Blog Archives
CCC14
Race #7 in 2014
Race #20 Overall
CCC14 Bib
So I start up writing a recap to one of the best races ever and realize that perhaps I needed to write a small recap from the first bridge run. I guess I’ll work on that next. For now I’ll recap the annual Easter tradition which is the Crescent City Classic, one of the fastest 10Ks in the country. I believe several 10K records have been broken in New Orleans in the past. The current world record holder in the 10K was there, and wouldn’t you imagine, he WON. But he didn’t set a new record, although I’m sure it was a course record. 27:43:59! That’s just insane. Leonard Komon was crossing the finish line about two minutes after I started the race. That’s just amazing.
Start
So this year I ran with a friend and coworker who has just recently rediscovered running as well. She just graduated from running a 5K non-stop. Now she’s going to run a 10K nearly non-stop, but she doesn’t know it just yet. Haha.
Parking was a little different for me this year. The superdome wasn’t open like years past. Not sure if it was because of security or what. I was just sad because superdome parking for race day was only $5. But luckily, the hotel garage down the street took racers and only raised the charge up to $8. That was about a $4 savings from the usual charge. So I parked in that garage and then made my way to the starting lines. There was a security line to enter the area up by the elites, but further back where the regulars were, there was no security.
‘Float’
The corrals moved through a lot better this year than last. Instead of merging into Corral F, we actually stayed behind them this year and moved across the start line in an orderly fashion around the 25 minute mark. Of course, there was still the issue of all the walkers and strollers in front of us after we started ‘running’. I’m still amazed at two things, how corrals are not monitored towards the back, and how people who fully intend to walk, or pull wagons/push strollers, or walk dogs, are allowed to sign up for or line up in corrals well in front of the walking corral. Really annoying. The race asks for predicted start time and I estimate 60-75 minutes because I don’t expect to run it faster than an hour. But i think I’ll be signing up for the next corral up in future years.
So we start the race and of course we spend most of Poydras trying to negotiate the walkers and strollers. It always opens up a little more on Peters but it can still get tight in the Quarter, especially around the French Market. Once you get to Esplanade, it becomes much more manageable because you get multiple options (northbound/southbound/neutral ground).
Band on Esplanade
I got ahead of my coworker through the Quarter but we met up again on Esplanade while I was stopped to film a local jazz band. Then we finished the race together. Turns out that firetruck of beer is really a reconfigured fire truck that is a beer dispenser and is owned by Drago’s. I didn’t know that last year. No wonder it’s ok for ‘firefighters’ to hand out booze. We also ran through a water sprinkler around Mile 4 which helped to cool things off a bit. Now’s probably a good time to mention that the weather was nearly perfect. It was a cloudless sky and the temp was around 65-70 throughout the race. It couldn’t have been much better.
The DeLorean pull float – post race
We ended up finishing almost right at the 70 minute mark (garmin time). As far as official times go, well, I didn’t have any idea for several days. It seemed the ‘official results’ had my bib crossing the line nearly 25 minutes later and it didn’t have my name or any info to go with it. After a little bit of thought, I was able to figure out that the chip didn’t appear to register at the start but did at the finish and just took the clock time. After I emailed the race officials about this, I found out that the timing company actually had a much more chronic problem. Turns out they messed up times for over 400 people, mainly people who had bibs mailed to them, but for some reason that information wasn’t entered into their timing database. After a few more days, they seemed to have gotten parts of it fixed. Turns out that the chip did in fact register a start time, but didn’t add it to the results because it had no information for me. So I ended up getting an official time after all that actually matched my garmin time by within 3 seconds. I’m glad that was straightened out. Even though it was a timing problem and not necessarily the race director’s fault, the race team was extremely helpful and friendly through the whole process. I told them that I thought this was one of the best 10Ks in the country and that it definitely part of my annual tradition now. I also told them how impressive it was to have people from around the world come here for a 10K.
Walking back past the cemetery.
