On Sunday, February 13th, I was scheduled to run 28 miles. How boring…unless you find a marathon someplace warm…like New Orleans! Brad and I arrived late on Friday night, dropped our stuff off at our hotel and headed to the French Quarter for dinner. We really did not want a hole in the ground place, but the Hard Rock Café was not at the top of our list either. We settled in at a brewery, had some ribs, mac and cheese and headed back. Seeing all of the junk shops was really a lot of fun. They were FULL of beads and masks and all of the Mardi Gras “kitch.” We found out that the parades will start of Feb 20th and run through March 8th, the actual Mardi Gras Day – Fat Tuesday, 46 days before Easter. We also found out that Mardi Gras begins on January 6th, the 12th Day of Christmas, making Mardi Gras a true Christian holiday in my book!!
Saturday morning, we got up, had a great breakfast at the Embassy Suites (which I HIGHLY recommend, if not for the cleanliness, then for the FULL, cooked to order, unlimited breakfast). After breakfast, we headed to the expo, knowing to get their early before all the good stuff is sold out. After several purchases, and it helps that Brooks is the sponsor of the race, we walked around the expo talking with other vendors and asking questions. One vendor gave us a great idea as to where to do our 7 mile pre-race run. Upon leaving the expo, we noticed that Dodge was doing test drives on their new 2011 line and if you test drove the car, they would donate $20 to a charity of your choice. I chose the Challenged Athletes Foundation. If you have ever seen a racer with a carbon leg, or a swimmer with one arm, you may donate to them as well. Anyway, we got in our 2011 Dodge Durango with a local Dodge employee and hit the Big Easy. We could have cared less about the car, although it was nice, but getting a personal tour of NOLA was great!! After about 30 min, we pulled up to our hotel, got out and he drove away. A chauffer service as well. We were getting hungry and decided to eat lunch before our run, because if not, we would eat lunch at 2, then dinner at 6. Possible, but no thank you. We found a local Po-Boys shop, and we each got a sandwich. We did inquire what a Po-Boy was and all it is a sub, or hoagie, just another name.
Seriously, 7 miles the day before a marathon?? We put on our shorts and t-shirts and headed out to St. Charles Ave. We learned that you can run down the street car tracks, heading towards the oncoming streetcars and have a great run. The tracks are on a grassy median strip and EVERYONE walks/runs on them. The streetcars are not going very fast, so it is very safe. The man at the GU stand told us of this and we LOVED it. Brad and I headed out with him doing 4 and I was doing 7. You do have to watch for turning cars, but they also look for you. It was about 55 degrees and sunny when we headed out. It felt so good. My legs were a bit tight and the bottoms of my feet were sore. I am sure this had to do with the flying, pains the last 3 weeks in my legs and all the walking earlier in the day. The houses along St. Charles Ave were absolutely gorgeous. Houses like I have never seen before. After mile 3.5, I turned around and ran in the other tracks back to our hotel, but did not head straight there. I heard some music and ran towards it, to find a small parade, about 10 units, 2 of which were bands. The trucks were all pulling Ford Focus’ and throwing beads. It was official, I saw a Mardi Gras parade and had beads thrown at me! It was great, I could not wipe the smile off of my face. Did I really just run 7 miles the day before a marathon…yes I did!
Pre-race dinner is very important, as we all know. Gumbo or jambalaya was NOT on my menu! We headed to the French Quarter, not really knowing what we were looking for. We passed several places and overheard them say that it was a 45-60 min wait, or longer. No thank you. We went down a side street and came upon Ralph Kacoo’s. They had seating right away, so we went in. The table that we wanted was not ready, and it took about 15 min to get ready, but we had time. I had a feeling that it was going to be a LONG night at this restaurant. Brad and I each ordered the same thing, chicken with mushrooms, shrimp, artichoke hearts topped with a lemon sauce. We ordered pasta as a side dish. It was the best dinner!! While we were eating, we decided that we were going to record the whole weekend from that point on. All of my students ask what a race weekend is like for me and now we can show them. It all started with an empty plate…
After dinner, we headed to Bourbon St. never having been to NOLA, we were unsure what we were going to encounter. Oh my!! It reminded me of Ybor City near Tampa. No vehicular traffic, only drunk foot traffic. There were bars of ALL kinds with anything you could imagine. The funniest was some chick dancing on a table in front of a window and some fat guy dancing on the outside to her. He was just a jiggling away!! There were people on the balconies drinking and throwing beads as you walked by. If this is what it is like on a normal Saturday night, I am afraid that I would not be able to handle it come parade time! Time to head to the hotel to get the gear ready for the big day!!
