Cool Kids Run in Costume

On my recent flight I was catching up on the last few months of Runner's Worlds and came across a picture of a woman running in a Tinkerbell costume.  As you know, I'm a big fan of costumes at races.  I've run in them once or twice.  (Ok.  Maybe more than that.  At least 4 times.)  The exact picture I saw in RW isn't currently online - and since I'm out of town I can't scan it - but you'll get the gist from these pictures:

She's wearing a Tinkerbell inspired costume!!!  And she came in 1st place for women!  Talk about awesome.

But the funny thing is that when I saw her picture I thought she looked familiar.  Like I'd seen her before or something.  And then it dawned on me... She also won Little Rock.  And Tupelo.  Both of which I ran.  In fact, Spazz & I actually chatted with her in Little Rock at the post-race party.  And in Tupelo, after the race she changed into chaps, a hoster & water guns and was running her friends into the finish line.  My kind of gal.

26.2 Gallon Hat

Sorry for the poor quality.  My camera's dead
so I had to take it with a phone.

Yesterday was the first time I wore a costume during a full marathon.  I like to call it my 26.2 gallon hat.  It was a hot one, the sun beating down, yet the day felt cooler than New Orleans since there wasn't much humidity.  With the shade provided by our hats it felt kinda nice.  Full race report once the official photos are back.

I hope everyone else's races or workouts went well this weekend!

Hop in Your Step

I managed to make it on the local news with friends as we walked to the Crescent City Classic 10K yesterday.



Forgive me for the hopping.  He made us do it.

Happy Easter!

Crescent City Classic 10k Recap

The Crescent City Classic is an institution in New Orleans.  Every year, some East African wins the thing, followed by over 20,000 people running, jogging, walking, drinking & eating their way to the finish line.  People who never run the rest of the year manage to make it out for this event.  Since the race is the day before Easter,  many people come out in festive gear to start the festivities.  I, of course, was no exception:

Thanks, M, for procuring the tutus!

M, M's future sister-in-law & Goldilocks
Check out those death rays of sunshine!

There were 4 of us wearing bunny ears, 2 tutus, and 2 of our "Runners are my Peeps" signs.  Sadly, we didn't really stand out with so many people dressed up.  My camera died this morning so I wasn't able to get any action shots on my phone.  You'll just have to believe me.



The highlights?

Starting line:  In the picture (at left) the starting line was WAY up ahead.  It took us over 4 minutes to cross after the gun.  And to make it even better, we were already sweating before we got this close.  It was a hot one with Easter so late this year.

Mental note for next time:  tutus don't breathe well.

Mile 0-1:  Already achieved the state of dripping with sweat.  The crowds were insane so we were zig-zagging all over the place and still barely able to stay under 10:00 miles.

Mile 2:  Jello shots!  They were a bit melty & STRONG.  I learned a lesson though:  If you make jello shots for a race, don't use red.  Go for yellow or something that won't stain.  I had to slow down to avoid drippage since they were no longer solid.

Miles 2-4:  Missed several unofficial beer stops on both sides.  The mob of runners made aiming for anything challenging.

Mile 4:  Mimosas!  This is probably the best thing that happened to us.  They were huge chunks of ice floating in the drinks.  The cups were pretty full & held way more than I would normally drink at a water stop, but I chugged most of mine because it tasted so good.  At this point, we weren't getting much shade and the heat was beating down.

Mile 4-5:  M's future sister-in-law was having a rough time by now.  She's visiting from out of town and her last run was at a high of 47.  The New Orleans heat was taking its toll so we ran this mile slow & steady, aiming for all the shade we could find.

Mile 5-6.2:  At this point I ran in by myself.  The heat was brutal and I mostly wanted to finish fast.  I ran a couple minutes faster per mile for this last one just to get it over with.  Plus, its fun passing people when you're wearing bunny ears & a tutu.

