Race #15 Overall

Race Bib

Well, it’s been a pretty nasty 2014 so far.  Along with not being able to run in one or two half marathons in January due to a family health crisis, the weather turned really crappy and we ended up having 2 ice storms back to back along with another two weeks of freezing conditions.  This time two years ago, it was spring.  It hit 80 on my birthday (Feb 12) a few years back and never dropped below that again through the spring.  We’ve become accustom to seeing azaleas bloom by now in recent years.  Not gonna happen this year.

This race marks the first repeat race for me.  Up to this point, even counting the runs I did in Vicksburg, I’ve never repeated a race.  This sort of excited me in that I get to evaluate myself now based on previous results.  Of course this race is completely different for several reasons.  For starters, new course.  If you remember my report from last years race, I probably mentioned running to beat a train before it crossed our path down by LSU.  Well, that train caused havoc back up in downtown because it seems it decided to come through at about the same time as the lead pack was finishing up.  There were some complaints also about the levee path (although I’m not sure for what reasons), but the train situation all but guaranteed a course change for this year.  So for now, the MGM runs from the Centroplex (River Center) up North Blvd to 19th and then down to the City Park lake to loop around and then come back.  There are pros and cons about this route also.  I guess I could get those out of the way now.

Fun Run

For one, the start is right next to the train tracks downtown.  Granted, it won’t prevent a race, but there were so many people crowded around and with young kids, and all were playing around on the tracks because it’s literally about 50 feet from the road and start line.  If a train had decided to come by, what would people have done?  You assumed they’d move out of the way, but we’re talking 1500 people here and a ton of children.  Certainly a catastrophe waiting to happen if you ask me.  I don’t know of any large races in the region that start and finish in such an area.  The course also goes over another set of railroad tracks along a bridge on North Blvd.  It’s an interesting hill.  Honestly, this shouldn’t be a huge deal because it’s insignificant, but it’s easy to forget that this is a very flat geographical area and most people running locally have never trained for any hills ever.  I heard a lot of complaints about it.  Another odd issue, there wasn’t much at the start/finish line.  Everything was set up inside the Atrium about a block away.  So it felt weird starting and then finishing with little support waiting right at the finish line.  If you didn’t know that it was in the Atrium, you would have walked away upset.  One more issue, and my biggest honestly but still petty, is that because this race added a 15K along with the 10K and they didn’t do a great job with drawing up a good route, they actually ended up blocking most of the downtown traffic, especially River Road traffic and anything west of 4th Street.  They also kept many streets closed entirely even for the slowest of runners and I can say that because I finished my 10K, went to the Atrium for over 30 minutes, walked another 20 to my car and left and the routes were still closed.  That’s a long time to be run/walking a 15K.  So it made it an issue for me to leave since I decided to park within this boundary of closure that I didn’t really know about.  If I had known, I would have parked elsewhere.  So my ultimate suggestion honestly is to move the start/finish up to around Town Square on North Blvd (away from the downtown tracks), then route the 15K more around the lakes of LSU or LSU’s campus itself and not up 4th Street and around the Capitol barracks, that way all of downtown isn’t blocked.  That should kill two birds with one stone if you ask me.

King of Carnival

As for this race…, it lived up to it’s history.  Plenty of local people.  And they added a new race, the 15K.  There were about 2000 people or more registered and there.  Most ran the 10K.  A few hundred ran the 15K route and some families did the 1 Mile fun run.  Actually I did forget one other complaint that the MGM didn’t seem to change for this year and that is the line up areas.  The corral areas are way too small.  They stack them up probably about 40-50 feet from each other when they really needed to be much further apart.  The slower runners and walkers actually ended up lining up well beyond the train track heading towards the casino.  But it wasn’t a huge deal in that nearly everyone got through the start line within 3 minutes.  It just makes for a little tighter area around the start line, and of course, there’s that train track issue again.  Move the start/finish area at the least!

