Pound Pavement and Push Pace at the Prineville Paddy Pint

If you happen to be in Central Oregon on St. Patrick’s Day and looking for something fun to do, look no further than the Prineville Paddy Pint Run. Held at the perfect time of 3pm (!) on a Sunday afternoon, this is the perfect opportunity to get spend the day/weekend in Central Oregon in before capping off the day with a race.

The event offers a 10k or 5K which will tour downtown Prineville with optional “pit stops” stocked with refreshments along the course at Starbucks, SOB and at Good Bike Co. Check out the cool interactive map here.

We ran this in 2021 and had this to say:

There were three distances to choose from – a 2-miler which stayed primarily on the main city streets, a 5k that added in a section on some paved trails within Ochoco Creek Park (a cool trail I didn’t know existed until this race), and a 10k, which added a larger section around Meadow Lakes Golf Course.

We opted for the longest distance as we really wanted to experience Prineville as much as we could. The first mile was on “busier” city streets, but there was plenty of space either on the road or sidewalk. To get to Ochoco Creek Park, we had to cross over 1st Street, and there were great volunteers who handled traffic with ease. Ochoco Creek Park offered a paved mile or so and seems like a great place for a short run and avoiding crossing streets all the time.

At abut mile 2.5, we split off from the 5k course and headed up along the Ochoco Highway for just a short little jaunt before heading down around the streets surrounding the golf course. We were finally spit out in Rimrock Park and enjoyed our short little bridge crossing before heading back to quiet residential streets.

The final few miles flew by as we navigated the neighborhoods and headed back to the finish line.

There is a whole weekend of festivities and contests this year – including a weekend scavenger hunt! The whole town is getting in on the fun, so you won’t want to miss out. It actually looks pretty sweet.

Take a picture with you and the items listed on the webpage in it between Friday, March 15th and Sunday, March 17th.  Post the picture on Prineville Paddy’s Pint’s Facebook page with the hashtag #RunPaddy2024.  Make sure to ‘Check In” to the business location of the items to show support.  The more pictures you post, the greater your chance to win prizes!