First Race-cation: Smoothie King Big Easy Runfest

About a year ago my husband and I learned of a race with an interesting registration set-up where the first group of people who signed up got in for a dollar, the next group got in for $5, then $10, and so on in $5 increments.  Even though we live in Ohio and this race takes place in New Orleans we figured that if our registration was cheap enough we wouldn't lose much money if we couldn't make it to the race.  While I worked Nick signed us up for the race as fast as he could.  He got in for $5 and he registered me for $35.  $40 is not a bad price for the two of us to run a half marathon.  So, we started to plan our trip to New Orleans, a place neither of us had been to before.

We reserved a room in the host hotel, about 11 months in advance, and started saving.  Our local grocery store sells gift cards to the hotel chain where we were going to stay and when you shop there you earn fuel points.  When we bought $100 of groceries we would get 10 cents off per gallon of gas in a fill-up.  When we bought $100 of gift cards we would get between 20 and 40 cents off per gallon of gas in a fill-up.  This is how we saved for our trip.  We bought gas and hotel gift cards which saved us money on gas which we could use for more gift cards.  If we didn't make it to New Orleans we could use those gift cards on another hotel in the chain, it was a good way to save money.

Finally we got to the week of our trip.  We were leaving Wednesday night and coming back on Sunday.  It would have been nice to go for a whole week but I only get 4 personal days a year so I can't take a full week off from work plus that would also add hotel costs.  I was planning on taking Thursday and Friday as personal days and getting back in time to go to work on Monday.  Some friends were watching our kids for us and I am so grateful to them for doing that.  After having our normal Wednesday dinner of Skyline we dropped off the kids and headed South, it was going to be a long drive.

Rest Stop in Alabama

Driving overnight has its advantages and disadvantages, less traffic but fighting sleepiness.  Usually Nick sleeps all day before driving an overnight but he had worked a lot in the past few days and had not gotten an opportunity to rest up.  We stopped a few times for gas, food, and caffeine.  Unfortunately our gas cards weren't very useful.  Most of the Shell stations that we passed on our trip down were closed so we had to get gas at other stations.

One notable stop was the first rest stop in Alabama.  It had a rocket at the entrance to the rest stop.  We were pulling off to take a nap but we had to get out and look around.  It had a wonderful park with memorials and, of course, the rocket.  We wandered it at 2 am then returned to our car to catch a quick nap.  Afterwards we continued on, alternating drivers a few times.  We continued into Mississippi and then Louisiana, two states I had never been in before.  As we approached our destination we knew we would be really early to the hotel and we wanted to be able to check-in when we got there.  Along the way we stopped at a Wal-Mart about an hour away from the hotel to pick up a few last minute items that we had forgotten.  We got into New Orleans around 1 pm on Thursday, a few hours before check-in at our hotel but we were hoping that we could check in a little early.  Fortunately it wasn't a problem.  We checked in, using all our gift cards, which amused the employee who checked us in.  She had never seen gift cards to the hotel and wondered where we had found them.  She found the story interesting.

View of the inside of the hotel from the 26th floor

We went to our room, settled our things, and checked out the hotel.  As part of our room we had access to a lounge which served breakfast, afternoon snack, and evening appetizers.  Since we had reserved our room so far in advance we were always vigilant for a better price on our room.  As the year passed better rooms became available for cheaper than the room we had reserved.  We kept switching until we had an amazing room that was a lot cheaper than our initial reservation.  This room included quite a bit of free food.  We checked-in with time to go get some afternoon snacks which included huge cookies, amazing puff pastries, and a variety of drinks available.  It was nice having food immediately available.  We enjoyed the view from the highest floor, checked out the gym, went to the gift shop, then headed out to enjoy New Orleans.

Nick and I on Bourbon Street

We walked from our hotel to Canal Street and Bourbon Street.   We checked out the shops, listened to music from the bars, and ate at The Hard Rock Cafe.  I wanted to try some authentic cuisine, but on the first night we just wanted to get some good food since we had been eating a lot of snacks and not much in the way of meals over the last 24 hours.  It was only around 6-7 pm when we headed back to the hotel.  We were still tired from the drive and had a few days to enjoy the city.

