So this morning (in fact, less than an hour and a half ago; its Sunday morning and I couldn’t get myself to nap!), I took a first stab at what is apparently a Seattle tradition: running the St. Patrick’s Day Dash, which wonderfully coincides with Daylight Savings springing forward. I, of course, realized this at 11:00 (effectively midnight), and got a crappy sleep because that’s how I roll… it’s my own damn fault for needing to get up 2.5 hours before a minor running race because I feel the need to make a complete breakfast.  Springing forward does this to me as well. Though I don't have any mugs as sweet as this.  Remember this from Trix commercials? Even I don't have this complete of a breakfast. Ate breakfast and all that jazz, sauntered over to the Seattle Center area, ran, warmed up, blah blah blah. In typical Seattle spring fashion, it was fashionably drizzly, and despite ideal running temperatures, I still found myself miserable because of how wet I was getting. Thankfully, I timed my warm-up perfectly, and the race started sooner rather than later.  This thing is ugly, so imagine it without the blue, sunny sky, and with gray raindrops instead. So, the last 5k I did, I blew up. Badly. Ran the first half mile in like 2:30, and the last mile in over 8 minutes… I felt sick the rest of the day and had a hard time walking. So… given that this race was a workout more than anything else, I wanted to be able to seamlessly continue training after. A goal pace of around 6:10 was in order. Started out fast, but in a good way, down the opening hill, until, after a half mile, my shoe lace came undone (AGAIN). Dreams of super awesomeness and the temptation to go hero were thankfully scuttled, as losing the ten seconds here forced me to remember my initial plan to TAKE IT EASY RELATIVELY. Good thing, too, because we hit the Aurora highway, and it was uphill, and deceptively so. Splits were so awful for the second mile that I forced myself to forget them. It was nice though, to run and be able to stay with the pack, knowing I could attack if I really felt like it. Once the two mile mark was hit, it was all downhill. Started hitting sub-6′s without too much effort, and actually crossed 5k in faster than the Valentine’s Day Dash a month ago. Legs started getting kinda tight, so I shut it down a little, until some douche started trying to sprint out the last 200 meters. Having proven to myself that I have legit 200 meter speed on Friday (breaking 30 in a couple from a stand-still, a feat given my tendency to start sprinting like a rock), I had no part of this, and ended up passing a solid 20 people in the closing straight like they were standing still. . Final time was 23:22 for about 3.82 miles (according to Mr. Garmin), so about a 6:07 pace. Factoring in the 10 seconds or so I spent tying my shoelaces, a very satisfactory race. Going to spin on the trainer for an hour later to flush the legs out, and then next, Spring Break commences, and training resumes. Next weekend: Seattle Rain Man Indoor Triathlon, first tri of the season! Very excited for that race, which I will be pushing myself full tilt for.
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