Seattle St. Patty's Day Dash Race Recap

First, my best bud Leandrea ran the Georgia Half Marathon on Sunday - go read her race recap and congratulate her!

Second, Mom vs. Marathon got a 5k PR after months of really dedicated Run Less Run Faster training - go read her race report and congratulate her too!

Now onto MY race report!  On Saturday morning I ran the Seattle St. Patty's Day Dash.  I had REALLY wanted to do a St. Patty's Day race (though I was leaning towards Tacoma since I haven't done that one before and so many other bloggers were doing that one) but I really didn't want to spend the money since I'm already registered for so many expensive races this year.  But then a race entry just fell into my lap, so I leapt at it!  Thank you Jordanne and Kevin!

So you guessed it.  I went all out costume-wise.  Shocking right?  By this time you might have realized that my new thing IS racing in costume.  Let's be honest, it's THE way to go.  So I painted my nails for the first time in over a year (not an exaggeration), busted out my brand new shamrock-themed RazzyRoo headband I won from Tall Mom on the Run (Thanks Tall Mom!), and made myself a tutu.  I made this tutu half as short as my Disney Princess one and avoided all the nonsense of tulle between my legs (TWSS).  A $3 Wal-Mart tee and some Dollar Tree accessories pulled the outfit all together.

  

Remember when I talked about my weather delusions?  Yeaahhhhhh.  They're still there.  It was pretty miserable before and after the race (pouring, snowing, pouring again, you get the picture), though during the actual race it was actually quite nice, just drizzling.  I was definitely regretting wearing a skirt instead of tights until we started running.  Then I regretted it again as soon as we stopped running.  You just can't please me!

Jordanne and her brother's lovely girlfriend Amy did this race too (a few others planned to do it but slept instead!).  Here's the "before" picture:

 

This race is weird because it's a "nearly 4 mile jaunt".  Yep, that's official talk from the website.  Garmin said it was 3.72 miles.  This was also the most congested race I ever remember doing.  For the first half of the race we were running as fast as possible in all the congestion, seriously.  I'm just glad no one tripped or was trampled!  I did get a few compliments on my rockin' shoes and my tutu.  

So we started and then we finished!  There was a big long hill in there too.  

Splits of: 10:50 (seriously, this is as fast as we could go), 9:51, 9:38, 9:17

Total Time: 36:58   Average Pace: 9:57

This was the farthest Amy has run yet so we were really proud of her!  I was totally peer pressuring her the entire way to join us for a half marathon. :-)  You know me...!

And of course we had to celebrate our accomplishments in the warm and toasty Red Hook beer tent.  Races: Making it acceptable to drink beer at 9:00am since 1950.  I don't think it would go over so well if I just cracked a beer at 9am on my couch, but running 4 miles in a tutu makes it not only acceptable but encouraged!

It started snowing while we were in the beer garden.  Don't even get me started on my hatred for Seattle weather again.  There was Irish music in there, and then everyone started these building competitions with the empty cups.  Somehow it was quite exciting at the time.  Seriously, people were cheering and booing.  I can see now how you might not be so riveted by this story.

Thumbs up for a fun morning!

Did you do a St. Patrick's Day race?  How far did you run and how did you do?  Did you dress up?!