Holyoke is about half Irish, half Puerto Rican…. so the Irish Catholic came out strong this weekend, celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. I’ve never seen a town get this excited about St. Patrick’s Day – which is a strong statement coming from a girl who lived in Chicago for nearly 10 years where they drive the river green and went to a college with strong Irish Catholic traditions. Today they had a 10k race (with about 6,000 people running/walking) and tomorrow they have a parade.
It was the kids’ first race…. both ran the whole way holding my hand. (Insert huge mom smile here – so proud!) And our first race since having kids! I think Jordan’s most recent race was an Elvis run 6 years ago and mine was the Chicago marathon in 2007.
Checking out the competition…
(To be honest, Natalie was angry for most of the 2-min race b/c she wasn’t winning.)
There’s nothing like a post-race re-charge like a cookie!
(Elliott didn’t want to run when the under 4 were running… so I went back with him to join the 9 & 10 year old boys. It worked out perfect b/c Elliott thought we won… the boys darted in front of him so fast that we had the “course” to ourselves).
Back in the game again!
Jordan ran a 45-min (average 7:15 per mile!) and I ran a 48-min race (average 7:45 per mile). Not so much slower than my 45-min PR when I was 22.
And the biggest thanks goes to our nanny Alison who watched the kids while we raced!