Creve Coeur St. Paddy’s Half Marathon: Race Recap

Today’s race offered a home court advantage: a loop around Creve Coeur Lake, one of my favorite and most frequented running locations in St. Louis. This is also one of my favorite races. I’ve done it twice before, and I love it for the scenery, time of year, and flat course.

2024: 1:47

2021: 2:00

2020: 2:03

As past times showed, this was a race to be proud of even if it fell short of my expectations. Today’s race was a half marathon PR by one minute, although I was hoping to be much faster this go-around. I’m glad just to have gotten a new record after a week of being sick.

Something else that didn’t go as planned? The warm-up. I had the perfect spot to park picked out that was one-mile from the start line- a perfect warm-up distance. Unfortunately, the race directors outsmarted me (shocking), and a line of temporary “NO PARKING” signs awaited me when I pulled up to my spot. In hindsight, I should’ve just gone for it, but instead I drove to my backup location.

I parked my car and got out for my warm-up. “Eek,” I thought. “I better get going.” The race started at 8:30am, and I guessed I was about 1.5 miles away. I headed out, my heart beating a little harder than I’d have liked for a warm-up run out of anxiety about making it to the start. I periodically checked my watch and my pace quickened, as I neared the start line. I was 0.1 miles from the start line (and 2.3 miles into my warm up run) when I heard “3… 2… 1… GO!”

I groaned. This had happened to me before (clearly I don’t learn from my mistakes), but it wasn’t a huge deal. It just meant I had to start near the back of the crowd.

I ended the warmup on my watch (Uh oh- 2.3 miles at 8:50 pace. Not my race pace, but not an easy warm up pace, either), and prepared to immediately start my watch again for the race start.

I hopped in near the sign that said (11:00/mile). My targeted race pace was around 8:00/mile. A lot of weaving and dodging was ahead of me.

I started the race in a rush. The crowd wasn’t too bad. This is a big race and the path is narrow, but running on the left-hand side of the path (and occasionally the grass), I was able to keep my first mile pace at 8:06, just about what I wanted for my first mile. The crowd opened up and I had more room. I tried not to think about how much I’d run before the race and settled in to the pace. It felt good.

After mile two, the half marathon broke off from the 10k, and I had a lot more room. I chugged along, still picking people off as I was going way faster than the people I started with. I probably looked like a lunatic who had no idea what I was doing. I went easy up the few rolling hills according to the plan. When I got up to the bridge around mile 4, I started thinking it was pretty hard, but I wanted it. So I hung in there.

Around mile 6 I joined the 1:50 finish time pace group. This was good with me since I started after they did, but after a few minutes, I blew past them. They kindly cheered me on as I went.

Things got harder, and the only way I can describe it is that I hung in there. I clung to the pace I was at, which was a bit disappointing, because this is where I planned to start picking it up. I knew my goal was ambitious, and I could still PR if I maintained the pace I was at.

Lots of negative thoughts (like, “ow”) swirled my head as I approached mile ten. My pace slowly dipped a bit slower, but nothing drastic. I just tried to hang on. It was discouraging when the 1:50 group passed me again, and let to all kinds of confusion about what this meant for my end time. I hung on and kept them in my sights.

With two miles to go, I told myself I had 16 minutes of pushing. “That’s nothing,” I thought. I was able to raise the pace a smidge so the last two (painful) miles were right around 8:05. You better believe I was counting down the minutes for this part. “10 minutes.” “8 minutes. “5 minutes.” I passed the 1:50 pace group again and they generously cheered me on. “2 minutes.” “Okay, it’s gotta be one minute.” And finally, the finish.

1:47. A personal best! But probably the least excited I’ve ever been to get one. And that’s okay.

I’m 13 minutes faster than I was on the same course, four years ago, and that’s pretty awesome. I can be really excited about how far I’ve come and still agressively want my goals. Next stop, my fourth marathon (unless I can find a redemption half before then)!