March Update - Shamrock Shuffle

This morning, I drove up to Manchester, NH for the 1st annual Shamrock Shuffle, a 2 mile road race that went up Elm Street along the city's St. Patrick's Day Parade (being held 10 days late this year).

I arrived about 40 minutes before race time, found a place to park not too far from the start, and picked up my number with no problems.  I did a short warm up jog, noticing that there was a pretty good headwind that we would have for the first half of the race.  It was cool, just above freezing.  The course was a mile down Elm, then turn around and come back the same way.

I picked out a reasonable place to start, not in front, but not to far back.  The start was uneventful; not too many slow runners in the front.  I felt OK, but not great.  I had ridden about 33 miles on my road bike with a (fit) friend yesterday, and so the legs were perhaps a bit tired.  No pain from the left knee, although it's a little stiff as I am typing this.  The mile to the turnaround seemed longer than a mile to me.  As I approached the turnaround, the fast runners came by on the other side of the street.

The 2nd mile felt a little better than the first, owing to the tailwind.  I had hoped to push the 2nd mile, but found I didn't seem to have the legs or fitness for that, so I just ran at what seemed to be an OK pace.  I finished 156th of about 1200 in 14:12 (7:08/7:04).  I was 14:14 officially, but 14:12 on my Garmin, which I think was more accurate. After the race, I ran into old friend Dave Quintal (1st master today) and jogged a warm down with him, enjoying a bit of a chat.

Overall, an OK effort.  It's the fastest 2 miles I've run since my surgery.  I am registered for the BAA 5K in 3 weeks, so expect that will be my next race.