Mardi Gras Marathon Part II

Let's start off with a little *News Flash!!!* If you look to the right, you may notice that my "next adventure" has changed and a race has been added to my schedule for the week. That's due to a few changes going on at Steph's 50 Marathon Challenge. The first is that I've been talking to a great company that has a wonderful product for runners. I'll write more about it once it's finalized, but they asked me to run a half marathon with them next weekend. That means I'll be doing a "drop down" week next week and I had to do another "up mileage" week this week instead of taking a break. 


Since I felt SO good after my 2 long runs last weekend I'm not worried about doing another up mileage week. Since I needed to do at least 23 miles on Saturday I started looking into marathons I could jump on last minute. As it turns out, the HMRRC Winter Marathon is going on this weekend and it's close to my home town. If you're a newer follower, this is actually the race that I made my FIRST BQ at in 2010, so this race has a special place in my heart. It's a very fast course with some pretty serious runners... I think you have to be pretty serious is you opt to run a winter marathon in upstate NY on a looped windy course! This is the first time I've ever repeated a marathon but that's ok because I get to go home for this one! 


Mardi Gras Marathon II
Last we left off, I had gone through a day in NOLA where I: shopped at an expo, made a fool of myself in front of an ultra marathon super star, experienced bourbon st, had dinner with 15 maniacs and friends, and had taken a ghost tour! And now... I had to run a marathon! 


Marathon morning we got up early and headed out to the Start Line Village! We met up with DOZENS of maniacs. Some of them were dressed up, most of them wore maniac gear, and all of us were FREEZING!!! It was so chilly before the sun came up but we knew it would get warm eventually. 

Marathon Maniacs at the RnR Mardi Gras Marathon

MM Divas!!!

After pictures we dropped at the bag drop, huddled together for warmth, and then lined up to take off. I went off with the 2nd corral, which happened to be ahead of the 3:30 page group. I planned on running around a 3:40 so I tried to go slow, but you know how that goes!!! 


The spectators at this race were definitely cool! They were giving out lots of drinks is pretty typical of New Orleans! The route itself brought us all around downtown New Orleans, but I couldn't look up too much-- I was warned that the streets are full of pot holes and I was scared of tripping on one. I like the way they incorporated the halfies. They had them break out from us and come back a few times but they kept us on 2 sides of the road so we never had to bob and weave through. You could look for friends and cheer each other on but you weren't getting in each others way. 


Around mile 18 I realized I was going WAY faster than I wanted so I stopped and grabbed a beer!!! I thought to myself "There! That'll take a little time off and totally slow me down!" I checked my watch a few minutes later and I was right back to the same pace I had been keeping... damn! Around mile 22 there were little turn arounds where you could see people in front and behind you. I noticed that my friend Alicia was not too far behind... between myself and the 3:30 group. Yeah, so I was in front of the 3:30 group-- definitely not slow!!! So I thought "hey! If I stop and wait for Alicia that will add on a minute or 2 to my time!" A sneaky way of slowing down without actually slowing down. I caught up with Alicia and as it turns out she was cranking out miles and picking it up with every mile. So we ended up making up a little time. Darn again! 


Alicia and I came to the finish and I asked her to hold my head phones cause I was doing another cartwheel over the finish!! Woohoo. To see the cartwheel go here. Alicia and I finished together! I had run a 3:27. Well that wasn't exactly in line with my plan, but I felt relaxed the whole time and never really felt like I was pushing it. 

Alicia and I in the last .2!

After finishing, grabbing our bags and drinks, we headed over to the family meeting area. I raced Alicia's step daughter in a sprint (let's not talk about who won) and found Christine who had just finished her FIRST half marathon!!! Congrats Christine-- I'm SO proud of you!!!! We got our free celebration beers and chilled out waiting for the rest of our crew. 

Christine & I with our rewards for finishing!!!

We found MB and Kim and trecked it ALL the way around the park to the shuttle buses back to the start and headed for home. Overall everybody did really great and it was so much fun seeing lots of friends-- new and old. Speaking of new friends, "GU Jeff" had a fantastic finish in the half marathon getting 10th place and running a 1:13!!!! Crazy fast GU Jeff, crazy fast.... Good job!

Marathon Show Feature!
If you haven't already checked it out, I'm the "featured runner" on the marathon show. Don't know what the marathon show is? Well you're missing out! Joe does a great job on this show-- he brings on guest speakers, records shows from marathons, meets up with lots of maniacs and 50-staters, and generally runs a fantastic show. You don't have to listen to these live. If you go into ITunes and search for the podcast "Marathon show" you can add a few shows to your Ipod and take Joe on your run. 


You can check out the show here. And go under the "featured" page to see me! Joe also mentions me in the MOST recent podcast a few times, so DL the latest show! 


That's all for tonight kids!

Happy Running,

~*Stephanie*~

"Fast Girls Have Great Times!" -Marathon Sign