If You Never Tri, You'll Never Know!

A Weekend in NOLA

@runntri crew rocking the @cepsports_USA booth at #rnrnola #cepcompression #runntri #triouradventure

My entire weekend revolved around the New Orleans Rock n' Roll Marathon. I picked my RV up on Friday just in time. I was so super excited to have her back. I thought maybe a week in a hotel might have spoiled me. But nope, soon as I stepped in, I felt right back at home. Calm. Let's cruise...

My buddy JG came with me as we were working for Run-N-Tri for the CEP Booth at the marathon expo. We met a few other co-workers there and proceeded to promoting and fitting runners in compression. A few hours b-bopping around and the dogs were barking! Quick dinner and sleep. I love my bed. So comfy. And after topping the guest bed with an egg shell mattress pad thingy JG said it was super comfy too. Score!

Funny story... 6-7 something a.m. and I hear tap tap scratch tap...tap tap scratch tap above my head (so, on my roof). I sit straight up, "What the hell is that!?" tap tap scratch tap... JG says, "Probably just a bird, you gotta say CaCaw" (insert JG's version of a bird caw). A few minutes later he climbs outta bed to use the potty and an actual CACAW scares the shit out of both of us. LOL! Damn bird!!

Saturday morning we were due back at the booth for another full day of compression. It was in the morning (post CaCaw scare) that I discovered the RV was empty of water. Oh no!! We got enough squirts to brush our teeth but ugh, not enough for clean up. Thank goodness I didn't shoot out for a run or a workout! That woulda made for a stinky day. Fortunately for marathon night, 5 of us went in on a hotel together. Yay, water - SHOWER! Note to self - refill the RV with water pre-travel.

Phil and Amanda hooked up with me while JG headed back to the coast.
We chowed down at Walk-Ons Bistreaux & Bar <--- huge sandwiches and some baller cajun dishes. Highly recommend it! And got our room at Holiday Inn Downtown. Heather and Deven joined us later and besides the air conditioner screaming like a freight train, we all got semi-sweet sleep for our Sunday morning race.

Now seems like a good time to let you know that I kinda sorta talked Phil AND Amanda into doing the marathon. Neither were properly trained, what with Amanda having run a half marathon at 13.1 miles and Phil hasn't ran more than 13 (here and there) in 3 years. I knew they were both perfectly capable, but they are both currently walking like zombies and totally gonna hate me tomorrow. You're welcome!!

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The morning was COLD. But it wasn't cold cold, it was windy. And the WIND was cold. Man was it windy!! Breakfast was lacking (which I'm kinda pissed cause the Holiday Inn said they had breakfast, but didn't mention is was $14.99 and not starting until 7am - ugh!). I weaseled my way into another hotel and at least got us a couple of bananas and some coffee. Not a great way to start a marathon but eh, we're risky.

 We linked up with the TTB's (our local tri club) for a quick group pic and headed to our corral. Once there, we grabbed a few more of our friends and snuggled close to keep warm. Thank goodness for Larry Saucier or Phil would have went into cold convulsions (he threw him his jacket while we waited). Now is a good time to tell you about Jennifer. She messaged me a couple weeks ago terrified to run the marathon solo. That's just not acceptable so I offered for her to run with me and Sam (Sam and I ran last year together too. Love running with Sam! We initially wanted to break 4 hours this year but life collided with our training. We agreed that we'd just run and have fun. No time pressure = PERFECT!!). I told her that our plan was nice and easy and to have fun. She loved it. As the race grew closer and I suckered Phil and Amanda into running too, I knew our pace would be nice and easy and we'd all keep each other going. What's great is we all started together and we all finished together (within 5 minutes anyway).

The first 1/2 was smooth and comfortable. My knee started hurting but never got worse. Even the next 7 miles were comfortable and fun. The last 6 as we started to slow down, is when the muscles got tight and achey. Let's get this done friends... we stayed motivated and happy, talked each other off a couple of cliffs, and ran/walked the last few miles. Intestinal fortitude.
I'm super proud of Jennifer and Amanda for their first marathon. I'm super proud of Sam and Phil for finishing a not so prepared for marathon. I love how well we all worked together to get to each mile. #teamwork

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At the end (and our motivation from the beginning...) we collected our MARATHON FINISHER jacket and Double Down medal (for doing LA 1/2 + NOLA Full). BIG BALLER. Love the clinking as we walked. Yeah, so what, I love my bling! It's a physical piece of my accomplishments and I think it's perfectly okay to cuddle with your finishers medals.

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Beers and pizza. Ice baths and compression. Medals and jackets and Gu. A full weekend of fun.

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I think the best part was getting to see so many friends. Tons of FB friends visited me at the CEP booth and then saw so many more friends on the course. I love all the support and love you all offer me. I love that you follow me and like me (or not) and yeah, just support me. It's so exciting to meet new friends, put FB names to actual faces, and reconnect with friends I haven't seen for awhile. It makes me so happy to see you running and fighting for what you want. I'm getting all mooshy <---marathons make ya emotional!! I'm just beside myself the # of amazing people are in my life. So thank you. THANK YOU.

I hope you had a fun weekend too and take a moment to appreciate all the wonderful people in your life. The good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful. But hey, you're all beautiful... and I'm all fired up with motivation to make some magic!!