Marathon #13 - Louisiana

The Rock 'n' Roll marathon series by Competitor.com that has at least 25 marathons and/or half marathons across North America. They also sponsor at least six races in Europe, and I think I've seen one in South America before as well.  The concept is that they set up bands (usually local bands) along the course at every mile to motivate the runners as they go, and they usually have a headliner band(s) for a pre-race concert the night before and at the finish line.

This year, I have decided to run a series of Rock 'n' Roll marathons.  They offer what is called a Tour Pass, which is one cost for as many Rock 'n' Roll races as you want to run in a year.  To make the tour pass worth it, I calculated that I need to run at least five marathons during the year.  The first marathon in the series in a state I hadn't already run was New Orleans in late February.

The Race:  New Orleans Rock 'n' Roll marathon.  New Orleans, Louisiana.  February 24, 2013.

My Training Plan:  My training plan this time around was a little slack.  Okay, it was very slack.  I had just finished Dallas in early December, so I didn't start training for this one until mid-December.  By that time the holidays were rolling around.  Rob had Chrysalis meetings on Saturdays leading up to the flight he was working over New Years', so I didn't have a lot of training time on weekends.  I was transitioning jobs and was working until late into the night many nights not getting good sleep.  Something would always come up.  I didn't do any speed work, which is uncharacteristic of my typical training plans.  I was planning on running at least two 20-milers, but ended up only running one.  One time I went out for an 18-mile run, and was so tired that I stopped at 12 miles and went home.  It was bad.  In fact, I had totally written this race off and basically said "I'll just check this state off and focus on a PR in Delaware in May."

Weather:  The weather was kind to us.  It was raining the day we drove down to New Orleans and it stormed the afternoon and night after the race.  But during the race it was upper-50s to low-60s with sunny skies.  It was actually a little warm for me, but you really couldn't ask for a much better day!

Running Attire:  I wore my Liz running shirt, purple and pink running shorts, pink Run for God visor, and iFitness belt.

Who I ran with:  I didn't start out running with anyone, and didn't stick with many people.  Around mile 13, I caught up with a guy from Oklahoma City named Bill.  We ran together until about mile 18.  Bill was running his second marathon in two weeks.  He had run the Myrtle Beach the weekend before.  And he was pushing me!  He told me all about the amazing folks in the Oklahoma City running club.  There are apparently around 500 people who regularly run with them!

The Course:  The course was extremely flat.  Around mile 19 there were a few rolling hills, but nothing bad at all.  The course went through the better parts of town, and along the lake for several miles.  There are a lot of out and backs.  Overall, I'd say it was a great course.

Organization:  Being a Rock 'n' Roll race, I expected nothing but good organization, and I was not disappointed.  I received all the necessary information via email the week before the race.  When I got to the expo, it was easy to tell where to go to get everything.  They had the Brooks store there giving gait analyses, demonstrations, and prizes.  The expo had a lot of good vendors, although not a lot of free giveaways.

My biggest complaint with the Rock 'n' Roll marathon series is that you have to be at the Expo in person to pick up your race number.  They don't allow someone to pick up your number for you, even if you supply your drivers license and a note.  This isn't as bad when the race is on Sunday, but for Saturday races, it can be hard to get to the Expo before it closes on Friday.

Swag:  The swag for this race wasn't anything fancy.  Technical shirt and medal were the only swag items.

Starting Line:  The starting line was a little confusing.  Everyone seemed to be gathered in one block park, but the start line was a block or so away.  There weren't a lot of signs on how to get there.  Once at the start line, they did have the corrals marked off very well, but I saw plenty of runners that should have been in corrals behind me going freely in and out of my corral.  The volunteer at the corral was a woman smaller than me, so she didn't deter anyone from coming and going as they pleased.

The start was a wave start.  Each corral started about a minute apart from each other.  The half marathon and marathon started at the same time and place, so half marathoners were intermingled with the marathoners.  As usual with this type of set-up, there was a bit of congestion at the start, regardless of the wave start.  It wasn't until the half marathoners branched off at the 13 mile marker did I feel like I had room to breathe and move freely.

Fans:  The fans were mediocre for a race of this kind.  With the bands and the size of the race, I expected more fans.  And the fans that were there, didn't really cheer for you as much as other races.  It was as though they were looking only for their runner and weren't interested in cheering for anyone else.  Even though I wore my Liz shirt, there were not a lot of fans that called my name.

My own personal fan was great though!  Rob came to cheer me on this time.  I saw him at least four different times along the course.  He even ran from one point to another point so he wouldn't have to figure out how to park the car at the finish line.  Around mile 20 he told me I was on track for a 3:46 marathon (which would have been a personal record for me), and his encouragement helped me go faster.  He even recorded me running some, which was nice to see afterwards.

