I ran the 10 km Madison Shamrock Shuffle today as a fun/training run to get an idea of where I’m at fitness-wise. I got to the race about 40 min ahead of time to get settled and was happily accompanied by my running buddy (who is way faster than me, but runs with me anyway!)
The race itself was nice and challenging enough to keep it interesting. It’s a sort of out and back along the lakeshore path on UW-Madison campus. You go up the famed observatory hill within the first mile (and subsequently back up it in the last mile) and then go along the lakeshore path, which was beautiful. It’s relatively flat except for the Observatory Dr. section, too. I really liked the out and back nature since I got to see the front runners of the 10km and cheered like crazy for the first woman. I always love being able to cheer people on even when I feel like butt during the race.
I was feeling pretty strong for the first 4.5 miles, but started to die out with about a mile to go, which was frustrating. My fingers swelled up like crazy and my HR got out of control. I ended up walking a couple bits of Observatory Dr. on the way back, but finished strong and was pretty happy overall with the effort I put out. I didn’t taper at all for the race and have been doing speed workouts, so I think it’s to be expected I’m slower than I’d like. On top of that, not fueling for this appropriately certainly hurt.
Overall, it’s a great start to the season and I really enjoyed myself, I was only ~90 sec off my finish from two years ago, and considering the difficulties I had this morning – I’ll take it! Plus, the race benefits the Boys and Girl’s Club of Dane County, which makes me feel even better.
mentalhealthyrunner 