Shamrock Challenge 15K Race Report

Two years ago, T and I ran the Shamrock Run 15K in Portland as one of our training runs for the Eugene Half Marathon. It was a cold, wet, and windy day and we crossed the line in 1:22:43.

I’ve done a lot of running since then and was very excited to test myself again on the same course. Lucky for me, it was a cold, wet, and windy day—almost identical to my previous run. This year was probably a little less windy, but it was going to be a really good comparison.

Shamrock is a pretty tough course as you can see from the elevation chart. The words “bell curve” probably describe it best—pretty significant climbing for the first half followed by equally significant downhill running for the second half. The course starts downtown on the waterfront and then meanders up Pill hill along Terwilliger Blvd near the OHSU campus. Once you crest the top of the hill at The Chart House, the course heads down to Barbur Blvd and then back down to the finish line seven blocks south of the starting area on the waterfront. It’s a really fun course, and did I mention it was challenging as well?

This year, T and I ran the race as members of team Crossfit Salem. We drove up from Salem with two other members of our “team.” It was a fun little twist to run a race with other people and definitely fun to talk about the race when it was over. We did spend a lot of time looking for each other in the sea of 35,000 other crazy, free beer drinking, runners. But it was still a great time and I’m glad I did it.

My goal for this race was to finish it in under 1:12:43. I figured taking 10 minutes off of my previous time would be a nice round number to shoot for. But I also thought it would be tough because that’s over 1 minute per mile faster than I ran it last time.

I went into this race with a much better plan than in some of my previous races. I knew which miles were going to be tough (2,3,4,5, and part of 6) and which were going to be easier (1,6,7,8, and 9). My goal was to run a fast first mile, tough out the uphills but push myself hard, and then hang on and run as fast as I could on the downhill miles at the end.

A few minutes before the gun went off, I found myself frustrated, trying to force myself through the queue of runners to the sign that said “8-9 minute mile pace.” I wanted to actually get in front of that sign, but I never even made it close and I was thinking that my plan to run a fast first mile was rapidly going down the toilet. But then a stroke of awesome luck happened. The starters of the race decided that there were so many people running this year that they were going to have rolling starts where they’d let a waves of runners start their race every minute so that people could space out on the course. I was ecstatic when the starter blew his whistle, indicating that the runners were supposed to stop and wait for the next wave to start, right before I got to the line.

So there I was, at the very front of the pack, with nothing but empty street in front of me, ready to run my first mile according to plan. It was at this point, that I felt I was going to have a good day.

And a good day it was. My slowest mile, on the steepest section of the course was 8:06. I kept looking at my watch in total awe at the fact that I was running up those steep hills at that pace. I HATE HILLS! But on that day, they didn’t even feel that bad. I crested the hill at The Chart House, and knew it was pretty much flat or down hill from there. Since I was feeling good still, I picked up the pace a little bit and by the time I reached Barbur Blvd, I was running miles in the low 7′s which is pretty fast for me. It was such a good day that I even ran my last two miles under 7 minute pace which actually are the fastest two miles I’ve EVER run—and those came at the end of a race.

I crossed the line in 1:10:30, more than 12 minutes faster than two years ago, and a PR at that distance by over 10 minutes. Needless to say, it was a great day and my race plan came together perfectly.

Now I find myself smack in the middle of my final build phase before the Eugene Marathon (5/1/11). I’ve got three more weeks of increasing work load and then a few weeks of taper. I’m feeling really good right about now as I had an awesome 20 mile run this past weekend plus a few great crossfit WOD’s last week. My body feels great these days, I’m performing right where I want to be. Hopefully I’ve got a new marathon PR in me in a few weeks.

May 1 seems so far away—but really it’s right around the corner!