Luck 'o the Irish...

St. Patrick's Day, sadly, has meant less and less to me the longer I am on this great green earth.  

I AM in fact Irish. 

In my youth {as with, I imagine, most of those born and/or raised in America} St. Patrick's day meant that leprauchan shenanigans would ensue at home and school, and at least one meal would consist of green eggs in some way, shape, or form. 

Interesting since Dr. Suess has nothing to do with St. Patrick, but does happen to have a birthday fairly close to St. Patrick's day.

Moving on to my young adulthood {Chico State to be precise} St. Patrick's day was actually a holiday! In fact, the school gave it to us off due to an overabundance of flowing green beer the evening before, all day during, and most of the night of March 17th...which was weird, because we were so not a party school {wink::wink} 

Welp, since leaving elementary school and jumping on the wagon, St. Patrick's day has consistently been less and less of a priority...and actually, when I think of it, does anyone know what that guy is the patron saint of?? Probably, he is the patron saint of March Madness, right??

Anyway, over the past few years I have instead taken to running my little tushie off on St. Patrick's day morning to benefit Rady's Children's Hospital in the St. Patrick's Day 10K at Mission Bay! 

It is actually a lot of fun, with people inevitably dressed up in their finest greenery, and pizza and beer at the finish-line.

This year, I even gave it the forethought to invite along some friends and we were all geared up for a fun morning run.  

Until this situation swooped in:

{stormy St. Pats at Mission Bay}

Some ridiculous storm rolled in the night before the race, 

but this was not about to get us completely out of it! 

Thankfully, Matt offered to drive our group to the start to cut down on time spent in torrential downpour so we felt good to go!

{Some pretty strong wind, but we are ready!}

{smart Johnny got all suited up!}

This was all seeming like a really great idea all of a sudden! 

An awesome way to spend St. Patty's day, in fact!

Until approximately 3.2 minutes later when the rain really started coming down!

{Okaaaay...maybe not so fun?}

So, you probably know what happened next. 

We did it ANYWAY! 

And it was hard. 

And also kinda fun, cause once we got going and were totally soaked, and being blown backward by gale-force winds, you felt like you were part of this massive group of crazy people all doing the same. exact. thing. and could not have cared less! 

Plus, I think we all set personal records...

turns out running FROM something with the thought of a warm and dry car to hop into actually does kick one's booty into gear!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

I think I am starting to like this holiday again!