I believe this is my 9th year doing this race. This is my official race recap for the Make Tracks Through the Zoo 5k in St. Louis…coming a little late, but better than never. This year there was a brand new course. I can’t remember how many years the race has gone through the Zoo, I want to say that this was at least the third year. We used to run around Forest Park near the Zoo and then post race had the Zoo to ourselves before it officially opened at 9am.
My honest thoughts about the course before I get into my recap – I think I enjoyed the race more before it went through the Zoo. Hear me out. Especially this year, it was VERY packed at the finish area and a bit chaotic for me. They still had it very well organized with being able to get your post race food, but it was very congested. I believe this was also due to the fun run and kids crawl also starting inside the Zoo. So normally all of that congestion would be outside of the zoo. It was very hard to get to places after the race finished especially because they still had parts closed off because of the fun run and kids crawl. Which none of this would really be an issue because the Zoo technically doesn’t open until 9am anyway, but it just felt very crowded in that area after the race. Also a bit difficult for spectators. I’ll still do this race every year no matter what, but just a few thoughts.
With that being said, I was also grateful because I was dropped off at the start. This year the start and finish were at different locations which could make it a bit harder to navigate parking for if you drove yourself.
The start line had plenty of porta potties and was also near a park bathroom if you preferred to use that instead. I was able to hop right up to a porta potty pre race and then get in a short warm up on the trails to try to avoid those heading to the start.
I was not racing this 5k. I had come off my break post half marathon and I always do this race, so I just wanted to have fun. I don’t really notice much when running in Forest Park, I feel like all the races are the same as far as where you will run. You will have some hills here and there. I thought the course was fine, but they were nice enough to give us the hill by the Bird House to enter the Zoo, so that was sweet of them. Like I said, it’s Forest Park and most of the races I do typically have this hill and I would honestly take this hill over the hill by the Muny.
I had a wonderful time running what I felt was comfortable and was quite surprised by my finish time. I definitely tried to sprint as hard as I could when I saw the time clock, but I didn’t start soon enough. I have been working to see sub 25 for the 5K since having a baby and I’ve been close, but haven’t yet. So to be only a few seconds off of my postpartum PR without the race mentality, was exciting. My ultimate goal is to go sub 24, but that will happen eventually. My lifelong goal has been to go sub 20 – but I feel a bit far off of that for now.
All in all, I love this race. I will continue to support this race. I always recommend this one to others. I thoroughly enjoyed taking my daughter last year and this year and will continue to see her excitement year after year.
How cute are the medals that they join together for the past 3 years?
Until next year!
