I recently ran in the annual Orlando IOA corporate 5k with a group of people from the company I work for, and it turned out to be a blast. The only problem was, I happened to get the 'best snapshot' award with this pic someone got of me:

(click on the pic for a bigger version if you can't read it)

Ok, horribly insulting picture of me aside, it was pretty cool.

My friend and co-worker Ivory and I left work early to get to the event site, which just happened to be at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando. Being an expert at land navigation as a result from my intensive army training, I had Ivory park clear out by Church Street Station becuase I totally forgot exactly where we were heading to. Being men, we decided to keep mum about my 'navigational error' and proceeded to hoof it to the stadium from there. It wouldn't have been so bad, but the ~2 mile walk to the stadium was right through the heart of Orlando's Parramore neighborhood, well known as a very poor inner city area with high crime. I was pretty uncomfortable, but we got to the event without incident and hung out with our other co-workers until the race started. There were over 15,000 people there, and each company had its own tent area. The Disney people seemed to have the largest showing overall, and the whole deal reminded me of the big opening scene from The Warriors where all the different gangs in New York gather together for a big meeting, each group wearing different costumes.

Before the race started, Sean, Ivory and I we were about 150 meters from the starting line and it was just a chaotic mass of people pushing forward after the 'go' was given. We stuck together for about a quarter mile, but I lost track of both of them after that until the end. At first I felt strong and ready, but after a mile I quickly realized I was in way over my head and was no better off then a laim horse. At about 2 miles I was walking with a horrible pain in my gut, and I swore that it was because I gave myself a nice big hernia. For the last half mile though I sucked it up and ran, and I even snuck in a little sprint down the last couple hundred foot stretch. After all was said and done, I eeked out just a shade over a 36 minute finishing time.

Shortly after I finished, I meandered back to our company tent and enjoyed a well-deserved bagel, Gatorade and banana with my team.

That's when that horrible picture was taken. (really, I'm not bitter...)

All-in-all, it was a great time and it really let me know that I need to get serious about getting in shape if I even want to think about running the Disney Marathon next year. I have a feeling that if I were to even try running that beast right now, I'd end up dead, in the hospital, or at the very least, picked up because I was too slow.

Time to hit the gym, fo realz...