March 5th and March 12th I ran St. Patrick’s Day 4-mile runs. The first was in Syracuse around the Irish neighborhoods and Tiperary Hill. The second was in Binghamton. Below is a quick recap of the races. Over the years I’ve become a big fan of these types of shorter distance social races. Races should end with beer... it just makes sense.
We lucked out on both these days because the weather wasn’t too bad. It rained for a little while on the morning of the 5th but stopped before the race started. I’ve always liked the Syracuse race because the course is hilly (keeps thing interesting) and takes runners past some pretty neat sights (the upside down traffic light, Coleman’s, the Zoo). There were no mile markers so I just stayed with my Dad for a while and then let him run ahead. Running is very mental for me so it actually helps not to have mile markers. If I know I’ve only got a mile left I get tired and slow down. Similarly, if I know I’ve only run a mile and still have x miles to go I get tired and slow down. If I don’t know how far I’ve come or how far I have left than it can’t affect my mental state. Since there were no mile markers the race seemed to go very quickly. I finished without fatigue with a time of 32:57. It’s an Irish race so we headed to a bar for some Guinness and pasta following the race. For all you inexperienced runners out there, Guinness at the end of a race= a real good day.The Binghamton race went even better for me. The past few years Bangs Ambulance has had runners go and make up a team for the race. This year we had about 15 runners affiliated with Bangs. I’ve got to do a quick flashback to this race last year. Last year we had about 8 runners affiliated with Bangs Ambulance, there’s one in particular that must be mentioned, Kevin Koehler. Koehler is like Dennis the menace in a mid 20 year old body. He’s is always doing something to cause trouble or to piss someone off. Last year he thought it would be funny to sprint by me with about 100 yards to go. I was caught off guard and that big beefy turd beat me. This year I was prepared for Koehler’s sneaky tactics. He “found” me with just under a mile left (I’m not entirely convinced that he didn’t run right behind me the whole race until he was ready to make his move). Anyways, we had just passed the 3-mile marker and he pulls up next to me with the most mischievous grin ever… I knew what was coming. We traded off picking up the pace for a little while; he would pull ahead, I would pull ahead, etc. It didn’t take long before both of us were in an all out battle to the death sprint (and yes, we still had at least half a mile to go). I’ve never, ever been so uncomfortable in a race. I felt like I was going to puke for a solid 3 minutes but I just kept going. We sprinted together to the end. His official time was a few seconds faster than mine but there was no way I couldn’t feel good about my performance. It was the first time I’ve ever broken the 8-min/mile barrier in a race and I have to give some credit to this piece of shit..
My official time was 31:48 (7:57 min/miles). Last year in the same race my time was 33:43 (8:25 min/miles). Our group finished off the race with some green beer and snacks. Everyone in our group had a good race and we all enjoyed ourselves. I’m definitely making improvements and feeling a little more prepared (and excited) for Ironman every day.