2016 Leprechaun Chase 10K recap

Some people don't like doing the same race more than once. While I enjoy variety, sometimes it's interesting to repeat a race to see if the outcome changes.

That was one reason I signed up for the Leprechaun Chase 10K again this year. In 2015, I went through the course in what I thought was a decent time. I wanted to see if I'd improved at all.

The other reason is that it's just a fun race. The women take off right at 10 a.m., and the men have to wait five and a half minutes before they can start running. Whichever gender crosses the finish line first gets a free beer after the race. Last year, the men won, but not by much. This year, the lasses had the speed and the free beer!

The race is also on a pretty great course. We start at Principal Park (home of the Iowa Cubs), head through the southern part of downtown, and then loop around Gray's Lake before returning to the ballpark. It's fairly flat and plenty scenic.

In March, you never know what kind of weather you'll get. Last year, I think it was in the 40s, but this year was a bit warmer. While it was completely overcast with rain threatening, it was in the 50s and the sprinkles held off until I got in my car after the race. Talk about perfect timing!

Speaking of timing, while I'm not overly concerned with my speed, I like to set benchmark finish time goals for each race. Here were my goals for this event:

Good = 1:20:00-1:25:00

Great = 1:10:00-1:15:00

Awesome = 1:10:00 or faster

My final time: 

1:12:03

So it was a GREAT race. More than that, I achieved a PR!!!  That's 1 minute and 25 seconds faster than my best 10K time, which was at this same race last year.

+++++

Last week's workouts

Friday: Off
Saturday: Leprechaun Chase
Sunday: Off
Monday: Yoga + Core
Tuesday: Running on the indoor track (35 minutes)
Wednesday: Off

Thursday: Midday Mix-Up (30 minutes) + 1 mile on the indoor track

Not my best week. I had a hard time finding the motivation to work out.