Holy Hills!!

First let me get this minor disclaimer out of the way - I am close friends with the Race Director of this race, which is just one of the reasons I run it each year. She's awesome, but that will not influence my review.

This year the St. Anne School Nun Run, a race to benefit the church school, was moved to Sept (it had been in the Spring in the past) to occur during the school's annual International Festival, which I think was a great decision and led to more exposure and race entries than prior years. Pre-race, there is lots of email communication and Facebook posting to keep participants in the know. Pack pick up was race day only and despite that, it was a quick and well organized process. The pick up area and race start were located across the street from St. Anne Church and there was plenty of parking at and around the church. I parked, walked across the street and waited only a minute or two to pick up my bib and cute cotton shirt (seriously, the logo is adorable and filled the shirt front with sponsors on the back). There was a large table with all the regular rack packet items - chap-stick, pens, coozies and bottle openers that you could help yourself to, all with sponsor logos, but I have tons of this stuff already, so I passed. A quick trek back to the car to stash my shirt and back across the street to the race start.

The race atmosphere was very festive. It was a smaller race but it was located about 2 miles from my house, so I knew a lot of the participants. Lots of showings from local running groups and of course much of the St. Anne Church membership. The race was free for children, so there were a lot of kids there as well. One local group, F3 was there in a large showing and had several local disabled youth that they were pushing in racing wheel chairs/carts so that was really awesome too be a part of. The kids were all so excited.

The race started at 8 am right after the National Anthem and a short prayer. One thing I wasn't so keen on for the start is that we started the race in a grassy field before turning onto a neighborhood road after about .1 mile. I'm notoriously clumsy, but managed to make it to the road without incident. I also am not a fan of races that allow dogs, esp when those with the dogs don't start in the back, but that may be just me as I have a slight dog phobia.

I swear I didn't mean those things, Susan!

Time for honesty. This was probably one of the most brutally hilly routes I've ever done a 5K on. Holy hills it was a rough one. And I literally ran a race with the word Mountain in the name. The course zig-zagged around neighborhood streets near the church for 1.5 miles where you then turned around and went back the same way. There was a water station at the turn that was well staffed, but I passed without water which is typical for me for a 5k. It wasn't any less hilly coming back either. Around mile 2 I saw the race director, who I may have said a few unkind words that I had to apologize for later. This was the second year the Nun Run followed this particular route as they had to avoid the local university area due to an event. Fingers crossed next year's race is able to route on Winthrop campus again and not on this hilly hilly route. There were ample volunteers on course who helped keep everyone's spirits up and more than a few neighbors were out in their yards cheering runners. I spent some time running with some of the F3 guys and their kid companions and was able to forget the rough terrain.

Somehow I'm not slipping on grass at the finish

The finishing mat was a quick turn off the road back onto the grassy field which again made me a bit nervous with the still wet grass, but was fine. Lots of people cheering at the finish. There was a huge table with cups of water and Gatorade. There was another table that was filled to the brim with all kinds of snack foods. I'm not kidding, it was the best post-race stocked table I've ever seen. Fruit of all kinds, bagels, granola bars, chips, crackers, cookies, muffins, you name it. There were several church ladies making sure that everyone got food and they were super sweet.

There were no medals with the exception of those who placed 1st, 2nd or 3rd in the following- Overall Male/Female, Masters Male/Female and in 10 year Age Groups Male/Female. The medals were super cute, color appropriate (Gold, Silver and Bronze) with the race logo on one side and the placement engraved on the back. Despite the rough course, I managed a placing (time 29:39), in fact, my first Masters placing since turning 40 a few months ago - 3rd place Masters Female.

Overall, great local race, great community and a great cause. Will for sure do it again, I'll just be keeping my fingers crossed for a route change.