St. Paddy's 5 Miler

On March 14th Heather and I headed up to Portsmouth for the St. Paddy's 5 Miler. I was really not looking forward to running in the hurricane that was raging outside, but Heather questioned my manhood and called me names till I agreed to go. I was very happy I did. This was the first year for the race which benefits New Heights. Before I get to my race report I just want to tell everyone about how great of an event this was and will continue to be in the future. Despite the extremely bad weather this event went off with out a hitch. The volunteers were abundant, very friendly, and helpful. The course is fast and flat. The event is very well supported with lots of good awards and the after party was awesome. There was free beer, a great Irish band playing, and a ton off good food. Even though this was a first year event it was run as though the organizers have been putting this on for years. I really hope that this is the first of many years to come for this event. It was a great time and I see this event growing to be a St. Paddy's staple for the seacoast racing scene. Excellent job to all involved in putting this race on!

So after Heather and I got signed up and got our numbers and timing chips. We got our rain gear on and headed out for a warm up. The weather was pretty brutal with driving rain, heavy winds, and rivers and puddles in the roads. During the warm up I saw some very fast folks including Pat Tarpy, Nate Jenkins, and Heidi Westover. I knew this race was going to be very fast on both sides. After getting in 3 miles I headed back to the Shelter of Paddy's to get changed into something a bit drier to race in. I decided to dress warm with both a long sleeve shirt and tights. I was all set with being a tough guy today.

The race went off and Nate and Pat went right to the front as expected followed by a second group of Robert Gomez and Scott McGrath, then a third group of Nathan Huppe, Peter Mallett, and myself. With money to the top three I decided to make a quick jump up to that second group at about a half mile into the race and see what happens. I managed to bridge the gap and went through the first downhill mile in 5:08. Which was a bit quick for me. Not long after this I began falling off the group off Robert and Scott and that was about it for racing. The next couple miles were pretty rough weather wise and having nobody to work with made things pretty awful both physically and mentally. It was tough to keep the drive and push myself while getting blasted with wind and rain and having nobody around to push me. By the turn around near mile 3 I knew Peter Mallett was behind me pretty close and at that point I decided to just try to hold my position and finish up strong. I managed to get up a pretty good hill at 4 miles with a nice tailwind and make the turn for home and the mostly up hill last mile. I was actually feeling pretty good at this point and pushed through to the finish in 5th place in 27:43. The time was pretty bad, but the conditions were awful. Of course Heather made me look bad by running a PR and finishing in 2nd place and winning $100. At least she bought me a beer after! Nice race Heather, you kicked some butt!

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