Louisiana, State 29

 

I was able to geaux to Baton Rouge on January 18, 2026 and run in my 29th state!  The race was the Louisiana Marathon half option and it was their 15 year anniversary.  I also had two friends join in and run with me.  We had a fun day in New Orleans first and arrived in Baton Rouge Saturday afternoon, January 17.  First stop of course was packet pickup.  I bought a pair of socks (I like to wear new socks on race day) and a pair of LSU Goodr glasses for Nathan even though I planned to wear them myself in the race.  

My friends, Chrissy and Tara, both turn 50 this year and decided they should run another half the year they turn half a century!

Chrissy made us a sign at packet pickup

It was a windy day in Baton Rouge

     Even though Tara is a die hard Clemson tiger fan, we decided we needed to see LSU's Mike the tiger.  Chrissy was kind of confused as she thought we were looking for a statue.  She was more impressed when she saw he was a real tiger. The 7th Mike!

The cold weather must have made him sleepy

Dinner that evening was my usual pizza.  We went to Red Zeppelin Pizza and had decent pizza.  A Walmart run was necessary before we headed to the hotel to get ready for our race day.

It was an early and cold morning!  Even though we are not Catholic, we went to a 26.2 runners mass at St. Joseph Cathedral at 6:00 am.  The draw was a warm place to wait for the run to start and indoor bathrooms.  But the message was good!  A lot of people had the same idea so we decided that the bathroom line would be too long and headed to the prerace porta-johns.      

St. Joseph's Cathedral

We ended up outside around 6:30 waiting for the race to begin.  It was chilly, but not unbearable.  Even though, I was glad to bring a throw away sweatshirt that I hung on the fence before we began.  Chrissy made a friend and got a free t-shirt.  We all were ready to get the run started! 

The state capitol

Chrissy and the Lorax

Ready to run!!

I had trained well for this run until I aggravated an old pulled muscle in my right hamstring and glute.  To help rest this, I had not run much the two weeks before the race, and when I did, I did run/walk intervals.  I was prepared to do the interval running this day, but I was able to just run.  And I felt good! I still didn't make my goal of under 2:30, but I did make 2:35.  My pre-race drink helps me have nutrients for the run, but also means I have to stop and go to the bathroom near the beginning of the race.  And it was a long wait!  If not for that, I may have made my goal.  Next race, I need to go one last time before I start, even if it means I am further back when I start.  I was happy that except for mile 2, where I stopped for the bathroom, all my miles were in the 11 minute range.  Nine miles were 11:30 or less and three were closer to 12 minutes.  And the 2nd was 15ish.  So I was happy overall but still want to break 2:30 again.  

The course was mostly flat.  There was an overpass that we had to tackle going out and coming back.  It wasn't too steep and fairly easy going out.  But during mile 13, it was not what I wanted to see!  The course ran a lot through LSU and the neighborhoods around it.  The houses were very pretty and southern looking, and tons of people were standing along the course cheering us on.  The town really supported this race!

Entering the LSU campus with my LSU glasses

I picked a good outfit and wore my gloves most of the race and did not feel too cold.  It was windy some, but overall, a really good day for running.  Not such a good day for waiting at the end as that was when I started to get cold and chilled.  But they had a nice festival and lots of free food.  This is when I wish I liked coffee as a hot drink would have warmed me up.  I did try the jambalaya and it was very good.  Simple compared to the gumbo, but still with a Cajun kick.  

Jambalaya

Tare after her finish

Chrissy after her finish

We all were happy to have finished and earned our medals

Because we had a 13ish hour drive home, we started our drive back right after the race.  We were quite the sight trying to get our legs straightened when we had to get out of our car at stops.  And even though the rule was not to eat at places that we have in Charleston, we made an exception and went to Raising Canes since they sponsored the race.  And we all wanted their food!  It was a good post-race meal and hit the spot for our 5 hour drive to Destin, the place where we spent the last night of the trip.  We arrived just in time to see the sun set on the white sand beach!  It was a great way to end race day!  Although we followed up on our quick and cold visit to the beach with a great dinner of oysters at Boshamp's and donuts at The Donut Hole.  

