Its hard for me to believe that just a few years ago St. Patricks Day meant a day long adventure of green beer and bands at D.C's Shamrockfest and now I'm training (sometimes) and mentally preparing to take on distance running.....my how times have changed!! Don't worry there's still beer involved - it just comes after running anywhere from 5 to 13 miles.
This year will be my fourth year participating in the Shamrock 8k, and my first year participating in the Shamrock Half Marathon. I've been going to the Shamrock weekend on and off for a couple of years now ever since my friend ran in her first Half Marathon and I met her at the finish line to support her. It's a pretty amazing event! There are sooo many people there!
My first year participating in the Shamrock 8k was 2011. A friend of mine from college and her husband were walking the race so I decided to join them. At that point in life I was not a runner. It was still pretty fun to cross the finish line and get a medal. Its actually the first race medal in my collection.
The second year participating in the Shamrock 8k was the following year. This race in 2012 meant a lot to me. It was when I officially called myself a runner. To me it was the best race conditions. A little chilly in the morning but bright warm and sunny by the time the race was over. It was a race I didn't let my fears get the best of me and just did what I knew I had trained for and just ran. It is still my 8k PR and I'm hoping that I'll get back to that pace!! Here's to wishful thinking!
Hardest earned medal thus far!
Last years race was the first Shamrock 8k I got to run with my trusty running buddy. (She couldn't make the year prior due to a family obligation.) We were just coming back from running the Princess Half at Disney so neither one of us had done a lot of training or wanted to run another half, but we were prepared and ran the whole thing.
We even had matching sparkly skirts thanks to Janet's sewing skills!!
I even had coordinating KT tape on a calf muscle that had been bothering me for a few weeks.
Still spending part of my Shamrock weekends drinking.
I loved my shirt too!! It came from Raw Threads! The same company that made my fun Snow White running shirt!
This year I've taken on the Dolphin Challenge of both the 8k and the Half. I even sweet talked that handsome Boyfriend of mine into running it too. And its a good thing I did! My running buddy can't make it so it's good ol' Josh to the slow running girlfriend rescue!! While I know I won't PR the 8k - there's a good chance that if I run like I've been doing on my sporadic "training" runs, then I will most likely PR on the half. Hard to believe that for as little training I've done I might actually get a PR - but I haven't had the best race conditions in past half's so I'm hoping this one will be better!
I'm just hoping that the weather cooperates and that the predicted rain holds off till after the race and that the temps warm up just a little bit more.
Either way it'll be a great weekend full of friends, sand, sun, shamrocks and running!!
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