On Friday I needed to get a run in.  I did not run on Wednesday or Thursday so I needed to warm up my legs for the race on Saturday.  We asked the concierge about a good place to run.  She suggested a street that was only a few blocks away.  We walked to that street to find that it was narrow and bustling with traffic, that wasn't going to work at all.  So we kept walking.  This was the opposite direction that we had gone on Thursday so we got to see parts of New Orleans that were not a part of the French Quarter including a World War II museum, Civil War Museum, a Grilled Cheese and Wine restaurant, and various street art.  Eventually we found our way to the Mississippi River where there was an outlet mall and a River Walk, where there were many people out for a run.  I had found a place to run.  Nick wasn't planning on running so he checked out the stores at the outlet mall while I got my run in.

Sights along the River Walk

November is Louisiana is warm but this day was a bit warmer than normal, even for them.  It was easily in the 90s with high humidity.  The river walk did not offer much shade at all but it was a safe place to run and that was all I needed.  The walk itself, from one end to the other, was only about 1 mile long.  I wanted at least 3 miles so I would have to run parts of the river walk at least twice.  There were many sights along the river walk including an aquarium, holocaust memorial, statues, and the Mississippi River.  This was also an area where riverboats docked for tours up and down the Mississippi.  There were lots of people, not just runners, along the river walk but there were at least a dozen runners that I saw so I wasn't the only one jostling the non-runners.  On my first time down the path I just enjoyed the sights.  On my second trip I stopped and took pictures, who knows when I would get a chance to see this place again, and I figured out a better route to follow.  I was just enjoying a run so I might as well document it.  I returned after 3 miles to the outlet mall to find my husband.  He was shopping at the Puma store and had seen me running through their store windows.  We got some bingets (not sure of spelling) checked out a lot of shops (Coach, It's Sugar, Lindor, and a New Orleans shop) and did some shopping.  Nick started feeling sick and we needed to head back to the hotel so that we could pick up our race packets so we went back to the hotel.

We figured out a much more direct route back than we took to get to the river walk and were back to the Superdome very quickly.  After picking up our packets, and turning in canned goods (part of the registration requirements) we checked out the few booths at the outdoor expo and picked up a few items.  Nick got sunglasses and I got a pain cream for my feet.  It was a smaller expo than we expected but we both found some interesting things and we both got a free shirt and some other goodies, I love free stuff.  Nick needed to rest after that and I needed a shower so we returned to the hotel for a few hours.  I think our internal clocks were all messed up because we ended up eating an early dinner again.  This time we went to a local Mexican food chain, Juan's Flying Burrito, it was small, away from the French Quarter, and very different from the Mexican food I'm used to in Ohio.  It was good.  We came back to the hotel to find a jazz band setting up outside one of the restaurants.  I wanted to see a jazz band so I came back down to the lobby to enjoy the music while Nick recovered from his stomach ache in our room.  The performance was wonderful.  I just soaked up all the music.

Ready to go

Race day.  Since we were close to the start of the race we didn't get up very early, not early enough for me to get a warm-up mile, but we did get ready and out in time to join a group warm-up done by a local fitness place at the race start.  It was fun and it got me warmed up.  Nick and I were enjoying a game of "Spot the Northerner".  There were runners at the race like Nick and I, wearing tank tops and shorts, and there were runners who were very different, wearing jackets, earmuffs, and gloves.  It was around 50 degrees F with some very strong winds so to us it was perfect running weather; to the local New Orleans runners it was a chilly day.  I placed my self near the 10 min/mile pacer because I just wanted to enjoy the run, not push for a PR and the race began.  I lost the 10 minute pacer but I kept him in sight and planned to catch-up.  Surprisingly the course followed a similar route to the course that Nick and I had walked the day before to get to the River walk.  We saw a lot of the same sights and went around the same round-about and found it amusing that we were covering these roads again.  I didn't have to sight-see because I had already seen it.  We went past Mardi Gras World, past the outlet mall, barely touching the French Quarter, back to the hotel, and out towards neighborhoods in the opposite direction.  This was when we had some new sights to see.  There was a large park with lighted sculptures, art and memorials to local legends (some I knew, some I didn't), and a very different view of New Orleans.

