Last weekend I ran my 2nd half marathon. I ran the
in New Orleans. This was my first destination race & I really liked it! Jaime & I traveled together & shared a condo in the French Quarter that we found on
. But we weren't alone. About 40 East Nasties were also there to run the race.
We got there on Friday & treated ourselves to a drink at The Carousel Bar & a fancy dinner at
. The food was good, but we were a little underwhelmed.
Saturday was a full day. We started with brunch at the highly recommended
. It was so good! Y'all, that's butter, not OJ!
After brunch, we headed over to the race expo to get our race packets & hear Olympians speak. Olympians, you say? Yes, a whole mess of Olympic runners ran the half as a training run. No pressure!
We spent the rest of Saturday afternoon walking around, shopping & riding the St. Charles Streetcar.
Another New Orleans restaurant that came highly recommend is
. We ate our pre-race dinner there on Saturday night. I mean, everyone eats fried chicken & bread pudding the night before running 13.1 miles, right?
Sunday - race day! We woke up early & made our way to Corral 17. I thought we would have to wait a lot longer than we did. We were off & running in about 20 minutes. The weather was great. The first 7 miles of the race was an out & back along St. Charles Avenue, which was nice. I love looking at all those huge old houses. There were a lot of spectators & live bands set up every mile. It was a good start.
Around Mile 10, I saw this huge inflated rocker dude that we had to run under. Obviously, I stopped & snapped a pic. OBVIOUSLY. The last miles from Mile 10 to the finish were on horrible roads. You basically had to run with your head down because of all the potholes & broken pavement. It was also hell on our feet. And there were no spectators along this part. I felt fine, in fact, I felt a lot stronger than I did at the end of my last half marathon. It was just boring & got a little tedious with the roads. I kept chanting to Jaime & Lana, "Channel the HAM!"
We finished in City Park, which is a gorgeous park. I ran the entire race with Jaime & Lana. Heidi started with us, but left us soon after as she's a little bit faster than we are. Even though my NOLA finish time is 9 minutes slower than my
, I felt stronger during this run. Last year, I really struggled to finish, but this year I felt great the entire time. I'm a slow runner, but I'm a strong runner. I'll take it!
East Nasty had a designated meeting spot in City Park, so we met up with everyone to celebrate. In true New Orleans fashion, you get free beer & jambalaya after the race. It was delicious.
After a nap & a shower, we all met back up at Pat O'Briens to continue the celebration. One of my best friends from college was also in town for the race & we met up for the first time in 14 years! We had an obligatory hurricane, then moved along. It stormed that night in New Orleans & we were without umbrellas, so these ponchos happened. Ballers!
We eventually ate dinner, then called it a night. Before our flight the next day, we grabbed brunch at
, which turned out to be my favorite meal of the trip. I ordered the Eggs Benedict Poor Boy & it was delicious! And our server was from Nashville!
After one of the worst flights of my life, which you can read about
, we were back home. But there's no rest for the wicked, as we're registered to run the
in Lynchburg on April 6, a mere 4 weeks away. Stay tuned!
For more details on the race, read my post over on
.
Full NOLA photostream
.