Sunday, March 6, 2011

Tipperary Hill 4 Mile Shamrock Run

Wow, it's snowing today. Big Surprise. But I guess I can be grateful for the fact that it wasn't like this yesterday.  Yesterday it was just rainy and chilly, with some crazy wind gusts.  But I'm happy with how my race went, as well as the time we spent post-race.



My only plan was to beat my time from last year, and to run strong.  The organizers changed the course a bit, and my fellow runners agreed, they made it harder.  The course starts off with a long stretch of downhill, goes up one hill, then down, up a second hill, with a steep downhill.  The last mile is pretty much ALL uphill, and its a doozy.

I set G-unit to alert me if my pace went above 8:45. Right from the start I knew I was going too fast, and I was wasting energy trying to get around people because it was crowded, we were running city streets, but they weren't very wide, and there were cars parked along the sides as well.  It was really windy at times, several people lost their hats! This part is gross, at one point I really had to spit, so I went toward the side, and let it go......right up into a gust of wind....and into the guy running behind me!  I said "sorry Dude" then I sped up.

I kept up the pace, up until about mile 2.5, which was a bit of a hill.  I was getting tired.  During the two training runs I did for this, I ran a 9:30 pace the whole time, so when I got to the end, I had enough in me to sail up the last part.  I had about .90 miles left, and G-unit said 27:00! I couldn't believe it, but I was getting tired.  Plus it was windy, and I felt myself slowing down.  For a split second I even felt like stopping, but I was like, "are you kidding me?? you've never stopped on this course, why would you do it now?!?"  So I just kept my head down, kept moving, I even chicked some younger guys (love doing that). When I saw the Stop sign at the top, I knew the worst was over, and but I had one more slightly uphill loop around the park until I got to the finish. I was so glad to be done.

I looked at G-unit, and I knew I made my goal of finishing sooner than last year.  G-unit said 38:19, which matched my chip time.   The funny thing is, it's exactly one minute faster than my time for 2010.  One minute PR? I'll take it.



We headed on to Coleman's, where the husbands had scored some great real estate at the bar.  It was nice to be out, during the day no less, with the kids back home with the sitter.  We chatted away, and my friend Heather and I decided to do our own Biggest Loser Challenge.  We both want to drop a few pounds before our next race, the Mountain Goat 10 miler in May.  I think we're going to start on Wednesday, since it's Lent, and this year I decided to give up chocolate.  We have to work out the details, but I think it should be a good competition.

I'm also going to do the Cupcake Challenge, over on Jason's blog.  I signed up to run 26.2 miles between March 14 and the 26th, so that should also help get me in a weight loss mode.  You can still sign up, check it out here if you'd like.  There are some great prizes, such as GU and a SPI Belt, with the big prize being cupcakes!  Which kind of defeats the weight loss purpose, but I can't say no to a fun race like that!




Have a happy week!

27 comments:

Nicki said...

Great job, Molly! I have two races, maybe three, between now and Mountain Goat so am hoping to drop a few pounds by then. Also, while hoping for spring, I would like to request Goat weather now that is not so hot and humid as last year.

Michelle said...

Great job on the PR!! Definitely sounds like a challenging course!

Laura said...

Great job! Sounds like a fun day.

Unknown said...

Great Job Molly!! I missed you! Didn't see you out there! glad it all went well for you!!

Anonymous said...

NICE RACE GIRL!

Jill said...

Whoohoo, 1 minute PR?!?! That's awesome, Chica!! My smile would fit right in with all yours and your friends in the picture :)!!

I think the cupcake challenge would be really fun. Sadly, I'm not sure I can walk 26.2 in my freaking stupid (*U*V@# boot! :P
When I can run again, and cross some sort of finish line, I think I am having everyone partake in some sort of victory celebration race :).

Pam @ herbieontherun.com said...

Great job!

Lent is really Wednesday? I thought it was around Easter.

Lisa said...

Way to go!!!!!!!!!!!! Yippie ya hoo!

Your photo with the other gals looks like you're having such a great time!!!!

It snowed here yesterday too. Uggg - come on spring, come on spring, come on spring!!!

I'm going to check out the cupcake marathon - hadn't heard of it before this post.

ajh said...

Great job! I am going to go check out that cupcake marathon. Thanks.

Penny said...

Great Job on your race. Congrats on your PR to.
Cupcake marathong sound like fun. I will check out. Thanks for the info.

Lisa said...

Great PR! Sounds like a tough race, but maybe the post-game party helped you push through for that PR!

I commend you for giving up chocolate for Lent. Not sure I could do it.

Mark said...

Any race that ends with beer is a race worth doing. Have you done Boilermaker? That ends at a brewery!!!

Congratulations on the PR homeslice. I was at Kelly's on Thursday evening. I can not believe how much more snow you guys have gotten than 60 miles to the west. What? DO you live with Frosty or something?!

Anonymous said...

Great jog on the PR. I like your shirt better than the one I received this weekend.

The Green Girl said...

Whoo hoo! Congratulations on the PR.

I think is my favorite time of the year by far - reading about all the St. Patrick's Day races!

Christi said...

A PR! That rocks! Congrats!

Heather said...

Yay! Way to go and Congrats on the PR. That sounded like fun!

Big Daddy Diesel said...

Congrats on the PR, even extra speacial with the conditions

Raquelita said...

Nice PR! I'm off to check out that challenge now.

J said...

Congrats on the PR!! I have my st. pattys day race this weekend and hopefully it wont be too cold!

Liz Mays said...

You are so good at what you do! Congrats!

Katie said...

Nice job on the PR!!

Anonymous said...

That race sounded hard with all those hills. Way to tough it out and PR!
You look awfully happy in the after race photo! I am running the cupcake marathon too.

Terri said...

Ok, for some reason I thought you were describing a 5K, and so the time wasn't working in my head, and I had to go back and look at the shirt to figure out that it was four miles. I think I need a nap! :) Way to tough it out, though, and finish strong!

Annie said...

Great job on the race, especially in those weather conditions. Can I get in on the Biggest Loser thing???

EricaH said...

Congrats on the PR

Unknown said...

Nice PR Molly! :)

Iron Mike said...

Molly!

Congrats on a good race and the PR.
Um, but yeah pretty gross that you spit on dude. You handled it with grace!