www.kirkgartside.com - St Patricks Day Race 2007

My First 10K

Veni, vidi, vici! Running my first race, a 10k (6.2 miles), what a great feeling! It all began back in January when Dan "Bullet Train" Mulcahy mentioned, in passing, that he was getting ready to run the Holyoke St. Patrick's Day race. He said it was a lot of fun and I should sign up. Figuring it'd be a great challenge and give me something to do during the blah months of January and February, I did. Having never run before I wasn't sure what to expect and didn't know what goals to set. That'd come later on, after doing a bit of training. While I was getting ready I mentioned that I was running to Kimmy Phillips (she'll always be Makles to me) and she said that she'd be interested in doing it. The more the merrier, right? After training for it, my goals where to run the entire 10K with no stopping and to make it in under 1 hour and 10 minutes. Those seemed like tough but achievable goals. Naturally the day before the race we had a nor'easter that dumped almost a foot of snow on the ground. Not Good Times! But the race was still on... Race Day dawned and I shoveled myself out and the two of us drove to Holyoke to run, both a bit nervous and VERY cold. Once we got there adrenaline kicked in and we were ready! It turned out to be a great day for a run and I beat my personal goals pretty handily. No stopping and I made it in one hour, one minute and forty seconds (offical results). Kimmy and I stopped for a cold Guinness and then the call came in... It's St. Patrick's Day, everyone is in Hartford. COME ON DOWN! Of course, we had to go and brag to everyone :-)