Chase Corporate Challenge 3.5 mile road race

The Chase Corporate Challenge is a 3.5 mile race held in cities all over the world. Corporations form teams of employees in this charity event. GVH coach Mike Reif suggested that Klein Steel put together a team, so I did my best to sell the event to my co-workers and on race day we had fifteen participants including our two top executives: Joe Klein and John Batiste.

In a personal, individual, sport like running, a competitor can have a lot of different goals: beat last year's time, place in the top 100, or maybe just lose a few pounds. My goal, in case you couldn't guess, was to win. I figured I had a pretty good chance. I hadn't been beaten by a local runner yet in the four races I'd run in Rochester. The local paper ran an article the day before the Chase Challenge all but predicting my win. No big deal. Hell, I was predicting my own win.

I think it was inevitable that Jeff Beck would beat me eventually, but I had hoped it wouldn't be at Chase where I was representing my company and the media spotlight was bright. Jeff placed 17 seconds behind me at Johnny's Runnin' of the Green and he had raced in the national snowshoe racing championship earlier the same week. At the Lilac 10K he placed 10 seconds behind me on a course that played to my strengths with a long uphill finish.

A record 11,000 participants participated in the 2008 Rochester Chase Corporate Challenge. It was hot on the starting line. The mayor of Rochester and the other officials jokingly claimed responsibility for the "perfect" weather. It was perfect for a walk in a park, but I soaked my hair with water and it dried in less than five minutes, before the race even began.

I chatted with some GVHer's as we did strides and stretches to loosen up. Jeff and I greeted each other. I expected it to come down to me and him. An air horn launched the race and the mass of 11,000 moved forward like a flood, forward motion percolating backwards. Jeff, Scott Shaw, and I tangoed for over two miles. Each of us lead a little. Whenever I felt the pace sag I moved up to keep it going. I thought that keeping the pace honest would be to my advantage.

The wind seemed to be in our face a lot, which wind always seems to do despite circular race courses like this one. When Jeff and I turned west (Scott had recently faded) towards the finish the wind hit us full force. Jeff moved into drafting position behind me and I slowed. If he was going to draft then I was going to trot along nice and slow. Afterwards, Jeff and I were talking about this point in the race and Jeff said, "I thought, 'either he is really tired or he knows what I'm doing.'" I laughed at that. Yeah, of course I knew what he was doing. That's my move!

I was thinking that leading at this point would prevent Jeff from getting the jump on me. When he kicked I'd have a fraction of a second to catch him in my peripheral vision and start my own sprint. I was feeling pretty bad at this point. It's never a good sign when you cede the initiative and I had all but forsaken it. I was thinking that the longer Jeff waited to kick, the better off I would be. With about 600 meters to go, just as we entered RIT's Lomb drive, he came around me sprinting. I kicked it into high gear and rode up on his shadow. There was no point slowing this late in the race and I even found myself moving past Jeff so I just let it happen. I could taste victory. Just hold pace, come around the curve, as soon as you see the finish line get up on your toes, hammer your hands, and you've got it.

I came around the turn still in the lead. Only about 100 meters to go. I got up on my toes and swung my arms. Jeff unlocked another gear and flew past me on the outside. I was shocked and disappointed in myself. I tried to accelerate, but it felt like shifting into an absent gear. Picture the shock and horror of a race car driver who just ripped his gear shift right out of his car mid-race. I fell apart. My form went to shit. I slowed before finishing.

I crossed the line and bent over to lean on my knees, taking big emergency breaths of dry cottony air. A race helper supported me over to the top-finisher tent. I felt ill. I might have been fighting off some minor bug. It's hard to tell. I’d been a little off all week, but not really sick. I was probably just dehydrated. I’ve never liked the heat.

Despite the expectations going into the race, people were quite pleased that I placed second. You can't win them all and Jeff ran a smart race. Between the drafting and the patient double-kick he was taking the initiative and forcing me to respond far more than I should have let him. I pumped for next time. There will be many next times.

Chase DnC article

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