Jazz Bib

STATE #6

Well, so much for it being warmer.  I felt confident that New Orleans and Pensacola would be much warmer than Nashville.  Not that it was really cold in Nashville.  But with the temperature being as warm as it had been lately, I just knew it would probably be somewhat warm and/or muggy in New Orleans for the Jazz.  I couldn’t have been more wrong.  If there was ever a race that I really just didn’t want to run at the beginning, it was New Orleans.

It had been in the 80s for the leadup to the Jazz.  Then a cold front swept through Friday.  It was still slower than originally predicted at lowering the temperature.  I got up and left Baton Rouge around 4:45am with the temperature still around 50 but the wind chill was already at 37.  This led me to believe that it was windy outside (which it was), so I took a limited extra set of clothes mainly for after the run.  I expected it to stay around 50 with the windchill rising enough so that there really wasn’t a windchill and I didn’t want to be hot while running.  I didn’t expect for the temperature and windchill to continue to drop while I drove to New Orleans.  Granted, it was only about 46 in NOLA (although it eventually dropped to 37 in Baton Rouge for the air temperature).  But the windchill dropped along with that.  It felt about 32 or worse even, or maybe I’m just a wimpy southern guy who doesn’t know what real winter feels like.

Cold Start

So once I got parked in NOLA and got out of the garage (thank god for not pre-paying for open lots and sticking to my plan of parking in the Whitney Garage on Camp) and felt what the wind really was feeling like, I seriously reconsidered running the event.  Visions of Little Rock started running in my head, and I was thinking that I would never purposely run an event like that again if I knew what to expect ahead of time.  But alas, it wasn’t raining at all.  As a matter of fact, it never rained with the whole frontal passage.  So I had that on my side.  I also had the fact that I had paid for, woken up for and driven an hour down I-10 for this race.  I decided to walk to packet pickup and at least get my gear for the sake of getting it.  I picked up the bib and shirt and went straight back to the car.  Holy crap it was cold!!!  So now back at the car, I spend a few minutes convincing myself to suck it up and run it.  May as well at this point.  First, I immediately put on the cotton pants that I had saved for post-race.  I figured no way my legs were going to make it exposed like that.  I had a cotton shirt but really didn’t want to wear that because I knew I’d sweat at some point and then I would really wish I wasn’t running out in that air.  Luckily, the Jazz gave out some really cool sweat resistant t shirts.  So I left the underarmor top on with the longsleeve wet proof shirt I got in Philly over that and then put the Jazz shirt on top of that.  At that point, with the shirts and pants on, I figured I had a chance.  So I was able to suck it up and go for it.

Superdome

The pre-race was pretty disorganized although people just seem to be stupid at this point.  I mean, it was publicized all over on the website, the packet pickup, the emails… the half marathon started at 7:00-7:05am while the 5K started at 7:30am.  But once at the starting line, there wasn’t a real clear indication of this.  So ultimately, a ton of 5K people started off with the half marathoners.  Ha!  On top of that, it’s amazing how people have no clue about wave or corral starting either.  Even though it was publicized heavily (stupid people), the Jazz did a terrible job at actually corralling people.  They put up three signs all very close to each other and then just left it to people to figure it out themselves.  Big mistake.  People can’t figure out anything for themselves anymore it seems.  So ultimately, you ended up with a load of walkers at the start again.  Now before you jump on me, I honestly don’t have much problem with this personally because I’m not fast.  I think it’s great that they’re out there to begin with.  But sometimes I feel for people who are trying to navigate through a sea of slow 5K walkers when they should have lined up in the back.  Having said that, I find it hilarious how medium to fast runners can line up at the back of the pack and then bitch about slower people in front of them.  Hey, space cadet!  Perhaps you should have lined up somewhere in the middle or closer to the front.  (Ok, I just got that Space Cadet term from a co-worker who was trying to politely belittle another co-worker for being a moron.  I like it.  Haha)  So I just think that if you line up towards the back of the pack, you really don’t have much room to complain.  I like to pass someone as much as the other person, but you can expect some groups blocking the way at this point as well.  Get over it!  But this does explain why I saw a few kids running and even a stroller because I thought strollers weren’t allowed in this race.  I also thought it wasn’t good (and sometimes not even allowed) for kids younger than about 12 to run in a half marathon.  I heard one person ask a lady and her little daughter if they were doing the 5K around Mile 1 and she replied ‘Yes’.  Well that answers that.  Looks like 5K people left with the half marathoners.  I wonder how that worked with regards to time.  It was obvious that the race organizers knew it because they were separating 5K people from the crowd at the 5K point when I passed it.  5K runners went straight while half marathons turned right onto St. Charles.  So what happened if they finished at 7:31am?  Did they have a net time of 1 minute?  Haha!

