St. Patrick's Day Dash

Hooray! Another running event finished. Today was the St. Patrick's Day Dash in downtown Seattle. The roommate ran this one too, although, she ran just a bit faster than me.

Anyway, my goal for this run was just to run the whole thing without stopping and hopefully improve my pace time to 10min/mile. When the run started, I kept up with my roommate for about 1/2 mile until we got to some turns and we tried to get the inside lanes...like everyone else. The first turn caused some congestion and we ended up splitting up. I ended up just a few seconds behind her, but the next turn, she gained more from me. Tried to weave through some people, but after a few minutes of this, I just F-it and just ran my race.

About a mile into the race, we ended up in a tunnel. The run in the tunnel was cool, because a lot of people running were screaming and cheering which just made the tunnel loud. It was pretty cool that people were really into it.

Finally making it out of the tunnel, I notice a couple of people at an ambulance. Some girl was getting an ice pack, I guess she slipped and got a little banged up. I run past the injured girl and then see the 2 mile marker. Wait, have I really ran 2 miles already or is there 2 miles left? I look at the time and it's just under 18 minutes. Did I really run the first two miles at a 9 minute pace?

After trying to cope with my awesome speed, I try to take a moment and look around and just see Seattle. I look at my right and see the pier and the sound and to my left was some of Seattle's buildings. Cool, I don't normally get to notice these sites since I'm in a car zooming to my destinations. I then look up ahead and I see that we are a whole lot closer to Qwest field. I then see the 3 mile marker! Oh snap, only .58 miles to go. I try to speed my run up. I end up passing this dad and son combo;

The son was only maybe 8 years old and he has ran over 3 miles and just wanted to stop to walk, but the dad was telling him it's so close. It was close, I wanted to cheer him on and say a few inspirational words, but they were slowing down and I end up passing them. I take a couple left turns and it's the last stretch of the run. I run for a few and I notice the finish sign ahead. That was when I started sprinting, well, running a lot faster. I past a few people and finally cross the finish line. I look up at the race clock 33:41 and then I look at my watch, 32:25. What?! Did I really run that fast? I guess I ended up running at a 9:05 pace. DAng, totally unexpected. I'm so awesome. I get my two goals for the run; Run the whole thing and run faster than a 10 minute per mile pace. I'm excited!

Well, now to try to figure out my next race. I actually have one in mind already :). Although I want to wait a couple weeks and see how I'm feeling before signing up.