4:53 am and the alarm clock goes off! Brad got up to shower as I laid there wondering why I was actually going to run a marathon for “fun.” I got up, had my oatmeal, coffee and juice. I was still tired. Not the “what am I really doing today” tired, but the “oh my gosh, we walked all day yesterday, plus ran” tired. I got my gear on, put dry clothes in my gear check bag, checked the weather to make sure it was still going to be 65 and sunny and we headed out the door. We got almost to the starting area and I realized that I had not put deodorant on my “chub rub.” Yes, I do have some chub that rubs between my legs and the chafing is very painful. Since I had to run 2 miles prior to the race, I handed Brad my gear and headed back to the hotel, grabbed my deodorant as my chafe guard and ran back to the start, around the corrals and found him at the Brooks area. It was 40 degrees out and I was sweating, which was a good feeling. I was able to use the Brooks VIP toilets, got a shirt that I had entered a contest for on Facebook and we put our gear in the trucks. You can put any gear in the bag that is given to you at the expo, put your name tag on it, and pick it up at the finish. Brilliant idea. We head over to our corrals, Brad was in 2 and I was in 4. As I was standing there, I learned that the girl behind me was trying to run a 3:40 to qualify for Boston and the lady next to her had missed getting into Boston by about 2 hours on registration day. I was feeling pretty lucky as I stood there. Then the National Anthem started. That always gets the mind flowing, especially as I look down and over and notice that the gentleman next to me does not have a right leg. He is running on a carbon leg. What is YOUR excuse for not running??
And the race is on! I was feeling pretty good at this point knowing that I had to keep roughly an 8:50 pace. Brian wanted me to finish just under 4:00:00, but not less than 3:50. It took me about 2:00 to get to the start line and we kind of all fell into a rhythm. I did not run with my music due to lots of bands on the course and listening to others talk. We were not .25 miles in and there were some people who were trying to pass several others by running on the sidewalk and that turned disastrous. There was a piece of re-bar that was connecting the sidewalk to the street and it was sticking about 6” up off the road. Some lady tripped over it and went “flying.” Her saving grace was the fact that she had gloves and pants on. She landed on her hands and knees, but got up right away. I think she was more embarrassed than anything. She appeared fine and kept running. The roads were packed with 15,000 runners, 3,000+ full marathoners and 12,000+ half marathoners. I was not familiar with the area, so I was just taking in the sights. There were lots of people cheering us on along the route, mostly with their great smelling coffee in their hands and some still in their pj’s! I was doing great at keeping my pace – close to 8:50, but my calves were still tight. They did not hurt, but I could not get them loose.
Just before mile 5, they started splitting the full and half runners. The full went to the left and half to the right. There was a guy announcing this on a bull horn and several women in the street looking at everyone’s numbers. Full were green and the half were purple. Just after the 5 mile mark, the crowd definitely thinned out and it was nice. I have now been running for nearly 45 min and have not said a word to anyone. I am sure that surprises most of you, but it is true. Out next main turn was onto St. Charles Ave where Brad and I ran on Saturday. It was flat and lined with people. We passed a house where they had their own band on the porch providing us with great music. I think the best part was the little boy in the doorway tapping the beat on his leg to his dad’s music. As I was running, I looked up and nearly ran into a little boy who was in the middle of the road with his hands out giving everyone high 5’s. It was annoying, but cute at the same time. Our next turn in the Garden District was onto Henry Clay Ave. I have NO clue what the houses were like on this road, but the road was the worst I have ever run on. The pot holes and cracks were terrible. All I could think about was ‘I sure hope there would never be a bike race on this road!’ We then entered Audubon park and it was gorgeous. Flat and open with huge, old trees that easily could have come alive. They looked like storybook trees that would have a face and start talking. After leaving the park, we were back on Henry Clay where I had to keep my head down, and also pee. I went the port-a-potties, but they were full, so I went behind them, facing some house and “popped a squat.” Hey, I was in a hurry and did not have time to wait! I was gone before anyone could figure out what was going on.
