Shop, Run, Rest: February 2011

My first half-marathon was an AWESOME experience. First let me say that I grew up about 25 miles from New Orleans, so I am a little biased when I say that it is a fantastic, beautiful city and there is no place like it. I was very excited to travel it on foot and the race course did not disappoint.

We hit up the expo on Saturday, and it was OK – the organization as far as getting your bib, T-shirt, and swag bag was efficient, though I was disappointed in the lack of free goodies that the booths offered. What can I say, I like free stuff!! We did get a handful of free Sports Beans packets, and free samples of the Snickers Marathon bar, which tastes great, and Muscle Milk, which tastes not so great.

My good friend Angela had also signed up to do the half marathon, and we were in the same corral, so we left together with our chauffeur, my husband, at 5 a.m. Sunday morning to head to New Orleans (we all stayed the night at my parents’ house, still the same house I grew up in 30 minutes from Nola). I was very relieved and impressed with how easy it was to get to the runner drop-off point – I was really afraid the route we wanted to take would be closed by the time we got there, but we made it to the point easily and said goodbye to my husband (who was amazing for getting up at 4:30 a.m. to bring us, then entertained himself until we crossed the finish line).

There was a fun little brass band playing jazz music at the Start Village, and we stood around enjoying that for about 15 minutes until it was time to walk to the start. Angela and I both put our predicted finish time as 2:30 (though my goal was to beat that by a quite a bit), so we were both in Corral 18. The race officially started at 7 a.m., but we did not get to the start line until about 7:25. I liked that they did a countdown and blew the horn for the start for each individual corral – it was nice to show that you were still important even if you’re slow :)

So, Angela told me she’d been training at a bit of a slower pace than what I did, so she told me I could feel free to leave her behind, but I didn’t really want to do that – we’d signed up for the race together, and it didn’t feel right to separate immediately. I told her I wanted to keep a 10:00-10:30 pace and she said her goal was to stay with me.

This was a BEAUTIFUL day – cold in the morning, and my toes and fingers were numb for the first mile or so, but the sun was out and the temperature kept it so that it wasn’t too hot. Going at the slower pace (than I probably would have done had I been by myself), I felt really wonderful for the majority of the race. The course took us down Tchoupitoulas Street, Magazine Street, St. Charles Avenue, Esplanade Avenue, through the French Quarter, and ended in City Park. It was just a great, flat course (what else would you find in New Orleans???) that showed a lot of the different sides of New Orleans and showed the spirit of the city.

I really did feel great for basically the entirety of the race – I made sure with my Garmin that we were staying in the 10-10:30 pace range, though sometimes we’d slow down a bit for a rest, but then I would kick it up again. I got water or Cytomax at every station, and the aid stations were plentiful. I took a Gu before the race started and then took Gu Energy Chomps around mile 8. I loved the spectators that we saw, even if they were cheering for specific people and not me! The bands playing at various points in the course kicked up the energy, and I saw two different tables set up by spectators (?) with KING CAKE! I could not imagine eating king cake during a race, but king cake is tops.

At 10.5 miles, Angela told me she needed to walk and that I could go on. I checked my watch and figured that if I ran a 9:30-10:00 pace the rest of the way, I could break 2:20. I ran my little heart out for the last 2.6 miles, and the number of spectators grew the closer we got to the finish in City Park. As I approached the Finish Line, I saw my husband who snapped a photo right as I was noticing him. My final time was 2:18:47. I loved every second of it. Angela was right behind me, finishing at about 2:23.

We got some goodies after crossing the finish line, like the medal, a heat blanket, Snickers Marathon bars, fruit, Cytomax, etc. We all found each other and then after talking to another group of people we knew who had done the half, we left and went to this great little place called “The Ruby Slipper” for breakfast with my cousin and her husband, who live in New Orleans.

This was seriously a better experience than I could have envisioned, and I cannot wait for the next! I will definitely be working on my speed so that I can better my time, but do it comfortably. I am grateful that I had Angela to run with in the beginning, because that really made me pace myself and I think I enjoyed the race more because of it. (Being gassed by mile 6 or 8 or even 10 would not have been fun).

All in all, this was AWESOME (how many times can I fit that word in here), and I was truly proud of myself, the other runners, and the city of New Orleans for this race. The Rock ‘n’ Roll series, if all the races are done as well as this, is worth the money to participate in. Can’t wait to do another.

Shop, Run, Rest

Thursday, February 24, 2011

New running gear

Monday, February 14, 2011

Rock 'n Roll Mardi Gras Half Marathon RR

Friday, February 4, 2011

Way to go, MTV.

I've been busy....