Back to the race. It did take a while to make it into the post race party, but it wasn’t too bad. They did hand out medals again this year. That was a nice perk. Being as medals have gotten really popular recently, I’m wondering if they will start doing it every year now. I do like the crescent medals. The post race event also had some really, and I mean really, cold beer. Nice! I also got my race tshirt there since I didn’t drive down that Friday to pick it up at the expo.
After about an hour there, we decided to head back, but instead of waiting what could have easily been an hour in the shuttle bus line, we decided to walk back along Esplanade towards the beginning. I think this was actually a great idea. We ended up walking past or with several other people who had the same idea. It took us about 75 minutes to walk about half the distance and make it back to the Quarter where we decided to have a post race celebratory drink and pizza on Bourbon. Also a great idea. We needed extra pizza though to ensure we were sober enough for the drive back. Haha.
2014 Medal
So all-in-all, another successful Classic. This is definitely my favorite 10K race so far. Philadephia would be my favorite half marathon. Favorite 5K? I don’t know; there’s just too many really. Favorite marathon? Well, I haven’t graduated to marathons yet and doubt I do anytime soon. Speaking of which, it’s time for another half marathon.
Race: CCC14
Date: April 19, 2014, 8AM
Place: New Orleans, LA
Time: 1:10:12
Presidio10 – Golden Gate Bridge
Race #4 of the 13 in 2013
Race #7 Overall
Race Bib
So it seems that if it isn’t one thing, then it’s another. After fighting a bronchial infection for 6 weeks, I feel better and sign myself up for this run in San Francisco and in the same week I go out and break my right big toe. Do you want to know how? Ants. Yep. Ants! Damn ants broke my toe! And damn kickball too! Seems all my foot injuries (typically toe related) revolve around kickball as well. So on this particular occasion, I was at the kickball fields watching an earlier game when I noticed I had a shoe covered in ants. And ants certainly aren’t a huge deal. I’ve been bitten by many ants in my lifetime and I could be bothered less by them. I’m not bothered after I’ve been bitten by them. Same thing with wasp stings and spider bites. But if I see some crawly thing on me that hasn’t bitten or stung me yet, then I seem to go all girly over it. I freak out and try to shake it off as quick as I can, and obviously without thinking too much about it. So with the ants crawling around my shoe, I immediately initiate kicking my foot, toe head on, into a concrete curb. Well, I’ve kicked curbs many times in my lifetime also, to shake bugs or dirt off. But for whatever reason on this occasion, I kicked my foot in such a way that my toe immediately felt the impact. By the time our game started, I could barely walk on my right foot. I kicked with my left and hobbled around. I was still able to kick in a runner left footed which was a small victory.
Crissy Field
I have another blog on travelpod with regards to the trip to San Francisco itself. This blog will concentrate on the race event. Likewise the travelpod blog references the race on this blog. As for the race event itself… The Presidio10 is an annual event held in Presidio (the area along the south bank of the Golden Gate) with support for The Guardsmen, a group of people who help at risk city youth. They’ve also partnered with the Ashlyn Dyer Foundation, which supports neurological research for traumatic brain injuries. Ashlyn Dyer was an avid marathoner and a Presidio resident who was hit and killed by a hit and run driver in 2006 while running along the streets of the Presidio. She died from severe head trauma.
The event itself seemed set up well. There were plenty of tents with all sorts of information, including a check
Starting Line
area for sweats (or anything really), just place it in a bag and label it. They seem to put their food and drinks stands together though so that made for long lines afterwards. The band played right in the middle which was perfect. The race started with the 10 milers. They went in three waves. A few minutes later, the 10K runners left, in similar waves. Sometime after that I think the 5K runners went. I ran with the 10K runners. The 10 miler looked interesting but I wasn’t sure about the hills. I come from such a flat geographical area and hills as steep as those around San Francisco just seem to be unrelenting.
This particular race basically started with a steep hill. About half a mile in, you had to run up to the bridge itself from sea level. That seemed to hurt many people (at least slower people near the back). I heard people near the end complaining about it (uphill at the beginning to get tired and then downhill at the end). I ran up well more than half of it but by the last third or so, I slowed to a walk knowing that it was still just the beginning and I needed to be able to make the remainder 8.5K or so.
