I signed up for the St. Jude's Children Hospital 15K in Ridgewood, NJ a few weeks ago. Oddly enough I've been to Ridgewood a few times so this seemed like a good suburban road trip from NYC (50 minute drive or so from Brooklyn).

We got there around 8am (the race started at 8:30am). I picked up my bib with my shirt and bag of goodies (free reusable icepack!). There was plenty of parking.

I haven't run a race that has been this low-key. I blame NYC and my love of big races. However it felt like there was only 50 people there (results state 100 finishers or so). I began to freak out when there was a strong chance I'd finish last (I didn't!). We started promptly at 8:30am and off we went.

The Course
No miles were listed at all. I really should have turned on MapMyRun on my iPhone. It felt like the longest race ever. Luckily, the course was covered by very tall trees so there was plenty of shade. The course was primarily a concrete bike path so there were plenty of bikes and people to watch out for. However it wasn't really an issue.

The course was primarily an out and back course. Within the 1st 20-25 minutes I was turning around then 25 minutes later, I turned around again. So in a way, it was a big weird loop of sorts. There were 3 water stations on the course, 2 of which I passed twice (that whole out and back thing). I had enough water and since there was shade, it didn't feel like it was a sunny 80 degrees. Also, there were plenty of little creeks and streams, so it made for a nice scenic run.

When I approached the finish line, the time said 1:30 exactly. I was soooo excited, what an awesome pace! I was so happy. Quickly ate up some bananas and a granola bar, (plenty of bananas, granola bars and bottled water) took some pics then off to brunch to celebrate.

I couldn't find race results on my own when I got home so I commented on Facebook on their page. They quickly responded with the website link to results but it wasn't up as of Sunday evening. I checked back Monday morning and it was up..

I was pretty disappointed that the course was actually cut down to 8.27 miles, making my pace a whole minute slower than I originally thought. I emailed them to ask why it was cut down, they responded and said there was "confusion with the map of the course." All the promotional materials stated it was USATF certified. Although, it was the first time they've held the race ever soooo you can't expect it to be perfect, right? Either way it was a good race for a great cause and, it was nice getting out of the city for suburban Sunday.

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