St. Paddy's Day Great Race of the Great Plains Race Report

Wow, that title was a mouth full.

This was my second running of OKC's annual St. Paddy's Day race. Last year, it was cold, cold and very windy. This time around, the conditions were a lot more pleasant. I still wore tights and got a little warm. Of course, I was happy to have the tights on once the race ended and we were standing around waiting for the trophy presentation. It got so cold just standing there...

Oh, and once again, the wifey kicked my butt. Beat me by a good 2 minutes. Not sure what is going on with me lately. I am hoping it is allergies that is causing my slow down. Just a month ago I kicked her butt on a hilly 5 mile race. Now, I can't even beat her in a 5 K! Maybe I am eating too many M&M's. It is easter you know. Or will be soon enough. I think I will take a break from racing for a while. Get back on my training schedule. Can't let her beat me again.

This race was also the third and final race of the Triple Crown of Spring Racing. Now you know why I ran three races 3 weeks in a row! Anyway, Dyani and I came very close to winning our respective age groups for the Triple Crown, both getting second place. I was a distance second but she was hot on her opponent's tail! The wifey kicked butt and I am very proud of her. Side benefit of all of this--she has started to get more serious about her running and even started a training program for herself.

The pros about this race:

• Great food! Bananas, oranges, pizza, beer (green and not), soda, water, blah blah blah...
  
• Well organized.
• Wonderful pancake breakfast
• Coming oh so close to actually winning something. What a great feeling!
  

The cons about this race:

• Me. I sucked.
• NO STARTING MAT for the timing chips. When are they going to realize that having an end mat only does not benefit us lowly runners at all!
  

My stats:

• Garmin watch time and distance = 46:34, average pace per mile = 9:18 for 5 miles
• Official time = 46:46, average pace per mile = 9:25 for 5 miles