New Orleans is hands down one of Christine's and my favorite cities. The culture is so lively and unique - we try to visit as much as possible. When looking for an early 2017 half marathon, our close friends invited us to visit and stay with them for the NOLA Rock and Roll Half Marathon. We had our flights booked within minutes.
New Orleans is typically a hot and humid climate, but an early February race seemed to be right in the sweet spot of their Summer/Spring/Summer seasonal calendar. The course looked flat and fast, and appeared to map out a great tour through the city. NOLA would be the first of four races during this marathon cycle, and the first of two half marathons, so an excellent early gauge of our fitness levels.
NOLA fell at the end of Week 5 of my 18-week training plan. Training had been going well and I set A, B, C goals of 1:25:30, 1:26:30, and 1:27:30, respectively. I figured I was close to 1:27 shape, but it's always tough to tell. I do know that if I hope to go sub 3 at the Eugene marathon, I would need to be right around 1:25 for that last half marathon in late March. The goal here though was to put in a solid effort and have something to validate/gauge if my fitness was around where I estimated.
We arrived early Friday ahead of the Sunday morning race. I decided to do a mini-taper to ensure I had mostly fresh legs, which really only nixed one workout. Christine and I did shakeout miles both Friday and Saturday, hitting up the expo with our friends early Saturday afternoon.
For the expo, I was already expecting a corporate feel with it being a Rock and Roll series event, but hoped for at least a local presence mixed in (i.e. local running stores). Unfortunately the RnR branding was everywhere and I wasn't able to find even one local booth. That said, that's probably one of only two total areas for improvement I had noted throughout the whole race weekend (I'll get to the second later on).
After the expo, we explored the French Quarter for a few hours, then had a great home cooked meal at the Harringtons' before retiring early in the evening.
The race start was scheduled for Sunday at 7:30am, putting it just after sunrise. We arrived at the start area around 6:15 and had plenty of time to warmup, stretch, and do plyometrics. With over 12,000 runners registered, there was a lot of energy and enthusiasm down there. Always love that part about the big races.
I was assigned Corral 1 (I put an expected finish time of 1:25) out of at least 20. The half marathon and full marathon starts were grouped together. I wished Christine a good race (she began in Corral 4), and I positioned myself in the middle of my group, trying to ensure a controlled start.
There was the usual pre-race banter by the Race Director, then a nice rendition of the National Anthem by a local artist. Often find myself getting emotional listening to the SSB before a race. Then it's over and I have to quickly shift focus. Always a weird moment for me. Anyway, after the gun went off, it took a half mile or so to find my own running lane, which was necessary because the start was actually a bit slower than I had hoped for. But I found a good rhythm and settled in just before hitting mile 1 in 6:46. The majority of the first 8 miles were an out and back on St Charles.
Miles 2 through 6 were largely uneventful. I paid more attention to the road than I usually would on a street course as the roads of New Orleans are probably in worse condition than the roads in Detroit. But it was nice to experience the RnR staple of local bands playing as we made our way out and back. I didn't notice at the time but Christine said mimosas were flowing during this stretch. She was tempted but decided to wait until the post-race party. New Orleans, like Savannah and Las Vegas, does not have open container laws. Someday I'll have to partake!
Mile 2: 6:34
Mile 3: 6:31
5K Split: 20:33
Mile 4: 6:29
Mile 5: 6:29
Mile 6: 6:31
5K Split: 20:11 / 10K Split: 40:44
Through 10K I realized that I was on pace for sub 1:26, but I began to feel the effort level noticeably increase during mile 7. I had hoped that I could put down low 6:30s through 10 miles then go with whatever I had left the last 5K, but I realized at this point that game plan probably wasn't in the cards. I had the feeling the last few miles were going to be a struggle, but I tried to keep on grinding.
Mile 7: 6:32
Mile 8: 6:35
Mile 9: 6:31
5K Split: 20:22 / 15K Split: 1:01:06
Mile 10 made its way through the French Quarter before turning turning up Esplanade for the home stretch to City Park. At this point I tried to hang onto 6:40 as long as possible, but things were tightening up. In retrospect, it felt like I had slowed up considerably more than I actually did. But these miles were tough. There wasn't really any ability to position myself to have a fast finish.
Mile 10: 6:41
Mile 11: 6:43
Mile 12: 6:49
5K Split: 21:07 / 20K Split: 1:22:13
With about a mile to go, the half and full marathon field split, and we headed into City Park. I felt pretty worked, but found a little boost the last quarter mile or so. Hearing friends cheer you home definitely helped as well.
Mile 13: 6:52
0.17: 6:10 pace
I crossed the finish in 1:27:06 officially over 13.17 per my Garmin; good for a 6:37 average pace. Bringing my PB at the half down from 1:32:36; or 5:30, which is pretty crazy considering my first half marathon was only 10 months ago.
I collected my medal, grabbed some hydration, and met up with friends to cheer home Christine.
Christine crossed just over 2:03, which was remarkable given her low volume of miles the past few weeks as she's continuing to focus on prehab.
We made our way over to the finish festival where the Dirty Dozen Brass Band was headlining. Here's my nit-picky second area for improvement. After a good distance race, there's nothing I love more than a good local craft beer. Unfortunately at RnR, Michelob Ultra was a big league sponsor, and that's the only beer they served. I would have gladly paid money for an alternative option, but sadly there was none. Still, it was nice to sit and relax on the infield, taking in some New Orleans tunes, celebrating our accomplishment.
Oh, and to top off a great weekend, we cheered on the Patriots that night to the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history!
