A Wee Bit O'Luck to You

Well, since it's actually St. Patrick's Day I figured that it was about time that I update about our last weekend since that was when we celebrated the grand occasion! (Don't be fooled, that's really just a cover, it's taken me this long to get the update posted because I've been feeling downright miserable from my cold and haven't been in the mood. But I'm drug free and feeling fine today!)


Saturday morning started off with the 5K which was a little awful. The wind was gusting up to 30 mph, and air temps were below freezing--but the sun did decide to come out, as did plenty of people in their St. Patty's gear, so things at least seemed enjoyable and festive. The course itself wasn't terrible--a down and back course that (like any route in SD) was pretty well exposed so there was no hiding from the wind. It was also run along the bike trails for a portion of it, which wasn't terrible in theory, but the bottleneck didn't really get a chance to spread out before the course narrowed down to four people wide (at its narrowest), and with snow (and ice!) on both sides of the path passing was a little dicey at times. Not to mention the fact that once people starting making it past the halfway point there was traffic going in both directions. But, in spite of it all, I still came out with a time that I was happy with, especially considering the conditions (and the fact that I woke up with a cold that morning). I finished in 30:19, which was a solid three minute improvement from my last 5K. Not the sub-30 mark that I was hoping for, but I did manage to eek out an average pace of 9:48, so I was pretty pleased with that. 

Our whole clan pre race: My mom, myself, my sister, her boyfriend, Darrell, and my dad

Darrell and I post race

After the 5K we headed to the El Riad Shrine Mosque to partake in their festivities (Saturday was the "unofficial" St. Patty's Day party in Sioux Falls--following the road races there was a parade and other Irish events going on at area locations). My brother had organized a beer pong tournament, so his girlfriend and I decided to pair up and take on the competition. We ended up being the Cinderella team of pool play--we went undefeated for our three games, all of which were against teams of guys. Unfortunately we choked in the tournament bracket, but we still had fun and even managed to get a picture with one of the teams we beat (no hard feelings here!)

With Team Voltron--unfortunately (or maybe intentionally) our photographer didn't capture the full spectacularness of this team--they are definitely sporting what I can only assume is running shorts from the women's department. Talk about a distraction! 

Sadly enough for me, rehydrating after a 5K with green beer, plus having a cold, equals a massive headache and an early night. I had to leave the party shortly after six because my head was throbbing to the point where it literally hurt to stand. Next year I'll just have to remember to drink tons of water first before switching to beer!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!