St. Patrick’s Day Runs

I did three St. Patrick’s Day runs this month. I may be a tad crazy, but you already knew that. On March 11th I did the Lucky Clover 4 miler and this past weekend, the 16th and 17th, I did the Kiss Me I’m Irish Kilt run and 8k. I missed last year’s Kiss Me I’m Irish so I was excited to be able to do it again.

st. patrick's day runs The Lucky Clover 4 miler was put on by 131 events. It was in Chandler, so a little bit of a drive for me. Luckily at 5:30 in the morning, not many people were out yet. The run started at the Shops at Ocotillo and did a loop route. The route itself was pretty good. There were a couple of spots that the runners were limited to the bike lane but a lot of us had to go outside the bike lane/orange cones because we had to pass slower runners.

There were also a few spots where cars needed to pass through but they all waited until a decent break in runners/walkers, at least that I saw. At one intersection, we were crossing diagonally and the police were holding traffic. I kind of sped up so I could get through with the group ahead of me in case runners were stopped for traffic. I overheard one of the runners saying the police should have stopped the runners and let the cars through because “none of us are competing”. Ummm… speak for yourself dude because I am competing.

I am competing with myself!

I always want to be better than I was before. I want to get a PR in every race. If not a PR, I want to be better than the last time I ran this distance. Also, this was about the 2-mile mark and I had settled into a good groove. I take about 1.5-2 miles to get going. I’ve been stopped before at this point and it just messes up my race, especially a short one like this because I’d never get a steady pace going. Longer races it’s not *as bad* because I have more distance to get that pacing back.

I finished 321 overall out of 635, 40 of 80 in my age group with a total time of 47:08:19. My average pace was 11:47 per mile. Definitely not a PR but I’m happy with it considering the past year and a half I’ve had. I haven’t been running much and have only recently started training again.

Friday night I participated in the Kilt Run, which was 1km. They have been doing this the last couple of years to try to set a record. As far as I know, we did not make it this year. When I finished, I ran to my car and weaved through the parking lot to get at least a full mile in. It was fun and I’d probably do it again next year to help them try to get the record.

Saturday morning was the 8k. This year was a little different and we did two loops around Westgate. I think the course was short because my Garmin ended at 4.45 miles when it should have been more like 4.97. Allegedly I PR’d this race with a 51:07 and 10:17 pace, which vastly differs from my Garmin (51:52/11:37 pace). I finished 153 out of 266 overall, 87 out of 156 females and 14 of 29 in my age group.

Overall I enjoyed all of my St. Patrick’s Day runs and would do them both again.

My only wish is walkers were told to start last. I try to go in the middle of the pack, as I know I’m a middle of the packer. At the Lucky Clover, I couldn’t even run across the start line and had to weave around a ton of people who started out walking. The start of the Kiss Me I’m Irish 8k was similar. I was kicked by someone trying to get into the corral by climbing over the rope in order to get ahead of a ton of people by someone with a cane. I passed them on both my loops. Know your ability and plan accordingly! It’s all about respect. I am planning a race etiquette blog and will be sure to put this in there!