What's a Snug Run?

A Snug Run is a 5K run every Thursday night in downtown Denver that begins and ends at the Irish Snug, an Irish Pub on Colfax Avenue -- an area frequented by Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady back in the 40s and 50s (as chronicled by Kerouac in "On the Road").

To do a Snug Run you have to join the Snug Running Club, a group of over 600 locals who are physically active and enjoy downing a Guiness or two after a good run. I joined the Snug Running Club a few weeks ago along with several of my colleagues who are training for the Chicago Half Marathon on September 9.

[At left: my colleague Caroline skipping along during last night's Snug Run]

All you have to do to join the Snug Runing Club is go to the website, register, show up and run! It's just that easy. After you participate in five Snug run / walk / trot / stagger / crawls you will be awarded an official Irish Snug Running Club t-shirt! The benefits of membership also include a free spaghetti dinner and $3 pints of Guiness after the run.

Last night I finished the Snug Run in 26:29. As I said in yesterday's post, my goal was to finish under 25 minutes for the first time in a 5K this year, but I kind of forgot that the first mile of a Snug Run is pretty congested. Imagine 100+ runners all leaving a bar at the same time and running down a narrow city sidewalk, stopping for traffic at intersections, etc.


[Above: My colleague Shenoa rounds the corner one block from the Snug Irish Pub.]

So my first mile was an even 10 minutes, but the route opens up when we hit the edge of Cheesman Park and eventually winds past the Denver Botanic Gardens (where John Hiatt and Shawn Colvin were in concert last night). I picked up the pace in mile two (8:45) and recorded my fastest mile time this year in mile three at 7:35! So on average I ran at 8:31/mile. You can check out the entire route map, elevation profile, and more information than you could ever find useful (like the weather at the time of the run), by clicking on the map at left, which will take you to my MotionBased TrailNetwork record of the event (as recorded on my Garmin Forerunner).

Next weeek I'm off to St. Louis for a meeting with the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association. So, why are the Oklahoma Cattlemen meeting in Missouri? To tour the Purina Mills Cattle Nutrition facility, of course. I will be staying at my cousin Wiley's house in Town and Country, MO -- my home away from home two summers ago while working on a project for a Fleishman-Hillard client. I look forward to running my old training route along Ballas Road -- a running roller coaster ride. Sprinting up the hills and jogging down the other side is a great interval workout.

More on hills/interval training in my next post. Until then...

Daren