Well, I figured it was about time to give a little update on the past three weeks since that freezing cold run in Little Rock.

As far as March goes, I ran in my first Komen Race for the Cure here in town and I just wanted to talk about it a bit.  The showing of support for this race and breast cancer survivors in this city really is amazing.  I had always heard about it, but this was my first time experiencing it.  Congratulations Baton Rouge.  I can’t even estimate how many people were there.  The lines were huge at the starting line.  If I had one small complaint about this race, it was the lack of organization between actual runners and walkers.  At the start, as runners were dodging left and right, I was so afraid of seeing a little old lady be knocked over.  But this race is about survivors, and people who are happy just to be able to walk again should be allowed to walk.  So perhaps this race shouldn’t be timed.  But then again, I’m sure they did it to attract more participants and raise more money.

The support was magnificent.  WAFB is a huge sponsor and several top tv personalities along with Mayor-President Kip Holden were there doing pre race festivities.  It was easy to get in and out, park, walk to everything, sign up the day of, get special recognition if you were a survivor (or are still battling the disease).  It was just such a great experience.  There was a little parade before the race honoring survivors and loved ones who succumbed to the disease.

I signed up day of the race as a timed runner but they didn’t have chip timers left when I walked up.  So I kept up with my own time.  The course was nearly perfect.  It makes one big loop around LSU’s campus.  We had a great view of the south stadium construction at the beginning.  I wish I had taken my camera.  The roads were always wide enough which was great since there must have easily been 5,000-10,000 people there.  There was water around Mile 1 in front of the M&DA, School of Music, and then another on Sorority Row along the lakes.  The cheering from the sororities was pretty amazing also.  Always helps when you have college coeds cheering you on, right?

This race was actually my first real negative split race.  I started off slow of course due to the walkers and I really didn’t want to rush anybody or hit anybody so I took my time.  But after I got around them, which didn’t take that long, I moved up from a 9 min/mi steadily up to a 7:40 by the finish.  Of course I felt it afterwards.  But I wanted to run this race about as fast as I could, mainly because I really wanted a sub 30 minute time.  Not sure if getting a chip would have made a difference but I ended up at 30:30 on my watch which definitely is my fastest 5K race, but it’s not my fastest 5K time.  The first 5K of the 2014 Mambo was actually faster for me.  But I still felt good about this race, if anything just because of the local support that it has.  I’ll definitely be doing it again.

The following weekend, March 15, I was supposed to be doing the Cosmic Run, our first Rave style nighttime 5K.  Seemed exciting when I signed up.  I had no idea how poorly managed it would be.  That race ended up being postponed until April, and now it may be postponed again until September, mainly because the idiots who are running it don’t know how to run it.  They don’t know how to ask for permission for permits and road use prior to announcing it, and the don’t know how to plan around other events on the same day.  Absolutely horrible.  I’m still signed up for it because they already have my money.  But if I was someone watching the news here or reading this blog and debating on doing it, I would advise them to not waste the money.  There are way better events here, like maybe the Walking Dead zombie run here or the even better one in NOLA over the summer.

This past weekend, March 22, was the annual GYRIG Colon Cancer Run.  This is the run that basically inspired me to start in the first place, so no matter what I have to do it.  Even if I spend a late late night the night before in NOLA.  Haha.  I spent Friday night at the House of Blues listening to Johnny Clegg, a great South African singer and song writer.  Great music about apartheid South Africa and living in unity.  Only a few artists sound exactly the same from recorded music to live and he is one of them.  It was great to see him in person.  But man did his show start late, and of course it took a while getting back out and back home afterwards.  I didn’t realize I was competing with Elton John traffic as well.

So I woke up anyway Saturday morning and headed out to Get Your Rear In Gear and picked up my stuff.  I had already signed up online but failed to pick up my packet the days before at Fleet Feet.  I hate picking up stuff at Fleet Feet, because mainly I have to do it on a Friday either around lunch or afternoon and the traffic around there especially at lunch is insane.  You’ve never seen so many crazy parking jobs until you drive by there on a Friday lunch.  I think there’s a Serops, Maxwells, and something else in that area and they are obviously all full for lunch.

The race ended up being similar to last years, part on-road, part off-road, basically a loop around the Pennington Biomedical Center campus.  Support is huge for this race as well.  They generally have about 500-600.  This race was chip timed and I ended up finishing at 31:52 which was slower than the Komen race.  But this race ended up being the first where I actually ran a steady pace throughout.  I started and then sat on about a 10:15 pace for the entire time, which was inadvertently my goal to begin with.  I went with the idea of trying to run more consistent but knowing that I’d have to run slower to accomplish that.  Looks like it worked.  I’ve now run two 5Ks in a row without stopping (minus a few seconds handling water at a water stop).  Now I’m hoping I can build that up to running 10Ks non-stop, although I already know that I can do it.  I ran the first half of Philly and Little Rock non-stop.  But I guess it’s just all psychological once you’re out there.

So now we’re getting towards the end of March and to end the month I’ll probably do the MS run here on Saturday.  I also went ahead just now and scheduled my next half marathon in the great state of Kansas.  Don’t ask why.  But I’ll tell you anyway.  🙂

Originally I was debating on doing a doubleheader race trip, run a race in one state on Saturday and another next door on Sunday.  I had settled on Kansas and Oklahoma.  After Little Rock, I decided that perhaps I wasn’t quite ready to attempt a doubleheader so close to each other like that.  So I’ve backed out of Oklahoma for now and settling with Kansas because I love the idea of this race.  The Garmin Land of Oz.  Sounds awesome.  It’s definitely Dorothy themed.  It’s also on a Saturday which means I can make it back home on Sunday and not waste another day off from work.  It’s also slightly cheaper than Oklahoma.  So why not?  That race will come up in about four weeks.

I’ve also committed with a friend to doing the local Bridge Series runs.  This is where we run three races over three bridges over the Mississippi River: Luling, Jefferson and NOLA.  These aren’t your normal bridges.  These are high long bridges over the river.  But if you complete all three within the course limits, you get a cool medal.  There are also prices for cumulative time accrued from crossing all three.  So who knows; perhaps I can finish in the top three in my age division for crossing all three.  We shall see.  I imagine it will be a daunting challenge, but it should be fun.  The first bridge is in about two weeks.  Then the next two each follow about a month behind the previous.  So it finished up in early June in New Orleans with the Crescent City Connection crossing.  I’ll definitely take pictures.

I’m also looking forward to the Classic again, not because of fast times, but mainly because it looked like a blast last year and now I sort of want to compete as a straggler (walk 10K slightly buzzed or without cares at least).  haha.  Sure, I probably should be taking each run seriously, but if there’s any run where you can just party, this is the one.  Plus I ran it last year.  LOL.  I’ll let you know how it goes.