Are they drunk or just stupid? (St. Pat’s Dash report)

Just stupid.

Over 1month since my last entry…almost as pitiful as my "training" has been in that span of time. I am SO meandering but that will be my next post (possibly in a month). This is a race report.

______________

St. Pat's Dash

Seattle, WA

3/15/2009

Distance: ~6K

Time: I don't know! (they posted results that have the clock time and it is really bugging me)

This is the 2^nd anniversary run of what was my first race ever in 2007. I didn't do it in 2008 and they changed the course for this year so it was different in this way but it was different for so many more reasons.

I was cajoled into running this by my new boyfriend; we'll call him The Captain (although he and his friends don't seem to do the blog nickname thing I will anyway to protect the innocent.). Captain was running his first race ever and I wouldn't have missed that for anything.

Wardrobe is always tricky but especially so for this race. I wanted to be festive but I was going to try to run hard so I needed to be functional. This is also when I should mention THE WEATHER SUCKED. It was snowing/raining when I woke up in the morning. I also have the added complication of needing a pocket for my iPhone. I went with a St. Patty's day t-shirt & socks for the festivity, my fave Capri running pants, a windbreaker type jacket, arms warmers and disposable PJ pants for warmth before the race.

The Cap and his running buddy came by my place where we met up with his friend/running mentor (I have to work on names for these guys…I'm not clever enough for this). We all piled into my car and headed to the race start.

It was nasty out. The snowflakes were huge and blowing sideways. UNCOOL. This was however the first time I've had someone I could huddle with for body heat; this was awesome and I selfishly hope he keeps running just for this perk! Speedy and I are close but we try to stay appropriate.

I was sad for him that it was such crappy weather cause we missed all of the race day excitement. Bottom line, we were ready for our wave to start. It did. I ran. I felt really good for the first portion (I had no gauge of distance, I didn't see any mile markers and had no helpful technology). There was a lot of bobbing and weaving. The first half was slightly uphill and this seemed to really stress my ankles. I was getting concerned about my ankles and cursing myself for not being warm/stretched when blissfully I saw the turnaround. I tried to pick it up since I was going downhill. I have no idea if that worked.

One big, exciting difference between 09 and 07 was that 2 years ago I was dying at the finish, I started walking towards the chute. This year, I was also dying in the lungs but I pushed harder. The finish chute was a disaster; it was getting backed up to the point where people almost couldn't cross the finish line. The Cap's running mentor must have finished pretty close to me, and we went to watch him and his running buddy finish.

I was so happy for him and I hope he was proud of himself. In my life there have been few things as personally satisfying as crossing the finish line at St. Pat's 07 and I just hope he got that same sense of satisfaction and I'm so glad to have been there.

Post race festivities should have been super fun but it was freezing and we were soaking wet. So we made it quick and headed out to breakfast.

All before 11am, not too shabby.