Will Run for Food

Last year I thought about doing the St. Joe’s Run but I already signed up for the Freaky 5K and since I found out about it a few weeks before the race, the race fees were more than I wanted to pay. Since I have to work on the day of the Freaky 5K, I was looking for another race for October and St. Joe’s Run stood out. They were promising a feast at the end with Noodles Mac and Cheese. I’ll run for food. Plus the proceeds would benefit the St. Joe’s Food Pantry which I’ll be glad to help out since I don’t usually the rest of the year. (Yes, I know I should) Also if I didn’t want to “run”, I could walk but then I won’t get a time.

Race day dawn cold and windy but at least it was sunny. I overheated at Nitelite in Appleton last week and really didn’t want to experience that again. Even though I was afraid of being too warm I put on my long sleeve running shirt and my race shirt and grab my hat and gloves. It was 37 degrees when I left… that’s cold in my book. The hat made it until the National Anthem and the gloves came off over half way through the course. I was actually quite comfortable the entire time.

The St. Joe’s Run takes place at Bridgewood Hotel in Neenah. They tell you to park up the road in either the Jeweler’s Mutual or Plexis lots and then they will shuttle you to the hotel. I suppose I could have walked from where I parked my car to the hotel but if they were giving me a free shuttle, I’m going to take it. I waited in the hotel until it was nearly time for the race to start and then made the LOOONGG trek down the starting line. Ok so it was that bad but still it was a walk since we started at the road.

The course wasn’t bad. I knew we were going to run through the golf course but it never clicked that a golf course has grass. We ran on all types of surfaces….roads, sidewalks, gravel, and dewy grass. I wasn’t used to running on anything but pavement/sidewalks. I had no issues but the combination course really surprised me but it shouldn’t have. If there were any hills, there were minor enough not to be of any issues.

Photo courtesy of St. Joe's Run Facebook

Even with the mixed surfaces, I finished officially at 41:35 which I think is wrong but I’m not going to worry about a minute or so on my time. I only say this because my app which I stopped after I finished the race had me finish it in 41:37 and there was no way I could get my phone out of my pocket, woke up, and the app stopped in 2 seconds. It was chipped timed but it was almost like it was a manual chip time since I don’t remember crossing any mats.

After I finished, I trudged back up to the hotel where my feast awaited me. And what a feast it was. Usually after a race I’m happy to get half a banana and some water. This one was better than the Noodlini. First off you took a plate. Then you had bagels, cookies and brownie bites, veggies, grapes, bananas, Noodles Mac and Cheese, Hot Dogs, and Papa John’s Pizza. You could have water, WBC Goose Island soda, or Starbucks Coffee to drink. Then you had to find a place to sit which proved to be difficult. I just sat on a bench in the hallway.

Photo courtesy of St. Joe's Run Facebook Page

Contemplating if I really need a piece of pizza too

Even though it took me 41 minutes to finish, there was still plenty of food left and I’m sure the last walker would still have found a feast waiting for them.

My Feast

Even though I keep saying, I’m going to cut back on races next year to go to more baseball games, this one is going to be a hard one to give up. I may have to give up the Firecracker or Noodilini to do this one.