Back onto St. Charles Ave for a beautiful 3 miles along the street car line and gorgeous houses. The little boy was back in the street giving high 5’s again. What a great way to bring on a smile! I did have to stop and stretch my calves and it felt great. I happened to look to the side and realized that the half marathon was on the “other side of the tracks.” I did not know what mile they were on, but it was great to see them. We ran through the French Quarter and I realized that we were heading towards the French Market and we had just driven there yesterday! The road splits and so did the race. I was at mile 14 and the half was at about 10. For the next 2 miles we ran up Esplanade Ave. split only by cones. It was great all running together at this point. We split again at mile 16.5, having nearly 10 more to go, as the half was nearing the finish. I was starting to get tired. The bottoms of my feet were hurting and I was on the verge of throwing up. I think the 4 Honey Stingers every 20 min was too many, so I dropped to 2, then back up to 3. This made my stomach feel much better. I knew that I could not stop taking in fuel, but I had to cut back. Because I was not ‘racing,’ I was able to balance out the fuel better and relax a bit. After I passed the mile 18 sign, I knew I was feeling good, and heck, I only had 8 miles to go, that is nothing at this point, right?!?! I started seeing runners coming towards me, but I did not know what mile they were on. Of course I knew where I was, but knowing where they were gave me a sense of the turn-a-round. Never having seen the course, I was feeling blind.
Marconi Dr. was, of course, beautiful. I was heading towards Lake Pontchartrain with City Park on my right and beautiful houses on the left. Seeing the families out supporting us was still a great feeling. At mile 19 was the first and only conversation that I had the whole time. Some guy asked if I was okay and if I needed Gu. Silly man, it was not time, my watch did not beep! I thanked him, and said that I was set and was on my way. Yup, he got chicked. Up at the lake, we had 2 turn-a-rounds at separate cones. Turn-a-rounds at miles 21 and nearly 22 are tough, but they led us for a wide turn-a-round and it was really nice and not as hard on the legs. Finally, 4 miles to go and still right on pace. Heading back to City Park was fun. I was completely relaxed and felt like I was just out on a training run with thousands of friends.
After the water at mile 25, I turned it on. I was able to go from an 8:55 pace to a 7:49 pace and I felt great. I had been trying to count runners, but I got lost and could not remember what number I was on at the water stops, so I would just start over at the mile markers. I started laughing at myself because I was thinking of so much, but not about the actual run. The last .2 miles was great. The crowds lined the finish chute and the music was blaring. I knew that Brad was there somewhere cheering for me, but where?? I looked up and he was right on my left recording me crossing the line. It was perfect! 3:54:16 – right on track!!
When I crossed the line, the guy next to me was super confused. He was sure he was not done and that he had only run 16-17 miles. He had on a regular face watch, so I am not sure why he would think that, or know that?!?! After looking at the race map, I am not sure where he messed up, if he even did. I contacted the race director and told them what he had said and asked if they could let me know the outcome. They said that they would look into it. I tried to look up his number since it on camera and I could not find him. The race director wrote back and said they would look into it. I then told them again how concerned I was for him and they confirmed that they would look into it, but due to privacy rights, they cannot fill me in on him.
I gathered my medal, foil blanket, water, banana and oranges and met Brad after the finishers chute. I was SO TIRED!! My legs felt pretty good, not really sore, just completely worn out. Brad and I sat on the side of the road, stretched and had a snack. It took me a while to stand up, but I had to keep moving, just very slowly. We picked up my dry goods bag and found a nice, sunny place in the grass. I did not want to get too close to the band because I wanted to call my parents and fill them in. Laying down on the soft grass in the sun was the perfect ending to the race. Brad and I laid there and talked about each of our races. His first half marathon in 1:43 and my “fun run” of a marathon. I think we laid in the grass for about an hour before we got moving again. We headed across a huge field towards some shuttles. The shuttles were going to take us back to town, just blocks from our hotel. Once we walked about .5 miles to the shuttles, we boarded the bus and rode back. We noticed that we were definitely in Katrina area. All of the houses have new roofs and siding on them with new townhouses nearby. There were just a few houses that had not been touched, and they were completely destroyed. As we passed the cemeteries, all I could think about was the bodies that floated away in the floods. While we were on the bus, we realized how hungry we really were.
Everyone slowly got off the bus and went in their own directions. We just happened to pass a pizza place on the way back, so we stopped in our stinky gear with big smiles on our faces. I don’t think either one of us has eaten a pizza so fast and were still so hungry. We then strolled back to our hotel, stretched and relaxed. After Brad showered, I took an Epsom salt bath and loved every minute of it.
The rest of the day consisted of moving slowly and talking about the race. We made it to the French Quarter again for dinner. Not really sure where to go, we stopped and talked to some police and asked them where to go. After a fun conversation, we ended up at Embers on Bourbon St sitting on the balcony watching the people truly enjoying life.
After running this race, I know that I am going to be truly ready for Boston. A huge thank you to Brian Hamill for the training program and all the help over the past 4 months. And a huge thank you to Brad for putting up with me this weekend. It is a tough job, but someone has to do itJ
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