2006 Mardi Gras Marathon

 

New Orleans is on the way to recovery from the worst natural disaster in the nation’s history.  On a beautiful but cold Sunday morning, with temperatures in the 30-40’s, some wind and under a sunny sky, the running community gathered at New Orleans for one of the more popular races in the region, the Mardi Gras Marathon.  The 2006 Mardi Gras Marathon marked the first big sports event that took place in the city after Hurricane Katrina.  About 700 high-spirited runners finished the marathon, 1,426 the half-marathon event, and 328 did it in the 5K Fun run.  Twenty-eight race walkers joined the adventure.  The race started from Sugarbowl Drive just outside the Louisiana Superdome and finished in the same location.  The course was flat with the exception of two overpasses in miles 5 and 9 and ran through historic places such as the French Quarter, the Garden District, and the City Park. 

 

Local runner, Brendan Minihan grabbed the victory in the marathon with a time of 2:36:44.  Tom Sawyer, also from New Orleans, was the second-place finisher in 2:39:05.  Ben Gaspar from Chapel Hill, NC was third in 2:40:52.  Karen Voss from Denver, CO won the female competition in 3:11:08 followed by Dina Cidade from Fall River, MA (3:15:41) and Jennifer Lash from NY, who finished 5 seconds behind Cidade.  Meyer Friedman from Franklin, LA was the overall winner in the half-marathon with a time of 1:12:15.  Gulf Coast runner, Leonard Vergunst, was 6^th overall in 1:20:19.  Ann Erath from Ridgeland, MS got the top spot in the women category in 1:27:40.  Michael Gulotta was the winner of the 5K race in 16:53.

 

The Pine Belt Pacers were well represented in the marathon event by Joni Dunbar (3:41:00), Ginny Dufrene (4:11:41), and Dawn Smith (4:13:22).  Vicky Copeland (2:02:20) and Nestor Raul Anzola (1:51:10) ran in the half-marathon.  Joni placed third place in her age group and was just a minute over the qualification time for her age group to the Boston Marathon.  I placed a personal record for the 13.1 miles.  There were other Pine Belt residents participating in the races, William Dill from Laurel (5:00:10) in the marathon and Amanda Coccaro from Hattiesburg (1:59:33) in the half-marathon. 

 

After the run, everyone enjoyed very much the refreshments, food, and music in the post race party outside the Superdome.  The race was organized and directed by the New Orleans Track Club.  Result and more information can be found in the following link: http://www.mardigrasmarathon.com . © Pijume Diwesi