shamrock 15k

It doesn't take much to make me happy. Have a race where you give out long sleeve tech shirts and have bobbleheads for the age group awards and I am as happy as a clam!

Well as the day started off I wasn't certain what to expect at the shamrock 15k - as we headed out that morning i expected to see a snow covered mess - and was expecting to just have a fun run. Well when we got there I was suprised to see the roads down to bare pavement. I had originally planned on getting an 18 miler in - by running the course twice. But that morning I assumed that would be a bit ambitious on a snow covered hilly course - so I didn't bring my water belt or ipod or garmin - or any of the things I deem esential for an 18 mile jaunt. So I decided to just go for the 9.3.

The race started off downhill for about 3 miles or so and then took a steep steep turn up hill. (it was more of a staircase than a hill) I ran the first couple of miles with Monica and then ended up running with a very nice man for a few miles. He was running a bit faster than I could handle on all those hills - so I lost him eventually. But between the two of them - it made the run fly by quicker. Well as I was running I was amazed at how much longer we spent coming up the hill then we did going down - didn't seem quite right. I was invisioning us having to jump down off a cliff to get back to the finish. Anyway - once i realized that the uphills weren't going to stop anytime soon - I realized that this was a great training run for the pig. So i tried to pass a few more old men before the end of the race - and I ended up finishing in 1:20:27 - about a 8:36 pace I believe. I was pretty excited about that - and I ended up 3rd in my age group. Oh and as a special bonus - steve got an age group award in the 5k - so our m antel now has a his and hers matching set of running bobbleheads! gotta love it!