St. Patrick’s Day Race Report!

I hope everyone had a great St. Patrick’s Day, and celebrated without excess. (Or, if you did celebrate to excess, that you did it with a designated driver. 🙂 )  Jamie and I celebrated our St. Patrick’s Day one day early by getting up at o’dark hundred and driving up to Plymouth for a very cold 10k!

Before you hear about the race, you have to first know the backstory…as most everyone knows by now, Jamie is a hockey player, and this particular weekend was the beginning of tryouts for the spring season.  Last year, this wasn’t a real big issue, since he was on a team and we were confident he’d make the same team for spring, but his team from the fall has basically had a change in direction, and we’re back to square one with trying out for teams. The “new” old team’s tryouts were on Saturday and Sunday, but because we had no guarantees, we also had another tryout we wanted to take him to.  So, for those keeping score at home, that meant he skated twice on Saturday, before getting up very early Sunday morning to go run 6.2 miles!  We offered him the option to skip the race, but he wanted to do it, and I wasn’t going to argue.

When I woke up at 4:45am Sunday, it was 19 degrees at my house, and dropping fast!  I woke Jamie up about 5 and managed to get a half a bagel with some peanut butter and a little orange juice in him before we left at 5:40. I know that’s early, but I hadn’t picked up our race packets yet, so we had to be there extra early (ugh!).  The good news is, we got there so early, we got a GREAT parking place. 🙂  We parked just a few hundred yards from the start line, and this allowed us to hang out in our car and wait for our wave start time (7:40).  As we waited, we watched the temperature drop lower…and lower…eventually, right before we started (which was right before the official sunrise), it bottomed out.

Nothing like a little 13-degree run to get you moving on a Sunday morning. 😛

We headed to the starting line just as the first wave was taking off.  We got a quick pre-run picture with all our layers, ha ha!

Pretty soon, we were on our way.  I’ve mentioned before that my fingers have serious issues with the cold, and they were numb before we even started.  I spent the first 2.5 miles miserable because of it, and praying to God to get me through so I could finish the race with Jamie. 🙁  Not long after we started, Jamie asked me how I was doing (remember, I’d run 12 miles the day before!), and I admitted that my fingers were numb.  My sweet boy then took off his gloves and handed them to me, instructing me to put them on over the gloves I had.  Awwww. I couldn’t wear two pair, but his were warmer than mine, so even though he insisted that his hands were hot (he has better circulation than me, apparently!), I insisted that we just switch instead of me taking both.  That helped, but not much.  

Meanwhile, Jamie was running slow but steady.  With all the hockey this past weekend, I insisted that he run the race easy and not worry about beating any of his previous times.  With the cold, it became even more important for him to focus on just finishing.  A little before a mile in, I heard him muttering under his breath.  When I asked him what he said, he responded, “I was just reminding myself that I am not going for any records today.”  I was proud of him for that, because he is quite competitive (not sure where he gets it from *whistling innocently*).

As we ran, he was really relaxed about the whole thing.  He was even cracking jokes.  It took about 2.5 miles for my fingers to warm up, but when they did, it wasn’t such a bad run.  We were running in the 11-12 minute per mile range, with walk breaks as needed, and it enabled us to take in the sights and sounds around us.  At one point, he commented, “Look ahead of us, Mom—you can see the breath of all the people in front of us in the sunlight!”  So of course, I took a picture.

That’s Jamie on the right in the hat, of course.  You can’t really see it in the picture, but we really could see everyone’s breath!

Jamie kept up a pretty good stream of conversation while we ran, even going so far as to crack jokes.  (He made sure to point out to me every time we saw a used hand-warmer on the road… “Look, Mom, you want it!” Little snot…)  As we came to one corner, I recognized it from last year’s race as the house where a little girl had sat on the porch (in the 25-degree weather) calling out “Top of the morning to you!” as everyone ran by.  I commented about it to Jamie, and then, as we rounded the corner, there she was, all bundled up on a bench right at the curb!  She even had a sister (?) with her.  I laughed and called out to her parents that I was happy to see her again this year, and then I yelled to her, “Top of the morning to you, girlfriend!” She laughed behind her scarf. 😉

So much of the route was familiar to us, since we’d run it twice last year for both the Shamrock and Chocolate Runs.  I could tell Jamie really appreciated the familiarity, because he commented whenever he remembered a location.  “This is where I got really tired last year” or “Remember that one guy we saw right here…”  When we neared the fourth water station, I ran ahead and snapped a photo.

Looks cold, doesn’t he? 😉 He wasn’t happy about having his picture taken, but he indulged me.

He continued to take walk breaks as needed, but other than that, he maintained what I felt was a great pace for such a cold morning, in the 11-minute mile range.  When we got to water station #3, we saw my friend Cindy and her son, who were volunteering.  Bless their hearts—if I thought I was cold, that was nothing compared to people standing still and handing out water!  She and her son were troopers, though—I give them all the credit!

Jamie took the opportunity for a break at that water station. When he started up again, as we rounded mile five, much to my astonishment, all of a sudden he said, “I love you, Mom.” Awwww. Melted my heart.  🙂

He took one quick walk break around mile five and a half, I think, and he crossed the finish line strong. (Except for that part where they announced him as Julie instead of Jamie.)

We crossed a little after 1:15. Not his best, but in that cold, and after two hockey tryouts the day before, I was very proud of him!

Jamie was tired but not exhausted by any stretch, and he happily posed for a post run picture with his medal.

After that, it was our traditional post-run trip to Panera. That kid loves his asiago cheese bagel.

Once we were done, we got another post race picture without all the layers.

On our way back to our prime parking place, we stopped at the tent and got some snacks. I have to say, we really love the Kona running events. The shirts are always nice, and this year we got an extra bonus: a really nice hat!  After the race, they had plenty of bananas and water, as well as coffee, and even Panera cookies!  There was a bit of a line when we first got there, but they very quickly opened up another side of the tent, and it was very quick and easy to get through.

On the way home, Jamie kept telling me how much fun he had… Pretty impressive for as cold as it was! He was in very good spirits, and was already talking about doing the Kona run in the summer, when we both pray that it will be warmer! 😉  

Because he’d worked so hard all day, I told him he could have his choice of desserts, and he immediately requested the same thing he’s been asking me to make for months…the Chocolate Peanut Butter Mug Cake I pinned from Yammie’s Noshery.  I’d been putting it off, because it looked messy and complicated, but this was one day I couldn’t say no.

Not as good as Yammie’s, but he loved it. 🙂  

All afternoon, Jamie kept thanking me for running with him, and he repeated it a few times on Monday, too. Considering how hard he worked this weekend, with all the hockey, it was a great feeling for me as his mom to hear him be so positive and happy about the run. I don’t play hockey, and never will, so I love that we have this thing we can do together. 🙂  

Thank you for reading!