Well, I'm currently sitting here at work for my 2nd week of 7th Day overtime. My last full day off was on July 22 and my next scheduled day off is August 12. Between people being off sick at work, a new dispatcher being trained, which takes one of our current dispatchers out of staffing in order to train her, and the annual Dublin Irish Festival, there have been a lot of slots that needed filled in order to maintain staffing levels. I've been only too happy to help fill some of those slots, which will make for a nice paycheck, but also makes for a long three weeks.
For those who don't know, Dublin, OH has an Irish Festival the first weekend of August each year. This year was the 25th annual Irish Festival. I found out this year that Dublin's Irish Festival is the second largest Irish Festival in the United States. Pretty impressive for a suburb the size of Dublin. We pretty much have three "major" events in Dublin each year. In the spring the PGA comes to town for the Memorial Golf Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club here in Dublin. Of course, like any "all American" town, we have our Independence Day celebration, which always includes a parade and a free concert that usually brings in a well known performer. And the Dublin Irish Festival. The festival is kicked off on Thursday evening with a 5K run in downtown Dublin. I've run this race in the past and was happy, as part of my return to running and part of my half marathon training, to run it this year. I started off a little too fast though and it cost me. No matter how many times I run this course, I keep forgetting just how long that hill on Marion St. is when you have to run it.
The actual festival starts on Friday evening and the weekend draws very large crowds. Of course that also means a lot of hours worked by the police department. With the festival being held the first weekend of August each year we can usually count on two things. First, it's going to hot. Forget about global warming, it's just hot in August in this part of the world. That typically leads to some medical issues with the heat for those who are elderly, have medical conditions, or drink too much.
The other issue that typically comes up during the Irish Festival weekend is that some type of severe weather watch or warning ends up being issued at some point during the weekend. Evacuating a crowd that large from the festival has proven to be an "interesting" endeavor at times, especially if they have not yet finished drinking that beer they just bought.
On another front, I've begun to taper my running in preparation for my next half marathon. My two weekly runs will drop from 60 minutes to 40 minutes this week and my long run is only 5 miles this Saturday. In just under two weeks I will run the Little Miami Half Marathon in Morrow, OH. While I do have a couple of "goals" for this half marathon, I do keep reminding myself that this is more of a training/evaluation run. I want to see where I'm at as I continue to get ready for the Columbus Half Marathon in October. While most half marathon training schedules build in a two week rest period following the actual race, I will be jumping right back in to training a few days after this half marathon. After I finish the Columbus Half Marathon I will again jump right back in to training in preparation for the Las Vegas Half Marathon, which I will run in December.
While I have some goals in mind for the Columbus Half Marathon, my only real goal at this point for Las Vegas is to have fun. They advertise their half marathon and marathon as the opportunity to "Run the Strip at Night". I have been to Las Vegas and walked up and down the strip in the evenings, but this will be a unique perspective. It's what is known as a "destination run". A run that has the ability of combining a vacation along with the run. I've done destination runs in the past; the Myrtle Beach Marathon and Disney World Half Marathon. Those were situations, like Las Vegas, where I scheduled the run as a way to give me a nice place to go on vacation. I've also scheduled vacations and then looked for runs to do in those locations while I was in town. Then there were the destination runs that fell somewhere in the middle. Like the Tunnel to Towers Run in New York City. That was a run where the run itself and the destination were equally important.
I do plan on going to New York in September to run the Tunnel to Towers Run again this year, and am considering going back to Myrtle Beach in February for their Half Marathon. The Rock and Roll marathons and half marathons look to provide some opportunities for some other destination runs too. A couple of new cities have been added to the list of Rock and Roll Half Marathons, so I may look at doing some of those next year.
For those who don't know, Dublin, OH has an Irish Festival the first weekend of August each year. This year was the 25th annual Irish Festival. I found out this year that Dublin's Irish Festival is the second largest Irish Festival in the United States. Pretty impressive for a suburb the size of Dublin. We pretty much have three "major" events in Dublin each year. In the spring the PGA comes to town for the Memorial Golf Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club here in Dublin. Of course, like any "all American" town, we have our Independence Day celebration, which always includes a parade and a free concert that usually brings in a well known performer. And the Dublin Irish Festival. The festival is kicked off on Thursday evening with a 5K run in downtown Dublin. I've run this race in the past and was happy, as part of my return to running and part of my half marathon training, to run it this year. I started off a little too fast though and it cost me. No matter how many times I run this course, I keep forgetting just how long that hill on Marion St. is when you have to run it.
The actual festival starts on Friday evening and the weekend draws very large crowds. Of course that also means a lot of hours worked by the police department. With the festival being held the first weekend of August each year we can usually count on two things. First, it's going to hot. Forget about global warming, it's just hot in August in this part of the world. That typically leads to some medical issues with the heat for those who are elderly, have medical conditions, or drink too much.
The other issue that typically comes up during the Irish Festival weekend is that some type of severe weather watch or warning ends up being issued at some point during the weekend. Evacuating a crowd that large from the festival has proven to be an "interesting" endeavor at times, especially if they have not yet finished drinking that beer they just bought.
On another front, I've begun to taper my running in preparation for my next half marathon. My two weekly runs will drop from 60 minutes to 40 minutes this week and my long run is only 5 miles this Saturday. In just under two weeks I will run the Little Miami Half Marathon in Morrow, OH. While I do have a couple of "goals" for this half marathon, I do keep reminding myself that this is more of a training/evaluation run. I want to see where I'm at as I continue to get ready for the Columbus Half Marathon in October. While most half marathon training schedules build in a two week rest period following the actual race, I will be jumping right back in to training a few days after this half marathon. After I finish the Columbus Half Marathon I will again jump right back in to training in preparation for the Las Vegas Half Marathon, which I will run in December.
While I have some goals in mind for the Columbus Half Marathon, my only real goal at this point for Las Vegas is to have fun. They advertise their half marathon and marathon as the opportunity to "Run the Strip at Night". I have been to Las Vegas and walked up and down the strip in the evenings, but this will be a unique perspective. It's what is known as a "destination run". A run that has the ability of combining a vacation along with the run. I've done destination runs in the past; the Myrtle Beach Marathon and Disney World Half Marathon. Those were situations, like Las Vegas, where I scheduled the run as a way to give me a nice place to go on vacation. I've also scheduled vacations and then looked for runs to do in those locations while I was in town. Then there were the destination runs that fell somewhere in the middle. Like the Tunnel to Towers Run in New York City. That was a run where the run itself and the destination were equally important.
I do plan on going to New York in September to run the Tunnel to Towers Run again this year, and am considering going back to Myrtle Beach in February for their Half Marathon. The Rock and Roll marathons and half marathons look to provide some opportunities for some other destination runs too. A couple of new cities have been added to the list of Rock and Roll Half Marathons, so I may look at doing some of those next year.
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