Finish Line:  At the finish line there was a band/concert playing.  They gave out water, Gatorade, chocolate milk, bananas, and pretzels.  They also had Powerbars, but only the peanut butter ones (which I don't like).  I didn't stay long at the finish line before heading to the car, so I can't really speak to any of the other things they may have had there.

Results: As I said before, I had basically written off this race.  But I felt good, and ended up with a 3:50:14 time, which is my second best marathon ever!  Definitely better than expected!

How I felt:  I didn't feel like I had trained well, but because I didn't think I was going to do well, I wasn't really nervous going into this race.  Around mile 12, I could tell I wasn't going to make it the entire race without making a pit stop.  I stopped at a porta potty next to a firehouse.  The firemen were out cheering/watching the race, and told me I could use their bathroom, which I did.  After stopping, I sped up so I could try to get back to where I was, but then I didn't slow down once I caught up with the people I recognized.  That's when I met Bill, who was running a much faster pace than I normally would have run.  I stuck with him for about 4-5 miles, and then slowed down a little.  At mile 20, after Rob told me I was on track for a 3:46 marathon, I sped up again.

Shortly before the race, I had read an article about how the last 6.2 miles of the race are really when the race happens.  With the elites, they usually "chill out" for the first 20 miles at a comfortable pace for them (which is still twice as fast as my pace) and then kick it up the last 6.2 miles.  That article changed my mindset a little about marathons.  In the past, I felt drained the further along the race I went.  This time, I embraced that concept and really went faster during those last 6.2 miles.

Unfortunately, again I had to make a pit stop at mile 25.  I'm not sure what caused the GI issues this race, since I ate the same meal as usual the night before and the morning of.  Maybe it was the Raisinettes or Arby's I ate the day before during our road trip down.  My body just would not last one more mile, so I stopped again at the mile 25 porta potty.  Even with my GI issues, I finished in my second best marathon time.

Travel/Tourism:  We drove down to New Orleans from Atlanta, which is about a 7.5 - 8 hr drive, and we stayed at Rob's fraternity brother's house.  So we were not much help to the New Orleans economy during this trip.  From what I saw of New Orleans, it's a pretty scary city.  It seems like if we missed one turn, we were in the ghetto.  If we got off at the wrong exit, we were in the ghetto.  If we followed Google map directions from one place to another, we went through the ghetto.  While the race course took us through some nicer areas of town, most of what I saw while I was there looked run down and scary.  I would not want to live there by myself or drive there by myself or run there by myself.

Because of the long drive, we weren't in town long enough to go to any good local places to eat either.  IHOP is my traditional pre-race meal, so that was our first meal in New Orleans - as far from a local place as you can get.  For lunch Rob did get us something from a local sandwich shop, but it wasn't anything to write home about.  We did have beignets for dessert after lunch on Sunday, which are supposed to be a local delicacy.  To me they tasted like funnel cakes you get at baseball games or county fairs.

The open container law is pretty liberal in New Orleans, and drive-thru daiquiri places were everywhere.  If we had been there longer, I definitely would have tested that concept out.

We did go to Bourbon Street on Sunday night after dinner.  Unfortunately, it was raining, so we had to huddle under an umbrella to walk down the street and decide which bar to go in.  We ended up at a karaoke bar, which was pretty fun - until people started smoking right next to us.  Ugh, I had forgotten how nasty smoke is!  I'm definitely glad to live in Georgia where smoking is not the norm (either that or I just never get out enough to notice).

Mr. Romantic

Today is Valentines Day.  The one day of the year where Hallmark says we should display our love for all to see by flocking to the stores and flower shops to buy candy, flowers, cards, and everyhing we can find that is red or pink.  Being a girl, I've never had a problem with all that.  I like flowers.  I love chocolate.  And I can't get enough of someone displaying their love for me for all to see.

But most guys find Valentines Day to be a chore.  Just another day they have to figure out what to get their girlfriends or wives.  Just another day they have to try to show their romance...if they even have any.

But at least one guy is different.  This guy, we'll call him Mr. Romantic, knew his girlfriend was working from home on February 13th.  So he took the day off work, went to Party City and several other stores, and bought (it had to be, like, $500 worth of) Valentines Day decorations, candy, balloons, etc, and came to his girlfriend's office to decorate it.

And he didn't just decorate it...he DECORATED it.  It looked like Valentines Day blew up all over the office.  Every inch was covered with something!  This guy is the one that every guy wants to beat up because he ruined it for all the other guys - he makes the girls expect so much, and the other guys can't live up to Mr. Romantic's work.

