Spokane's St Paddy's 5 Mile Race

Thumbs up at the St Paddy's 5,

The morning of the race was wet and cold.   Tim and I were thinking less people would show up for the race due to the weather conditions.  As we pulled into the parking lot there were a lot of cars already there.  We went and picked up our race packets and went back to the car.  I was hoping to hold 6:30’s but not sure if I would be able to since I was sick a week or two in the last month and I took four days off training the week before since we had visitors.

The start line was pretty crowded. Tim secured a spot two or three people ahead of me.  As the race started I was hopping over puddles and trying to hold my pace at 6:30.  It was pretty windy so I drafted as much as possible.   At the recent Partners in Pain race I finished pretty close to one of the local fast female runners named Loralyn Jackson and one of her running partners (don’t know his name).   I caught her and drafted for a bit.  I saw him up ahead, but there was a 25 foot gap between our pack and his.  I realized my pace was at about 7 so I decided to close the gap and try to catch him.  I passed Loralyn as the wind pushed, but I was determined.  I caught his pack of three people and drafted behind them.  There are two hills in this race, one going out and one coming back.  At about mile 1, Loralyn catches us and passes us!  Really?!  She was going about 6:24 pace so I dropped behind her and followed.    She had a steady strong pace.  We even passed Lori Burrato who ALWAYS beats me in running races.  With one mile to go I decided it was time to make a move to pass Loralyn and I passed a few others shortly after.   I saw the fence and track and knew I had less than 800 yards to go.   The track had a few big puddles so I tried to run around them.   I couldn’t catch the two guys in front of me.  Done!!

That was one WET, COLD and WINDY race!  It was fun!

My finish time was exactly 32:30 with a pace of 6:30!
6th in my age group out of 53
44th overall out of 1040

Tim and myself after the race