St. Patty's Day Dash and other sunshiny activities

It's March in Seattle.  The time of year when the weather develops it's own bipolar personality.  Today I went on a run around Green Lake with coworker/teammate Stephanie and Lucy (who seemed SO excited to get out the door, that I just couldn't leave her behind even though I knew she'd hate me 10 minutes into the run).

We started the run in the warm sunshine.  A couple minutes later, we felt a few sprinkles.  By the time we made it a quarter of the way around the lake, it was legitimately raining.  Then, by about halfway around, the skies had darkened to an evil grey and it began hailing on us.  My poor, hatless forehead (because silly me thought I didn't need one on this run) got pelted with little balls of ice painfully enough that we had to duck under the cover of some big trees.  Twice.  Of course, if I had actually worn the hat, none of this would have happened (thus is Seattle).  Then, by the time we made it all the way around the lake, the sun was back out and shining warmly.  As if we hadn't just had the most uncomfortable, cold, horrible run ever.

But sometimes this bipolar, unpredictable personality also works to my advantage.  Like this past weekend.  My plans included: an elementary school track meet, a Sounders game, and the St. Patty's Day Dash.  All of which take place outside.  And the forecast for the entire weekend: 90% chance of rain.  Cold.  Miserable.  Last year on this oh-so-eventful weekend, it even snowed.  And not the good kind of snow.  The wet, heavy, drippy snow that melts as soon as it hits the ground.

But the actual weather that Seattle chose to deliver for us for the weekend?  Beautiful, sunny, warm-ish, and fantastic.  Except for the track meet, so let's start there.

Well actually, let's start before that.  Because running is the most important thing, right?  I started off my Saturday by meeting Stephanie for a 7 AM run, since I'd be missing my TNT practice for the track meet.  We took off from my place, and by the time we made it halfway through the run, the gray, dull light of the sky and the weird time of day to be running had my internal time clock all out of whack.  I had to remind myself that it was 7:45 AM, not 4:45 PM, and I had a long, busy day ahead of me.

Now, the track meet.  I think that a K-2 track meet has to be one of the most entertaining sights I've seen.  I first experienced it a couple years ago when I went down to "spectate" because I had a number of kids on the track team and wanted to be a good, supportive teacher.  A K-2 elementary school track meet consists of 3 events: the 100 meter dash, long jump, and softball throw.  Nothing is measured, timed, or recorded.  It's all about enjoying being out there and active for these little ones.

Each event is beyond entertaining to watch.  In the 100 meter dash, you have the ones who sprint with all their little might to the finish line.  And then there are the ones that jog along, looking left and right, wondering why everyone is cheering for them to "go! go! go!"  In the softball throw, there seem to be two extremes as well.  The ones who lob the ball with every ounce of muscle they have, and then those that give it a lazy toss and walk away.  But the long jump is absolutely the best to watch.  They swing their arms, gather their energy, and focus.  And then with two feet ready to launch, they do a short little bunny hop.  It's so incredibly anticlimactic that you can't help but giggle.  For a little while I may have even forgotten that the weather was grey, blustery, cold, and beginning to rain by the time we left the field around noon.

From the track meet, I headed home to walk Lucy and get geared up for the Sounders game against the Portland Timbers.  This is a huge rivalry for Seattle, so I was excited, but also anticipating horrible weather with no cover at Century Link Field (AKA the Clink).  I prepared myself for the absolute worst.  I wore my winter coat with the rain jacket liner.  I put on rain boots.  I brought a poncho.  I brought gloves and a winter knit hat (handmade by my soon-to-be sister-in-law!).  But what did Seattle give us?  Sunshine.

Beautiful sunshine.

It was still very windy and chilly, but we survived it with that sunshine.

Those smiles were BEFORE the Timbers tied up the game in the 90th minute.

Then, after an appropriate amount of time out and about after the game, I headed home to get about 5 or so hours of sleep before the St. Patty's Day Dash.

I love the St. Patty's Day Dash.  Despite the typically rainy Seattle weather I've experienced at this race in the past, I've never been let down.  The beer garden after the run beats any other race day beer garden I've experienced.  But I guess we should talk about the actual race first.  I met this lovely group of misfit runners before the race start:

Teammate Alana, Erica, me, Ironman/Coach Joe, and Ironman/Coach Jason.
Love this picture.  Perfect excuse to wear my green sparkle skirt again.

We pushed our way to the front of the race start and took off right on time.  I can't say that I was feeling at the top of my game after the Sounders game the night before, but I had tried to hydrate and eat when I woke up in the morning.  I didn't really expect much from this race besides just getting through it then heading straight to the beer garden to celebrate all that is good about Irishness.

The course is basically the same as the Hot Chocolate Run two weeks before, just shorter.  It starts at Seattle Center, heads straight up 99 to the Aurora bridge, then turns around and comes back down.  Not super pretty or exciting.  But at least the second half is all downhill.  And there are lots of costumes and funnily dressed people to look at and distract yourself.  Erica, Alana, and I stuck together the whole way, criticizing and complimenting wardrobe choices, and yelling at running friends we saw along the way.

When we crossed the finish line in front of the EMP, we checked our watches and were all sincerely surprised by what we had just done.

My Nike+ watch kindly told me that this run included the fastest 5K, 1K,
and mile I'd logged to date.

The overall average pace for the entire race was 7:55 min/mile.  I don't think I've ever logged a run with an average pace under 8:00.  I'll definitely take this as a win with pride, especially considering that I wasn't feeling in top form and hadn't had a ton of sleep.  With what happened here and at the Hot Chocolate Run, maybe I should just go to a Sounders game before every race I do.  It seems to work for me.

I won't be testing that theory before this weekend's Mercer Island Half Marathon though.  I've got lofty hopes for that one.

After the feel-good finish, we rushed to grab our free shirt from the Brooks tent (a nice little leprechaun-inspired tech tee), grab our checked bags, and get to the beer garden.  Highlights of the beer garden include:
1)  Green beer, made green by a smart former teammate who toted food coloring to the race.
2)  Lots of TNT friends.
3)  Epic beer cup towers.
4)  Epic beer cup towers craftily and satisfyingly destroyed by elastic, rubber band-like bracelets (Alana gets all credit for that one).
5)  Coach Shelby dancing.
6)  The most rousing game of mini-beach ball volleyball I've ever seen.
7)  And, of course, the devil:

Look at his bib number!  And his shirt is pretty
awesome too.

And look at the sunshine in the window.  The day turned out to be gorgeous.

So, I guess I can't really complain about today's sunshiny, rainy, hailstorm of a run.  Because I had a great weekend.  And even if the fabulousness of the weekend can't really be attributed to the weather, I'm still grateful for the sunshine.  Because every day is unpredictable.  So I'm going to do my best to enjoy what I've got while I've got it.  I'll worry about what's coming next when it gets here.