St. Patrick’s Day 10k Race and the Leprechaun Dash: Race Review and Setting a PR!

Yesterday, was the St. Patrick’s day race in Richland, WA.

My 2 oldest children ran in the 1-mile Leprechaun dash.  Afterwards, I was able to compete in the 10k Race.  Today I wanted to review both events overall, and give you some of my own thoughts should you decide to participate in these events in 2014, 2015, or beyond.  And of course, I give my thoughts on how my own running went.

First of all, you can’t get much better than free!  The Leprechaun dash was free for all elementary school age children.  And of course, this also means a big turnout.  But what better way to promote an active lifestyle and have a lot of fun in the process?

(Image credit and Source: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2013/03/16/2316470/leprechaun-dash-and-footrace.html)

My kids had a great time as they were able to run along with many of their friends from school and neighbors.  And they even got “sprinkled” with green magic dust by the large green leprechaun man.  The race was well attended with probably close to a thousand participants.

All the kids got a nice green participant ribbon at the finish.

The 10k Race

About 45 minutes or so after the Leprechaun dash, they started the 10k race.  The 5k was set to start 10 minutes after we started.  In all, the 10k race had about 220 participants.

The weather was a little chilly, but actually pretty good temperature wise for a run.  However, as I found out at the turn around point, there was a bit more wind than hoped for.

My goal for this race was to run it in a time of 45 minutes.   You have to realize that this would have been quite a jump for me over my previous 10k Personal Record of 50:27 (an 8:08 pace).  However, the last 10k race I ran actually was this exact same St. Patrick’s day race three years prior (in 2010).  And early 2010 was really before I started running seriously.  (I started training for my first full marathon in about May of 2010).

So, I knew beating my PR would be easy, so I set an ambitious goal of 45 minutes.

(Image credit and Source: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2013/03/16/2316470/leprechaun-dash-and-footrace.html)

The first 3 miles went almost exactly as planned (I wanted a 7:15 average pace overall).  Here are my first 3 mile splits:

• Mile 1 – 7:06
• Mile 2 – 7:14
• Mile 3 – 7:12

So far so good!  I was actually feeling pretty good at the half way point, and thought the 45 minute goal was doable.  However, at the half way point, I had to turn around and run back!  When I turned around, I was met with a wall of wind…thank you Tri-cities!  Arrgghh…

Well, I could feel myself slowing down a little bit during mile 4.  My pace was a 7:25 for that mile.

At this point, the wind was not letting up, and clearly my lack of training for a 10k was kicking in as well.  (I did no 10k specific training for this race, I am just a couple weeks into a new training program for a half marathon I’m running in May).  So, the combination of running a faster pace than I’m used to and the wind really hit home at mile 5.

I got passed by 3 or 4 people, so obviously I was slowing down more than others (so I can’t blame the wind alone unfortunately). My mile pace for mile 5 was a disappointing 7:44.

At this point, I was resigned to the fact that I wasn’t going to hit my goal.  So I didn’t feel the urgency to push real hard the final mile. And I knew I was going to blow my PR out of the water anyway.

So, I just coasted home for the final 1.2 miles at about a 7:35 to 7:40 pace.

Final Time…a PR!

My final time for the race was 46:28.  A PR by almost exactly 4 minutes!  Here are all my split times according to my Garmin GPS watch:

Overall, I was satisfied with the race; even though I didn’t hit my original goal of 45 minutes.  In fact, it shows me how far I’ve come in the last 3 years!  I beat my old PR by 4 minutes…and I didn’t even really train for this race.  (I have been running and training, but primarily for the half-marathon distance…so I certainly have room left for improvement in the 10k).

And just to make me feel better, if I factor in the wind, I think I could have shaved off another 30 seconds to a full minute from my finishing time.

I didn’t get any magic pixie dust thrown on me at the end (bummer 🙁 ), but still had a great time running the Tri-cities St Patrick’s Day Race!  Thanks 3 Rivers Road Runners for putting on a great event!

So overall, I definitely recommend the Leprechaun dash as a fun family event for elementary school age children.  In addition, the 5k and 10k events are a fun atmosphere and great race.

If you have any comments or questions, I would love to hear your thoughts below!