Mercer Island Half Marathon

Last week I had a fabulous run on Mercer Island. Here are the results:

Mercer Island Rotary Half Marathon
Half Marathon Run
March 22, 2009 in Mercer Island, WA
Summary
Number of Finishers: 1,619
Number of Females: 799
Number of Males: 820
Average Time: 1:59:12
Chad Blanchard
bib number: 55
age: 35
gender: M
location: Seattle, WA
overall place: 160 out of 1620
division place: 31 out of 180
gender place: 132
time: 1:35:59
pace: 7:15
chip time: 1:35:01

I'm proud; that's my best run ever. I ran strong throughout and surpassed my own goals.

Official photography is by brightroom, and is, as usual for these things, vastly overpriced. There are a couple good ones of me in my endorphin haze, but I don't plan to splurge on the official versions.

Collaboration and Competition

Lately I've been thinking about collaboration and competition; I don't have any interesting conclusionk, but I do have a list of observations and opinions:

People, and by 'people' I include myself, often wrap their competitive natures in with their sense of self worth.

Competitive play is often exciting and more fun than non-competitive play.

Sometimes play with less competition is more fun.

Competition and hierarchy are often connected. Sometimes this is right and appropriate.

We as an American society tend to connect the two too much rather than too little.

The value of collaboration is often overlooked.

A collaborative effort will generally accomplish more than a competitive effort.

We are all in this life together.

When you're escaping from a burning plane, sometimes only the first [insert unknown coefficient] number of people out the door will survive.

Sometimes everyone can survive if you work together.

Unhealthy jealousy spawns from allowing competitive impulses too much influence over one's relationships.