“Wherever you go, go with all your heart”- Confucius
We woke up at 7:30 on Saturday and jogged to a great little breakfast spot, Merchant. We both ate the banana-nutella crepe (a sweet splurge!) and then jogged to the expo at the Convention Center. We arrive at 9:07 and it took us ten minutes to walk to the other side, it was absolutely huge! There, we had our samplings, received our 5-hour energy (we both take one before long runs) and purchased our GU needed for the next day. We then jogged back by the Mississippi (careful here, there was a lot of Cruise Ship confusion for us), showered, and headed on down to the National World War II Museum (Beyond All Boundaries and The Road to Berlin were fantastic exhibits). The whole museum was fantastic. Afterwards,we walked to the French Quarter and popped into some shops to try King’s Cake and pralines. We had a nice Italian dinner at The Italian Barrel. We split some bread with oil, tomato mozzarella. Sean had some pasta with sausage and Jenn had pumpkin ravioli. It was delicious! We sat at the bar and chatted with our waitress who gave us good advice on where to visit. After dinner, it was about 6:30pm, so we walked back through Bourbon Street and soaked up all the madness and excitement from the street, while drinking our water. We both were exhausted from all of our walking and adventures that we passed out around 8 while watching Home Alone 2.
The morning of the run, we made sure we had our Kind Bar and banana before the start. The start of the race was about 5 blocks away and as we left the hotel there was a buzz of excitement in the air. Tons of people flocked to the starting line where we listened to the mayor of New Orleans speak and a wonderful rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.” The horn rang and the city was filled with sounds of footsteps, cheers, and music, because as you know it was the Rock and Roll Marathon. The conditions were perfect! It was a flat race, not windy, and temperatures were in the 50s. The course went through the business district, out to Tulane University where there was a turnaround that took you back towards the business district, by the museums, through the French Quarter and a 5k out to the New Orleans Park. Sean’s goal was to run 7-minute miles for as long as he could and knew that when he hit the 10-mile mark and there was a 5k left to dig deep and run as hard as he could. He was able to do this and as he hit the 10-mile mark he knew it was going to be a special race. He finished in 1:31:22 which was a 6:58 pace and finished in 120th place out of just around 8,000 people. He set a PR by 1 minute and 10 seconds. Jenn’s goal was to complete it strongly as she was just getting over an upper-respiratory infection. Jenn was motivated by the awesome music through the course and loved the stretch through the French Quarter. Jenn also finished with a PR which was 1:49:20 which was 22 seconds faster than her 2014 Philadelphia Half Marathon. She finished in 699th place out of 8,000 people. We both were pleased with our winter training and feel strong going into the Washington DC Marathon training.
After we found each other in the park we enjoyed some southern music and a few Michelob Ultras, free for runners, the sun was shining and we embarked on a four-mile walk back to the hotel. We watched as people set up their homes for Mardi Gras and even got a Zulu coconut on the way! Confucius’s quote means that when you go somewhere or do something, do it with love. However, we both agree that every place we see adds to the capacity our heart can love. Each place leaves memories and footprints that we will hold on to forever.