Streetcar stop

So, yeah, it was cold.  But it also wasn’t quite as bad as I thought it was going to be.  It was manageable.  It also helped later on with getting into the sunlight.  It was a little colder in the CBD with the buildings and starting before the sun came up, but the buildings also acted as a buffer with the winds at times.  Every now and again there would be a massive gust and dust would go flying.  I even saw one dust devil that went right through the runners.  All you could really do was turn your head and hold your breath to keep the dust out of your mouth.  Needless to say, people were coughing and spitting like crazy during this race.  Luckily they had water pretty frequently.  I had heard that they didn’t have enough water in previous races where it was 75F.  I feel like they had plenty for this race.

Many houses along St. Charles were decorated for Halloween.  Some were pretty elaborate decorations.  It’s not easy really to drive down St. Charles and see these decorations.  Sure, it’s easy if you’re riding along but if you’re driving, St. Charles isn’t an easy road to drive down as it’s generally tight, lots of traffic lights and traffic, you really have to pay attention to the road here.  This was one reason I really wanted to run down St. Charles, to appreciate the stately oaks and houses a little more.  I was surprised that they actually closed down both sides of St. Charles for this Saturday morning race.  Of course the streetcars weren’t running as that might have caused a hazard for sure.  I didn’t realize they had so many great restaurants along St. Charles also.  It was also a great experience to run through Audubon Park which is a great place for runners/bikers.  Even without being in the actual zoo, it felt like a bird sanctuary with all sorts of birds everywhere.

Audubon Park

Before reaching the park, I did notice the lead runners heading back to the finish.  Ian Carr was second and ended up finishing second.  I had run in a few races with him this year and he just seemed like an exciting young area runner that everyone was sort of rallying behind.  I think he won the Jazz in 2013.  He won all of the bridge series races this year.  That’s where I experienced running with him.  Of course he was ridiculously faster than me.  Lol.  This year in the Jazz, he was beat by a Baton Rouge native who had a two minute lead over him towards the end.  WDSU had a report that he was actually new to running but I sort of wonder how new really.  He’s about the same age as Ian and wore a Varsity sweater post-race.  That’s a local running group in Baton Rouge.  Looks like he actually is a part of staff with Varsity Sports and ran at George Mason College.  So maybe he’s new to the half marathon distance.  Either way, he finished the Jazz in 71 minutes!!!

Finish

After the race, I got my medal, ate ice cream and an electrolyte ice pop (go figure, right?) and hurried back to the car to turn the heater on.  Then after a few minutes of warming up, I just drove back to Baton Rouge.  It would have been nice to stick around a bit, eat lunch, have a hand grenade (yum yum), but I was cold (and sick by the time I got back to BTR).  I was glad to just get home and sit in a hot tub for the rest of the day.  I stayed cold for about the next 36 hours afterwards, but then I warmed up and the potential sickness seemed to go away also.  Strange how that happens, huh?  I will say, I felt like I had a cramp coming on towards the end of this race.  Both times I felt a cramp about to kick in was at cold weather races, Little Rock and New Orleans.  I’ve definitely decided that unlike most people, I’m not a cold weather runner.  I was born and raised in the deep south where it’s 120F during the 6 month summers and can easily be 80F at any other time of the year.  I know people hate it, but I seem to be able to manage running in 80F way better than 40F or a cold windchill.  Granted, that’s because I haven’t come up with appropriate winter weather running apperel yet but I don’t know if I could.  I always feel like that if put on one more thing, I’m going to sweat too much, and of course if I start to sweat then I’m only going to make myself colder in the long run.  So give me a good hot summer run any day.  At least then I can just take my bottled water and pour it over my body and feel fine.  😉

Medal

So now it’s on to Pensacola where it looks to be somewhat similar in temperature but hopefully no wind.  If there isn’t a strong wind, 45-50F would actually be quite comfortable to run in.  But I’ll be honest; at one point there was rain in the forecast and if it were 45F and raining, I would have canceled for sure.  Instead, it looks to be perfectly sunny and well into the 60s by lunchtime.  Not perfect beach weather, but I’ll take it.

Race: Jazz Half Marathon

Date: November 1, 2014, 7AM

Place: New Orleans, Louisiana

Time: 2:41:45