Johnny's Running of the Green 2014

Holiday runs are a lot of fun: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Fourth of July - all are a blast. They involve a lot more festivities, costumes, drinking (yes, a blood mary always goes down the best after a race), and fun! Now, I do love all races, but some extra Irish music always amps up the race by a few points, and just the extra sense of spirit/fun. But before I got to Rochester for my St. Patrick's Day race, it was a different world in DC.
DC was finally getting a burst of spring, including sun and the temperatures getting in the 60s. I was excited to ditch the tights and wear shorts instead, and get in a warmer workout. Tuesday's track workout wasn't a race-week workout. It was 4 x1 mile, starting at 6:45 pace and getting faster. It went well: 6:44, 6:35, 6:26, 6:20. Woo! My legs were moving (and not on a treadmill) and it just went well. Even though I didn't have a good night's sleep before, this was the moment that I was doing well. All of my little stresses of the day that had been building up were gone, like someone had loosened up the pressure valve.
Meanwhile, a storm was brewing in Rochester, literally. My flight out to Rochester got cancelled on Wednesday, so I didn't get home until Thursday. Welcome back to winter - 10 degrees! With the windchill, it was about 0, so my last run on Thursday was a cold one for sure. And we had lots of wedding planning to do (2 months to go!), so Saturday morning was here before we knew it.
Johnny's Running of the Green 5 mile race is Rochester's Rite of Spring - although the weather begged to differ. It was about 30 degrees, gray, with 15mph winds. Not perfect conditions for a race, but this isn't a season for goal races, just to go out and have a good time. It was my goal to go under 33 minutes, but knew that wasn't a firm goal. My mom and I were doing it, and we would be joined by many friends and Rochester runners looking forward to this annual event.
Running into the wind, I went through the first mile in 6:30, and I felt like I was flying - too fast for today. My legs were just tired - was it the flight? The workout? Who knows - I just knew it wasn't my best day. Rather than getting caught up on time, I was just going to try and place high and not fall off the pace too much, even though I went through the second mile at 13:10 - 6:40 pace. I was really happy to hit the turnaround (2.5 miles) and see my friends and mom running by - that was a brief boost. By mile 3, I was starting to feel like I could push the pace more - at least in terms of effort. I was starting to both pass people, but have a couple of girls blow by me too. But at least I was feeling like I was making progress, and with a mile to go, hovering around that 33 minute goal time.

No chance at beating the girl in green

With half a mile to go - CRAMP! Oh my gosh, big big side stitch/cramp that totally slowed me down. I actually had this happen in another 5 mile race in September - what a bizarre coincidence. Anyways, it reduced me to a shuffle, and with 100 yards to go, this girl in green blew by me: I couldn't respond: I finished in 33:11 - not a PR at all, nor did I hit my A or B goals. Still, it was good enough for third place in my age group - which was rewarded with a bottle of wine! Not too shabby. My mom did well too: 46:38.
It was great to be home and great to do another race with my mom. Not my best, admittedly, but we don't always get the A goals/results. Time to go back to the drawing board...aka the road!

Me, my mom, and my booze prize