03/12/11: St Louis St. Pat's Day Parade Run 5 mile

Mot and I headed down to St. Louis to see my aunt, uncle and cousin for the weekend. Last year, we happened to be in town during the annual St. Pat's day parade. Before the parade, the city hosts a 5 mile run. So this year, we all decided to participate in the run.




On our way downtown.


Linda, Mot and Kent.


Linda, me, Mot.






















I'm not sure how many registered, or how many started the race and didn't finish....but there were 8951 finishers. A sea of green.


The "Running Man" statue in the middle of Kiener Plaza was dressed up in a race tshirt and bib.


The band playing at the end of the race.


The four of us at the end.


I ran behind one of these folks for the last 1/2 mile. The back of their sweatshirts had me giggling. "You'll survive."


A post race Guinness.







So now for the good news! The night before the race, I went to my favorite St Louis store, Fleet Feet. At the store, Mot insisted that I buy some new compression sleeves. I've been running for a year with no issues...but two weeks ago I barely made it one mile through shin splint pain.

Apparently, the pain was back because my compression sleeves had lost their compression quality. With my new sleeves, I was able to run the entire five miles without a HINT of pain.

Nada.

Zip.

Zilch.

I was nearly in tears when the run was over. Tears of joy that is. Thank goodness!!!!!!!!!!!

My official finishing time was 52:15...a 10:27 overall avg pace. 447 out of 740 in my age group. 4846 or out 8951 finishers.

Not too bad for not being able to run for the last two weeks....at all.

I'll take it! :-)

Now, Detroit Runner hosted a virtual 5K last weekend. I wasn't able to run, so I'm using this as a kind of substitution. It was a couple miles over the required 5K though. Next time I'll be able to run ON the day of the virtual run. Jeff, I promise! :-)