CrossRoads Blog

Okay, so does it get any better than having a great excuse to go to New Orleans than to run a Marathon? Plus the fact that it is part of the Rock-N-Roll Marathon series (brief interlude to mention that the RnR series does this thing that if you do more than one of their events you get extra medals, in fact for every additional race you do you get some extra cool ‘bling’. Let’s just say the medals for doing six or seven events in a year in the series are way cool and this was another reason to do New Orleans). The main reason we got to run the race was because it was all part of the “We have a new Grand Daughter Oklahoma trip”.

We scooted out from the land of the Grandkiddos on Friday so we could (I heard that - yes I do work - it’s called laptops and iPhones - get with times) settle in and enjoy a couple of nights in the Big Easy before the race. As you may have gathered from our last N.O visit, this is a favorite place. Something about this city. It’s just the overall vibe it exudes, and the music, and of course the food. Did I mention the food? Before I forget, yep, Kimberly had another Peanut Butter Burger at Yo Mamma’s, and it took less than a few hours before those little buggers on the half shell where sloshing around in my stomach - something repeated again of course.

Being that the crowds were long gone from Mardi Gras, and Jazz Fest was still a few months away, snagging a good room was pretty easy. We if fact decided on an old New Orleans classic place called La Pavillion (French of course so pronounced La-Pa-ve-own). The place is pretty cool and I think is even famous for its ‘haunted residents’. It is also famous for its tradition of PB&J sandwiches served to guests at 10:00 every night. Yep, they break out Peanut Butter and Jelly on a whole lot of fancy dished and serve it up in the lobby every night. We of course had to partake, even though there was no whole wheat bread (btw, I filled out a survey after we left and got an email form the mgr that they will have whole wheat from now on! Cool huh - we now are kind of part of the tradition).

Seeing we had gotten to town early enough Friday to pick up our bib and hit the expo, we had all Saturday to hang. We ended up doing the typical NO thing and walking the Quarter and looking in all the awesome Royal street antique shops (no place in the US like Royal). On the stroll we also hit up the French Market which is like a giant food and flea market thing (with Royal think Beverly Hills, with the French Market think Oklahoma hills). Walking along Kimberly spotted this awesome homemade Raggedy Ann Doll she just had to have for little Ms Ariana. Amazing, I think it was like $15 and totally handmade with cool stitched clothing and everything - score, we get her first doll! We continued to do the walking thing but of course called it an early night. As always, we try to get some sleep before the Marathon in the morning which with a 6:00 am start meant a 4:00 rise.

The weather had been a little iffy. In fact, cold and rain had been the story. The good news is for some reason our ‘weather blessed’ streak continued. It could not have been a more perfect running morning weather wise. This was a good thing because we had to walk to the start line. Still a little cold we just brought a race wrap type thing you can ditch before the race starts. The walk took a little more time than expected and by the time I did the drop bag thing (the race was out and not back so we would be some 12 miles or so from the Hotel when we were done) it was time for the corrals. I loved that for this race they actually had the porta-potties on the side of the corral! I can’t tell you how nice it was to have access to a bathroom minutes before a Marathon and not have any line really.

The race course was way cool. It essentially takes you down Magazine street and through Audubon Park which is awesome. You then return back toward the city via Saint Charles with the half runners on the other side of the trolley line. Next is a quick trip through the French Quarter passing St Louis Cathedral, and Kimberly’s favorite Cafe Du Monde (kidding she is not a beignet fan) before you head toward St. Louis Cemetery and finally into City Park where you run around for a few miles and finish right smack dab in the heart of it to the sounds of Cowboy Mouth and others rockin’ away. All in all one very scenic course. The only downside is the roads - man are they tough. Seems Katrina effects along with just being an old city has some painful effects on the roads. St. Charles in particular is tough as the road is just tore up and you spend a lot of time trying to find even semi even pavement.

Which brings us to Mrs. M. She had done a little damage during the Pemberton Ultra and essentially exacerbated it here on the roads of New Orleans. In fact, she wisely spent the last 9 miles of walking or should I say hobbling to the finish. This was the only downer news of the whole trip. After the race we got to again meet up with some great runner folks we have come to know. It’s fast becoming the reason we so look forward to the next race - seeing the friends. The night of the run we again hit GW Fins (you knew we would). While the entrees and everything else was amazing as expected, sadly the Apple Pie was not quite as good as the “best desert ever” it was on the last trip - oh well. We again hated leaving this grand ol’ city, but we had some Grand kiddos to get back too!

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