{"id":1959,"date":"2013-03-26T22:02:37","date_gmt":"2013-03-27T03:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/?p=1959"},"modified":"2013-03-26T22:03:51","modified_gmt":"2013-03-27T03:03:51","slug":"florida-discoveries-40-the-mcguires-st-patricks-day-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/03\/florida-discoveries-40-the-mcguires-st-patricks-day-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Discoveries 40: The McGuire’s St. Patrick’s Day Run"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Just<\/a>
Just before race time!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A couple weeks ago we took part in another Florida Panhandle tradition: the McGuire’s St. Patrick’s Day 5K Prediction Run on March 9th<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is a race that rewards not how fast you can run, but how close you finish to a time you predict at registration time. It happens to be considered the nation’s largest prediction run<\/a>. It’s also a race that welcomes crazy costumes and serves Irish stew, beer and the restaurant’s signature drink, the Irish Wake<\/a>, for 3 hours after the first person crosses the finish line.<\/p>\n

Our whole family was registered to do the race, but Timmy was sick the week before, so his baseball coach offered to take him to the Navarre Baseball opening ceremonies and we were able to meet him in time for his game. Jacob was excited to take part in the run!<\/p>\n

Some friends gave us a heads up: get as close to the starting point as possible so we didn’t have to wind through the crowds so badly, so that’s precisely what we did. Some friends joined us, saying that they could find us because they could see me in my orange shirt in a sea of green.<\/p>\n

How did we do? Well, it turns out that Jacob took 2nd place in his age group for only being 7 seconds off of his prediction! He guessed 28:00, and came in at 28:07! Out of the 16,000 runners, he came in 251st place overall!<\/p>\n

Dave had predicted 45:00 assuming he’d be running with Timmy, and I accidentally wore Timmy’s runner number and applied my time to his bib. So neither Dave nor I came in any significant place with our predicted times<\/a>.<\/p>\n