So I did pretty great at the Oak Forest Fleadh on Saturday, but I forgot to share other information too! 

First off, what is a Fleadh?  “A festival of course!” This was on the back of all the race volunteers shirts, and the 5K was really just a part of the larger Irish heritage festival going on that day. 

After the race, I met up with Mike and found out he’d PR’ed too!  PR’ed and won in his age group.  So we stuck around for the awards ceremony:

And took a photo.  Yes – I look kind of like a monk because I’m so bundled up!  It was still cold out!

And then it was off to do some real refueling – at an Irish pub!  Pretty much everyone from the race headed over, and we found out our “free beer” ticket on the race bib actually meant something Mike liked celebrating with the beers, while I enjoyed some Irish coffee (Jameson, people, not  Bailey’s).

After a bit, and a bit of bar food, we then headed outside to the parade.  This was a very cute parade – in addition to the floats, there were people walking by dropping candy into the kiddies bags.  Reverse trick-or-treating… the kids just stood there!

Things I learned from the Irish Parade:

• Dogs like to dress up too
• The Irish like their fisherman’s sweaters (they were all over!)
• I should have had curly hair.
• Elmo’s Irish too!

I really enjoyed the Irish parade and the overall race experience down on the south side, and am looking forward to finally celebrating St. Paddy’s day in Chicago proper.  For the past several years, there’s always been something instead, so I’m looking forward to some more Irish celebration this coming weekend!