St. Malachi Race Report

The St. Malachi 5 miler is one of the most popular races in downtown Cleveland.  I think it's a combination of pre-St. Patty's Day festivities and being one of the first races of the season that really gets people excited.  The post-race party at the local bar doesn't hurt either.  This year there were over 4,000 runners between the 5 mile and 2 mile race options. The weather was beautiful!  It was probably in the mid-30's, but with blue skies and sunshine!

Detroit Superior Bridge leading to Downtown Cleveland.

I wasn't sure what to expect out of this race.  To preface, I had registered the day before I ended up in excruciating pain with a diagnosed 5 kidney stones.  I was on pain medication and hadn't done anything training wise all week except one bike ride.  I hate to waste race fees, so I decided to go with the intention of walking or getting a ride back if I had to.  

Matt was committed to coaching the TNT 10k team Saturday morning, so he didn't sign up for the race.  Our good friends Natalie and Tim picked me up and we arrived downtown about and hour before the race started.  We found a good parking spot, dropped off our gear, watched the 2 miler start, and got in a good warm up run before it was time to line up for our race.

This would be my second ever 5 mile distance race including the 2010 Turkey Trot which I finished in 45:25.  My secret goal, if everything went well, was to finish sub 45.  It was pretty much an out an back course: downhill the majority of the way out past the Brown's Stadium and to the shore of Lake Erie, and then uphill the majority of the way back.  I thought it was a great course, challenging, but not grueling.  My favorite parts of the race were running across the Detroit Superior Bridge and running through the flats: under bridges and on old brick roads.

Cool plaque on the Detroit Superior Bridge.

The Detroit Superior Bridge also known as the Veterans' Memorial Bridge.

The first half of the run felt great, mainly because it was all downhill.  I started to feel the burn after mile 3, but I kept on pushing though.  I tried to have a strong and positive mental attitude the whole race, which I think ended up making a huge difference.  The last half mile was pretty much all uphill which was tough, but I saw Matt at the peak of the hill (he drove out after TNT practice) with his green St. Patty's Day Mohawk on and it made me laugh.  I wish I had a picture of it.

Matt snapped this picture of me on my way over the bridge to the finish.

I was SO happy when I crossed the finish line and saw the clock.  I ended up finishing strong with a time of 39:35 (7:55 min/mile).  I placed 31/260 in my age group.  This was a huge PR for me AND the first race longer than a 5k that I have finished with a sub 8 min mile!!!  For not having done anything for a week and having 5 kidney stones along for the ride, I couldn't have been happier!  AND I felt great afterwards!

Instead of going to the post-race party at the local bar we decided to head out to Melt in Lakewood for some greasy sandwiches and tasty beverages.  It ended up being an awesome afternoon: good times, good food, good company!  

---------------------

After further review (downloading the data from my Garmin) it turns out the course was .21 miles short =(  So, I still got a PR, but it wasn't as good as I originally thought.  I ran 4.79 miles in 39:38 with a pace of 8:16 min/mile.  I am still very pleased with this!