Half and Half

Every hairbrained idea seems like a bright one after a glass of wine. The office challenge to run the Vancouver half marathon was no exception. It was November, and May 4 was far enough away to be open in everyone's calendar. And, with Christmas just around the corner, the immediate implications were nil. Training would start in the New Year.

Nine of us (out of a total of eleven) put up our hands. The group was comprised of three 'veterans' and six first-timers. The dollar value of the bets flying around among the first timers was impressive.

By January 1, our initial group had dropped from 9 to 8. Not bad. Our resident (honorary) Kenyan (who placed 21st in the race last year), drew up a training schedule. Several attempted to follow. Foolishly, I was not one of them.

Before we knew it, race day was upon us. Two more had dropped out, leaving six to race. Half were in good shape to race, half were not - but we all finished. Chris took an astonishing 10th place among the men with a time of 1:17 (I didn't know that was humanly possible). Then it was Nate, Janet, Travis, me, and Jill. Notable companion runners, Janice (Chris's girlfriend) and Matt (Travis's 'college buddy'), also pulled off some impressive times.

What other company can get half (46%) of its staff to race a half marathon and have them all finish? Nice work, team.