Cheering at the Kiss Me I’m Irish 1/2 Marathon

I have a few races to recap as I’m a little behind. I didn’t run this one, the Kiss Me I’m Irish half marathon, my husband, Ben, did–but I went along to cheer. 😀

The race was the day after St. Patrick’s day. My husband and I don’t usually celebrate as we’re old with kids now, lol! But I had won free tickets to our local Shamrock Festival in downtown. We went early Friday evening, I had my mandatory green beer (my husband didn’t), and we went home. I knew Ben needed rest for the early wake-up the next morning (the race was 45 minutes away).

This was the inaugural half marathon for this race. In previous years, they offered shorter distances, a 4k and 8k (and a kids’ race). Late last year, one of our run club buddies suggested this half in an attempt to PR. There’s a friendly competition going between him and Ben, with Ben currently having the upper hand.

So the original plan was for them two to race to PR (Ben’s is 1:30 and our friend wanted that or under) and for another friend to help pace them both. It was decided though, in the days leading up to the race, that conditions weren’t in favor of a PR–it was 70 degrees at the start (with a high of 88)!!

The race also started 25 minutes late which really didn’t help.

I had my sign ready to go–there were 3 of them “racing”–could you tell who I was going for?

Three amigos

On the back side, I had a little message for my husband. He had reeeeally wanted a Guinness or two the night before but stayed disciplined because of the race the next day, lol!

Needless to say, there were quite a few people who were anxiously awaiting their post-race beers as many asked to take a picture of my sign, lol!!

Even the leprechaun thought my sign was funny, lol

Start line selfie!

Once my husband was off and running, I stayed to cheer on the rest of the runners in all the distances.

And with there being multiple distances, by the time I finished cheering at the start, there were people coming in to the finish. So I just moved there and continued the cheer-fest. 😀

After a while, I finally saw my husband and I started yelling my little heart out. He was with the pacer friend, Tomio, and I could tell this hadn’t been an easy race for Ben– but, he was happy with the finish and very much so looking forward to his Guinness.

He, and others I spoke to, later told me that the race had some work to do. The water stations were not as advertised as there was a long stretch of no water when he knew there should have been some. There was also a section of tight back-to-back switchbacks (not shown on the course map) that threw off a lot of the runners. Oh and no electrolytes/Gatorade. We also recalled how when we arrived (suuuuper early) the race area was empty. Usually, we see people moving about getting things ready, but when we drove up to the event, having driven along part of the course, we noticed that there were no signs or cones designating the course route. When they announced the race would be starting late, they said it was because there were still barricades needed to be placed. With knowledge that it would be a hot day, we thought they could’ve been a little more prepared and had that taken care of earlier.

But the swag was pretty sweet. Runners received a medal, a hat, and a long-sleeved pullover. And the much wanted free beer 🙂

It was fun to try a new race, too, and I had a blast not racing for once, lol!!

–How was your St. Patrick’s Day? Did you drink a Guinness or a green beer?

–Does the heat affect your racing?

 

Shamrock Shuffle 5k Recap and Allergy Update

First, HAPPY St. Patrick’s Day!!

So, I wasn’t sure whether to run my run club’s annual Shamrock Shuffle 5k yesterday. It was noncompetitive, unclipped, and just something fun to get all of us together. I figured, why not? I knew I didn’t want to be scared away from running after what happened on Friday so I felt this was a good way to ease back in. My husband was coming along and that made me feel a lot better about my decision.

It was an absolute perfect weather day. I mean, I was in a tank and shorts. (Sorry east coasters!) I’m not a dress up person when it comes to fun runs–I just can’t deal with unneeded accessories while I run lol. I do however, go all out during school dress up days! So I was just in some Swirlgear attire that had a hint of green.

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I had my SPIbelt with my new Epi Pen with me and headed out. I had no idea what pace I was going although I had started my watch. I decided to not look or worry about it and just enjoy the run as best as I could.

The first mile beeped but I kept going. I was running with a run club friend and we were chatting the entire way. It was such a leisurely run that before I knew I it, we were done.

I stopped my watch and took my first look:

32:50
10:36/mile

I was not the least bit phased or concerned. All I wanted was to run and get some of the jitters out and this was the perfect opportunity to do it.

Since my last post describing what happened this past Friday, a lot of running friends have reached out and shared their own running allergy experiences. After doing some of my own research and hearing the stories of these runners (especially my buddy For The Love of Running), I think it’s the closest thing I can explain what happened is what’s called an Exercise Induced Anaphylaxis. This is a good article describing what it it and how it happens. There are different causes, but what I think triggered mine was eating and then running immediately after. I’ve done this before (I know, bad!) so I still think it’s strange but it’s the only thing that makes sense. I did absolutely nothing different during the run, did not wear anything new, did not eat anything different. I’m simply at a loss.

I did not feel a hint of what I felt on Friday during the Shamrock Shuffle 5k.

I’ll be seeing an allergist soon to try and get some answers. In the meantime, I want to continue running and not let what happened throw me off of what I’ve got going on.

–Did you race this weekend?

–How was your running week last week?