Who Dat?!

Half Marathon Number Seven complete!!

I totally won.  Just kidding.  This means I finished.

Here's me around 6:30am before the race.  Chipper and ready to go!

Me after the race.  Soaking wet, boobs FULL and barely able to walk.

The race started off well.  I fell into step behind a girl who runs at a little faster outdoor pace than I do (about a 9:45 pace), and I was able to keep up with her until around mile 3.  Mile 3 is when things started to get a little ugly.  Sometime between miles 3 and 4, one of my ankles started to hurt.  By mile 5, both of my ankles were angry with me.  Around mile 7, I happen to look down and notice that my boobs were leaking, so I doused the front of my shirt with water to cover that little truth up.  Around mile 8, my knees started to yell at me, and by mile 9, my inner thighs were screaming.(which is unusual for a run).  By mile 10, my left hip decided to join in on the pain train.  So those last 3 miles were by far much slower than the first 10.  Which is a shame, because maybe I could have finished 5 or 10 minutes faster!  But ah well.  I finished at a decent time AND I even beat out two of my previous race times!

My official race finish time info.

My other race times from my Half Fanatics profile.

More details about the other races. 

There were 9,270 runners in the half marathon, but that ONLY includes the half marathon participants.  So in the group of half marathoners, I finished a little behind the middle of the pack.  But there were also 2,631 full marathoners, 123 relay teams (in teams of 2), 3 wheelchair marathoners and 1 wheelchair crank (I have no idea what that means).  That makes 12,151 runners/wheelers total in New Orleans this past Sunday morning!  The biggest race I've participated in to date, even if you only include the half marathoners.  Woot woot - WHO DAT?!

I did end up with a couple of battle wounds from my run.....

Gotta love some blood blisters on the ring toe.

After my shower I found this bad boy on the same foot.  It doesn't look like much here, but it was a HUGE blood blister that wrapped around my toe.  Good times.  Ignore my dry, crusty foot.

I also left the race with a giant pain in the top of my right foot, like the top of my foot was pulled.  It's still sore today even though it's getting better.  I've iced it and stretched it and stayed out of tennis shoes for the most part.

Ironically, my left foot.....the one with the suspected plantar fasciitis......the one that has been the huge pain in my ass the past several months......doesn't have a single battle wound on it.  AND, to top it off, my plantar fasciitis pain seems to be gone!!  It's still sensitive when I press into the bottom of my foot, but the pain while walking is gone.  Like I ran it off.  Granted, I've also been avoiding tennis shoes (since obviously the ones that used to work for me before Baby no longer cut it), but I'm not even having any issues after sitting for long periods.  Weird, eh?

The rest of the trip was great as well.  We walked around the French Quarter, visited a couple of parks, drove around the Loyola University area (million dollar homes), went to the Audubon Aquarium, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the National WW2 Museum, the Cabildo and the Presbytere.  We had some really good food (loads of seafood and Jambalaya) and some really strong drinks.  I have a bunch of pictures I'll eventually upload into a Facebook album.  But for now, here's a family photo from our trip!