Wearing of the Green 7K

I participated in the 55th Wearing of the Green 7K race yesterday sponsored by the Toledo Roadrunner's Club out at Maumee Bay State Park in Oregon, Ohio. The weather conditions were very reminiscent of those I experienced in the last half of the Glass City Marathon last April with temps in the mid-30s and a wind driven rain. The race was 4.2 miles, but my Garmin logged it as 4.32. I was shooting for an 8 minute/mile pace, but was not able to maintain that. My splits were 8:09, 8:17, 8:21, and then 8:34 in the last full mile. The final .32 mile was at a dismal 9:06 pace. The cold coupled with the wind driven rain just sapped me in the final mile and a third of that race and the last half mile was along the open lakeshore of Lake Erie into the wind driven rain along the flooded asphalt path littered with floating goose poop that permeated ones nostrils like Vick's Vaporub. Was not a good finish to the race. My Garmin time for the race was 36:16, but I did not get an "official" race time yet. Should be very close to that. It was a lot of fun despite the lack of feeling in my legs at the end of the race and the TRRC does a very nice job on their race organization. Now if they could only do something about the weather on their selected race dates! When am I going to break down and invest in a good pair of running tights and rain proof pullover?!? Oh, and I was about the only one that dressed in green! What the heck? All in all, it was a ton of fun though and I am enjoying the challenge of racing on a regular basis. Next up will likely be a rematch with the Glass City Marathon, though as part of a 5 person relay team.