This was my
second year in a row running Seattle's annual St. Patrick's Day Dash
with my uncle. This is probably the city's biggest (non-marathon) race
with around 10,000 people overall (many opt for the non-competitive,
non-timed, beer-filled waves). It's a blast with so many people out in
green gear.
The course
is basically an out and back, though it starts by the opera house and
ends by the EMP. The first two miles are pretty much up-hill which makes
the second half a lot faster.
My uncle
and I lined up together. He asked what pace I was aiming for and I said
nothing too fast since I was still recovering from last weekend. We
decided to aim for beating our time from last year and otherwise to just
have fun.
The horn
sounds and we took off. The race does a bit of a loop under the highway
before turning onto the highway for most of the run. You get to see
everyone running behind you as you loop back over. We hit the first mile
in 6:11, last year's pace. Although I said I wanted to take the first
half (the uphill) easy, I pushed us both, though I kept chatting away.
We hit mile 2 at 6:28 and I knew the marker was off.
Just after
mile 2, at the Aurora Bridge, is the turn around. This marks a long
stretch of downhill so we started to really push it. We saw people
dressed like Guinness cans, guys running in green briefs and nothing
else, and folks in leprechaun gear going uphill as we flew down.
We hit
mile 3 in 5:17 (I think this marker was correct, but mile 2 had been
really off, throwing our splits out of wack). Since the race is 3.8
miles I knew we were almost done, but my legs were starting to tire out.
I told my uncle he could go ahead if he wanted. He said, "You can't be
that tired, you're still talking." I told him that was only because my
legs weren't the ones making conversation.
He pulled
ahead but I managed to keep close enough by surging with a runner who
was trying to pass me. We made the final uphill turn to the start. This
is where I would usually rely on my kick to pull me through, but it
wasn't there. No complaints though, since I crossed the finish in 22:38,
almost a minute faster than my time from last year. Better still, I
averaged a 5:58 pace--my current 5k PR is a 6:02 pace!!!
My uncle beat me by 6 seconds, but next year I'll make sure he's not so lucky.
