Rockin the Shamrock Cup

Today we ran the La Salle 6K Shamrock Cup.  It was a wonderful day for a run.  I was a little nervous earlier in the week cause it kept being rainy and windy.  This morning was a little chilly but nice and sunny and no wind.  I love the atmosphere of races.  Runners are some of the most hardworking, nice people you will ever meet.  We had lots of good friends running the race today.  Haley my running buddy and her hubby Alex of course, our other running buddy Justin (Haley's bro), Jeff and Danna, Jeff's sister Kelsey and her husband, and Cindy Jeff's mom. Everybody did so well and as far as I know ran their goal times. My goal time was 32 minutes and I finished in 31 minutes (unofficially).  Haley kicked booty and got first place overall in the women's 20-29 age group with a time of 28 minutes!! Alex got third in his age group.  And Thomas was right behind Haley and finished at about 28:30.  Oh and Justin ran it in 34 minutes! This was his first race and his goal was 36minutes! He killed it!
About a mile and a half of the race is uphill and I absolutely hate hills but I felt strong on the hills.  I noticed that I could pass people on the hills so I knew I had trained well for them.  It's the worst when you haven't trained on hills and the course is full of them.  Another thing I'm grateful for is that we ran the course a couple times.  That helps so much mentally to know what to expect and to know when to kick it into gear. 
I was very impressed with the way this race was organized.  It started exactly on time, they had our packets all ready for us with our numbers and shirts and other little goodies, and the awards ceremony started promptly after the last finisher crossed the finish line. 
The following picture is a guy who in the last 400 meters or so started gaining on me.  I could totally hear someone behind me and was determined to not let them pass me.  That's discouraging! Luckily he didn't and I never saw who it was until Haley pointed him out.  He made me laugh.  Cute little guy! I'm sersiously like a foot taller than him! And he just reminded me of a little St. Patty's day leprechaun! He got in the top three in his age group! Way to go!