Monthly Archives: February 2013
Updating for Clarification
It wasn’t until after I got a few races under my belt and I started blogging about a few of them that I realized that I had a little problem with my initial format on grouping the races. I saw where another person was numbering their races straight through from the beginning and I liked that. They were already up to race number two hundred and fifty something. Recently, I labeled the Mardi Gras Mambo as #4 since it was my fourth race under this new run initiative I began. It was also my second race of 2013, my second race of the 13 in 2013 campaign and my first race in the 500K across the USA (one state down, forty-nine to go). Afterwards I realized that this blog is meant to focus on the 50 state campaign. Even though I’ll blog about other things, the main focus is the 50 states. So to avoid confusion, that means I need to rethink my numbering logic. It means I need to remove the #3 from the Advocate Cypress 5K and change the #4 Mambo to #1. Actually, scratch that. I walked most of the Mambo. So I’m not even going to make it number one. I believe I will focus on the Crescent City Classic to being my delegate from the great state of Louisiana. Makes more sense to me. I also need to get a map ready because I intend to complete state number one in less than two weeks and possibly state number two three weeks after that. The Crescent City Classic follows right behind that, so I’ll be busy. I’m also still working on my first run outside of the region. It really depends on when I decide to go, but if I plan for Memorial Day weekend then I think I’ve narrowed it down to Boulder, Co and maybe Portland, Ore. The Boulder 10K is a huge event while the Rum Run in Portland sounds interesting. If I decide to wait until mid summer or Labor Day weekend, then it could be somewhere in the northeast. I’d love to pair it up, run a race on Saturday in one state, then drive to a neighboring state on Sunday and run in a second race on Labor Day Monday. Long holiday weekends will be a great and easy way to knock out two states in one trip. I’m looking forward to knocking off some new england states very quickly that way.
So to recap, I’m editing my posts to renumber, so that it makes more sense. Sorry for the confusion.
Mardi Gras Mambo 10K
Race #2 of the 13 in 2013
Race #4 Overall
Race bib
In the middle of battling some bronchial infection (bad sinuses, bronchitis, a bad cold… don’t know for certain even still), I set out to complete my first 10K with minimal real training. I felt that I could easily walk it because I had walked a few 4 milers recently with the cold forming, so worst case I would just walk the entire thing. That was the plan going into it especially if the going got tough. The tough start walking.
The event is operated pretty well. They had two days of early packet pickup on Perkins Road. On race morning they are handing out fruits and performing organized stretches inside the Atrium in downtown Baton Rouge. It was chilly this particular morning but not seriously cold… yet. It was about 40 degrees and I didn’t feel much wind.
Start of the race
So by race time, we organize outside on St. Phillip St, grouped by finishing time but no real corrals. I’ve heard about corrals but I haven’t really seen them yet (or maybe it’s because I’m looking for actual cattle corrals). I made sure to start towards the very back this time, basically right in front of the walker group even though several people started ahead and ended up finishing behind. All the groups still started together even though it took about 90 seconds before I actually crossed the starting line. It made logical sense not to run at all before the starting line. Why waste that 90 seconds of running. Haha. The beauty of starting towards the back for me is that I have more room. I feel like I can create my own pace more quickly instead of running up behind other people or holding up someone behind me who wants to pass. The road opens up a lot quicker so I find it easier to pass and stay out of others way. Not to mention, since I can’t run fast for long anyway, I find it a lot less intimidating. This race had a total of 1,372 participants who finished although supposedly 3,000+ were registered the website said.
Many people were decorated in one way or another. Mardi Gras hats, tutus, shirts galore (I wore the race shirt, long sleeved). I ran for the first half mile (less than the last race since I had to keep reminding myself that this race was twice as long as the last, then I started splitting it up between songs, I’d run thru a song on my iPod and walk thru another. We went down Nicholson towards the LSU campus and all seemed fairly well. I even felt hot for a few moments since there was plenty of sun.
We passed Mike the Tiger’s cage around Mile 2 and that’s where I ran into a friend who seemed to be content with walking most of the distance. I don’t know if I caught up to her or if she passed me while walking, I wasn’t paying much attention until she stopped and turned around and starting smiling and saying something and I pulled my earbuds out like ‘What?’ At that moment, I basically stopped running. I only ran three additional short instances after that. Me and Vivian basically stayed together and talked about school, work, life and anything else that came up for the remainder 4 miles.
This is also the point where the wind really picked up. I kept hoping it would die back down but it basically got super windy and stayed that way the rest of the day. It was a cold wind too. It was then that I was very thankful to have that long sleeved shirt on. We continued thru the LSU campus, bypassing South Stadium where they are working on the most recent Tiger Stadium expansion to enclose the south endzone (awesome!). We ran across Nicholson again because traffic was getting backed up pretty bad and we didn’t want them to think they were waiting solely on us. We also got across the railroad tracks about a minute before a train came across. That would have sucked for sure. I wonder what happened closer to the start where the train crossed probably 15-20 minutes earlier. I guess I figured they would have stopped the train traffic at least for the race, and perhaps they did for the earlier finishers. Some people did finish in the 30ish minute mark.
