2012 Hermes St. Malachi 5 miler race recap

Saturday was a day of firsts for me.  It was my first road race of the year and my first year running the St. Malachi 5 miler.  It is one of Cleveland's signature races and I was excited not only to run this great event, but seem some great friends.

Your's truly on the cover of Hermes 2012 Event Guide

On race day we were blessed with sunny skies and no wind.  It was a bit chilly, but otherwise perfect conditions for an early March race.  I had no real goal going into this race other than running between 8:50-9 minute average pace.  This was my first of two races this weekend and as hard as this race was.  Sunday's 15K was much harder.

My race started with a half mile warm up.  Then made my way to the start line with fellow #dirtyrunner and Ragnar teammate  Jill Earle.  This is a large race and this year had a great turnout of over 2,500 runners.

The elevation chart does not do this course justice.

The start was jammed and I was walled in with walkers.  I had no where to go and had to walk to the first corner.  Fortunately, I was able to clear them by the first bridge and hit the sidewalk to make up the time lost.  I was through the first mile in 8:20.   At this point I began to relax a little and decided to run slightly above comfortable.  Mile 2 passed by and BOOM!  7:25  I was shocked.  This was the easy portion of the course, but I was feeling great and continued on.  Mile 3 was 8:02...WOW!  I was way ahead of my goal pace.  Even better than my 5K pace.  I have never ran 5 miles below 40 minutes and decided to see if I could hang on.  I made it through mile 4 losing a little time on the next climb.  Mile 5 consisted of a short steep climb followed by a long climb over a bride.  I kept telling myself if I could crest the bridge at 37:00, that I could make it.  I tried to climb it as fast as I could and it felt like my heart was going to fly out of my chest.  I don't remember what my time was at the top, but I tried to recover on my way down.  Thankfully,  I caught my breath back and sprinted to the finish.  There was a lot of runner traffic.  So I had to take the next 2 turns wide.  Sprinting to the finish I made it in 40:04.89 for an average pace of 8:01.

Not only was I shocked to 5 miles so quickly (my 5K PR is 8:00 pace), but to do it on that course was amazing.  I PR'd my 5 mile race by 1:56!!  Hermes had a post race party at McCarthy's bar.  It was a great time celebrating everyone's PR's with Summer Shandy!!  Yes, Summer Shandy is out here.  Just in time for the race season.

The Sunday run crew and fellow Ragnar teammates Jessica, Ryan, and Kristy

Celebrating with Jill and Pam.

A PR party isn't a PR party unless you have Shandy!!