Race Report- Mardi Gras Half Marathon 2009

Pre-Race:
Of all the days for my Garmin to act up, of course it picks race day! I was getting dressed at about 5:40 and noticed that the screen on my Garmin was totally blank. I put it on the charger and yup, 0%. When I took it off of the charger the night before to leave it out with the rest of my clothes, it must have never gone into hibernate mode and the battery ran down. It has NEVER done that before. Go figure. I did a pretty good job at not freaking out at that point. I got picked up at 6:00 by my GNOTri teammate Marcos. The race started at 7:00 so we figured we'd be fine. But once we got to the Superdome, it was a huge free-for-all and we sat in the truck waiting in line to park for at least twenty minutes. The good thing about that though was that my Garmin had more time to charge- I had brought my laptop so it could continue charging on the drive. My warmup was running from the truck to bag check, then from bag check to the starting line. I managed one or two quick stretches along the way. The weather was perfect- about 50 degrees. I'm glad I decided not to wear anything more than a tank top and shorts. Ran into Coach Kevin and Coach Rick at the start line.


Race:
For at least the first three miles, it was insanely crowded. I couldn't get a good rhythm going. The buildings in the FQ were messing up the Garmin too. I remembered my coach saying, "the only way your plan won't work is if you go out too hard, or mess up your hydration". I definitely wasn't going out too hard, so I stayed calm. Because of all the pre-race craziness, it took me a while to relax and get my mind settled down. At about mile 3 was when I kind of "woke up" and started smiling.

Things that made me happy- Seeing lots of friends along the way (including Beverly at Audubon Park- THANKS for coming out, girl!). Cheering for the guy leading the race as he came the other way down St. Charles (I was only at mile 5 or 6 at that point!). The Team Spot-Tees aid station at mile 8, where everyone was dressed as vampires, complete with fake blood and bats hanging from the trees. The people playing Chariots of Fire on a big boombox (I told them it made me feel like I should be running in slow motion). The spectator with his mp3 player rigged up to a megaphone so we could all hear it. The guy who dropped his Gu packet and actually stopped to pick it up.

Things that irritated me- There was just one really. Between mile 8 and 9 I must have run through at least three clouds of cigarette smoke from the spectators. Seriously, people??

So I ended up going out very conservatively. At about mile 8 I decided it was game time and I needed to start really getting after it. I picked up the pace to about 8:00, then to about 7:45 a mile or so later and held that to the finish. It got tough and I got tired, but nothing ever really hurt (like the inside of my ankle did at Vegas) so I thought that was really good. I definitely had to do some serious self-pep-talks in the last two miles or so though! There were tons of spectators lining the course for the last few tenths of a mile. That was great. Rounding the final turn and seeing the finish line just up ahead was even better! Chip time was 1:46:28. A new PR- woot!


Cooldown and post-race:
Ate some bananas, walked around, found Marcos. Watched the marathon winner finish. Saw Coach Kevin and Coach Rick again. Came back home and did a warm-down jog with Marcos and Kai. Texted my coach :)


Now it's time for my favorite race day tradition- the post-race pizza! Domino's, here I come!