Within the last mile of the course

The first part of the course was a loop, the second part was an out-and-back.  I got into the out-and-back portion shortly before the race winners were coming to the home stretch so I got to see everyone along that part of the course.  We ran along a canal to a small dip below a bridge then back up again.  This was the only hill we had in the entire course and we did it twice.  It was maybe a 6ft climb at most, quite a change from Adams County.  We came back along the canal and I knew that I should see my husband before I reached mile 10.  Nick is slow, but I do have a point where I start to worry about him.  The course did have a cut-off time and I didn't want him to be swept by the SAG wagon.  I got to mile 10, there was a timing mat there, but I still hadn't seen Nick.  I came around the corner and there he was.  He even had his camera out so he could snap a picture of me.  He stopped me to give me a kiss mid-race, it was so sweet, he's never done that before.  As I came closer to the end I saw the end of the race, the last person followed by the sweeper.  I saw them around the same place that the leaders in the race had seen me when I was on my way out and they were on their way back.  I had caught and passed the 10 minute pacer about 4 miles into the race and I wasn't going to let him pass me.  I was going to finish strong.

I came to the final turn and as I did I saw the 5k runners lining up for their start.  I had hoped to jump in and complete the 5k as well if I finished the Half in time to do so.  The Half started at 7am, the 5k at 9:15 when it was originally scheduled to start at 9:30.  I finished the half in 2:08 but since I didn't start at the front of the pack for the half I didn't have enough time to get into the 5k.  By the time I had my medal, water, and mylar blanket the 5k had started.  They did have a mat before the finish so that they could announce runners as they finished the race.  When they announced my approach they had a bit of difficulty pronouncing my hometown.  It was amusing to hear how they pronounced Piqua.  I know I brutalize names that I am not familiar with and it's nice to hear someone else interpret one I am familiar with.

Post-race photos

I decided to go back out on the course to get some pictures and hopefully run my husband in to the finish line.  I cheered for runners at the 2nd to last turn and made sure to capture some of the sights along that last mile.  Unfortunately Nick was no where near the end of the course and I was getting cold since I wasn't running anymore.  I tried tracking him on Facebook with the Nearby Friends feature and he was still miles out.  I walked back to the finish line and got in line for the free Physical Therapy tent.  Nick finished after 3 and a half hours, his worst half ever, but he had not had a lot of food and had been sick over the last 24 hours.  He was just glad that he finished the race.  We got out free beer, food (Jumbalia, not sure on spelling again), and enjoyed the post-race events.

Overall the course was very nice.  It was flatter than a pancake, very scenic and a nice way to see New Orleans.  The volunteers were enthusiastic and well prepared to help all the runners.  There were plenty of water stops along the course with lots of people handing out hydration.  There was plenty of food and beer after the race and a lot of places to hang out and enjoy the post-race amenities.  I love the medal and the bib was very nice.  The shirt is a little tight around the neck but the design was very nice, yellow but not eye-bleed yellow with nice graphics on the front.  I do wish I had been able to do the 5k as well, but I guess I just have to be a little faster in the future.  Then I would have had 2 shirts, a medal, and a cup plus 2 races in Louisiana.  If we could afford to travel to New Orleans in the future I would absolutely run this race again but I think we would want to travel to new places before we start repeat trips. 

Race Shirt and Medal

We spent our last night back on Bourbon Street but this time we took the Trolley.  I know, it is touristy, but we were tourists and wanted to enjoy the most famous street in New Orleans.  Bourbon Street on Saturday night is very different from Thursday night.  On Saturday night there were parades on Canal Street including a wedding party parading and and Indian dance troupe.  On Bourbon street artists set up in the middle of the street, dancers, acrobats, bands, all performing in the middle of the street.  Young men were hanging out of balconies throwing beads trying to "encourage" young women into certain behavior.  None of this was going on during our Thursday night trip.  We checked out some of the side streets where we found various art galleries and artists selling so many types of paintings.  We found shops that were less touristy and more charming downtown shops.  Plus, I finally tried some authentic New Orleans food.  We went to the Fish Market as recommended by a friend of mine who used to live in Louisiana where I tried Craw-fish for the first time.  It was spicy but I couldn't stop eating it.  The flavors were amazing.  Our seat was right by a big, open window onto Bourbon Street so we got to people watch while we enjoyed our Cajun dinner.  It was a perfect way to spend our final evening in the city.

We left the next morning, with a car packed with goodies and souvenirs.  It took all day to get back to Ohio and the trip back was even more exhausting.  I would love to visit New Orleans again, go to less touristy places and see more of the city.  It was very nice to be somewhere different.  I thoroughly enjoyed our first race-cation and I look forward to going on another one eventually in the future.

