JP Morgan Corporate Challenge

My JP Morgan debut. What a great event! I can't believe I've never done this race before. And as a lot of the boys pointed out, it's the unofficial HuRTs championship. It really was yesterday, Ben St Lawrence 1st, followed by Tom Crasti, Tom Highnam, Tucks and Charlie Low.

I had Mike Conway's number and managed to get up near the front of the blue section start with most of the HuRTs boys around me - Todd, Charlie D, Christian, Brendan, Pete Walker, Eamo, Enda, Perso, Dr Skins, Tim Lindop. Laura and Anna were directly in front of me and when the start gun went they took off like they'd been stung!

The pace was quick on the first couple of hundred metres of flat and I struggled badly. My legs felt sore and heavy and it appeared that I was moving backwards as the field surged around me. I've never done a running race less than 10km before and I was struck with the terrible thought "I'm not fast enough for this distance and my legs are shot. I'm just going to cruise this one around because there's no way I can race it."

Not a great mindset, but it was dispelled a few seconds later when we hit the hill and my legs and lungs started to warm up. I quickened and shortened my stride and started to actually pass people, weaving around them and trying to find gaps. I passed Pete, and finally managed to catch Anna and Laura at the top of the hill near the gates. Rounding the hairpin right turn my legs were back in form and my mind was back where it should have been too. "I'm ok, I'm feeling good, I can run this hard."

The field immediately started to thin and I began picking people to pass as we tended upwards towards the Woollara gates. I was gaining on Perso, but as soon as we turned back downhill he was off like a shot. The down was great to get the breath back, but I knew the hurt would kick in again once we hit the flat on Grand Drive. I started wondering where people were, I couldn't see Christian in front, I spotted Todd miles away - he must have taken off at a ridiculous speed - and a bit closer were Perso and Tim Lindop in front of him. I locked onto them on grand drive and tried my darndest to reel them in.

I caught Perso, then Timmy and set my sights on Todd who was still some way off. I dug deep and made it up to him, then found something else to keep pushing on up the little incline before the Fox Studio gates. Once around that corner I thought there wasn't much left in my legs. I felt like I slowed considerably, but the tight group of 4 or ahead of me (including Andrea from KPMG - the lead girl) seemed to be slowing at a higher rate because I was somehow catching up. Past 5km and I was praying for the finish line, I tried to keep the pace high but just couldn't go much harder. It was too early to kick so I tried to keep the pace just high enough to keep catching that group.

A hundred metres before the grass turnoff I was among them, I went by the Xstrata singlet guy and another bloke in an aqua singlet, then turning the corner onto the grass I passed Andrea. Just before the line I caught up with Steve (a bloke I met at the start line) and felt like a dick sprinting past him on the line when he'd led the whole way, so I slowed down a couple of steps, put a hand on his back and made sure he crossed the timing mate a second before me. Of course Xstrata guy shot past while I was doing that and aqua singlet caught up on the line, so I finished behind all three of them. I did manage to make it in from of Andrea as first female, and it was cool seeing the finish tape still up on the girl's side.

Stoked to be under 20 minutes, I was very happy with that run.
24th Place out of almost 3,000 men
Finish time: 19:45