Back in the Big Easy - A Race Report

Prologue: Today was the Crescent City Classic 10k. I arrived in Baton Rouge yesterday and I am pleased to note that I had no painful situations occur before that would serve as bad omens. I arrived yesterday morning, went to a friend of mine's new house (he just bought it and proudly showed it off) and then I went over to Andy's. We went to New Orleans, picked up the race info, headed back and went to a movie. I was exhausted when we were done and was looking foward to an early night (because I need sleep the night before a race, and I had been up since 4:30 that morning). Nope. Some of his friends called and invited us to the Daiquiri Cafe, so we went. I was quietly grumpy because I needed sleep (although we went out for sushi before the Daiquiri Cafe, which made me happy for thirty minute). After appearing to be the most anti-social person in the world (I'm extremely quiet when exhausted) we finally went back to his apartment. I fell asleep as soon as we got home (as in I immediately went to the couch and pulled the blanket over my eye while he finished doing whatever he was doing in the living room), which was after 11. This morning, his alarm went off at 5am (actually, three times prior, and I could hear him hitting the snooze button each time - and I was downstairs! That's a f*****g loud alarm) and we were gone by 6am. I was groggy, and not altogether pleased at the lack of sleep, but whatever.

We get to New Orleans in good time and make our way to the start at Jackson Square. This is the biggest 10k I have ever seen. When I did the New Orleans half marathon in February, there were only 1000 runners. There were 13,000 runners for this one. The crowds were more fun, there were randon jazz bands along the route, etc. I would definitely run this race again.

I came with one major goal and two minor goals. The major goal was to PR. My best 10k prior to today was the Conoco Philips Rodeo Run, in which I finished in 1:18:26, average mil of 12:37. I wanted to PR. Segueing to my second goal, I wanted to average 12 minute miles. My third goal was to beat Andy, but the sneaky son-of-a-bitch averaged at 11:30 miles, instead of the 12:00 he was originally planning.

The Run:
Mile 1: 11:58. I kinda hoped for a faster first mile, but it was difficult. The race started with a cannon going off. Then all 13,000 pushed forward to begin. This was a mess. The walkers got too far ahead, so that when the runners started running (at least, my pace of runners), we had to dodge walkers EVERYWHERE. When I walk, if there's a lot of people, I use courtesy and stick to the right side of the street. Not these folks! I wasted .13 mile waving in and out of people and running sideways. My total mileage for the race was 6.33. I was irritated. I managed to get ahead of Andy when I was darting around big groups of walkers.

Mile 2: 11:51. Still hoped for a faster mile, but I'm ok with this. Nothing extremely interesting in this mile. Still trying to get around walkers.

Mile 3: 12:22. Oops. Why did I slow down? I took an espresso gu for extra energy.
Andy caught up with me as we approached the 4-mile marker. I kept up with him briefly, and then just let him go.

Mile 4: 12:08. Darn. Oh, well. It's getting extremely hot - the sun is beating down (and I am sunburned).

Mile 5: 12:05. Whatever. Towards the end of mile 5, my left toes begin cramping up. I guess I was pushing off with them too much.

Mile 6: 12:40. I was getting tired and knew I was going to PR.

.33 - 3:22 - yes, I held a 10:20/mile pace for three minutes! I hauled ass at the end.

Total mileage: 6.33. Time: 1:16:29. Pace: 12:05 (I'm ok with this).
I know that the official results will be 6.2 miles at close to the same time, which will mean my official pace would be around 12:15 or so, which I'm still happy with. I managed to cut 2 minute off my time, so my goal for the next 10K is to cut another 2 minute off at least. I will be running this 10k next year and my goal is for an 11 minute/mile pace, which is so do-able!

If I had the proper amount of sleep, I probably would've been able to stick to the 12-minute goal pace, but I'm not complaining. I'm damn proud of myself. And then we went to Port-Of-Call, which has the best burgers in the world. Yumm...

My left calf/tendon didn't hurt at all. I bought "The Stick" yesterday, finally. It's a neat roller-massager stick that gets the kinks out of muscles. I've been wanting one forever because they feel wonderful, so I'm happy a vendor was selling it at the expo.

I still need to get a nice, easy long run in, so I'm going to strive for 12 miles tomorrow. I've never run around the lakes of Baton Rouge, so I'm looking forward to the run. I also plan on running through LSU's campus because there are some nasty hills near the Stadium and I want to get some easy hills in.

I feel wonderful. I could've kept running. I might be back to normal.

Cheers!