St. Patrick’s Day 5 Mile Run

By Blue Tapp Scheffer

This past Saturday was the St. Patrick’s Day 5 Mile Run in downtown St. Louis. My husband, Craig, my brother and I ran in the race along with 11,000 other people. Here’s my race report.

First of all, I wasn’t feeling too well. I haven’t done much running this week because I’ve got a sore throat and headache. I went to the doctor on Friday (I rode my bike to his office!) and he told me that I have bronchitis AND a sinus infection. Oh my, everything at once. So I stocked up on meds and am practicing nasal irrigation religiously. I told him about my racing plans the next day and he did say I should be able to run (he knows me too well and knows that I probably was going to run the race anyway). So it was with my doctor’s blessing (kinda) that I got on the MetroLink with Craig and my brother to head downtown Saturday at 7:30 in the morning.

The weather was a foggy, slightly drizzly 46 degrees and wasn’t supposed to get higher than 47 for the day. A bit yucky but at least the rain was predicted to hold off until the afternoon, long after we would be finished racing.

The MetroLink was packed with hundreds of other green clad, numbered folks in running shoes. This was to be the largest St. Pats Day race ever with well over 10,000 participants. They had mailed our race numbers and timing chips to us this year so all we had to do was show up and run.

Timing chips were a new addition this year as well. In previous years only competitive runners were time chipped but this year everyone got in on the timing action. Timing chips are little plastic strips that attach to our shoe laces. The numbered computer chip in the plastic strip is read by a digital meter that lies across the start and finish lines. Every runner’s exact time from start to finish is recorded. This is especially nice since it took almost ten minutes for us even to work our way to the start line after the start gun sounded. Yep it was that crowded. Imagine 11,000 people all scooting forward together at the same time.

My plan was to start off very slowly. I didn’t know how easily my bronchitis inflicted lungs would react to the early morning run. But I felt fine and was able to run each mile slightly faster than the mile before. That is my favorite strategy and keeps the runs fun for me. Last year at the Lewis & Clark Half Marathon I went out way too fast, burned out by the seventh mile and had a horrible run. I’ve learned my lesson. Going out slow works much better.

Overall it was a fantastic run for me. I felt great the entire time and had energy to really kick it up for the final mile. My race time was 54:42 which is a pace of 10:57 minute miles. A half minute slower than usual but I’m not disappointed with that at all.


My next race is the Go! St. Louis Half Marathon on April 11. And then the Ferguson Twilight 5K on May 15!