Shamrock Run. Or: Holy cow!

Matt ran the Shamrock Run today and I'm just going to spoil the surprise to tell you that he did quite well.

Matt's been running with the Getting Edge-y Running Club at our gym, Edge Performance Fitness. He runs every Sunday morning. The Shamrock Run is a 15k run which is 9.32 miles. This is farther than he usually runs.

Saying hello to Jean, his future teammate in the Spartan Race

The starting line. Runs start early, but thankfully there was no rain. Or snow. We've been having a lot of snow flurries.

Taking off the layers in preparation for the race.

Ready to run.

Finding his pace group.

The Shamrock Run had a rolling start. The announcers would say, "Begin running," and people would begin running. Then they would say, "And now please stop. Please stop. Please stop."

And people would stop running.

And wait to go. They can do this rolling start because the runners all have chips on their shoes. Their time begins when they cross over those three blue mats.

The announcers would talk while they were waiting to let the runners go.

The announcers looking for the traffic light to change. Because Naito Parkway usually hosts cars, the announcers just used the traffic lights to put gaps in the runners.

After seeing Matt off, I found some shelter (it was still pretty cold, even if it wasn't raining) and sat down to read for a while. That's 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. I knew I had at least an hour.

When the announcers let me know that the first runner was headed toward the finish line, I found a space along the rail and watched the first runners come in. It's amazing to see how fast they run.

I didn't have to wait long at all for Matt to appear. It took him only 1:10:41 to run the entire 9.32 miles. That's a pace of 7:35. Holy cow! He was really flying. Other stats: He finished 622 overall, he was 104/551 in his division and he finished 509/3042 of the men. Well done!

Matt is excited about his finish.

The prostrate guy in the background is clipping off an electronic shoe tag.

On the way to find food, he takes a picture of a family.

The chowder was great, but it was served in very tiny Dixie cups.

We found more food at the Park Bistro. And hot tea. I was freezing. Matt was hungry and worn out until later that day. It was a fun race for both of us.