Sunday, March 29, 2009

2009 Shamrock Run 5k

In the days leading up to the Shamrock Run this year, the weather was cold and windy and rainy. I hadn't been running much, and wasn't all that interested in participating. With the exception that I love dressing up in costume and didn't want to miss out. My friend, Julie, wanted to run the 5k and offered to run with me. So the day before the run I made my way over to the Adidas campus and got us officiallized.

Race: 2008 Shamrock Run 5k
Location:
Portland, OR
Distance: 5k (3.1 miles)
Time: 00:30:04 (9:42 min/mile pace)

Pre-race: Like usual, I ate a PB&J, made a to-go cup of coffee, and geared up. Like last year, I donned the green tutu, green bra/undies, blinking shamrock nipples, and tiara. But this year I switched up the week for a much more ridiculous version, and added the most fantastic pair of bug sunglasses. Unlike last year though, Ken offered to chauffer us downtown so that we didn't have to deal with the Max train and walking around in the pouring rain. What a great guy!

Warm Up: Huddled and did the ritual waiting in line for the porta-pottie. Then we tried to seed ourselves in the huge mass of people. This year there were over 20,000 people in all of the events -- a 5,000 increase over 2008!

Run: Crowded!!!! We had to walk/run/stop/walk/run/stop/run for the first few hundred meters, which was incredibly frustrating. I do not understand why walkers and people with huge baby strollers insist on placing themselves up front with the 7 minute milers. Sorta like the elderly person driving 25 mph in the fast lane on the interstate. Argh! But we did some quick-foot maneuvers to get around those that we could and finally got up to a good pace right about the time we came to the mile long hill.

If you know me, or read my race reports, you know that I do not like hills. At all. This isn't a steep hill, but it's long. Julie was great at keeping me moving. Had she not been there, I would most likely have walked a good portion of the race. She often asked, "Sarah, are you uncomfortable?" If I replied with a cold glare in her direction she would respond "okay, good good." If I replied with a verbal response, she would run a bit faster.

Pretty soon (it was only a 5k run after all!) we were on the downhill stretch on our way to the finish line. I was elated to see that we may have broken the 30 minute barrier -- sort of a brick wall for me. Unfotunately, we were 4 seconds short of that, but it was still a PR for me. Yay!

Post-run: BEER GARDEN!!! An important note to those who like free beer: crazy costumes get you lots of beer tickets. We had more than our fare share of fun and then I was in bed by 11:45am.