Listen up guys!  You need to take a lesson from Mr. Romantic!  Here are some pictures of his work.

This is Mr. Romantic with the lucky woman!

I'll be honest, Mr. Romantic has a lot to live up to.  If he does this before they're married, he has to keep it up after they get married.  And I have no idea how he will top this next year. He has truly out-done himself.  but, wow, what a lucky woman!

Alan's Planes Trains and Automobiles Party

Okay, so I realize this is extremely late.  Alan's 2nd birthday party was in August, and it's just now December when I'm posting about it.  But better late than never, right?  So here it goes...

Alan loves cars, trucks, Thomas the train, and pretty much anything like that, so I decided his theme for this year would be Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.  We had the party at our house, and only invited family and a few close friends with kids.

The invitations were boarding passes and were printed onto card stock paper.

I split the house into the three theme rooms.

The Plane Room
We had one room for Planes, which was the playroom where the craft was set up.

The decorations for the Plane room consisted of an "airport" with a runway and a helicopter landing pad.

The craft was an airplane magnets made out of clothes pins and Popsicle sticks.  The kids could decorate it with glitter glue.

The Train Room

The train room was the living room. I set up train tracks leading up to the living room using electrical tape.  I purchased the railroad crossing sign off amazon to add to the post to the stairs.

Inside the train room, I had a train set on the coffee table for the kids to play with.  This was also the room where we opened presents.

The presents were initially dropped off at the Cargo area in the plane room.

The Automobile Room

The automobile room was the kitchen.  On the kitchen floor, I set up several play spots with various different automobile scenes using the toys Alan already had.

 We had a construction zone, a school zone, a Monster truck rally, a race track, and a parking garage.  I also purchased traffic signs from Amazon to hang around the room.

The room was a hit with the kids, as they played with all of Alan's toys.

Food and Cake
The food and cake also followed the theme.  The cake was make out of banana bread and was shaped like a train.

For food, we also had Monster Truck Tires (chocolate donuts),

Steering wheels (bagel halves),

Lumps of Coal (cocoa krispie treats),

Traffic lights (fruit skewers with strawberries, pineapples, and green grapes),

and Gasoline to drink (apple juice - don't worry!  The gas can was brand new!)

I set the table up like a road in the dining room.  We also had blueberry muffins shaped like cars that "drove" along the road.

Activities
For activities we had the craft (airplane magnets above), toys set up in the various different theme rooms, and a car kiddie pool with a slide set up outside on the deck.

Finally, I set up a baggage claim carousel with the party favor bags on the kitchen table.

Alan's party was a big success.  You can see the video of everyone singing Happy Birthday here.

Birthday boy opening presents

Marathon #12 - Texas

Before I begin, I just want to say I Love Texas!  Texas has to be my favorite state.  Along with the fact that it has great weather and plenty of big cities, there is such a sense of pride in being a Texan.  I don't feel like any other state is that proud of who they are as Texas is.  Not to mention the fact that there are a lot of great people in Texas that I would love to live closer to.  The dancing is awesome in Houston, San Antonio, and Austin (Austin is based on what I've heard, not experienced).  There are so many great places to run.  I would move there in a heartbeat.

So when my co-worker, Keith, said he was doing the Dallas marathon, I was in.  He had done one marathon before, and wanted to improve his finishing time, so I told him I'd run with him and try to pace him.  And when I found out I was gong to be flying there anyway for work the week before, and had some extra vacation to burn, I decided to take my time enjoying the great state of Texas while I was there.

The Race:  Dallas Marathon (formally White Rock Marathon), Dallas, TX, December 9, 2012

My Training Plan:  I only had a month to train for Dallas, since I had just completed the Manchester City marathon on November 4th.  Since I was running with Keith, I decided to use his training plan.  He got his training plan out of a book, and sent the mileage to me.  My longest run was a 22 miler three weeks before the race.

Weather:  The weather was warm, for sure.  But I really like warm weather, so it didn't bother me too much.  The start of the race was about 64 degrees, and it got up to about 70 during the run.  By the end of the race, however, the temperature was dropping as a cold front moved through that afternoon.  It was probably about 50 when we finished, and dropping.  (It actually snowed a little bit that night after the cold front came through!)

Running Attire:  I started out in shorts and the Liz shirt I wore during the Manchester City marathon.  I also wore my signature pink Nike visor and iFitness belt.  After about mile 3, I tucked my shirt up into my bra, so my midsection was exposed.  In doing that, I was able to keep cool enough to be comfortable throughout the race.