Bridge
Golden Gate Bridge
Another factor was the turnaround spot across the bridge near Vista Point. The path turned tightly 90 degrees to the right a few times. At the first turn was the first water station. That was not the best place for a water station because you basically ran right into it. Then you turned immediately again to run down some ridiculously steep stairs to cross along a very narrow passageway underneath the bridge to the other side. We ran northbound on the east sidewalk. The run back was on the west sidewalk which were both closed to the public during the race. But the transition between the east sidewalk to the west sidewalk was not easy. This is another sign that this race is more meant to be for fun although still competitive. It’s just that road runners typically aren’t used to narrow sidewalks, sharp turns and steep steps down and back up. That certainly had an impact on final time as well.
The swimmers
Golden Gate Bridge
Once back across, there were more tourists around to watch or to shoo us out of the way because they were beginning to reopen the eastern sidewalk. Once back underneath the bridge heading toward the finish, there was the winding downhill stretch through wildflowers and eucalyptus trees. It’s amazing how those trees smell. They have a pretty unique and pleasant aroma. We don’t have these in Louisiana, certainly not native at least. The downhill did hurt more than expected; I’m guessing because of added pressure on the end of my toe. But all-in-all the toe held up very well.
Race towards the finish
Race: Presidio10 (10K Race)
Date: April 21, 2013, 8AM
Place: San Francisco, CA
Time: 1:20:15
Charities: The Guardsmen, Ashlyn Dyer Foundation
Crescent City Classic 10K
Race #3 of the 13 in 2013
Race #6 Overall
Race Bib
This bronchial infection over the last five or so weeks has really led me on some highs and lows. I thought I was over it two weeks ago but I ended up having a fairly nasty relapse. Luckily, that relapse only seemed to last about a week. Things seem to be much better now. The downside however was that with the sickness, I didn’t run in several races I wanted to in March. So that meant another determined race with little to no training or preparation I seem to be getting good at this.
Sunrise Lake Ponchartrain
I’m glad I started feeling better again just in time for this race. The CCC10 is a huge race. Last year they had over 16,000 participants. This year, they ended up having about 1,500 more. That’s a lot of people. With the race being at 8am on a Saturday, I opted not to stay in NOLA the night before and just drive in from BTR the morning of. That meant being up early and making the 70 minute drive down, but with Saturday morning traffic being minimal, It really wasn’t a problem. In the deal, I got to see a spectacular sunrise driving into Kenner. I don’t think I’ve ever see such a large and red sun. It was easy to look at and it was huge. It was rather brilliant. By the time I got to the 610 split though, that soft red glow turned into a piercing yellow blinding light.
Starting on Poydras
Once downtown, I ran into a little bit of traffic getting off at the Superdome exit and into the parking garages adjacent to the dome itself. The start line was at Poydras and Loyola with corrals lined up Poydras to the dome. The starting corrals (the small distant group highlighted in yellow in the picture) were for ranked and qualified racers (i.e. Kenyans and high school track and Olympic stars). The rest of us lined up in various corrals behind the lead pack based on our projected finish time. I’ve been running 5Ks at about 35 minutes now so I figured I could potentially do a 10K in 70 but decided to go with the 75 to 90 minute pack to be safe which worked out perfect because it was the corral right in front of the walkers (not the zombie walkers from Walking Dead). Of course this ended up not really mattering as right before race time various people started ending up in various corrals. Several times I noticed walkers in front of me and higher seeded racers behind me. I figured they were just trying to be near friends or other people they knew. In that regard, the corrals behind the lead pack weren’t managed extremely well. That led to the bottleneck that I had read about prior to the race. I read a post about how racers had to dodge walkers and strollers and coolers being pulled behind walkers and I couldn’t imagine how this was possible since I was under the impression that walkers were last to cross the start line. Well, I found out why real quick. After the lead pack left, it seems they let some of Groups D and E go and then someone must have let out Groups F, G and the Walkers simultaneously, because all of a sudden we were all moving and when we got to LaSalle (a block before Loyola), we were heavily merged together in one huge walking jam. At that point, we inched our way forward to Loyola and the start line. We got up to the starting booth and the MC announced the youth run NOLA group that had seemed to sneak in all of a sudden right next to me.
