St Patrick’s Day Parade Run

I did the St Pat’s Run before we settled in to watch the parade. The run was a good balance of hills and flat land. After the race we had brought our lawn chairs and coolers. We had a nice snack and adult beverages. The parade was 2 ¹⁄₁₂ hours long. I felt bad for the balloon handlers, they could just not get them up into the air. It was a great day for the parade and the run… Yeah St Louis…

In St. Louis, we love St. Patrick’s day so much, we have 2 parades!
The annual Run & Parade downtown happens the Saturday before St. Patty’s day and is a fun event to not only attend, but also as a volunteer gig.
I’ve volunteered for the last 6 years, and here’s what you can expect for the donation of your time:
Tee Shirt
Close up views of the Parade
Breakfast & Lunch Sandwiches & drinks
An AFTER PARTY for all volunteers at the Hilton, inclusive of complimentary beer and a food ticket.
The group that puts on the parade is like a tight knit family, and you get to see the same people year after year.
They are likely to still be accepting volunteers, so I’ve included the link below.
Whether, you are attending the run, the parade or volunteering, this is a great time, every year!

Although running the streets of downtown STL with over 10,000 people is awesome the details behind the 2011 run were disappointing.
Pre-​race
Getting to the race was great by taking the Metrolink. The registration online and t-​shirt pickup was fine. They needed WAYYY more bathrooms available. The lines were ridiculous!
Race
Race start was crazy overcrowded and unorganized. Getting around people with strollers and walkers was a pain. The streets had lots of uneven areas and potholes. Race finish was overcrowded and I was unable to get over the finish line due to the large crowd of people waiting to get to the runners village.
Post race
It was difficult to find the entrance to the runner’s village. There was no post race free food available for runners that I saw. There was no free water that I could find. It took me 20 minutes to find where to get the free beer.
This race is for anyone and everyone. There are people who take it very seriously and those who dress up and run with a keg of beer strapped to a shopping cart. Ha!
The race itself is very fun I will do it again, but I hope it is more organized next year.

I ran this for the second time this year, and although it wasn’t as great an experience as the first time around, I’ll still probably run it again next year.
Pros:
— It’s a FUN race! Seeing loads of people dressed up is always a lot of fun. And it’s HUGE! 14,000+ people running through the streets of St. Louis. You really can’t beat that!
— It’s easy access via the Metrolink. Just get off at the stadium exit and you’re steps away. Nice!
Cons:
— The finish line was extremely disorganized and it bottlenecked at the end. I was REALLY thirsty at the end, and I couldn’t even figure out where to go to grab a water or energy drink or SOMETHING. Major fail.
— The start line was disorganized as well! The first half mile was a lot of walking/​weaving around people. Frustrating, but I knew I wasn’t going to set any PRs with this race.
I’ll probably do this race again next year, just because it’s fun running through downtown St. Louis.

I really, really wanted to love this race. First off, I will say that I did NOT register for this race to set any sort of PR (personal record), and I just wanted to go out and enjoy the run with thousands and thousands of people in STL. I did have a great time and it was a fun way to start out the spring racing season (excited!), but the run itself and the runner’s village was frustrating.
Positive things:
–Easy online registration & good pre-​race info given via emails
–Great atmosphere!
–You can take metrolink right to the start
–The racing chip is on the back of the bib, so no messing with putting it on your shoe and having to cut it off later
–3 different corral sections for various running abilities (1: elite/​in it to win it, 2: good runners going for a good race time, 3: runners, joggers, walkers, crawlers, whatever)
–Good course with various hills & it was fun running the streets of downtown
Negative/​frustrating things:
–Walkers, strollers, crawlers, etc. ALL over the course (i.e. on the left and right side of the road) making it extremely difficult to go anywhere or get around anyone. I never heard any of the race officials say «walkers on the right, runners on the left,» which would have been VERY helpful
–There were SO many people that I ended up walking/​slow jogging the first half mile because it was so cramped. I feel like a lot of this could have been solved by putting the walkers on one side.
–No bag check. I know, I know… this is not necessary and it would be a pain for the organizers, but it would have been a nice touch. I went by myself so I had no one to hold my stuff. I had to wear a certain jacket that had a pocket in it for my keys, phone, $$, ID and metrolink pass. Just kinda annoying.
–The runner’s village was lacking & very disorganized! There was only one small entrance to it, which was far from the finishing line. It took forever for runners to get there & was like a bottleneck traffic jam, so runners kept jumping the fence. There was absolutely NO free food… not even bagels or bananas! Major dislike. They had tents set up with food inside the village, but you had to buy it & I kept hearing runners complain about how they didn’t have any money on them. They were handing out energy drinks, water and beer (one free per runner using the coupon on your bib) for free, but not in the same spot. Several people asked me where I got the beer and I pointed them to a far off side of the village that was unmarked. I finally found some water, but never found that energy drink. I feel like it would have been MUCH better if they just used the village to have drinks and some sort of food for runners, ALL well marked with high signs to show people where to go. Get the other food tents out of there… it’s way too confusing & packed. It was equivalent to the feeling I have when I’m trying to navigate around the shopping center disaster in Brentwood.
I don’t know if I’ll ever run this one again, but I am glad I had the experience and it got me pumped for some future races this year!

This is by far my favorite run in STL. I have done this race for the past 3 years and it is a blast! There are always a lot of people at all skill levels so if you can walk 5 miles, you can participate.
This race is very entertaining. There are kids, adults, people in funny costumes, people tied together with shamrock tinsel, a group pulling a keg in a wagon and drinking while running. Although I have yet to spot a leprechaun… maybe this will be my year!
The best part of the race is the finish line, free beer! Whooohooo! Oh, and you can get a super green running shirt at Big River Running that says, «Kiss me, I’m a runner» to wear at the race. Check it!