Liz and Brad's Big Adventures: Shamrock Run

I've always wanted to do Portland's Shamrock Run, but the timing never worked. This year my calendar was free and I signed up early before it sold out and my weekend got booked.

We signed up for the 15K (9.3 miles), and Eryn and Dad signed up for the 8K (4.97 miles). Dad ended up dropping down to the 5K and Mom scored Tyler's unused bib and did the 5K walk.

Each race started at a different time - ours was first at 7:40 a.m. We were up early for race prep and getting all dolled up in our St. Patrick's Day finest:

My marathon training called for just 8 miles this weekend. Since the race was longer than 8 and VERY hilly, I decided to just run for fun and not try to race it. It was very important to not have to recover from this weekend - it was supposed to be an easy day. Plus, I've never run a 15K, so it would be a PR regardless of my speed!

Through some random events, we ended up carpooling with Luann. She was running solo, and since I wasn't racing, we decided to run together. (Brad was racing, so he was on his own)

I'm used to running and racing alone and felt some nervousness about going with a friend. But it worked out great, and I'm really glad we did it! (Let's do it again!!)

The weather was a big question mark. It was supposed to be cold and cloudy with intermittent rain. It was chilly at the start but perfect once we got going. It ended up being sunny, calm and dry.

I loved my outfit! The skirt wore perfectly (the red one I wore at Christmas immediately rode up and felt more like a saggy tube top!). I took off my gloves right away and then pulled down my sleeves when I warmed up. Plus, I looked amazing! ;)

With such a huge crowd, they used wave starts to get everyone going with less crowding. There was still lots of weaving (throughout most of the race, actually), but much less than if we all started together. After many minutes, we were finally on our way:

We saw the first bagpipers just after the starting line. I love bagpipes!

Mom's race started 2 hours after ours so she had time to stalk us on the race course:

The course went out Naito before turning and heading south through the Pearl and then up Broadway. Up is the key word. Then we went up, up, up Terwilliger. We climbed from mile 2 - mile 6 before we headed downhill and back to Barbur and Naito. But those last 3 downhill miles were nice! (course map and elevation profile)

I felt great until the big hill leveled off a bit and then started up again. I thought we were at the top and realized that I was pushing too hard to keep climbing. It was very difficult to pull back, but I forced myself to walk a bit and get my lungs, heart and legs under control. If I was racing I would have pushed through, but blowing out my legs was not an option this time.

Luann needed a potty break so we stopped at the top of the hill. I grabbed water and took in the view while she was waiting in a long line for the porta-potties:

Lucky for me, the Kells pipers were playing right there. I listened happily during the break, which ended up being 8 minutes! (that's an eternity in race time!)

It was all downhill from there, and Luann and I cruised to the finish line. We grabbed our finishers' medals and found Brad for picture time:

Eryn - all done with her 8K:

Mom came by for a quick pic before heading to her 5K walk:

Because of the timing and shear number of people, I didn't get to see my tutu-clad Dad. But Mom took this picture so it would be remembered forever!

What a guy! :)

I kept my Garmin running the whole race, including our potty stop at the top of the hill. So including my wandering around in the Chart House parking lot and our 8-minute pit stop, we did 9.51 miles in 1:41, a 10:42 average:

According to the official results, calculated on 9.3 miles and not my parking lot wandering, we did a 10:56 average. That was just what I needed, a slow, easy run.

It was the 35th annual race, and they capped it at 35,000 runners. Holy crap, that's a lot of people! So fun to see all the green.