First a few fun facts about St. Patrick's Day -
- 60% of Americans plan to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
- 83% of those celebrating plan to wear green.
- St. Patrick's Day is the fourth most popular drinking holiday. New Year’s Eve is 1st, Christmas is 2nd, and July 4th is 3rd.
- 13 million pints of Guinness will be consumed.
- Boston is the most Irish-American city in the U.S. with 20.4% reporting Irish ancestry. (Forbes, Wallet Hub)
Now Saturday in Holyoke there's the parade & the race. My personal tips for the runners. Don't think to yourself... one beer won't hurt me before the race... the year I ran my corral was toward the back and I had to pee the whole race! Also don't go all out on that first hill. You've probably heard people say this 10K has a lot of hills... it does! The big ones toward the end :-)
Tomorrow when the race in Holyoke takes off it will only be around 34 degrees... wear proper layers!
And if you are trekking to Boston for the Southie Parade Sunday they have a shortened route this year due to all the snow out east. I did this parade a few years back when I had friends that lived along the route. It's so much fun, but view the day as a drinking marathon! (Southie Route Info)