  
   

SC Adventure #1

 

Dave and I have started a new adventure challenge.  For Christmas he received a set of scratch off adventure cards for the state of SC.  If any of you know Dave, he is very much into adventure lists!  Well, at least Santa knew that he would do it with me!

The box of cards is from Reach International Outfitters and each one has a city listed with some details about what the adventure will be, like outdoors, any time of year, and money signs to give an idea of how much it will cost.  Then you scratch it off and you go on an adventure.  

The first one we picked was one that could be done year round and was close by...Harleyville.  The Francis Beidler Forest, a swamp, is in Harleyville and was a 1 $ card.  On the way there we stopped in the town of Harleyville at the local Ace hardware store.  We found some things to buy!  The town itself is small, but has some nice looking houses.  There was a sewing store and a Chinese restaurant open, but the neat looking bakery was closed that day.  So sad.

It was a sunny day!

We got to the park and after a picnic, we got ready to go to the boardwalk.  It normally costs $12 to enter, but this day was a free admission day.  We got lucky!

The walk through the swamp was an interesting one.  Since it was January, the trees were mostly leafless and we didn't see too many birds.  But we did see two owls, one that was close to the boardwalk.

The swamp itself is the world's largest old-growth cypress-tupelo swamp forest.  At one spot, we saw a bald cypress that is almost 1000 years old.  

The only other wildlife we saw was a turtle and geckos.  It was a nice day to hang out together enjoying the great weather.  One adventure down.  49 to go!

      

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

 

Christmas 2025 was wonderful and full of good times with family!  We packed in a lot of fun and as I enter the new year, I am tired but have a full grateful heart!

Dave and I started the Christmas fun with getting a tree and decorating the house.  Well, I decorated the house, but Dave did help with the tree and getting the decorations down from the attic!

We got into the Christmas spirit by going to the Dock Street to see the Christmas Carol.  This was preceded by a fun dinner at Blind Tiger to enjoy their Christmas decorations.  

Another night we tried to see the CofC lights, but only were able to see one of the many JOY signs in Charleston!

We reached the week of Christmas and my mom came down Dec. 23.  Mom, Camden and I went downtown to see the American Gardens and she was able to try the best Reuben at Tommy Condon's!

You can't go downtown Charleston at Christmas without going to Charleston Place!

American Gardens

Christmas Eve was when we got more family in town!  Dave's parents came down and we all went to Poogan's Porch for lunch, walked around downtown and went to Charleston Place again!

Nathan got home that afternoon and we all were able to go to the Christmas Eve service at Charleston Baptist and exchange presents that evening.

ChatGPT made our church picture more impressive!

The boys got college rivalry PJ's this year!

Dave's parents had to leave after Christmas Eve celebrations, but we still had mom and Nathan with us for Christmas day.  We got to sleep in, eat breakfast and then open presents.  After a walk on the greenway, we had lunch and enjoyed hanging out until Nathan had to leave for Columbia.

The day after Christmas was get everything ready for a shrimp fry with my sister's family coming in from Memphis.  They arrived and added 6 more people to our house.  It was crowded, but fun.  Lots of laughs, games and towel washing!  We also went downtown, shopped on King Street, looked at Charleston Place, got coffee and dessert, and checked out American Gardens.  

On Sunday we headed to Columbia for the Storeys to see Nathan and exchange our last presents.  We had fun hanging out and having family time at Grammie's house.

Monday was our mountain day!  We hiked to the top of Looking Glass Rock.  It was a hard hike for most of us, but we took it slow and made it to the top.  The view was exceptional!

After getting home late Monday night and working on Tuesday, we had one last family fun day on New Year's Eve.  We went to see the Angel Oak on John's Island (Camden has never been and this seemed a good adventure for us!) and had lunch at Freshfield's on Kiawah.  

Camden left us for hanging out with his friends, so we watched a movie and then waited for the ball to drop!  Dave did need to be woken up at midnight to see it!  

It had been an awesome Christmas season!  Time with family is the best present of all!  Now to start a new year!