New Orleans
Mardi Gras Marathon

Mardi Gras Marathon - New Orleans, February 1, 2009
 
The 2009 edition of the Mardi Gras Marathon took place on Sunday February 1st in New Orleans with more than 8,000 participants in the 3 events (marathon, half-marathon, and 5K run).  I left Hattiesburg early morning, arrived to the Superdome around 6:30am and just parked in the street behind the stadium to avoid the traffic jam of people trying to get in the parking place inside the Superdome.  The weather was perfect, temperatures in the 50's and overcast.  I went to the start line and noticed the organizers had pace teams.  After the great experience of running the Steam Whistle 12k back in January in a pack of runners led by Ginny the Energizer Bunny Dufrene, I though it would be a good idea to join one of those groups.  Thus, I lined close to the 3:30 pace group (1:45 for the half I was ready to go), but I saw the 3:20 group just standing 20 feet ahead.  I just though "what if I could keep with them, maybe I could hang with them as much as possible and then let the group go".  The gun went off, and there I was with the 3:20 group.  Sometimes I stayed right behind the leader, sometimes I was back 30-50 yards (most of the time).  I just stayed there hanging as much as possible.  We reached mile 2, mile 4, mile 6, 7, 8... Then I was feeling a little dizzy and tired and just managed to keep going.  As happened during the Steam Whistle run, I just decided to test my legs and jumped ahead from the group with 1.2-1.3 mile to go and just ran, ran, and ran without looking where everyone else was around.  I finished in 1:39:14 and got a new PR for the distance.  The pacers of the marathon did an excellent job leading the different groups through the course.
 
After I finished I rested a little bit, got some Gatorade, rice with beans and sandwich.   Sorry I did not take any picture.  As I had to be back in Hattiesburg by 11:00am, I just grabbed some more Gatorade, got in my car, and headed home.
 
Here are the times of some of the Pine Belt Pacer who participated in the Marathon and Half Marathon events.  Maybe I am missing some names.  Congratulations to Leonard for winning his category in the marathon (he placed 7th overall) and Terri for setting a PR in the half marathon. © Pijume Diwesi