Mardi Gras Marathon Feb 1, 2009

This post is only about the Marathon. I will post later about my New Orleans adventure.

I arrived in New Orleans on Friday morning. Packet Pick up started at 2:00 so I went ahead and got that out of the way. It was a nice Expo pretty much same as all the rest. We got a long sleeve tech shirt but the problem is they are huge. My small would fit a large man! They would not let me use my own chip. I was happy to hear they would not be useing bottled water on the course but would be setting up a water filteration system to hoses at all the water stops. So they would not be running out of water either.

Sat I met up with some friends for Pasta on Decatur. They had all done the race and one of them has won it several times. So was good to hear their take on it and their preperation.

Race morning I walked about 7 blocks from my hotel right over to the start at the Superdome. It was warmer than I had expected somewhere near 50. I had planned on ditching some clothes along the way but went ahead and ditched them before the start. There was plenty of port o potties and water/gatorade.

The course was basicaly two 13.1 mile loops loseing the half marathoners back at the start. I do not mind looping back but they had us run the first 13 through the french quarters starting straight down Bourbon. I did not like this as the streets are narrow and there were lots of Delivery trucks restocking the bars and resteraunts. Of course lots of people do not line up with their finish time so it was slow going trying to manuever around everyone while watching out for potholes, uneven roads, and trolly tracks. Crowd support along the French Quarters was not much there were a few people still drinking and I heard one lady yell out asking why we were running. Someone yelled back something about Forest Gump! We continued up and around Auduborn park around a paved walkway. At the half we kept running and they had the halfers exit to the left. Just as we were heading on. They started the 5K race right in front of us.... Great now more people to run around. The roads were in pretty bad shape and somewhere I think around mile 17 they had us running on a road that was being resurfaced and all the asphalt had been scraped off leaving a pretty bumpy mess. I am not sure how long we ran on this 4 miles? It seemed like forever and that is where my blisters started. I had slowed down at a water stop to fill my bottle and could not catch back up to the pace group trying to run faster on the messed up road. We ran around another park and back. I realy don't remember much else after mile 20. My Feet were screaming and I was nauseated so I was haveing trouble Guing or drinking Gatorade. I do remember a few spots with lots of people yelling and dressed in their Mardi Gras attire.

At the Finish they had Red Beans and Rice, Subway Sandwiches and Beer. All Good. I went to see if the clothes that I ditched were still there. The Jacket and Pants were gone but my vest was there. My stomach was still not good so Red Beans and Rice did not sound so good. I talked to My friend Ultra Don for awhile to see how everyone else did. Grabbed me a subway to go and headed to the hotel. After about a block I had to take my shoes off and walk in my socks. The blisters were huge and the one on the side of my foot was bloody. The last 6 blocks were endless. I soaked in an ice bath bandaged up all my blisters and headed to the Cresent City Brewery on Decatur for some Brew and the freshest Oysters I have ever had. Like Melt in your mouth good.

It is for sure a Very Flat Marathon but the running surface is bad and the course could use some tweaking. Everyone was Super Nice and they had a well stocked Course with Gu, Cookies, and Pretzels at every stop after the Half. Nice Medal and nice oversized Tech shirt. I would have liked to run it in 4:00 hours but ended up 4:12:38 not too bad. It is acutaly a PR for me by about 2 min. I have never had a problem with blisters but I do need to figure out the nausea problem and learn what I can eat on the course. The Nausea had happened on Every half and full Marathon I have ever run and if it is hot even the smaller races. Another one down....how many more to go????? I guess I will keep running until I can't run anymore.