Make Tracks Through the Zoo 5K
So… Today I’m recapping 2 shorter races that I’ve done in the last few months. BOTH of these races happened after tornados hit… isn’t that wild? The Make Tracks Through the Zoo race that I’ll be recapping first was CANCELED, because a tornado went through the St. Louis Zoo 2 days prior to the race! I mean, what are the odds of this? So, I decided to donate my registration and I ran the race on my own. It wasn’t as fun, but Nathan did go out with me and when we passed, he cheered me on. We also lost our power for about 24 hours with the storm, thankfully it came back on the next day for Nathan’s birthday… it truly was a wonky weekend.
This photo is from the St. Louis Zoo site, this is the Butterfly House! It was crushed in the storm. They were able to rescue most of the butterflies. This happened at 2:45 p.m., so it is just amazing no-one got hurt, nor did the animals get hurt. They had several field trips going on during the tornado! They thankfully got everyone into safety (along with the animals). St. Louis did sadly have 5 deaths with the 2 tornados on May 16th, 2025. It breaks my heart that families lost their loved ones during this storm and so suddenly.
I wanted to share this photo from the Gateway Arch, this is the tornado in the distance that hit Forest Park, Central West End and other nearby areas. And, YES! People were up in the arch when it happened!! It is not a quick process to get down and everyone only got 8 minutes of warning before it hit!
I did this race on a trail by my house, so I’m not going to include the map, but this is what my Garmin gave me for my 5K time. I had an 11 second PR, so it gave me a little trophy! One goal for this race was that I wanted to get my first 7 minute mile during the first mile. I did it! Even though it was close at 7:58!!
I feel like I could have pushed myself a little more the last mile, for some reason I thought I had a little more wiggle room to taper back a bit and still have a great PR. I was wrong! Ha, ha! Lesson learned! But, I still had a PR and I’m thankful for that!
Time: 26:11
Average Pace: 8:27 / mi.
My mile splits were:
Mile 1: 7:58
Mile 2: 8:31
Mile 3: 8:49
.10: 9:09
Since I don’t have any photos to really share from this race since I did it on my own, I thought I’d share a little throw back photo of my first ever Make Tracks Through the Zoo 5K from 11 years ago. I think this was my second 5K ever? Nathan ran the mile. The kids were BABIES!! My dad is standing behind me and he is mostly housebound now, so this photo is special to me.
I may have not gotten a medal, but I did pick up my race shirt and a sweat towel.
Chesterfield Shamrock 10K
I ran the Chesterfield Shamrock 10K back on March 15th and it really was a wonky race too. First, my coach wanted me to run it as part of my ‘training’ for my half marathon, so she didn’t want me to go ALL out for it. I had signed up, thinking I was just going to race it all out. Ha, ha! But, she wanted me to start at a specific pace and progressively get faster by a few seconds each mile. She’s a firm believer in the fact that you train for your A race and any other race during that training session is not your A race!
Next, we had some REALLY bad weather roll through St. Louis the night before the race. I mean, BAD. We had 4 tornados touch down 5 miles from our house in Arnold, MO. LOTS of destruction. It still has a lot of areas that aren’t fully repaired. So, YEAHHH… it was QUITE stressful the night before, not only did we have tornadoes nearby on the radar, but we were up super late and I was super stressed… and tired the next morning!
Then, the day of the race… it was still SUPER windy from the storm. This race is up on a levee, so you are up high and there is NOTHING to break the wind. The tailwind was AH-mazing, but once I got into the headwind… It was the hardest thing I’ve ever ran against, it was like running against a wall!! For 3 miles! Even if this had been my A race, WOW… I don’t think I could have done well. If you look at the photos, the air is just SO polluted with dirt, etc. My allergies were SO bad for two days after this race… I had major faucet nose!! I don’t know if I would have even raced this if I had realized how bad it would have made me feel afterwards… and to think all that junk got into my lungs! Ugh! I’ve ran in windy conditions, but man… this was unreal!
Here I am up on the levee, trying to look cool, but I was like AGHH this headwind!
Here are my stats for the Chesterfield Shamrock race. I recently ran a 15K faster than this, but AHWELL. You win some and you lose some.
Time: 57:38
Pace: 9:17
This race was SUPER small, so no medal/ribbon or food afterwards. I don’t know if I’d do this one again, but there is a different 10K I’m looking at for next Spring that I’ve ran before (years ago) and I really liked it. It would be fun to do this one again under ideal conditions.
