Yes... 2 race recaps, one post.
Let's get started...
The Half at the Louisiana Marathon
Last March, the Crescent City Classic held its race expo in the hotel that's connected to the building I work in. A buddy of mine called me to see if I was running the CCC (No, post marathon recovery still) and if I wanted to hit the expo with him (why not?). While we were walking around, I saw the booth for the Louisiana Marathon and they were offering heavily discounted registrations for their race in January, so I took advantage of it and signed up for the Half for $50.
3 weeks later I signed up for Dopey. And realized the error of my ways when I was filling in my race and training calendar for last year. At that point I figured there was no way I'd run the La. Half a week after finishing Dopey, so I didn't even think about it. But as the date got closer and my friends who were running were talking about it, I started thinking 'maybe'. After I got home from Disney and felt pretty decent, I thought I'd take it easy and evaluate how I felt and make a decision by the Friday before the race (4 days). By Friday I felt pretty good so I decided to run Sunday.
The race was held in Baton Rouge, about 70 miles from where I live. That necessitated an early wakeup to drive and find parking, so I left home about 5AM. In what seems to be a pattern for me, I arrived at the race start with barely enough time to even get in a corral for the start, but I slipped in around the 9:00 pace area. This race wasn't a corral start, but probably should have been since there were 5000 runners. The weather couldn't have been better that morning, as it was cool and dry and clear skies were forecasted.
The first couple miles were fairly congested especially where the course was limited to one side of the road. And the overpass in the second mile was completely unnecessary, IMO. But once the course led to south of I-10 and headed towards the LSU campus the crowd seemed to thin out a bit and the scenery greatly improved. Running through LSU and around the Baton Rouge lakes was great, even though Tiger Stadium somehow got left out of the course.
Due to my late arrival, I had some, uh, 'digestive issues' I didn't get to resolve pre-race. Luckily at Mile 4 there was a church that had opened their doors to runners to use the facilities. I can't thank those folks enough.
This is stating the obvious, but my legs were flat out DEAD that morning. I tried pushing my pace a little early on, but it simply wasn't going to happen. I was 5 miles in before I finally felt comfortable running. I was OK knowing I wasn't going to run fast though. I finished in a still respectable 1:56:39 including a few minutes for a bathroom break. Post race was excellent. There was live music and plenty of food choices, and runners got 10 food choices as part of their registration. My favorite was the duck and andouille gumbo from Galatoire's.
The best part of the race however was getting to hang out with some of my friends from college. Baton Rouge meant a short drive from just about anywhere in South Louisiana. By the time the last of us finished (Joby and Kelly running their first marathon) we had a group of a dozen people hanging out. It made for an excellent day capping off a great race. Post race cheeseburgers at Roul's Deli were excellent as well.
Garmin Data Here
Rock N Roll Half Marathon New Orleans
Fog. Best word to describe the day. Fog.
This was my third year running RnR NOLA, so I knew what to expect from the race, the crowds, the expo, the course, etc. The half marathon course is great, starting from the CBD to St. Charles Ave. for a tour of Uptown NOLA then up Decatur through the Quarter and finishing with a run up Esplanade to City Park. I actually prefer this to the Jazz Half course which goes around Audubon Park instead of the stretch through the Quarter and City Park. For a visitor to NOLA, the RnR course is a great way to see a lot of the city.
Well, normally it is. Not this year though.
My wife dropped me off at the corner of Loyola and Girod, about 4 blocks from the start. I jogged to the start and got in my corral (Corral 3!) for the start. The weather was miserable. It wasn't cold, but the fog was unreal. Visibility was probably a quarter mile to half mile at best. And everything was wet.
I felt like I went out too fast, but looking back at the race data it really wasn't. I kept going back and forth from "I feel strong" to "OMG when am I gonna blow up?" but never hit the 'blow up' point. I did slow down after the turn off St. Charles onto Melpomene because the road surface was slick from the moisture. I picked up my pace again once I hit Decatur though, and still felt strong through the finish.
Normally on Decatur you can see the river levee on one side and St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square on the other. This year that didn't happen. The fog coming off the river made this impossible. It was a cool vibe though, in an "Interview With The Vampire" sort of way.
And for the first time in almost ever, I had signs on the course!
Let me back up a bit. After every race I give my wife a hard time because I inevitably see someone's family member on the course in 2-3 spots while she's only at the finish line. And that family member has a different sign for each sighting and is usually cheering enthusiastically. Meanwhile I get the sourpuss face from Shellie because she's ready to go home at that point. Then I aggravate her on the ride home about not seeing me on the course or having a sign for me. And her boss joins in because his family has signs for him.
For this race, Shellie, Brynn, and my cousin Tim (who was in town for work and hung out with us for the weekend) went to McDonald's on St. Charles and Shellie actually made 3 different signs for me! And they stayed to see me again on the return! I have one of the signs hanging in my cube at work now.
I finished in 1:45:46, which was my third fastest 13.1. I was hoping to break 1:45:00 but didn't manage my pacing close enough in the middle third of the race and slowed a bit too much at water stops. No biggie though, since this wasn't an 'A' race for me.
Typically the post race festivities at this race are really good, but we opted to skip them since the weather was so nasty.
I'll do this again next year.. Just a matter of if I'll do 13.1 or 26.2. And I can't believe I'm contemplating another marathon.
As for now, I took off of training this week to get rid of some lingering soreness and get some recovery going. I somehow tweaked my right ankle and my quads were sore. Today though, I feel pretty close to 100%. I'll go out on the bike in the AM and get a few miles in.
I'm registered for the Big Easy Sprint Tri on March 30th and will also register for the Crawfishman in early May. I wanted to do the Ironman New Orleans 70.3 this year but I think Dopey killed that idea. And the recent spate of cold weather has helped as I haven't been able to get in a pool yet since Dopey.
Garmin Data from the race is here.
Stay tuned as I update with stories of not swimming well in the very near future.
Time waits for no one, and it won't wait for me. - The Rolling Stones, Time Waits For No One.