Start Line
They were a relatively large group of various kids perhaps ages 9-15 all in bright yellow shirts. I ended up pacing with many of them almost all the way through the Quarter. The MC called out the youth group, had us all cheer and noted that the first ‘float’ was passing by. This was one of those ‘coolers’ I had heard about. Seems it is very popular with some groups, especially walkers, to pull behind coolers, or make push cart type deals fully decorated with signs and filled with alcohol generally. I saw two guys walking at one point merely with a six pack of beer around Mile 3. This ‘float’ comment would come up again later.
At the point we crossed the starting strip, many people continued to walk, and some people behind started complaining. So it was hard to determine what to do next. I didn’t want to run over anybody and we were packed relatively tight still. So I stayed behind some walkers until it finally started to clear out (slightly) closer to Baronne or Carondelet. Then I took notice of the runners hitting the sidewalks running past the walkers. This was probably the most narrow part of the race, on Poydras because it was near the start and it ran thru the CBD. I nearly forgot about the group of tourists that nearly tripped some of us. A few people were stationed in the CBD part of the route to cheer, but at one particular intersection some tourists decided they didn’t want to wait for the runners to pass anymore and decided to start making their way across Poydras with their luggage pulled behind. Mind you the pack was still relatively tight, so these people basically just took a chance and started darting out around people. I nearly hit the first guy. He was obviously the ringleader who decided ‘let’s go honey, we can make it’. I’m glad I didn’t actually hit him, but I kind of hope someone did. It quickly reminded me of Tigerband and that one unwritten rule that you were expected to follow or you got heckled by your peers: NOBODY BREAKS RANKS! And if someone did try to sneak thru the band, depending on who it was you were expected to stop them. If it was a girl, you pushed them back politely, but if it was a annoying drunk guy, you laid him out. Simple as that. Well, this wasn’t Tigerband. This was probably 7,000 serious runners and 10,500 not so serious ones running around the streets of New Orleans, thankfully with their clothes on.
St. Peters
Once we turned on St. Peter’s, I found it more manageable except for another slight bottleneck in the Quarter close to Cafe du Monde past Jackson Square. Then we started running thru the passageways paralleling St. Peters. The Quarter was much more fun. The tourists here were much more fun. Instead of being cheap, these people splurge and stay in the French Quarter. These people drink all night and then get up mid morning for bloody marys, mimosas and beignets. These people will cheer a row of ducks crossing the street let alone a parade of runners. So it was much more fun. I wonder how many runners/walkers stopped to get a beignet, never mind the line was probably long. The cafe did look pretty packed when I ran by. In front of Jackson Square was also our first live jazz band playing as we ran by. Also nearby was the first mile marker with split time checking and water.
Jackson Square
The CCC had split timing and water set up for every mile (except for the 6th since it’s so close to the finish). I somehow missed running over the split at the second mile mark, but it was still evident that I was averaging a slightly slower pace with every mile, from around 12 minutes at mile 1 to nearly 13 minutes by the finish. I’ve noticed also that giving a cup of water to more than 17,000 runners makes the ground very wet. I couldn’t tell at first if it had rained or if it was the typical liquid nastiness you sometimes get in the Quarter, but I feel confident that at least most of it was Kentwood water spilled on the ground.
I nearly lost my key here too. I had forgotten I had my spare key in my pocket and a small towel, so I went to pull the towel out here for the first time and about a second later heard the sound of metal hitting the ground. I knew immediately it was the key. Luckily someone behind me picked it up for me and handed it to me so I didn’t have to spend any time looking for it.