Levee path
At the River Road, we ran across the road again because traffic was stopped (mostly people trying to bypass Nicholson I’m sure). Then we went up the levee path and walked along the levee path back towards downtown. I ran one last time right before the finish line because I turned the corner and saw the clock and it said something like 1:29:45 and instantly I was thinking 90 MINUTES! Even though I knew chip time would be less than the gun time, I was determined to make it for 90 minutes. I must have crossed right around 1:30:03 but chip time was easily nearly 2 minutes shorter. So I finished in under 90 minutes. Vivian said her time last year was 1:34ish so she made a new PR as well. At that point we hugged and went our separate ways.
The Mambo Medal
Oh, I got another medal. This is becoming fun, collecting finisher medals. I need a case to store them in now. I intend to get a lot. Not to mention I intend to get a ton of new shirts also. I guess I can get some smaller sizes and hand them to friends and family because what am I going to do with a bunch of new shirts that I might only wear once or twice? I’ve already had to buy some new hangers to hang some of them up (the ones I’ve gotten since last November).
So, all-in-all, the Mambo was a blast. I look forward to next years run where perhaps I’ll run more. I look forward to perhaps shattering that PR, unless I run into Vivian again. Haha.
I didn’t really hurt at all after this race, but of course I can attribute that to the fact that I walked more than 2/3 of it. Next year I’ll suffer more. In the meantime, I’ve got another 10K scheduled for two weeks in Vicksburg. That one is gonna kick my ass for sure. Do you know what kind of hills they have in Vicksburg?
Race: Mardi Gras Mambo 10K
Date: February 16, 2013, 9AM
Place: River Road, LSU Campus Baton Rouge
Time: 1:28:19
Carnival Birthday
As I write this, Carnival 2013 is coming to an end. It also happens to be my birthday. This will mark my last carnival birthday until 2086 I believe. It’s so far ahead into the future that not every website gives dates for that far ahead. Alas, I ended up not spending the day in New Orleans as initially planned. It was never a decision etched in stone. It was more or less a wish. Then as the weather looked increasingly worse and worse, I left my options open. Then with the passing of my great aunt at age 85, the week didn’t look near as exciting; although it wasn’t terrible either. My 90 year old grandmother has done so well through all of this, losing her son way too early and now her sister. The sister was much more expected as she had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and had unexpectedly slipped into kidney failure. It only signified that she was worse off than we initially though, but we knew something was wrong four months ago. It’s amazing how much can really change over the course of two years or even four months. Luckily grandmother is still going full steam ahead. What an incredibly resilient woman. So much we have learned and continue to learn from her.
So it’s Mardi Gras Mambo week and I feel calm and nervous at the same time. I still haven’t gone 6 miles yet. Five has pretty much been my cutoff up to this point. I’m interested in what my race pace will be, if it’ll be better or worse than I imagine. I also wonder if double the distance in a race means double the pain. I know I’m going to have to pace myself a little differently than I have been in the 5K races but it’s easier said than done. I’m generally always trying to push myself until I can’t push any further. Fortunately, I haven’t gotten to that point with the 5Ks so I’m hoping that introducing some 10Ks will help improve my 5K pace and endurance. But it still doesn’t answer how do I tackle the 10K as a whole. Worst case, there are a few walkers at the end so I know I should finish before them and at worst, I can stop and walk and act like I meant to walk the entire distance.
The course should be relatively painless. It’s flat and goes through LSU’s campus before coming back up the river road. We’ll pass by Mike the Tiger’s cage. I wonder if he’ll be cheering for us, or licking his lips for lunch. I also wonder how cold it will be that morning. It seems another Louisiana cold front is coming through in time for this race, so it could easily be in the mid 30s Saturday morning.
It’s also time for Lent. It’s the time of year to give up on something that I’ve been overindulging in lately. With all the movements and commotion with life, I’ve eaten more fast food than my normal. I’ve also been drinking more cokes than normal. Both are killing my figure. (Smirks) So I’m going to give them both up, eating out at fast food and any restaurant that’s not healthy and also soda/colas. Particularly Coke but anything else that can be a substitute. I’m hoping that will push me back towards my normal habit of water, milk, green tea and smoothies. Believe it or not, this works on occasion. My freshman year in college I had a huge obsession and addiction (really) to Ritz crackers. I’m getting that way with cookies now but it’s not near as bad as my Ritz addiction was. So for Lent that year I gave up Ritz crackers. Well, it worked. I went from buying probably a box a week to a box maybe two or three times a year max. And I’ve never looked back. I don’t obsess over them like I did. Heck, I don’t obsess over Ritz at all. I don’t even know what it was, the salt on them (I’m not a huge salt person), the buttery flavor on the cracker, the taste of any type of cheese on top of it… I don’t know. From what I’ve gathered, you do some pretty strange things when you get into college and maybe I would have gotten over it naturally anyway, but the Lent thing worked. I actually have pretty strong faith that it’ll help again. Notice I didn’t say ‘work’ or ‘cure’. I don’t intend to stop drinking coke entirely. But even one a day for me is just too much. I’m more of a water drinker anyway. It’s just that I’ve navigated away from it recently, just not thinking. I’ve had too much on my mind, pick up lunch, get a coke from a machine, even if I bring my own lunch I’m stopping at the coke machine almost like habit now. Well, it’s time for that to stop. Then perhaps next year I can work on the cookies. 😉
500K Across the USA 