Rock 'n' Roll Marathon & 1/2 Marathon Wrap-Up: NOLA Edition!

Hellooo East Nasty!  Last weekend 40+ East Nasties descended upon New Orleans to run the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon & 1/2 Marathon.  We started training in November, matching shirts were procured, flights purchased, body glide amassed in bulk - we were ready.  But was New Orleans ready for us?

The race was on Sunday & most of us arrived on Friday, so we had plenty of time to, um, acquaint ourselves with the Big Easy.

Don't worry, kids, those are waters & Coca Colas.  We Nasties are a hydrated bunch.  Having spent Friday night fully "acquainting" ourselves with the city, we spent the majority of Saturday at the race expo meeting Olympic athletes & making totally serious Road ID bracelets.

Sunday - race day!  The race started at 7am & we had to be in our corral by 6am, so it was an early morning.  Thanks to Duane, we were all in matching green East Nasty shirts, so it was fun to spot each other as we made our way to our respective corrals.  Corral 17, represent!

We had all pretty much accepted that we would be running this race in the rain.  The forecast called for a near 100% chance, but it totally didn't rain!  In fact, conditions were so good that many of us PR-ed:

PR:

Courtney Terrell, 2nd place in age group, 8th OVERALL!

Kevin Christian, 3rd place in age group

Erica Tober, 1:39

Zach Layne, 1:55 (just 55 minutes behind Mo!)

Denise Leaver, 1:56 (21st in her Division!)

Mark Charlton, 1:57

Allison Miles, 1:58 (PR by 29 minutes!)

Katherine Knight Layhew, 2:00

Kayla Burton, 2:01

Matthew McCarthey, 2:07

Kristine Mylls, 2:07

Alicia Palladino, 2:12

Joe Livaudais, 2:21 (PR by 9 minutes!)

Greg Kyle, 2:53 (for the full!)

Rainy Atherton

First Full:

Bree Roy, 3:35

Eric Block, 3:47 (& a stress fracture to boot - ouch!)

Jayson Liddle, 3:56

Justin Curtiss, 4:31

Abiola Oyekamni, 4:55

Polly Alexander

First Half:

Clay Cline

Britney Hoekenschnieder Cline

In news that should shock no one, I didn't PR because I stopped along the course to take pictures.  I mean, that race wasn't going to Instagram itself.

East Nasty made a good showing, but in the end, we couldn't compete with Olympians.  Double Olympic champion Mo Farah outsprinted Ethiopia's Gebre Gebremariam to win the half marathon in 1 hour, 59 seconds, breaking the course record.  To put that in perspective, I was at Mile 5 while Mo was crossing the finish line.  So, yeah.  So close!

As we all made it across the finish line, we met up in City Park to congratulate each other & encourage those still running to finish strong.  I'm guessing, but I'd say about 1 million pictures were taken at City Park, and yes, primarily by me.  You're welcome.

After a few beers, some jambalaya & a nap, East Nasty reconvened at Pat O'Briens to celebrate our awesomeness with over-priced, over-sized, but well deserved hurricanes.

New Orleans, it's been real.  Thanks for an awesome time.  We'll see you again next year!