This is probably a good time to mention all the different costumes and getups there were represented out there. Of course, with the race being on Easter weekend, many people were dressed as rabbits/bunnies, with bunny ears and such. A select few even wore the whole bunny costume.
Chasing Rabbits
Also once again (a reference to the Mardi Gras Mambo), lots of tu-tus. I saw what appeared to be the Pope and Cleopatra (not at the same time of course, that would be sacrilege). There were several super heroes, supermen, superwomen, batgirls, a guy wearing dive fins (you could hear him a block away [flip, flap, flip, flap, flip, flap]). On several occasions I was chasing or fishing for rabbits. I’d find a bunny in front of me and usually reel them in (them? It was usually a her, but there were some guy rabbits out there to, don’t want to misrepresent).
After turning onto the Esplanade, we were passing by the Marigny district. This is mainly where the race took a turn for the more silly and fun. First off, the boulevard was wide. You could race in either the riverbound or lakebound lanes, or the neutral ground even if that’s what you favored. I sort of went back and forth at times, started in the riverbound lanes, then switched to the neutral ground when traffic got too tight, then danced over to the lakebound lanes as we passed our next band, sounded like Rebirth but they were dressed like military and playing “Do What You Wanna”. I had to be in one of the roadbeds for split time. This is probably where I missed my second mile split. I was too busy eyeing the lemonade stand in front of me on the lakebound lanes while the riverbound lanes had some group of people offering to basically funnel beer down your throat while offering you donuts. Only in New Orleans can you do this sort of thing right… run or stagger a 10K and be fed donuts and drink beer? This city is so awesome! Meanwhile another band in the neutral ground is playing Springsteen’s “Baby We Were Born to Run”. There were more spectators, mainly local residents who would do various things, hold up various signs, perform various antics. Like the girl jumping up and down on one of those small fitness trampolines holding a sign that read “Why do all the good guys run away?” The best yet was the sign that read “This is the worst parade ever!” That had me rolling.
By the time we got to the fairgrounds, there were more bands, some outside clubs and others outside houses. Then there were the “fans and bystanders” sitting down in lawn chairs along the route here offering you water, orange juice, powerade, and of course… jello shots. I’m sold now. I’ve already marked this race on my 2014 calendar. Don’t expect me to beat this year’s time though. It was funny listening to one woman asking if it was shameful that it took her some 30 minutes to make it between Mile 3 and Mile 4. Yes, ma’am, that was most definitely the best mile ever. LMAO! I want to be like that next year.
Finishers Medal
Finally, towards the end, we end up making a circle around a portion of City Park and then it’s on to the grand finish. The finish was slightly confusing. People would stop way too short of the finish and just sort of walk. So over time, that seemed to stack up people before the finish, although when I made it I was able to make it across in stride. But they were handing out water and medals way too close to the line. I guess I thought there would be a chute where you continue on for a short distance to get that stuff. Speaking of, this finisher medal looks great. It’s my favorite yet. From what I gather, it’s not typical of the CCC handing out finisher medals, but this year is a commemorative year and supposedly that’s why they did it. I feel lucky.
After party
Now after getting out of the end debacle with some water and the medal, you were able to continue to the festival area where you got powerade and then all sorts of goodies along with being treated to live music from Papa Grows Funk. The festival area had the feel of a mini Jazz Fest. It was great. People were laid out on the lawn and on the track, with their coolers and attached totums. They didn’t have as much food selection as I had read they would but it wasn’t a huge deal to me. I was happy with the jambalaya. They had Subway as well but I didn’t feel like subway. Cajun food is perfect for post race meals. There were plenty of options for drinks, including more alcohol if you preferred. There were also various booths with items such as race posters, pictures, sunglasses, health and fitness and others. The music couldn’t be beat. People were still finishing the race. Who knows when they started or crossed the start line, but I did notice that some of the latest chip times were over 2:45:00. I don’t believe I saw any over 3 hours unless those were the two that got DQ’d. I imagine they got lost between Mile 3 and 4 and the beer soaking booth.
