Leapin' Leprechauns, it's a Ginger Invasion!

Saturday was the Four Courts 4 miler, and I was running it with Leo, Erica, and Juan's friend Jason (Juan was registered, but wasn't feeling well). The race was in Arlington, and it started at 9am outside of Four Courts bar (hence the name).

9 minutes after the race, "Leap the Leprechaun" started the race and tried to beat as many runners as possible. If you beat him then you got a Guinness/Pacers pint glass, but if he beat you, then Pacers donated a dollar to charity. I didn't care about my time this race, I just really wanted to beat the leprechaun. But he was the 2000 Junior Irish National Champion in the 5,000 meters, so I wasn't sure how well I would do. But I had my goal!

So when I got up, it was POURING rain, but we hadn't heard that it was cancelled, so we headed to the start line. Once there we ran into Mike Fitz and his wife Kate! Mike is the only person I know that has run a marathon (his first one last year was the one I am looking to do this year) and next Saturday he is running the full marathon that Leo and I are running the half of. You could DEF tell this was an Irish kind of race, as I had never seen so many gingers in one place! Real and fake ones were EVERYWHERE!!!

The first 2 miles of the race was downhill, and the 2nd half was uphill. Downhill of course had me starting way too quick and used up a lot of my energy. By the turn (the 2 mile mark) I was exhausted. I saw the leprechaun as I made the turn, and KNEW I didn't have a chance. I would like to note, that he was NOT dressed as a leprechaun, but in an all green running body suit.

Shortly after he beat me my knee started acting up, so instead of continuing to run on it like last time, I decided to just walk instead. I was not happy, but didn't want to injure myself before the half-marathon.

While I was walking though, I took note of this race's interesting people (I was running in my green tuxedo t-shirt). People were shamrocked OUT- wigs in lime green, and bright orange, crazy socks, pipi longstocking style headbands, etc. The CUTEST thing I saw though was on the back of a guy's shirt said "I must be Irish because I'm getting lucky after the race", and the girl running beside him had just the word "lucky" on the back of her shirt. I got a kick out of that.

Once I finished (I was so irritated at my "run" that I didn't look at the clock as I passed) I found the rest of the group. Here are the final results from our group:

Jason - 31:23 (pace of 7:51/mile)

Erica - 33:52 (pace of 8:28/mile)

Leo - 35:23 (pace of 8:51/mile)

Apes - 42:08 (pace of 10:32)

As we were discussing the run, I look over and see a fellow longwood kid - Brian Raska! So I went over to say hi, and he said he was waiting for Ashley, as she was running it also! I was excited to see my pledge sister cross the finish line (and a little happy that I beat SOMEONE I knew). So I chatted with them for a min, then we headed out.

Jason dipped before we got an after race pic (taken by an Irish guy!) as our pre-race pic didn't take because the old woman didn't know how to use a blackberry camera. Oh well. I liked the shirts this race, not as cute as the monkey shirts for the Love the Run 5k from Vday, but still fun shirts!

"Kiss me! I'm a runner"

Next weekend....HALF MARATHON!! It's gonna be a HUGE wake-up call for me, but maybe I'll do a post beforehand about my nervousness about it.

- apes -