2016 SHAMROCK RUN 15K RACE PREVIEW

My first Shamrock (5k) and second ever race!. Amanda and Laurel did the 8k (that's five miles... are they CRAZY?!?)

I can't believe the Shamrock Run is here again! The unofficial official kickoff of the Portland racing season begins on Sunday with the various events in the Shamrock Run. I'll do the traditional 15k, which has a lot of history as the previous Cascade Run Off. I wrote about that in a previous post, which I'll link here. If you'd like a more detailed review of the course itself, you can find that linked here. I'll go over it real briefly in this preview, but it hasn't changed at all for quite some time. And finally, educate yourself on the bullshit cash grab that is the Shamrock Half here.

On Monday I ran five miles at PRC. I was still a little worn from the ten miler on Saturday and although I felt okay during the run, afterwards my legs starting responding negatively like they have been recently. I think a big key is to stretch afterward. On Monday I just went home and curled up and I could almost feel my muscles tightening. When my muscles tighten (mostly it seems to be my hamstrings) the result seems to be achy and swollen knees. Anyways, it wasn't too bad this time. I gave myself two days of rest and then ran on Thursday. That run went well and I stretched and lifted weights afterward. I feel great today, back to a "healthy" feeling, so that is encouraging.

Next run will be Shamrock on Sunday! I'm as ready as I'll ever be. My dad's 1:04 will be safe for another year for sure. My goal will be to match or beat what I did at Zena five weeks ago. I *think* I might be a little faster than Zena, but who knows. If I am, it's not much, so the margins will be thin. My main goal will just be to enjoy the race. The early start (magnified by Daylight Saving Time starting Sunday) will be a challenge, along with the forecasted rainy weather. However, regardless of those factors, I always enjoy Shamrock. The energy and size of the event is just contagious. It's a good time if you just relax and go with the flow!

As for my specific race strategy, I've ran this race enough times now I can kind of plot out what I can expect myself to do. The first three miles are relatively flat, so I think I'll target something like 7:30/mile there. My 7:50/mile runs on the treadmill have been challenging but not agonizing, so with race day adrenaline I expect a 7:30/mile pace to feel about the same. Mile four is uphill along Broadway, not too bad yet, but certainly noticeable. I'm going to say 8:00 on that. Then two miles of pretty relentlessly uphill on Terwillager. 8:45s there wouldn't be too bad. The final three miles are generally downhill, especially miles seven and eight. 7:20s might be a good target there.

If you add that all up, you get a time of 1:12:30. So, actually perfect. That's funny. I didn't even know what that would add up to until I laid out that strategy, but that's about where I need to be. I got a 1:13:12 at Zena this year, so that's a cushion of only 42 seconds. I'm a long way off my PR of 1:06 in 2014, but I'm still running pretty decent times. I've ran it three times... 1:12, 1:06, and 1:12. So if I could add another 1:12 to that pile, then aside from one year when I was in my best shape, I'm holding pretty steady.

RACE GOALS:

"A" Goal: 1:12:54 or less. This would beat last year. Not that I was in great shape last year, but that would be pretty cool to do better. This is 7:49/mile average. Decided to up the goal from the 1:13:12 of Zena to beat last year, but let's call beating Zena plan A2.

"B" Goal: 1:14:24 or less. This is 7:59/mile. At minimum I'd like to run this thing under 8:00/mile. I could be happy with this time.

"C" Goal: Under 1:20? I don't know. I'm going to honest... barring injury, if I don't get my B goal I'm going to be disappointed in myself.