Blake Williamson, 2024
The Run to The Pub has been the high point of fun runs throughout the year since 2014. I have run the 10K every year since then except for 2020 when it had to be canceled and 2017 when I broke my leg 5 weeks before the run on the ice-covered parking lot at Belgrade Middle School… that year I just walked it! Interestingly, Adam Behrendt, another winner of the trip to Dublin this year, was the first to discover me outside his classroom window crawling from where I had fallen!
After having my lower leg surgically plated and screwed together, I started training much more vigorously, especially in February and early March of each year before the run. Then, in the Run to The Pub 10K 2022, I placed first in the 60-69 year-old age group at 67 years old.
Amazingly, I was among the first to congratulate Adam Bahrendt when his bib number was called for winning the Dublin trip and consequently almost missing that my bib number had also been called. Fortunately, my wife, Wickie Williamson, who has been running this race since 2012 in hopes of winning this trip, or at least the costume contest, recognized that I had won also!
Unbeknownst to everyone involved, the Dublin Marathon had gone to a lottery system less than a year before the 2023 Run to The Pub and Marathon entries were no longer available. So, the drawing winners were given the alternative to find a run in Ireland that they would like to participate in. After considering several runs, and solving some passport and timeframe problems, I opted to register for the “The Turf Warrior Obstacle Race and Mud Run” on November 11th on the west coast of Ireland. I decided that the best way to train would be by not only running here at home but also sport climbing and ERG rowing.
The adventure started immediately when we landed in Dublin and drove our rental car due west entirely across Ireland in the darkness and driving rain… on the left side of the road. After having one day to sort of acclimate, we drove to the Killarney Adventure Center where I dressed in my homemade wetsuit using my 2017 Run to The Pub shirt, black leggings, and a whole roll of black poly tape (There were no longer wetsuits available in my size.). This event was an absolute blast, and I completed all 25+ obstacles, slip-sliding-muck swimming my way for 8 kilometers. My Run to The Pub shirt, and the sponsors listed on the back, were a big hit. Apparently, there are quite a few “Yellowstone” fans in West Ireland!
At the finish of this event I enjoyed homemade soup and plenty of hot Tullamore Dew whiskey with lemon wedges. We spent the following 10 days hiking, climbing, exploring castles and ancient historical regions like the New Grange passage tomb (older even than Stonehenge and the Egyptian Pyramids).