Jazz Fest 2009!!

This past Sunday I went to Jazz Fest. For anyone who hasn't been lucky enough to go it's two weekends of days filled with tons of music an great food. It takes place at the Fair Grounds race track and there are 12 different stages with any kind of music you can think of.

I love it, the food, the music, people watching, it just makes me happy. I try to go once a year, even if it means going by myself. Adam was studying this year and not able to go but I wouldn't miss it so I headed out there with Stacy and George.

We had a great time, it was just the three of us so instead of staying in one place we ventured from stage to stage catching a little bit of everything. We started the day off with crawfish bengiets covered in remalude sauce that were delicious! We headed to the Jazz and Heritage Stage and saw Big Chief Monk Boudreaux and the Mardi Gras Indians which was awesome.

Then we headed over to the Fais do do stage for the Pine Leaf Boys, next on to the Gentilly stage for some Robert Cray, one of Adam's favorite's.

Of course we went to the Congo Square stage to catch Earth Wind and Fire! This little girl was dancing in front of us to "you're shinning star, no matter who you are" she was adorable:)

We finished the day off with some crawfish enchalada's and a little Dave Matthews at the Acura stage. It was a great Jazz Fest!

Bubba Gump Race

Sunday was the Bubba Gump 5k Race in the French Quarter. This is one of my favorite races, I really like running in the Quarter.

Mary and I rode together and we were joking on the way there about how we were not in race mood at all. I had not done a 5K since December so I wasn't sure how my transition from 10k and longer was going to be.

The race was the most crowded I have ever seen at the start everyone was literally elbow to elbow. The first 1/2 mile was a bit of a fight trying to get through the crowd. One girl wearing huge headphones ran into me twice! I wanted to be like "take your stupid headphones off and you can hear that I am right next to you!" I hate headphone in a race. I was feeling good the first mile, trying not to go out too fast and I ran 7:30. Then the next mile I picked it up a bit and ran 7:11. I was excited about my negative split!

to my surprise I still had some entergy left for the last mile and ended up running 22:42 total. I was so excited b/c I have been trying to break 23:00 for what seems like forever!

Mary did goo also, she beat her rival 80 year old that beat her in the 1/2 marathon. She wasn't letting him have this one!

There he is having a post race beer....

Sunday Afternoon

Today the weather was so nice! I debated heading to French Quarter Fest but instead decided on planting some new flowers on my porch, getting crawfish and playing bocchi ball at Audubon park with Adam and Andrew. It was a nice Sunday afternooon:)

Tee Time

Yesterday afternoon I went with Adam and his brother Billy to the driving range at City Park. I don't think I have ever swung a golf club before so this was going to be intresting.

Let's just say there was lots of swinging and not much hitting. Notice in these pictures the ball is still there even after I have swung the club threw, I did manage to hit a few of them though! I am def. not on my way to the Masters anytime soon and I am very sore today!

Adam and Billy had more sucess with their hitting than I did and I think I provided them with great entertainment:)

Easter 2009

Easter was nice this year. The easter bunny came and brought me all my favorite's; Peeps, Pecan Eggs, Marshmellow eggs and of course jelly beans (which are already gone!)
I went to church with my mom and dad then Corey and Adam met us for lunch at the Audubon Golf Course club house. It was a buffet and everything was yummy so I ate way more than I needed to! The weather was kind of crappy this year and it looked like rain all day but it was still a nice day and made for a nice afternoon Easter nap:)

Crescent City Classic 2009

Saturday was the annual Crescent City Classic 10k. I have been doing this race since I was in about 2nd grade. Of course I have graduated from walking with one of my mom's friends while she ran to running it myself. It's a great race with over 20,000 people participating every year.

I didn't know if I was going to run after the Ironman the weekend before but I'm glad I did, I had a great time.

I met up with a group of people from track and we warmed up and then headed to the start. One of the girls was trying to break 50 mins. so Tim, Adrienne and myself ran with her to help pace her. It was great running with other people, Tim is a great motivator and helped us hold off at the beginning. By the time we hit the park I was feeling good and actually able to run negative splits. I finished in 49:20. Not my best time but I had fun. A few other people from track had great races. Santilla won 1st US female, Kelly 1st Masters, and Doug 1st Male masters so we were proud of them!

After we finished we went straight for the beer and enjoyed the after party. Bag of donuts was playing, there was free beer and it was sunny so it was a great time.

Me, Santilla, Kimaree and Adrienne at the post race party

Cheers to Doug and his 1st place trophy

IRONMAN 70.3

I'm a little behind on my blogging!!

Sunday April 5th was the Ironman 70.3, the race was amazing!!!!

