St. James School 5K

I ran the St. James School 5K this morning.  Well it was billed as a 5K but it was more like 3.5 miles.  It was not super sunny when the race started but it was pretty humid, yuck.  This is a new race for me (well they are all new races for me, I only started running races this past January).  It takes place in Danielson, CT.  Registration opened at 7:30am and the race started at 8:30am.  Me being me (I hate being late to anything) I got there promptly at 7:40am.  I didn't want to be the first to arrive and seem over eager.  Check in was quick and painless.  I did note at the time that there was not chip attached to the race bib that they gave me.  Hmm.... how in heaven's name are they going to track our time I thought to myself.  Now I have 50 minutes to kill.  I dumped the goodie bag, which contained a race t-shirt, fliers for some upcoming local races and a few coupons into my car. 

My Bib

Now seemed a good time to find a bathroom.  In effort to stay hydrated for a race I drink plenty of water the night before.  This does have me getting up a couple times during the night but as long as I stay hydrated I am cool with it.  The first restrooms I see are two porta-potties right as you enter the gate for the school.  Although not my favorite, I am not too squeamish to use a porta-potty when nature calls and options seem slim.  These were the most disgusting porta-potties I have ever seen.  The first one that I went into someone had pooped on the seat.  I promptly moved on to the next one.  This one was not very clean but the seat was at least poo free. 

Business taken care of I set to stretching and talking to a few of my fellow racers.  I found out from one of the ladies that there are nice flushing toilets in the school that we are allowed to use. Duh!  I met an older gentleman while we were lining up for the race that said he has a goal of running a race in every town in CT.  What a goal!  He has 36 towns left.  He told me that the town he works in, Sterling, CT doesn't have a race but that he and his friend were going to see about planning one.  I thought that was pretty awesome. 

I started the race in the middle of the pack.  I was going a nice steady pace of about a 10 minute mile.  The course is fairly flat.  I ran the first km but had to stop and walk for a minute a little after that.  The heat and humidity were getting to me.  Having MS, I have to be extra careful in the heat.  Heat seems to bring a whole bunch of my symptoms like blurred vision and fatigue back.  I continued the race with a run walk run pacing, running for 5 minutes and walking for 1 minute.  I finished with an unofficial time of 38 minutes, about an average of an11 minute mile.  Not my best but clearly not my worse.

I am a little disappointed that I had to walk some of the way.  I generally can run a whole 5K without having to walk.  The heat has gotten to me.  I forget sometimes that I have a disease that in some is very debilitating.  I should feel lucky that right now it is only causing me to add a minute to miles. 

The T-shirt From the Race.