The Go! All American 5k was billed as a downhill or flat 5k.  We were skeptical, as St Louis is notoriously hilly, but it was a one way course, and we thought, perhaps magically, the race organizers had found a way.

The day before the race I looked at the course map.  Nope.  There are still plenty of up hills.

SURE you lose elevation overall, and there are most definitely more downhills than uphills.  But I see plenty of gains in elevation.  I’m only mad about this because the website specifically mentioned flat-downhill course.

False advertising in my opinion.

Nonetheless. 

The race was Sunday morning at 7:30 am.  Steven, Jen, Vanessa, and I were running it.  (We had tried to enlist a few others but they all bailed for various reasons). We parked near the starting line around 7 am.  The race started at 7:30 am, and basically started on time.  It was pretty crowded at the start, since evidently there were about 1500 people running, but there wasn’t too much congestion, especially for a race of that size. 

I was hoping to break 30 minutes, but I honestly still am not back in "shape."  I was doing really well at the beginning, and likely went out too fast as I was running with Vanessa a bit towards the end of the 1st mile (she is much faster than me) but I felt okay at that point.  Shortly after I hit a wall and was having a really hard time catching my breath so I slowed significantly, and then had a moment of cramping where I had to stop and walk (up a huge hill that was seemingly endless) and at that point I suspected I would not break the 30 minute mark.  Oh well.

I finished strong though, and my time was 31:17.  There were finisher’s medals (so funny for a 5k, but a nice medal!) and plenty of bottled water.  It seemed there were bananas and maybe other stuff too but I only wanted water.

The "team" at the finish.  I wore a belt so I could have my phone with me for pictures.  Vanessa mocked me, but I know she was happy.

 

Afterwards we had to take a shuttle back to our cars.  The shuttle was a yellow school bus, and I’ll tell you, nothing is grosser than sitting on those seats when you are completely soaked with sweat.  I felt bad for whoever would be on the seat after me.  (It was not terribly hot but incredibly humid.)

We decided, in grand tradition, to go to Uncle Bill’s afterwards for breakfast.

We were seated next to what appeared to be a rock climbing wall.

I needed my coffee.  I wouldn’t include this picture as I look frightening, except I wanted to show the shirt.  Super cute!  I had changed into it for breakfast since my other top was wet, and then I immediately had to throw that shirt in the wash once I got home.  What a gross and sweaty day.

Overall, it was a very well run race.  And I finished in the top half of my divisions!