the hill

But after the start, the new course was nice.  You have to go up a small hill almost immediately, up from the river plain (about 25 feet) up to the ‘natural levee/bluff’ (about 50 feet).  Then it’s down a separated boulevard towards MidCity.  Oh, another complaint (see I can keep coming up with these, haha).  There was a tough bottleneck right at the new Town Square area.  The road narrows and there are barricades, so as the group started to bunch up, faster runners took off towards the sidewalks to get around.  This should go to support by suggestion of moving the start/finish to Town Square and therefore avoid that bottleneck.  I didn’t notice many other bottleneck areas after that point.  There were some cars parked along Park Blvd (19th Street), but they weren’t an issue for me.  It did get a little tighter getting close to the City Park lakes but still not a huge issue.  It is odd how they make the 10K and 15K cross each other’s path.  That’s another reason why they should tweak the route just a little bit more.  Water/Gatorade was found at around 1.5, 3 and 4.5 miles.

The run along Park and the lakes is pretty scenic though.  I’d say that this route is certainly more scenic than the previous route only because the previous route didn’t really go much into LSU’s campus; although it did go by the stadium and then back up the levee path along the river.  This route had much more tree cover though especially along downtown and the garden district.  For the most part, I felt like I had plenty of room, but that’s because the route was paced out pretty well.  Most of the pack was able to get down 19th Street and onto the boulevard before the lead runners made it back so there shouldn’t have been many people in their way on their return trip.  There were several numbers of residents along the garden district route that were outside watching, cheering and even playing music.

I did find my friend Vivian again.  It wasn’t until about half way through as we were starting the return trip back and passing some of the slower runners and eventually walkers that I began wondering was Vivian there this year.  Well sure enough, I found her and we passed each other waiving at each other.  She had been out for most of the year actually with various injuries and work priorities so this was actually her first race since the previous mambo the year before.  But much to her happiness she was able to beat her previous record from last year.  Congrats to her.

As for me, I did PR in this race in many ways.  I ran for most of this race much faster than I thought I would, but sure enough I slowed up towards the back half, especially since I hadn’t been training regularly due to the weather turning me into a chicken.  If I had trained a bit more, I could have finished in under 60 minutes, although barely.  I did complete the first 5K in 29 minutes, which was a new PR for me.  The 10K time of nearly 64 minutes was also a new PR for me.  So even with the lack of preparation, I’m still seeing improvement.  But I think that’s also because I’ve gotten very used to running 10Ks now.  I tend to run 6 miles more than any other route.  Then I go up or down based on what ever is going on in the near future.  I’ve run a few 10 miles more consistently, but I still don’t run consistent 13 milers.  So I believe this next half marathon coming up in two weeks will be even more of a test.  I certainly expect a slower time than what I got in Philly mostly due to lack of preparation, but also because of the potential for higher hills (although I’ve run a few now in Vicksburg over the past two months), less crowd support and the potential for cold and or rainy weather.  I guess we’ll see how it goes.  I’m hopeful though that since we’re heading into prime race season, that I’ll be able to get back on track somewhat.  I do know that I’m expecting to run in various 5K events all through March, April and May with at least one more 10K and potentially two half marathons mixed in.  I’m hopefully that this and the fact that the super cold weather should just about be over with will help get me back out there and on pace to continue pushing myself.

Finish Medal

I do believe that this is a great race to run here.  If for anything, for the beaded medal you get afterwards.  Not many races where you can get a beaded medal.  It has plenty of people and support that it’s a great race for newbies to run in especially if they’re looking not to stand out.  Of course, you are welcome to dress in costume and potentially stand out.  However I will point out that most women in the race do where some version of a mardi gras tu-tu for the race, so you may not stand out very much after all.

As far as weather goes, this race was really just about perfect.  It started off in the 40s and climbed into the 50s by the finish.  The sun and lack of serious wind kept it from getting too cold but also kept you from breaking a sweat.  It really was perfect race conditions.  Normally it might be just a tad bit warmer for the day, so this was one of those days where below normal was great.  Can’t wait for next year’s race already.  Maybe next time I can break 60 minutes.

Race: Mardi Gras Mambo

Date: February 15, 2014, 9am

Place: Downtown Baton Rouge

Time: 1:03:54

Charities: Amedisys (local home health and hospice care)