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