Shamrock Shenanigans

I had a fun night the other day planning a non-run for my regular running group. Many people had finished a winter "A" running race and/or were just starting to think forward to the summer tri season, so it was a good time for a break, plus it was almost St Patricks Day!

With some searching of elementary school PE blogs (did you know there was such a thing?), I put together some games that would get us moving, without being like picked last for a sport team or being pelted with a dodgeball. Perhaps I am revealing some of my own middle-school-PE-anxieties here

1. Shamrock Scramble
1. Prep: Printed out shamrocks, some with three leaves, some with 4. For the three leaf ones, I had an exercise like run, skip, backwards run. For the four leaf ones, I had exercises for two or more people, like group-circle-run, which meant everyone had to run together holding hands, or partner-skip, which was skipping holding hands. I set out a cord part way down the field to be our turn-around point, since this wasn't supposed to be a series of 200m sprints
2. Execution: I split the group into two teams. Each team had a stack of shamrocks in front of them. The person at the front of the team turned one over and then someone would do the activity.
3. Review: It was awesome! The bunny hops and bear crawls were hard, so I should change those to be hop or crawl one way, then run back. The "Monkees walk" was hilariously fun. We did not stay lined up, or take strict turns, but I think everyone got to do a few things and no one felt pressured to do something too hard or that they were letting the teams down.
2. Follow the leader
   1. Plan: We would make one long line and then the person at the front would do something for a while and we would imitate it. Then they would peel off to the back, and a new leader would take over. The twist was that it was "slow motion" so no running, but pretty much everything else was ok
   2. Execution: Lining up was too hard, so we did it in sort of an amorphous circle. I also had the "velvet revolution bell" which I rang after I felt like we'd done something long enough, otherwise, especially in a circle, how do  you know when you are no longer leading?
   3. Review: It was pretty good. I'd do it again, but maybe with split groups. It turned into a neat kind of informal bootcamp with squats and balance, and somersaults, and planks. I think this game also achieved the goal of not making people feel too pressured because no one was really paying attention to how someone else was doing the exercise.
3. Leprechaun Treasure Hunt
   1. Plan: We would split into 4 groups. 1 group would have the treasure (a small gold thing I had in my car) and the other groups would be leprechauns looking for the treasure. 
   2. Execution: We split up to different sides of the field, and the treasure team had some moments to huddle and decide who would hold the treasure. Then on "go" we all ran around and tried to tag someone. If you were tagged you had to show your hands to say whether you had it or not.
   3. Review: I think this went really well. I kept the game to half the field, and with a 4:1 ratio of taggers to runners, even really fast runners couldn't get away too far and make it tedious.
4. Clock Relay
   1. I need a better name for this game
   2. Plan: Split into groups of 3, 4 or 6. Lay out 12 marks on the ground, like the lines used for suicides (but relatively close together). The team had to get to line 1 using 1 limb (ie. hopping), to line 2 using 2 limbs (ie. running or two people hopping), etc. Small groups would mean to get to line 12, all 3 people would have to bear crawl together.
   3. Execution: It worked out that there were 15 people, which was one of the few awkward numbers, so we split into groups of 5 and I only laid out 10 lines.
   4. Review: This went ok. Team hopping is way easier than solo hopping. I think it would be better if the teams made some bear crawls mandatory, just to mix it up, but that would also make it a lot harder.

Generally, I was super happy with my games day, and all the feedback I got was positive as well. I'm going to try to remember to do this again next year after the time change and after winter "A" races!