Dayton River Corridor Classic

Am I capable of pacing a half marathon well 2 weeks after running a very difficult marathon?  I would find out on October 9th.

To be honest, I thought I was crazy.  I wanted to run the Dayton River Corridor Classic when I learned about it because is was a relatively cheap half in October and it seemed wrong to not run a half in October, despite my very busy September schedule.  But, I also knew that I would be exhausted and that this race would not be a great race for me if I were able to run it. When they posted about needing pacers, specifically a 2:30 pacer, on Facebook I thought it was meant to be.  I could get my half for free and I wouldn't have to worry about being fast, but even with that would I be recovered enough to be able to run a half marathon well enough to pace others?  I didn't even think about it, I volunteered and determined that I would do it.

Pacers

This was the first time in my pacing where I got to know the other pacers in the race.  I was added to a Facebook group with the other pacers and we were able to discuss coordinating our clothing, meeting for a photo, and other race information.  It was really nice to know what we were doing besides running our pace.  This was also the first pacing I have done of an established race and outside of the Race 13.1 series.  I felt that I had done well pacing for 13.1 and wanted to do the same or better here.

I arrived at the race, checked in, received my shirt, bib, and pacing sign.  After dropping off my shirt in my car I ran into a friend that I started running with in 2012, Jen.  She was a part of Reasons to Run and a ran with her a lot that year.  After the Columbus Half in 2012 we hadn't really talked much.  She decided to remove her Facebook account and I couldn't come to the 5 am runs in Troy anymore so we lost touch.  She was running with a friend and had been doing less running lately, but it was nice to see her.

Off we go.  Larry is on my left

I met up with the other pacers and we discussed the course, past pacing, and plans for the race.  Many of them were experienced pacers but Lisa (pacing the 2:20 group) was new to pacing so I was giving her some tips.  We got our group picture and placed ourselves in the starting chute.  This was the first time I've paced where we did spread ourselves out well for the runners.  Runners started streaming into the start area, lining themselves up to pacers and coming right towards me were Pam and her cousin Larry, two of my running buddies from Piqua.  I had no idea they were running this and I was very happy to see them.  Larry asked if he could hold the pacing sign.  I told him he could if they stuck with me for the first mile.  They were just there for fun and said they would try to stick with me.

The race began and if you are familiar with Dayton races you would be familiar with a lot of this course.  We started in front of the Riverscape Metro Park (Ghost and Goblin start in the past and where the Dayton Celtic Festival takes place) and went North towards 5/3 Field then West over the bridge near the ballpark (same course as Dayton Dragons 5k).  The course takes that road to another bridge which leads to another park (still the same as the Dragons course).  This is where the course becomes mainly bike path and we had our first water stop.  Some ladies who were running near me had already made a comment about calming down and keeping an even pace, to which the other lady replied that they needed to keep my pace.  They were trying to stick with me and I would do my best to help them.  We took a left in the park to follow a bike path that went over a bridge and onto a path that went beyond the park.  On the other side of the bridge was a large crowd cheering and this was around the mile 1 marker.  They were working a water station that we would hit twice later.

Me and my group at mile 3

We went left on the path down to the 3 mile marker.  This was turn-around 1 and also water stop number two.  This is where I ran into Pam and Larry again.  They had gone ahead at the first bridge and had a decent lead.  Pam stopped when she saw me and got a picture of me pacing.  At this point I should mention that even though this race is 40 years old they had to change the course this year due to construction.  This year the course was a Y shaped double out-and-back.  Many people weren't happy about this, but to me it meant that I could anticipate the course a bit better for pacing the 2nd part of each out-and-back.  It also meant that the pacers saw each other twice and could cheer for each other's groups.  I really thought it turned out pretty well.  We saw the leaders of the race twice and we could see the sweepers behind us twice.  It gave you an interesting perspective of the race.  By this time in the course it had been really flat.  The worst hills were the bridges, which weren't really that bad.  I was keeping my pace within 10 seconds above or below the goal pace and I was feeling good.

