St. Pat's 2014

NYC 1/2, Gateway 15K, and Ryan Hall training in Ethiopia.

Big time racing this weekend.  Shalane sets an American record at FL by 12 seconds, and looks great leading into Boston!  Geoffrey Mutai wins over Mo at NYC - race started over very, very slow, and Mo took a tumble at mile 6 which pretty much ended the day for him.  Mutai took control, and blazed home for the W.  Mo made a very strong comeback, and I'm anxious to see how London goes for him.  I predict there will be some growing pains, and he will become very successful if he keeps with it.

Friday, March 14th - 3 miles.  Gorgeous day to end the week, and waited for my sister to come into town since she and my brother-in-law were visiting for the weekend.  We ran out and back on the trail to Home Depot - enjoyed the nice, easy pace.  Legs were tired but felt pretty good, rather than the typical soreness I had been experiencing.  32 minutes or so total.

Saturday, March 15th - ~9 miles.  St. Pat's Day Parade Run!  Pretty much the best weather I have ever seen for this race, and Megan and I headed downtown early to get situated and run some pre-race miles.  Met up with Tim, Gibbs, Huelsmann, TVR, Dickson, and Wendy to do the Riverfront Trail (first time for me), and did an out and back on the trail before heading back to spectate the race.  Caught the Big River racing team before they were heading off to the start, and then our group ran down to Market and Tucker to catch the runners before the big Market St. climb.  At this point, O'Connor and Lawder had already pretty much gapped the field, and Crystal was about 10 seconds behind Hilary looking pretty controlled.  We ran back to the finish to watch O'Connor finally get the W at St. Pat's, with a stunning 24:22 on a very tough course!  Crystal finished 2nd behind Hilary at 30:05, and set a nice PR in the process!  Lots of positive results all around, and a fun celebratory morning with some good friends.  Very cool to finally watch the elites race, as this race is pretty much the marquis event for STL.  Cooled down with Crystal and Hilary to finish out the day.

Sunday, March 16th - 12 miles.  As beautiful as it was on Saturday, it was that much rotten on Sunday.  A small winter storm moved in, as temps fell over 40 degrees and we had to deal with 25 mph winds.  Crystal and I did Home Depot trail out and back, and made it pretty far down on the trail - hadn't been that far down this particular path since 2009 training (past old high school, over the river and through the woods).  Wind was brutal and swirling, and legs were pretty tired coming back since we were running into the wind pretty much the majority of the first half.  Had some pretty ugly chafing, and quite a few curse words were uttered on this run but we made it.  1:32:36 total.  47.5 miles this week, 105.5 miles in March, 435 miles in 2014.

Group run tonight!  Considering running a 5K this weekend for a fitness test/workout, so we shall see how this week goes...