So overall, well… this goes down as my favorite race to date. It’s well worth any registration price, any hotel price, any traffic congestion, and school bus shuttle ride. It was that fun. No wonder it’s so popular. There were several Kenyans in the bunch, one who won, and there were also tourists from Australia and students from the UK. I never had any idea of this race. I can’t believe I’ve been so deprived. I say: no longer! I have found my new Easter tradition. 🙂
State #1 is officially off the list now and three more are registered/planned. It’s funny how plans change so quickly. Originally I was planning for Alabama and Mississippi in March, but instead I got sick so I canceled. Now I’m planning to stay busy. I’ve got two local races planned for the next two weekends. Then I plan to hit my first 10K outside of the southeast in California. I’ll be racing across the Golden Gate Bridge. I’m excited for that one, but after yesterday in NOLA, well, I’m not sure if even SF will surpass the CCC. But it’s still a once in a lifetime opportunity. Then I’ll come home to some more local races and then 10Ks in Fort Worth, Texas in early May and Ridgeland, Mississippi for Memorial Day weekend. So I still intend to knock out four states as quick as possible. There’s still time to meet me in San Francisco. See you there.
Race: CCC10
Date: March 30, 2013, 8AM
Place: New Orleans, LA
Time: 1:19:48
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
2013 A New Year
The world did not end, so it’s time to take advantage of a new year and make some pretty bold resolutions with every intent to follow through with them.
After dad died last October, I began thinking about my own life, how to improve on it. It’s easy to say we want to lose weight but it’s not always easy to actually accomplish it. It’s easy to make promises that can’t be kept. Thinking about it now, maybe it’s just that we need to find something that we can enjoy. For me, it appears to be running. Three months ago, I never thought about running. I was thinking maybe do a few 5K walks and cheer myself for just getting out of the apartment to do something new. The first 2012 walk (in November) went about as expected but it was slightly different. It wasn’t in my own backyard. It was in a strange place around total strangers, and I liked it. Then I was intrigued by the fact that some 5K races didn’t restrict you to choosing between walking and running. So in the next race, I tried some running. Much tougher for someone who doesn’t generally run except for around the bases. The 5K seemed to last forever but it eventually ended and I survived. Two weeks later, I ran in a second 5K. It seemed remarkably easier. I ran a lot longer, faster and increased my pace by over 2 minutes.
So I’m feeling incredibly confident now with the 5K, I decided to push forward with my goal to run in a 5K race in every month of the new year. But running twelve races in 2013 didn’t sound complete, so I’ll add a race and make it an ‘even’ 13 in 2013. In addition, the new adventure in running accompanied with the journey to an out-of-state race led me to decide to make it into a 50-State bucket list adventure. The ease of running the 5Ks and the urge to make the 50 state adventure a tad more reasonably challenging, I decided to up it to 10Ks. I can run a 5K anytime, but to count towards my 50-State challenge, it should be a 10K. If for some reason I begin to find it difficult to find reasonable 10Ks that I can attend, perhaps I could settle for 2-5Ks, but for now I’m going for 10K. (I say that because the number of 10Ks readily available and during a time I can possibly travel to some of these locations is far less than the number of 5Ks.) Why not marathons you ask? Does anyone actually believe I could run a marathon? Within 7 hours even? Perhaps in a few years, with some thorough training that helps with my endurance, but I’m eager to start my challenge, so 10Ks it is. 🙂
I guess 2013 will also be the year I start a blog. Perhaps I can use it for this and other travel adventures and… time will tell.
Anyway, for now, I’ve got the site set up with some quick info and my list of races as I sign up or plan for and complete them. I intend to include a map as soon as I decide which I like best and which is easiest to update. I’ll come up with other stuff as I go along.
It’s only Jan 2 and I’ve already signed up for four races this year in the first three months, 1-5K and 3-10Ks, in two states. I intend to look into a third and possibly a fourth this summer. Let’s see if I can start knocking out the south quickly in 2013. Hey, come join me if you like. It’s not like I’m that fast.
500K Across the USA 