Major Day of Fun

St. Paddy's Day was great.  For someone not Irish, in a city without much Irish tradition, somehow St. Pat's is always fun here. 

Actually, St. Pat's 2009 was one of my favorite days of my life -- a 5k PR, an invitation to join a running team, my bridal shower, and my bachelorette party. 

I've pretty much accepted that no St. Pat's is ever going to be quite so good! 

But yesterday was tons o' fun.  I ran the same 5k, with hubby and step-son also running, though we all ran our own races.  I met up with a friend who'd paced me during my second 10k race wearing my weight vest.

Yesterday I decided to do the 5k without weights.  Just as a little treat, but also for practical considerations -- the race is so crowded I worried about falling. 

So my friend and I decided to run at a brisk pace, but still a minute per mile slower than I'd actually race a 5k.  But that pace is still a lot faster than I pretty much ever run these days, given I'm usually 35 pounds heavier.

And given my random calf pain for the last couple days, and other taper phantom pains, I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it.

We separated a bit right after we crossed the starting line, but we linked back up after about a quarter mile.  I felt like we were running too hard, and I checked our pace pretty frequently on my garmin, and we were never far off base.  We hit mile marker 1 just 15 seconds too fast.  I figured we'd be closer to on pace in mile 2, since it has a big (haha, big for Dallas) hill.  We separated on the downhill before the up (I got out in front), and then my friend passed me on the up (he trains on hills a lot).  We linked back up not too far past the end of the hill and hit mile marker 2.  I was shocked and appalled to see we were 23 seconds too fast on that one.  During mile 3, we started to spread out a little, I was in front, but we were still kind of talking to each other.  There was this little kid who was probably about 8 that was really flying, so I kind of wanted to try to catch him.  I hit mile marker 3 dead steady with mile 2, 23 seconds ahead of schedule. 

So the race was almost a minute faster than I wanted in the end.  Oops.

I'm kind of peeved with myself about that.  No good reason to be running too fast just a week before the marathon.  Risk of injury too high, no possible gain (not like I was getting a 5k PR or anything).  It just felt so lovely to be running without the vest! 

Well, I guess I won't know until next week, but it felt like no harm done on my legs.  I wasn't sore or anything today and my calf seems fine. 

After the race, we hung out in the finish area for an hour or two, just talking to friends and drinking beer. 

Then we headed over on foot to a tailgate party to watch the St. Pat's parade.  The parade is about an hour long but has never impressed me -- I think Mardi Gras sets my parade standards high.  That, or I just get my parade quota that weekend and am done for the year.  So I kind of hung back, just drinking and talking to friends.

From the parade, we went to two separate running friends' house parties.  I drank way too much, beer and jello shots.  Ugh.  I feel like the fact that I don't drink often makes me even more susceptible to going over the top on special days like St. Pat's.

The day was insanely fun.  Good times sitting on patios, talking and laughing with friends.  We finally got home around 5 and I promptly fell asleep on the couch until about 7, then managed to stay up until 9, then back to bed.

I woke up this morning on time, surprisingly, and feeling okay -- could have been better, but not feeling anywhere near as badly as I deserved after yesterday, and set out for my last 10 mile run. 

So as soon as I pull myself off the couch, I'm going to spend the afternoon reading for book club tonight and packing for the marathon! 

The weather doesn't look good for race day -- low of 48, high of 81.  Ugh.  But it is what it is.  Wasn't like I was going to PR anyway...

But what a lovely weekend I must say!