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.