Race Report: Shelby Bottoms Boogie 15k

There has been something about rain and Saturday mornings this year.

For the sake of me proving to you how awesomely hardcore I am, humor me while I recount to you all the races that I've ran this year in the rain...

Race Judicata 5k and 10k
Tom King Half Marathon
Running to Beat the Blues 5k (ok, so technically it didnt rain DURING this race, but prior to the race)
St. Louis Marathon
Wild Thang 9 mile Trail Race
Scenic City Trail Half Marathon (again, technically... only a few sprinkles).

That's a lot of races in the rain, folks. And now, it's time to add another one to the list:

The Shelby Bottoms 15k.

I ran this race a couple of years ago, (Race Report Here) and a had good time. That year, I ran it a lot faster than I expected I would. This year... I didn't really know what to expect. I mean, let's be honest. When you line up at the start line of any race, regardless of the circumstances you always hope to PR. Always. Even if it's supposed to be an "easy" run, or the conditions aren't that great, you always secretly hope that the running gods will be smiling on you that day.

This race, was no different. But I specifically didn't look up my previous finish time. I wanted to run this race based solely on feel.

As we lined up at the start line, Melanie and I, and a new addition to my relay team: Andrea all lined up kinda/sorta together. We all knew that Andrea would take off and eventually kick our butts (like she always does), but I kinda hoped to keep up with Melanie and use her as a pacer for a good bit of the race.

The start was crazy and packed. It took me a good .5 mile before I caught up with Melanie and we could vaguely see Andrea up ahead. All was well for the first 6 miles or so. I was feeling really good. I felt like Melanie and I were keeping a good conversational pace, but still faster than normal.

It was around this time that I started to get BORED. I mean, Shelby Bottoms is an awesome park, don't get me wrong... but it is insanely boring. It's lined with trees, so you can't really see ahead of you, it all looks the same, and I like to be able to pick out points ahead of me and mentally check them off as you cross them. Yeah. That's not happening here.

This is also where we encounter the first of 2-3 enormous puddles that couldn't be avoided. The first one, I happily splished splashed through. The second and possibly third one (cant remember if there was a 3rd?) I stomped through and could feel my legs get incredibly tired as I tried to pull them up.

Basically... my legs gave out on me. I was slowing down and told Melanie not to let me hold her back and off she went. Seriously. She kicked into high gear and smoked me. Nice work, Melanie.

I pretty much coasted into the finish line with a time of 1:22:18.

Almost good enough for a PR. How funny is this? 1:22:18 is my exact finish time for the previous 15k. I swear, I am the queen of missing my PR by a second or two. Oh well.