I'll start from the beginning.... Adam dropped me off at the race at 6a.m. just in time to get body marked, lay out all of my gear in transition and walk the mile to swim start. The swim heats were by age group and the 1st group left at 7 a.m. There were 20 heats about 4 mins apart. I was in the 30-35 females and we started at 7:40. I had just enough time before to visit with some friends and get some last min. good luck wishes from my parents.
1.2 Mile Swim 39:54: My swim was great, calm water and I couldn't have asked for anything better except the ability to swim in a straight line. At one point I found myself headed straight for a Kayak, I am convinced I added some milage on to my course. The hardest part for me was getting out of my wet suit, I was stuck! Lucky for me they had "wet suit strippers" waiting when I got out to rip it off of me.


56 Mile Bike 3:17:11

If you have read my previous blogs you would know that I was dreading the bike! Well it wasn't that bad at all and I even finished almost 45 mins ahead of my estimated time. The ride out to Venitian Isles was not bad, it was a bit scary riding over the seabrook bridge even if they did have carpet on the grate. The wind picked up on the way back and the second trip over the bridge was just plain hard. I was never so excited to get off of that bike. I took my time in transition when I got back, drank some gatoraide, visited the restroom, chatted with the girl next to me etc. maybe I can work on my speed in transition for next year.

13.1 Mile run 2:23:43

Now the run was surprisingly HARD! I started off in 8 min miles and it was downhill from there. Nurtition wise I felt great, had eaten enough gu's and taken in enough liquid's on the bike but my body just HURT. I felt every muscle , joint, and bone on every step. The first part along lakeshore drive was brutal, it was windy and there was no shade at all. I was thinking it was going to be a long 13 miles ahead. Then around mile 2.5 I caught up to George. The same George who toasted at New Years that his resolution was to beat me in the ironman. He had started a good 20 mins plus ahead of me in the morning so I was very excited. I decided if I was going to finish this thing we would need to stick togther. So we ran the last 11 miles side by side, complaining to each other the whole time:)

We stopped at every water stop and many many places in between! I don't think either one of us ever disagreed when the other would suggest a walk break. My miles quickly went from 10 min miles and at one ponit I think we hit 13min miles! But we were going to finish:)

Running down Decatur street toward Jackson Sq was awesome the crowds were big and we could see the finish line! All of my friends and my parents and Adam were on the sidelines cheering. I finished in 6 hours 35 mins, just behind the average time of 6:23. 1428/2310 overall people and 338/644 females.

Right after we crossed the finish line!



Me, George and Danny

This race was one of the best experinces even though I was in a lot of pain I still had so much fun I am already registered to do it again next year!

Azalea Trail 10K, Mobile Alabama

The Azalea trail run is a 10k (6.1 mile) race in Mobile. This year I was lucky enough to be asked to be on the NOTC team that was going, which meant my hotel, race entry and uniform would be paid for! There were also a few Catch 22 teams (people I run at track with on Tuesday's) going so we had a nice big group from New Orleans.

We drove over Friday afternoon and it stormed the entire way, which also contnued through the night. After we checked into our hotel and got our packets from the Expo we all went to carb up with some beer and pizza at dinner.

Adrienne and I enjoying some pre race beer:)

I didn't sleep well b/c we kept waking up due to the mini hurricane that was happening outside. The race was suppose to start at 8am but due to the weather it got postponed until 9:30.

Heidi, Kelly and me before the race

It was still cloudy and raining durring our warmup but go figure as soon as we lined up at the start the sun came out and it quickly became a sauna outside! I knew this meant nothing good...

As much as I liked my NOTC shirt they gave me to wear I was so hot I had to strip of it by mile 2. I don't remember feeling good at any point beyond mile 1 in the race, I even stopped at every mile water station. Right after mile 5 I was getting ready to stop and walk and Kimeree came by and told me to keep going with her, so I dragged myself along to stay with her...... until I had to stop and throw-up.

Yep it happened, I haven't done that in a while but it's never fun. I was about 15 sec away from the finish line too so it was right in front of all of the spectators who seemed grossed out. But I kept going and finished in 50:32. Terrible I haven't run in the 50's for a 10K in a long time.

It seemed that most of the runners in our group had a bad race, except for my roomates; Santilla got 1st US Female, Kelley 2nd Female Masters and Heidi got a PR. Overall the race was a fun time and just made me all the more aware that I am NOT ready for the crescent city classic next weekend:)

Santilla and Kelly after the race

Saturday night when we got home I redeemed myself and ran the Ochsner 5k race. I planned on running easy which I did somewhat and ran 25:00 and came out 16th female..... I felt good the whole time and there was no vomitting at this race:)

Next up...IronMan on Sunday!!!!