strategy for the next ninety minutes - run 4, walk 1, repeat. We missed the mile marker for the first mile [I'm not sure there even was one to be quite honest with you] and made it to the second mile in 27 minutes even. This was a fast pace for Mom, she's a 14+ minute miler, and this meant we were running almost a minute per mile faster than she's used to! We kept plugging away and a few times she had to ask if our four minutes were up. We remained slaves to the watch and tried to maintain conversation throughout so that Mom could take her mind off the struggle. It seemed to work - she ran every single four minute interval without stopping early. Sure, we had to crack the whip a couple times. One time in particular we were running and we weren't catching people who were right ahead of us and walking. Mom decided then that she needed to pick up the pace. At about the four mile mark we realized that we had been playing leap-frog with this older woman for the last several minutes. I told Mom to use her as a pacer, and that she would need to beat her to the finish. I don't know if that helped her or not, but it sure helped me! One time on our run interval I said, "We're gonna pass her so that we can break her down - we gotta break her spirit." so we passed her. Then she passed us right back! Her lead didn't last long though, she started walking and we swallowed her up. I told Mom that we had to cast our line and reel her in and we did. She ended up finishing ahead of her but I don't know if, with the chip timing, we came out ahead or not. Didn't matter, we weren't out there to race that woman.

Not wear my long-sleeve T! Only one Corporate Cup did I ever have to dress warmly, out of the five I've done [I did one back in 1999 with my dad].

Got some water and stood around while Mom called her sister and my step-dad to tell them our time. We crossed the finish line in just a few seconds over 1:33 so I estimated we finished in 1:31. I had no idea we were FIVE FULL MINUTES behind the clock!


Don't.


They have broken a sacred tradition at the Corporate Cup. They will now have to change the name. It shall no longer be referred to as Corporate Cup, but rather Corporate Koozy. What the deuce? Koozies? I'm sure people with dozens of Corporate CUPS in their collections were really happy about that. That's like the only thing I look forward to at this race [besides a PR].