Paddy's Shillelagh Shuffle Race Report

Prior to the race, I was told that Lee Danforth was in France on work, and that would almost certainly result in me backing into 5th place in the Pub Series standings, and more importantly - into the money. That wasn't the case though, dagnabbit!!

Anyways, on Sunday the 19th I made my way over to Paddy's in Newton for the final race in the Pub Series. I was mildly nervous about my foot, but it ended up being a total non-issue. At the start of the race Lotsbom and Klucznik, once again, went out ahead of me and I tried to keep contact. I hit the mile mark in about 5:23, which is pretty much what I was targeting. As they began to pull away, I was focusing more on keeping a smooth stride and listening to my foot.

I ran with John Sullivan for a short bit - he works/is neighbors with my brother MKike, and oddly enough we had a short conversation. That was a nice distraction to help time pass just a little quicker during the always-painful second mile. He ended up dropping back after a quarter mile or so, and I was in no man's land for most of the remainder of the race.

Somewhere around the second mile, I was passed by two gentleman hauling ass with baby strollers. That bugged the crap out of me. And hearing someone yell, "nice job! you guys are running faster with strollers than most people are without them!" Holy crap did that annoy me...and make me feel slow as hell too.

I could tell that my second mile was slow, and I had also noticed that Klucznick and Lotsbom were thisclose to being within striking distance - so I made a pretty long surge to try and make up some ground. Unfortunately, I didn't make a dent in the gap. I did, however, feel pretty good during that surge, and I could see Kevin and Terry in their pack right behind me - so I kept up the harder pace straight through to the finish.

I finished well, and with no one in range that would necessitate a kick to the finish I simply kept pace across the line. In retrospect, I am happy about that; I think an all out sprint would've put a lot of pressure on my foot. I finished feeling healthy, and with a strong final mile, placing 13th overall.

Splits:
5:23
5:39
5:21
13sec .05m (Garmin rounding error or whatever)


Results, photos, and photos.