Post-Race Party?  Yes, please.  It was significantly bigger than many full marathons I've run.  There was a stage with a band.  TONS of free jambalaya, red beans & rice, Abita beer, chocolate milk, gatorade, water and Pepsi products.  Event shirts for sale.  Even free 2011-2012 calendars with pictures from past events!

Legs, Spazz & Goldilocks downing some jambalaya.
(Goldilocks was much happier than she looks in the photo)

Spazz & Legs enjoying their red beans & rice

Rehydrating* with my Abita beer.

My goal today was to have fun, which I definitely accomplished PLUS I got a couple free drinks.  The best part is since this is my first 10k (I know... crazy), I now have a PR that involves jello shots & mimosas.  Bonus!

Happy Easter, everyone!

Race Recap: Gulf Coast Half Marathon

See?  Great scenery!  Wait...
Is that a port-a-potty?

Pros:
1.  The medal is a bottle opener.  Need I say more?

2.  You're running in a beautiful location.  Not that we could really see it because it was (thankfully) overcast and misty most of the morning.  But the background noise was the calming crash of waves and the scent of salt water was in the air.  And as you can see (right) they thoughtfully put the photographers at particularly scenic locations.

3.  Post-race Party?  Great.  Plenty of red beans & rice, beer (Land Shark), bagels and bananas at the finish line.  I went back to run Goldilocks to the finish and her pace is a bit slower.  We didn't hit the post-race party until 3+ hours after the start but there was still food & beer.  Unfortunately for her, that's never a guarantee at her pace so we were psyched they didn't run out early.  OH!  And as a special bonus, everyone got laid at the finish line.  Or is it lei'd?  I always mix those up.

Looks like I just jumped out of a pool

Cons:
1.  It was HOT!  A bank sign said was 74 degrees before sunrise on our way to the race.  Plus a ga-jillion % humidity.  I was sweating before we started.  The webpage advertised that the average temperature at the start is 57 degrees.  Liars.

Goldilocks & I.
*Note that my shorts are SOAKING and
plastered to my legs.  SEXY!

*approxiate

2.  Almost no spectators.  We were basically running on the ONE road on the island so not much traffic could get through.  I actually didn't mind the calm, but a lot of people did.  If you want people cheering, this race isn't for you.

Lemon-Lime Gatorad-ita
Patent pending.

3.  No Gu <shrug> and the Gatorade was mixed SUPER strong.  But with all that we were sweating this probably wasn't a bad thing.  If you salted the rim & added tequila, we would have had some tasty margaritas.  (I thought of it first! Don't try to steal credit!)

Overall?
Good race.  A bit pricey.  Quiet.  Great post-party.

As an added bonus, this guy was labelled as me.
Our numbers weren't even close.
Too bad I didn't get a picture of a male model...

My inner nerd...

[Warning:  If you don't like Sci-Fi, leave now.  I mean it.  This will probably make you lose all respect for me.  If you like Sci Fi, I may become your new idol.]

In case you were wondering, my costume for Mardi Gras turned out amazingly well.  This year I got involved with a great Mardi Gras krewe called the Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus.  (*A brief background explanation can be found below.)  Combining the themes of Science Fiction & Mardi Gras partying, they use the slogan "Saving the Galaxy One Drunken Nerd at a Time."

Along with hosting their own mini-parade to coincide with the larger parade of Bacchus, they also held a first annual "Set Phasers to Stunning" fashion show.  That's where I come in.

For weeks I painstakingly worked on a Starbuck costume from Battlestar Galactica.  (Yes.  I did go see the BSG exhibit in Seattle when I was visiting.  I couldn't help myself.)  My mom taught me to sew when I was little, but having gone years without sewing and with no sewing machine I was left to do the slow work of hand stitching most of it.  In the end, it was worth it.  Costumes are a big thing in New Orleans (shocking, I know) and I definitely had one of the coolest costumes there if I do say so myself.

Wanna see?

The dog tags?  It's a bottle-opener.

Haven't been to New Orleans?
Maybe that needs to change.