Who I ran with:  As I said before, I ran with Keith the entire way.  I also met several people along the way: Evan who was originally from Detroit, but had just moved down to the Dallas area for work and was running his first marathon; Darren who worked for the Dallas Parks and Rec and had run several marathons but hated running; Ed who was also running his first marathon and was from somewhere close to Fort Worth; John, a guy who did IT architecture for a small company in the Dallas area.  Most everyone I talked to was fairly local.  I didn't run with any of them for long, but it was fun to hear the stories of the runners around us.

The Course:  The course was a new course this year.  Previously, I believe it was ran mostly around White Rock Lake (thus the name White Rock Marathon).  However, this year they changed the course to start and finish downtown.  I have mixed feelings about the course.  I believe that the first few miles were extremely crowded, and the roads were a little too narrow for the crowd.  It would have been much better had they either started the half marathon at a different time, or from a different location.

I would describe the course as having rolling hills.  Most of the hills were gradual, but long.  The elevation change wasn't drastic, as the elevation chart shows, with only about 160 feet difference between the lowest and highest points.

There were some beautiful points along the way.  At one point, when crossing over the bridge with the big white arch, you could see the city in the background with the bridge and the Texas state flag in the foreground.  It would have been a beautiful picture had I gotten my phone out to take it.  There were also some beautiful parts along the lake and some very nice neighborhoods that we went through as well.

Organization:  The organization of the race was good.  There were plenty of emails that went out to tell you about the event and the expo.  They alerted the runners about all the possible parking lots near both the start and finish.  The did not have a map of the course that showed where the water stops were in the bib packet though, which was disappointing.  It was easy enough to look it up online, but it would have been nice to have the map in front of me when I was getting everything ready the night before.

The expo was held in the convention center and was big enough - with plenty of vendors (although not a lot of free giveaways) - and the lines for the bibs were short and quick.  I did not, however, like that they made you go to one line for the bib and another line at the other end of the expo for a shirt.

Along the course, there were not enough volunteers.  There were plenty of water stops where there were no cups filled and volunteers were clamoring to keep up with the runners, particularly during the first part of the race when both the marathon and half marathon runners were on the same course.  I saw one stop where a runner just grabbed a cup and dipped it into the Gatorade bucket.  With temperatures in the 60s and 70s, having limited water and Gatorade supply is not acceptable to me.

One of the good things, though, was the number of porta potties along the course.  There were probably five at each water stop, so the lines were minimal along the course.

Swag:  This race was a first for me in that they had two shirts:  a regular race shirt that you got at the expo, which was a regular cotton long-sleeved shirt, and a finisher shirt that you got after you finished the race, which was the actual dri-fit long-sleeved shirt.  I'll probably use the cotton race shirt as a throw-away shirt at another race in the future.  They of course had a medal as well for all finishers.  Other than the two shirts and the medal, there wasn't anything fun or exciting in the swag category.

Starting Line:  The starting line was set up with estimated pace signs along the side so you could, theoretically, line up by the people who were going the same pace as you.  However, the corrals were open from the back, so it was very difficult to make your way up to your desired pace sign.  In addition, as advertised, there were porta potties inside the corrals.  In corral A, the porta potties were along a side street, so the lines were obvious.  In corral B, however, they were just lined up along the side of the main road, so you couldn't tell who was in line for the porta potty and who was just in the corral waiting for the race to start.  You also had people walking right in front of the porta potties trying to get up to their estimated pace sign, so when you exited them, you were knocking people over with the door - or you couldn't get out at all because of the crowd.  Again, I say, the half marathoners should have either started at a different time or from a different place.  This would have alleviated some of the congestion.

Fans:  Surprisingly, I thought the fans were actually better once the half marathon split off than at the beginning.  Perhaps this was because the first few miles were in a sort of shady part of town, and no one wanted to stand around and watch the race from there.  I saw several groups of people who went from place to place cheering on the runners.  It wasn't like I imagine NYC would be with fans constantly lining the course and cheering, but there were enough fans in the last six miles of the race to motivate you to keep on going.

Finish Line:  The finish line may be my biggest disappointment of the race.  They directed you into the convention center to get your shirt and food.  You had to go up to the second level to get to the area with the shirts, beer, and food.  The escalator was broken, so there was a huge line of people waiting for a slow elevator to go up to the second level.  We ended up taking the stairs, but I can see how that would be difficult for someone who just ran 26.2 miles to try to climb up stairs.

Once we got into the convention center hall, the food left much to be desired.  They had bananas, pretzels, unpeeled oranges, and chocolate milk (which I loved).  Other than the chocolate milk, which were in small cartons, the only hydration was water and Gatorade in small paper cups.  There wasn't anything you could take with you.  No bottled water.  No bottled Gatorade.  They did have Miller 64 beer in cans, one per runner, but I am not a big fan of drinking beer and getting more dehydrated after running a marathon.

