As you may know, I went on vacation over the last week and a bit and I ran a few races along the way. So how’d I do? Not bad overall!

KELLY St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock 5K in Baltimore, Maryland U.S.A.

I love me some green so I was more than happy to don all the green gear I had for this St. Patrick’s Day run. My goal was to beat my only other race time I had (27:59 minutes).

It was an absolutely PACKED run. They capped off the runners at 5000 people, which was much larger than the race I’d previously done. The sea of green both in front and behind me on this run was just out and out awesome. You can see a little bit of it behind me in the shot on the left above.

The course was pretty flat aside from the start zone which was downhill until we hit along the waterfront. It was also kind of cold (around 3C) but damned if I was going to wear a jacket when I had a green sports tank to wear! Luckily, the friend that I was staying with lived very close to the start point so I didn’t have to remain cold for long.

In the end, I finished in 27:25, a good 34 seconds faster than my previous 5K race. Pretty happy with that!

5K Race Summary

• Finish Time: 27:25
• Pace: 5:29 per kilometer
• Overall placement: 861/4232
• Age group placement (Female, 30-39): 126/909

After I was in Baltimore, I spent a few days in New York City and decided to sign up for my first 10K race. I had run various 10Ks in “training” previously, but nowhere near as consistently as I’ve run 5. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I decided the flat course on Roosevelt Island was pretty appealing so I registered for that one.

NYCRuns Spring Fling 10K in New York City, New York U.S.A.

I had to commute from Brooklyn, but luckily the F took me straight there. It was quite a bit warmer on this run but I wore my winter jacket out to it because I knew I’d be standing around a lot longer. I also knew I’d run into that “cold temperature running hypothermia” I seem to get after cold weather runs (and I was right – I was so happy for that heavy jacket after the run was over).

With plenty of sun (but with low temperatures) and almost zero wind, these were pretty perfect conditions for what I knew was going to be roughly an hour long run. I had some sort of idea that I wanted to run the 10K in 60 minutes (preferably less) but I’d never actually accomplished this in training before. The other point worth mentioning is that I think all of the 10Ks I had run in practice had some kind of stoppage in them – normally for traffic lights or pedestrians, etc. So I really had no idea what to expect in terms of my lungs holding up for this run.

In the end, the run was a double lap around the island and I didn’t have to stop for any reason. I finished the race with a chip time of 59:37 which squeaked me in under my goal.

The 10K also only had about 400 people in it so it was a pretty small crowd. As a side note… the Muscle Milk they were handing out afterwards was absolutely disgusting. Bleugh.

10K Race Summary

• Finish Time: 59:37
• Pace: 5:57 per kilometer
• Overall placement: 202/360
• Age group placement (Female, 30-39): 41/83

No races scheduled for April, but I do have another 5K and a 10K scheduled for May so I’ll be looking to improve my run times for those races as well!