Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Craigmeur, Corporate Challenge and Then Some...

After two hours of tennis, an hour of volleyball/basketball, a 3.5 mile run and a partial speed workout later, dang gummit, I'm tired! No shit sherlock.

Today our company had an annual picnic and from all the places in New York, we had to have it in Craigmeur State Park which is in boonie-town Jersey (no offense to Jersey :))

The team event started at 9am, but we got there around 10:25am. Yes, we were late, but we had every good reason to. Number one, we were carpooling 5 people and number two, who would be stupid enough to have a picnic in WEST jersey when the majority of the staff lives in NYC? Why Craigmeur? Why not Central Park? Why not East River? Why not Chelsea Piers? Heck, I would be even happy to be dodging bullets in Van Cortlandt (ignorant me)! Well luckily enough we skipped most of the activities that had ALREADY been done last year.

I headed straight to the courts, played some tennis then a bit of basketball and ate the most OILIEST hamburgers and sausages ever. I basically had to use the bun to absorb the oil. Of course, it would've been nice to have it when I'm drunk at 5 o' clock in the morning, but not before the Corporate Challenge. After eating the most disgusting bbq food ever, I continued to played some b-ball, tennis and volleyball. At 2pm, my office clique and I left the scene...incognito style...well not really :)

Then there was the Corporate Challenge. I know I shouldn't be competitive on this race, after all, there are no chips involved. In addition, the crowd was insane too. Just trying to get through the bottleneck was worse than any other NYRR races. On hindsight, I knew about this hence i headed to the 6 minute mile marker. Did it work? Not really, there's still some idiots who don't understand why the markers are there for. Despite the huge crowds and the idiots that go along with the Corporate Challenge, I still run it every year. Why? Several reasons:

1. It gives me a chance to see other friends I've lost touched with in different companies. For example, today I randomly saw Pei-Li, a former colleague from Ernst and Young, twice and out of nowhere I heard someone yelled my name, "YO GENERAL!", yup, that was Jason from Bear Stearns.

2. You get to check out what other companies are out there, just in case if I want to jump ship - haha

3. Make fun of company t-shirts...man there were some really really ugly ones out there...like "yo' mamma so ugly" ugly....well I really shouldn't be talking because mine looked the worse! Man do I hate the motto. I saw some really nice ones out there, especially with the Dri-Fit singlets from one of our competitors. Speaking of my UGLY company t-shirt, i noticed that a selected group of people from my company had dri-fit singlets. Favoritism? I call it bullshit. That's why it was so much sweeter running passed 3 of those guys with the special singlets. There is simply no reason why some people had different uniforms. It was suppose to be a team effort! Anyway, I'll stop it with my rants 'cus after all it is only a shirt....I think i oughta' save my energy and channel it to my road rage :)

Back to the race, as usual, the first mile was SLOW. I'm gonna take it easy on this one, but as I went along, I just had to pick apart some of the guys with the singlets. Anyway, here are my splits:

Mile 1: 7:12
Mile 2: 13:45
Mile 3: 20:29
Mile 3.5: 23:22 or 23:32

I had the most fun after mile 2. Why? As I ran through the 86th footbridge, I saw Coach and a bunch of reservoir dogs. From a distance I yelled out "JUD!!!!!!", luckily he heard me and the group cheered me on. That was very special and gave me the extra push for the nitro. I truly want to thank these amazing people for it.

The end result was a 6:43/44 pace- either way, I dont really care. Well, kind of...mainly because I want to run the Corporate Challenge in Park Avenue in October. I remember doing it 2 years ago at Ernst and Young and I truly savored every moment of it. I liked that fact it was a small field and a fast course too!

Anyway, at least it was under 24 minutes, plus it was a non-competitive one and no friggin' chip was involved.

After the race, I waited for some of my folks, ransacked the food section where i grabbed a "shitload" of protein bars. By that time it was 8pm and I headed to the Speed Workout on Great Hill. I just had to meet the dogs simply because their cheering after mile 2 was very special. Hence, I trailed along with jgo and russ for the last 3 loops of great hill track and I was done.

I was planning to head to the opening of Garden of Ono, but i decided to hang out with the dogs for a picnic. Heck, there's always a next time for Ono, but a dogs picnic? I don't think I want to miss that. So in the end, I met up with some of my former need for speed relay team, the prez, conger, cliff, uptown, ej and lo and behold, I got to talk to a dog who happens to work in the same company as me (judging from her corporate challenge t-shirt) and another dog who works in my building. How random is that? Anyway, I'm glad that I finally get to talk to these great people.

Before I sign off, during the picnic i had a chat with the president of my team. We spoke about long-runs and he told me that there was a member who ran 20 miles for 4 days in a week and ended up destroying her knees. How effed up is that? My heart sunked for a bit and reality sets in. I really need to be more careful in the future. Although, Coach has been telling me the same thing over and over again! I know, I know, I'm just the most stubborn person ever. Young phuckers like me just dont think about future consequences. Hence, I am seriously contemplating on cutting my running schedule and focus on rest and recovery.

Hmmm....I think I may scratch off Dash and Splash and Run for the Parks in July (tentatively speaking.........shit!)

Aloha and Cheers,

Moz

4 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

A full day of excercise powered by greesy McNasty burgers... Lucky you! Hows your stomach?

5:11 AM  
Blogger Morrissey said...

josh- my stomach is feeling fine. Im glad that I put the sandwich buns into good use. oily and greasy burgers...ultimate grossness. Sure it tastes good in the beginning, but in the end, anyone that consumes that amount of oil at a given time would feel like...er.....shit :)

6:01 AM  
Blogger nyflygirl said...

funny!! my company had a picnic at Craigmeur 2 years ago. i guess with employees coming from PA, NJ, westchester and NYC, that was as central as they could get...? but the thing that sucked was that it was a very rainy day, and i remember i was nursing a little bit of a cold that day, so we were just stuck under the covered area. guess our lovely parent company at the time didnt think about having a rain date.

anyway, i think i spotted you whizzing by me in the first mile yesterday!! nice job. and no harm in taking it easy for a little bit to rest up and be fresh for the fall :)

11:15 AM  
Blogger Bridges Runner said...

Good to see you at the picnic the other night:)

You got really lucky with the weather for the CC. It was miserable last night...just like running in an oven:)

Anyway, glad you're reconsidering your racing plans. You'll be in better shape for it!

8:46 AM  

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