Results:  We were shooting for 4:30 and were on track the first half of the race.  Unfortunately, toward the end, our pace slowed.  We ended up finishing in 4:56:20 - still beating 5 hours, but behind our desired finish time.

How I felt:  I'll have to admit, I felt great throughout the entire race.  Granted, I ran slower than I usually run, but I felt like I could have kept on going after we were done.  Who knows, maybe someday I can do a 50k or 50 miler...if I run slower the entire way.

Travel/Tourism:  Like I said before, I took some vacation time and saw some of Texas that I had never seen before.  It was an amazing vacation, one of my favorite for sure!  I flew into DFW airport on Monday morning, and worked from our Dallas office on Monday and Tuesday.  While there, I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Irving, which is a newer hotel and is pretty nice.  It's not as nice as the Omni (which I have stayed in before), but still nice enough to enjoy my stay.

Tuesday-Wednesday - Waco, TX
On Tuesday evening after work, I drove the hour and a forty-five minutes to Waco, TX.  I stayed in the Fairfield Inn, which is another hotel that is good value for the money.  While in Waco on Wednesday, I drove to Baylor and ran through campus, along a river, through a park to the top of a mountain (they call Lovers Leap), and back.  It was a very nice 15-miler.  After cleaning up and checking out, I went to Rudy's Bar-B-Q for lunch before heading south.  It was delicious!  The meat was great, the creamed corn was good, and the banana pudding was delicious too.  I would highly recommend this place, which looks to be somewhat of a chain in the Texas area, but I had never heard of before.

Wednesday - Austin, TX
I drove another hour and a half to Austin.  Austin was just a stop along the way.  I parked downtown and toured the Texas state capital.  I learned so much about the history of Texas from doing that.  After the tour, I headed to The Salt Lick restaurant southwest of Austin.  I had heard a lot of good things about the restaurant, and was a little disappointed.  The meat was good and the sandwich was huge, but the beans and potato salad were not tasty at all.  I ended up leaving so much food on my plate that I felt guilty.

Wednesday night - San Antonio, TX
From there, I headed south to San Antonio.  After checking in at the Hampton Inn near the Forum, I changed and went to Semeneya Ballroom to go swing dancing.  The ballroom is pretty big and the dancers are good.  It was a fun night.

Thursday - San Antonio, TX
The next day, I found an 8-mile out-and-back run from downtown to the San Antonio zoo.  After running the four miles to the zoo, I walked around the zoo for a couple of hours before running back downtown.  After showering I came back to the Riverwalk where I took a riverboat cruise at night, learning even more about the history of San Antonio.  I ate at a nice Italian restaurant along the Riverwalk called Paesano's.  I got the baked eggplant, and it was delicious!  The riverboat cruise also had a coupon on the back of the ticket for a free dessert with the purchase of an entree, so I got these little balls of ice cream covered in chocolate and drizzled with caramel.  The entire meal was amazing!

The Riverwalk at night with the riverboats

The Alamo at night

Friday - San Antonio, TX
On Friday, I got up and went for a 5-mile run mostly along the Riverwalk.  The run was designed to be a tour of the historic points of the downtown/Riverwalk area.  I passed by an old U.S. Arsenal, a flour mill built in the Civil War era that is still family owned and operated by the same family, a neighborhood with historic houses, the Alamo, the Tower of the Americas (which I stopped to go to the top), and of course the Riverwalk area. Then I toured the Alamo before I went back to the hotel to change.  After showering, I went back downtown to take some pictures around the Riverwalk before dark.

Running on the Riverwalk

The Riverwalk during the day

Once it got dark, I headed up toward the North Star Mall area for dinner and to wait until dancing at Luna started.  A band called PM Soul was playing at a CD release party at Luna.  One of my favorite Texas leads, Michael Williams, who I had met when I had a work project in Houston for six months back in 2006, was there.  I also danced with a couple of the leads I had met on Wednesday night at Sameneya, but a majority of the night was spent with Michael, who has got to be one of the best blues dancers I know - well actually one of the best dancers, in general, that I know.  I didn't want the night to end!

Unfortunately, I had to get up really early on Saturday so that I could drive the four hours back to Dallas and meet Keith for the marathon expo.  So four hours of driving and a 5-hour energy later, I was back in Dallas.  I went to the expo and spent the night at Keith's house to get ready for the marathon.  After the marathon on Sunday, I flew back to Atlanta, and it was back to reality.