Unfortunately, I had to miss the parade (Chewbacchus) & the ball (Chewbacchanal) because of the Little Rock Marathon (totally worth it!) but at least I got to strut my stuff.  We even got a brief stint on Wired.com.
Not bad for my last year in New Orleans.  For now.  You never know what the future holds...

As for now, I'm at happy hour.  I set this to post automatically.  I figured being at happy hour when this posts would be appropriate.  Happy Friday!

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*Background:  Bacchus (aka Dionysus in Greek) is the Roman god of wine, ecstasy, fertility & madness who was notorious for his partying and sexual escapades.  As you can imagine, he is a favorite at Mardi Gras celebrations.  In fact, Bacchus is the name of one of the major parades that rolls the Sunday before Mardi Gras.  Chewbacca, as you may remember, is one of the main characters from Star Wars.

Jazz Half Marathon Recap

My goals for the Jazz Half:

1.  Use the half as part of a 20 mile long run

2.  Have fun

3.  Get some great pictures

Mission accomplished on all accounts.

The day started off when I met a friend around 5:30 so we could run downtown to the start, about 5.5 miles away.  I knew I wouldn't want to keep going for another 7 after the race, so I figured this would be the best way to squeeze in the extra miles.  Not surprisingly, the roads were pretty empty at this hour but the miles passed quickly as we made our way in the darkness.

Team "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"
with obligatory side ponytails all around. 

We got to the start with a lot of time to spare so I headed down the road to knock out the last 1.5 miles before the race.  As usual, there were runners arriving from all directions so I got first glimpse at some of the costumes.  There were plenty of superheroes, Saints fans (LOTS of black & gold tutus), various animals, zombies... perhaps my favorite was a guy dripping in LSU attire.  Not because I love LSU, but because the guy had on a HUGE cowboy hat, yellow fringe around his waist & ankles, running rights & a purple lei around his waist.

There were also some scary Halloween hazards on the course.  First, 2 miles in we passed the Boogie Monster.  And by "boogie" I mean he was snot-rocketing into the crowd of runners.  Please, people!  I recognize that snot-rockets are an expected hazard, but move to where you're not going to slime anyone!

Then, arriving on St. Charles we started our trek through the deadly pothole passage.  Hell... who am I kidding?  All of New Orleans is a pothole obstacle course.  But right after Lee Circle is particularly bad.  We passed our first casualty around mile 3-4 who looked like she'd recently face planted, with blood gushing from her nose, elbows and knees.  Ouch!  After making sure she was ok, we continued on our journey.

On our way back from Audubon Park we passed State Street - known for its Halloween zeal - and stopped for pictures.  We posed in front of one particular house (above right) that has at least 20 skeletons in their front yard.  We're standing next to "Deadly Glare."  There's also "the Scream," a skeleton doing a cart-wheel & hula-hoop, "dead tired"... all pretty bad puns but entertaining nonetheless.


Then, less than a mile from the finish line we passed my favorite "costume."  Some guy was standing on a rock  (presumably brought from home?) at Lee Circle.  Dressed as Jesus.  Why?  Who knows.  This is New Orleans.  He probably does this everyday and simply relocated for the race.  I almost didn't stop for the picture - we were almost at the finish line after all - but just as we were leaving the circle I knew I would regret not having his picture.  So here he is, "Jazz Half Jesus" in his full glory standing in front of a line of port-a-potties.  (We shouted his name to get his attention and he gave us his best pose):

"Jazz Half Jesus"

Once we arrived at the finish line it was time for food.  Any NOLA events always have good food so we downed a couple cups of water and then headed over for the real goods.  Among the offering were Jambalaya, Kung Pao Chicken, Mich Ultra & chocolate fudgesicles.  Mmmm.  Add a bunch of bands, rocking out on stage, a ga-zillion runners & spectators and you've got yourself a party.

Overall, a great race.  My only complaint is that the price is a bit steep ($60) for a half marathon - I prefer running marathons for less.  But it's the only New Orleans race around Halloween so, all in all, it's pretty entertaining.