St. Paddy's Daze

Life is to serious not to be taken seriously; Get out and enjoy it for all its worth.

Ah spring a time to get out and enjoy the sights and sounds of what is around us. Watching people break out of the winter doldrums and getting out to play; seeing the crocuses break ground; Water fowl go back to the lakes and waterways and geese fertilizing towne greens; and wondering why when we build our roads we don't do a better job of setting bases and improving drainage.

Yep some of the local roads now look worse than some of the trails I drove in Croatia and Bosnia/Herzigovinia after their war in the 1990's. Well maybe the government's stimulus package will fix the roads and maybe I'll win the Marine Corps Marathon next October too.

So its spring time when a person's fancy turns to sports! Alright, The World baseball classic is on, Major League Base Ball is gearing up and Hockey is winding down. The duffers are out and about chasing little balls through the rough and woods and I'm running the roads.

I did my first 10K/6.2mile race on Sunday the 15th in Yorktown NY. The St. Patrick's Day 10K and conditions were pretty nice overall. The sun broke through the high clouds temps climbed to the 50's by the end of the race and the course while challenging wasn't overly abusive.

There were two races run on sunday, a 2 mile and 6.2 mile event. While I participated in the 6.2 mile run I was able to enjoy both and amuse some people as well.

I arrived early to the race site and prepared for the event. Pulled on the kilt dragged out the bag pipes and got the fingers working. When the 2 mile event kicked off it started uphill and about 1/4 mile away from the starting line. As I saw the runners start down hill I started in with the tune 'The Wearing of The Green'. aside from the sprinters looking for the win racing away at the front of the group, many of the runners appeared to enjoy my effort.

As for the 10K event, I ran that in the kilt. Not a big deal and just a little looser than running shorts. I also finished under an hour with a time of 56:03. While I'll never place or show at Belmont I at least will have some fun along the way.