St. Pat's Dash

Sunday, March 11th was the St. Pat's Dash. There was a record turnout, with over 15,000 runners, roughly half of whom wore timing chips. It was neat to be running in such a huge crowd, and to race on streets I'm only used to traveling by car. The course was 3.5 miles, from Seattle Center (where the Space Needle is) to Safeco Field (where the Mariners play), and took in the Alaskan Way viaduct with it's attendant views of Elliott Bay and beyond. Well, there was no view because of the clouds and misty rain, but 'twas tons of fun nonetheless. With no expectations except to have a good run, I did just that, finishing just inside the top 3000 at 30:48. Here are the o'fficial results and an article about the race from the Seattle Times (cut & paste):

http://www.onlineraceresults.com/pdf/4964.pdf

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2003613530_run12.html

Note that the race was won by 35 year-old Uli Steidl, local running legend who has won the past 8(!!!) Seattle Marathons, 5 consecutive Vancouver Marathons, and has the course record in the Portland Marathon. Oh, and he's pretty good at short-distances, too.