We headed back to the bridge where the cheering crowd had become a water stop, but instead of going over it we took the right leg of the bike path for our second out-and-back leg.  At this point I had gained some more runners in my group, ones that had tried to stay ahead of me, but were now just trying to keep up with me.  I was still keeping an even pace that would put me within 1 minute ahead of 2:30.  We took a dip into an area of the park that smelled like sewage, that was not fun.  We were all relieved when we got through that area, but we also knew that we would have to go back through it again since it was part of the second out-and-back.  The course continued along the river where there was another water stop, up a steep but short hill, and along the side of a golf course with a tall fence that included barbed wire.  I thought it looked like a nice prison, ha ha.  This led to a dip where we had out last turn-around at mile 8 with another water stop.  I had lost a bit of my group by this point, but one lady kept dropping, losing me, then catching back up.  She and I started talking during mile 8, which was nice, but accidentally slowed me down and while we were still on pace to finish well, if we had another mile like that we would be in trouble.  I was about 70 seconds ahead of perfect pace, after that mile we were about 20-30 seconds ahead.  We picked up the pace and I kept it right where it needed to be for the next few miles.

Lady in dark blue is the one that sticks through 

We got back to the sewage area during mile 12 and we must have wanted to get through that because my mile 12 was a bit on the speedy side.  I didn't lose my buddy through mile 12 though she could tell that I had picked up the pace.  We came back to that water stop by the bridge, went over the bridge, back to the first water stop, and back out to the road we started on.  I told the lady I was pacing before the mile 12 marker that she needed to leave me at that marker and go for the finish.  Due to my unintentional acceleration I gave her a surge of speed for the end.  I slowed down a bit for the last mile, when pacing I do not like to pass anyone in the last mile unless I absolutely have to pass them.  It really stinks if you have stayed ahead of a pacer for 12 miles and they catch you right before the finish, especially if your goal was to stay ahead of that pacer.  Even though my pace was slower, it really only made up for the speedy mile 12.  I was still right around a nice pace for the pace I was supposed to keep.  We didn't take the exact route out to go back to the start.  We started on roads, we finished on the bike path behind Riverscape Metro Park (same route as Celtic Festival 5k/10k finish).

Even though I slowed down, the woman I was pacing kept looking behind to see how far I was behind her.  I kept smiling and urging her on.  I was by myself at this point and I like when I lose runners I am pacing because they are running their last mile faster but I know some people see that as bad for a pacer.  I do wish my group had stayed with me longer than it did. It thinned out a lot by mile 5.  I came to a bridge about a half mile from the finish where a volunteer was worried that I would not be on time for my pace, he thought I was really far ahead of my time.  I told him I knew I was ahead, but I thought I was close.  I came to the finish and as I neared the finish line, through crowds of people who were already done, I heard a group notice me ("Here comes the 2:30 pacer, she's good") then look at the clock ("Wow, she's really good!").  According to the clock I finished within 30 seconds of 2:30 (2:29:30) and according to my chip I came in within 1 minute of 2:30 (2:29:05).  My best pacing ever!

Medal Picture

I got my medal, collected the pacing signs from the other pacer, and waited to pass on the signs to the last pacer.  The woman I had paced and encouraged had been looking for me.  When she found me she thanked me tremendously.  This was her first half marathon and even in training she had not done a lot of continuous running.  She said she never thought she could do what she just did and thanked me for helping her run continuously for the entire distance.  She was so happy.  I love that!  The last pacer came through (I think 3:00 or 2:40) with a huge group.  It was a speedy half that didn't have a lot of finishers after 3:00.  I'm not sure what the time limit may have been but usually 2:30 is not in the last 25% of finishers and in this race it was pretty close to that low.  I don't know if it attracts faster runners or has a strict time limit but it was odd for me to be that close to the back of the pack, even pacing.

After the race there was a PT tent (yea!!) so I had my feet treated for free again.  That's one thing that balances, I may be injured but if I keep running races I keep getting free treatment.  Runner logic, it doesn't really make sense but we use it anyway.  They also had a free pancake breakfast which was very enjoyable.  I didn't run into Pam, Larry, or Jen after the race, but they finished well ahead of me so I didn't expect them to stick around for me.  I have kept in touch with many of the pacers from that day and have even run with a few of them since that day.  A few days later the race asked us for feedback on the race since we had a unique view of it as pacers.  We also got some feedback from them, which was largely positive.

I really enjoyed pacing this race and was pleasantly surprised that I had recovered enough to run an even half marathon 2 weeks after my worst marathon.  I do hope I can pace it again in the future.  I'm also glad that I'm getting better with keeping an even pace.  Maybe one day I will be a Beast Pacer, I just have to keep pacing.