The Father’s Day 2-mile race was held in New Orleans on Sunday June 19 with over 400 participants in the 2-mile run/walk and 80 in the ½-mile Fun race.  Temperatures and humidity were "comfortable", and the runners were faced with only light winds as they made their way around LaSalle Park along a pretty flat and narrow course.

I almost missed the race.  I could not sleep fine the night before.  At 5:45am I dragged myself out of bed, got some coffee, took a quick shower, and drove to New Orleans just in time.  I arrived at about 7:50 and made my way into LaSalle Park.  I signed as a walker (not a race walker), got my number and t-shirt and waited almost five… seconds for the race to start.  After the National Anthem, we received some instructions, and the gun went off.  The runners crossed the starting line going along the main street of the park.  After the first 200 yards, a human funnel was formed since the course moved from a 30-feet road to an 8-feet wide track.  The competitive race walkers and walkers started one minute behind the runners.  I weaved my way toward the front and temporary got in fourth position.  When we arrived to the narrow track, we were slicing and dicing through the slower crowd of runners.  I covered the first mile in 10:30.  By a half mile or so to go, I started fading.  I was trying to hold off any walkers that were catching me at the end, but it did not work out.  Three of the NOTC race walkers passed me very easily in the last 200-yards.  I finished and stopped my watch in 21:15, beating my goal anyway (21:30).  Then I chatted with some of the local club walkers and received some advice about how to improve my walking skills.

After the race everyone enjoyed soft drinks, beer, Chee-Wees, bananas, snowballs and spring water.  Everyone who ran or walked the 2-mile or ½ mile events, independently of her performance, received an award from a large assortment of unclaimed trophies from previous NOTC events.  This race had a special team division in which the teams were conformed by father and son, father and daughter, Grandfather/Grandson and Grandfather/Granddaughter groups.  During the awards ceremony, commemorative awards were presented to the top five teams in each category.  After taking a couple of pictures and once the awards were finished, I headed home.  The race was well organized and directed by the New Orleans Track Club. Nice work guys!   Completed results will appear soon in the NOTC webpage at http://www.runnotc.org/results/2005/fathersday.html