Shamrock'n Half Marathon - Take 7

Div Place	Place	Time	Pace
74/382	477/6190	01:45:04.8	8:01 min/mi

Oops, this is number seven, not eight

One thing I like about this race is that, well, it feels like home. Shamrock'n was my first race ever, and even in the last couple years of not racing, I've still continued to do it every year; even if training for it meant a couple of runs ahead of time, and nothing

more. On my bib, I wrote "Shamrock'n #8", but I realized before it started that it really was only #7... Oops! Oh well, Sharpie to the rescue.

This year, thanks to CIM, I was a lot better trained. Harry and Joy had been doing more running than I had, but I had joined them on a sixteen mile run starting up Costco hill, as well as a few other runs. So while I only did 10 runs in the two and a half months leading up to Shamrock'n, they averaged 7 miles each. I was pretty sporadic, though: two runs one week, zero the next, two the following, then zero, then three... you get the picture. Harry, on the other hand, is back into marathon prep, and is pretty solid in his training. As usual, I went into this fully expecting to be beaten again... as did he.

Race day

So packet pickup done, race day comes. I have been working to cheapen up on my running: gatorade is free at work, so why am I buying Gu (or actually, Raspberry Hammer Gel)? That said, I spent a month's worth of Gu money downgrading my water bottle. Don't get me wrong, I love my Camelbak, but I've watched coworkers switch to the smaller ones for shorter runs, and I was hoping to carry less weight on my arms. Harry and Joy had both decided to try this marathon solely on supplied hydration, but I'm too much of a wimp to go that far. I bought myself Nathan's little bottle. Enough to get me from stop to stop.

So after dropping off my bag with my STC buddies, we were off to the start just as the gun was going off, just like last year. While I believe that is not a way for me to get a PR, for that every second counts at this point, I wasn't going for a PR this year... that was Harry's job. I was just hoping to stay social through the start, and maybe the first half or quarter mile, then start picking up the pace after the warm-up.

The rest of the race went pretty normally. The small bottle worked great. Using the race fuel was plenty sufficient, though looking back, I guess Nuun doesn't have any carbohydrates, so I really only fueled up with my single Gu

packet? Guess I should check closer next time! My performance wasn't stellar, but wasn't bad either, coming in fourth of my thirteen road halfs. The better news is that Harry broke his PR (which he missed by only seconds last year), so the main goal of the race was a success! On sadder news, I still beat Harry, even though he out-trained me. Coming into mile twelve, he had to pace back for a bit, and I wasn't willing to give up anything at that point. We were still within shouting distance, as he responded to my call-out of mile 13! Oh, and starting at the back of the wave, I get to use my favorite statistic again... I passed 4,939 people on the run, in a field of 6,190!