Fly Bandicoot, Fly!
Jul. 7th, 2002 08:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jamesqToday was the day of the Stampede Road Race, and I was there playing my part. Thought it almost didn’t happen.
The package pickup (with the race freebies and the all-important race number) was Friday and Saturday. Friday was out as I didn't get back to Calgary until late late late. Saturday I went to work to fetch my Flying Bandicoot T-shirt (thanks to Marci and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wendy_licious). The Bruce then called to get me for bowling (I kicked his ass - twice, thanks for asking).
After bowling we went out for a truly Canadian lunch withmfiles and Marci. We went to Tim Horton's. And I completely forgot about my race package. They were kind enough to drive me home afterwards (and the fact that I was loaning mfiles my current favorite game - American McGee’s Alice, I’m sure had nothing to do with their largess). Approaching downtown I remembered I had to get my race kit. Mike took me to the Eau Claire YMCA where the race kits were being distributed. It was 5 PM (closing time) when we pulled up. I sprinted up the stairs and into the distribution area. I was the very last person to get their race kit, but I did get it.
That bit of insanity over I got a restful 5 hours of sleep and got up with plenty of time to prepare for the race. It started and ended at Fort Calgary and I stepped in some horse shit just prior to the start - proof that the race is Calgarian. Eventually I found myself at the starting line. Now the race I was in was not an individual effort, I was the first person in a 5-man marathon. So there I was at the starting gate and my teammates weren’t there to cheer me on. I subsequently found out they were standing about fifteen meters away from me, unable to see the 6’4” redhead in their midst.
My leg of the race was a bit of a slog (it was a hot day, even at 7 AM) even though it was only 8.9 Km. Halfway through the race, I’m huffing and puffing through Bridgeland when I become dimly aware of a bunch of yahoos hooting and hollering at the site of the road. I’ve spent long years training myself to ignore that sort of BS, but this time my little voice told me these weren’t the usual sort of yahoos. And the little voice was right - these yahoos were my teammates!
Having a cheering squad was a great rush - endorphins flooded my brain and I finished the rest of the race with renewed vigor. Total time for my leg of the run was about 61 minutes, which I think was pretty good. The Flying Bandicoots had a total running time of 4 hours 8 minutes and change. The goofs at the Herald didn't post the results for the relay (they showed the results for all the other races) so I have no idea what our official time is - updates will come eventually.
We had such a good time we’re thinking of fielding two teams next year. Who'd have thought there would be 10 runners in a company with only 50 people.
Addendum: Finally got the race results. Here they are:
Position Name Distance Time Pace Rank
Overall Flying Bandicoots 42.2 4:08:41 5:54 77
1quixote317 8.9 1:01:26 6:54 104
2 Sherrie 8.2 50:30 6:10 78
3 Kathy 8.3 1:00:23 7:17 102
4 Andrei 9.1 42:23 4:39 21
5 Bruce 7.7 34:07 4:26 9
Distances are in Kilometers.
Times are HH:MM:SS.
Pace is M:SS per Kilometer.
Rank is out of 108.
The package pickup (with the race freebies and the all-important race number) was Friday and Saturday. Friday was out as I didn't get back to Calgary until late late late. Saturday I went to work to fetch my Flying Bandicoot T-shirt (thanks to Marci and
wendy_licious). The Bruce then called to get me for bowling (I kicked his ass - twice, thanks for asking).After bowling we went out for a truly Canadian lunch with
mfiles and Marci. We went to Tim Horton's. And I completely forgot about my race package. They were kind enough to drive me home afterwards (and the fact that I was loaning mfiles my current favorite game - American McGee’s Alice, I’m sure had nothing to do with their largess). Approaching downtown I remembered I had to get my race kit. Mike took me to the Eau Claire YMCA where the race kits were being distributed. It was 5 PM (closing time) when we pulled up. I sprinted up the stairs and into the distribution area. I was the very last person to get their race kit, but I did get it.That bit of insanity over I got a restful 5 hours of sleep and got up with plenty of time to prepare for the race. It started and ended at Fort Calgary and I stepped in some horse shit just prior to the start - proof that the race is Calgarian. Eventually I found myself at the starting line. Now the race I was in was not an individual effort, I was the first person in a 5-man marathon. So there I was at the starting gate and my teammates weren’t there to cheer me on. I subsequently found out they were standing about fifteen meters away from me, unable to see the 6’4” redhead in their midst.
My leg of the race was a bit of a slog (it was a hot day, even at 7 AM) even though it was only 8.9 Km. Halfway through the race, I’m huffing and puffing through Bridgeland when I become dimly aware of a bunch of yahoos hooting and hollering at the site of the road. I’ve spent long years training myself to ignore that sort of BS, but this time my little voice told me these weren’t the usual sort of yahoos. And the little voice was right - these yahoos were my teammates!
Having a cheering squad was a great rush - endorphins flooded my brain and I finished the rest of the race with renewed vigor. Total time for my leg of the run was about 61 minutes, which I think was pretty good. The Flying Bandicoots had a total running time of 4 hours 8 minutes and change. The goofs at the Herald didn't post the results for the relay (they showed the results for all the other races) so I have no idea what our official time is - updates will come eventually.
We had such a good time we’re thinking of fielding two teams next year. Who'd have thought there would be 10 runners in a company with only 50 people.
Addendum: Finally got the race results. Here they are:
Position Name Distance Time Pace Rank
Overall Flying Bandicoots 42.2 4:08:41 5:54 77
1
quixote317 8.9 1:01:26 6:54 1042 Sherrie 8.2 50:30 6:10 78
3 Kathy 8.3 1:00:23 7:17 102
4 Andrei 9.1 42:23 4:39 21
5 Bruce 7.7 34:07 4:26 9
Distances are in Kilometers.
Times are HH:MM:SS.
Pace is M:SS per Kilometer.
Rank is out of 108.
