This is a road race that runs in the historic part of town, and the course takes you by a bunch of church steeples, hence the name, Steeple Chase.

This is my 4^th consecutive year running this race that is sponsored by the Neighborhood Christian Center at one of our local churches. It is the 6^th year for this event, and my very first race 4 years ago in 2010.

I almost pulled a DNS on this race, because when I woke up at 5:30 am, it was raining, lightening, and 42 degrees outside. I decided to get up and mull around for a few minutes, and eventually decided to drive over. By the time I arrived, the lightening had stopped, so the race was a go. I decided to wear a LS compression tech shirt, SS tech over that, shorts, tight fitting socks to help with blisters, older shoes, and my usual ball cap. I don’t have a running rain jacket, so I left the house wearing my camouflage hunting rain jacket. I brought along a couple of towels (this was smart), but I overlooked bringing a change of dry clothes (this was dumb). When I got out of the truck, it was of course raining, and immediately, I was freezing! I went inside the community center to stay dry and warm, and just mulled around in confusion as I tried to figure out how I was going to run this. I pondered several questions, should I warm up, should I take my jacket off, how wet am I going to get, how should you race in such awful conditions? After bumping into some friends, they mentioned that the middle of the packer wins a free Garmin watch, so after hearing that, my mind was made up. I was just going to run easy, try to survive, make it an easy run, and have fun (well not really). I decided no WU and to keep my jacket on, I even moved my bib to the outside of my jacket.

I initially had a goal of sub 39, and possibly finish ahead of one of my coworkers in my AG, but I didn’t get either one of them goals. I really just wanted to get this over with so that I could go home. I finished with a time of 40:57 which was good for 2^nd in AG (coworker got 1^st), for a pace of 8:15. I got one of them little finisher medals and a $15 gift card to the LRS.

I started out the race running side by side with my friend through the first mile, and then I started pulling away from him. He finished in 43:30ish and won the Garmin. Dang it! I shouldn’t have sped up. My splits were 8:30, 8:08, 7:58, 8:10, and 7:54.

The rain jacket didn’t make one bit of difference in staying dry, but it did help with staying warm. I was completely soaked inside and out. I hope never to run another race like this; I don’t know how you can psyche yourself up to run in such conditions. Another friend of mine told me after the race that she had a blast, and had a lot of fun. When I told her how much I didn’t enjoy myself, she reminded me that I should always be happy that I can run. After all, my life could be a lot worse with having a different outcome from my colon cancer. She is right, so, I had fun too.

Year- 2010; time- 56:01; pace- 11:56/m; 10/10 AG; 116/169 OA

Year- 2011; time- 45:52; pace- 9:14/m; 6/7 AG; 108/194 OA

Year- 2012; time- 39:36; pace- 7:58/m; 6/11 AG; 22/162 OA

Year- 2013; time- 40:57; pace- 8:15/m; 2nd AG; will update the rest when posted

Thanks for reading,

Mitch

Mitch, bummer on just missing out on the garmin! Those conditions do sound sucky, I love running in the rain, just not cold rain. Nice job, all things considered.

Great job in spite of the much less than ideal conditions!!!

That's some terrible condition to race in. You did well with the AG. You will win your co-worker next time.

The garmin prize is a little unusual. Sorry you are too fast for it. But at least it goes to a friend rather than some stranger.

Great job toughing it out in those conditions!  And in May, too!   My patience for running in that crap is not the same as it was in December.

How much fun that you have run the same race so many times.  There's a 5K this weekend that I entered two years ago as a walker and last year as a runner.  This year it looks like I won't make it, but hoping for a multiple-minute PR next year!

Congrats on getting 2nd Place in your AG! It sounds like those were miserable conditions for racing, but you toughed it out and did well!

That looks crappy. Way to tough it out though and congrats on the AG placing.

Great race in some real lousy conditions.  It is great to have good friends for a reality check to help keep everything in perspective.