I just got back from the best weekend.  There’s so much that I love about the weekend, I can’t even begin to tell you about it! Friends! Food! Drink! Running!

This trip had been in the works since summer; I sent an email to my running friends back in August proposing a meet up in New Orleans for the race.  We came from all over: DC, Texas, North Carolina and Colorado; we left the stresses of work and family to meet up for the weekend. It was just what I needed. You could say I was the common denominator with this group of seven. Five of us were stationed together in South Korea; 3 of us are friends and West Point classmates.  (For those who visit my blog via my crafty-ness, in my former life I was an Army Officer)

New Orleans, thanks for being a great host.

Our hotel was 1/2 a block outside the French Quarter and we took advantage of it.  Lots of walking. Lots of eating. Lots of drinking.  With a 13.1 mile race thrown in to make us feel better about all the eating and drinking! 

One group photo before we split into our start corrals.  We’re of varying speed and training and we were not planning on running as a group of 7.  Two of the girls qualified for the Boston Marathon and ended up running a 1:40ish 1/2 marathon.  Another girl declares herself ‘not a runner’ and prior to training for this race had a long run of 4 miles.  And she did awesome!

I started the race with my USMA girls and the first 7 miles we played the Alphabet Game (movies and songs A-Z), making the miles seem to fly by.  I lost them at a water point, and thinking they were ahead of me, I hauled ass trying to catch them.  That pace lasted about a 1/2 mile!  And since my training plan could have been titled “ifyoucanrun7youcanrun13.1” I kinda quit around mile 10.  Well, quit for about a 1/4 mile before running again.  Thanks to the spectator holding a sign near the end that said, “Make this last stretch your bitch!” Just the motivation I needed that last 1/2 mile.  Chip time of 2:08:08. 

Here’s me and my USMA girls at the finish. Being photobombed by some random dude.

New Orleans, you Rock.