Racing in the RnR New Orleans half in 2017 was one of my favorite experiences, so when I had a friend say she wanted to do the full as her first, I was happy to oblige. The half was perfect... flat course, tourist worthy scenery of the French Quarter, Garden District, and everything in between, and great course support. I had hoped for the same for the full and jumped on the chance to do it.

The expo is located within walking distance of the French Quarter which is great for NOLA tourists. You couldn't pay me to drive downtown, so we stayed nearby and just walked everywhere. Getting to the expo was no exception and the variety of vendors and merchandise was true to Rock N Roll form. You can buy everything under the sun at their races, and we left with marathon shirts with our names printed on the back among the list of participants. My biggest gripe for this race though was in the course of us registering to actual race day, RnR was bought out and discontinued the 'marathon jacket' prize. This was one of the reasons my friend had picked this race as our group of friends had received the coveted jacket when we did our fulls at RnR Savannah. We complained, reached out to race officials, and commiserated with others in the same boat, but alas, left empty handed. We were able to purchase a marathon sweater, but it wasn't the same and we were a little bitter that the higher cost marathon entry only granted the standard shirt and medal versus the previous perks. Bitterness of the new process aside, overall the race staff was fine, but RnR is definitely in the interest of making a buck.

Race day came and the weather was perfect. We set off and enjoyed our first 11ish or so miles before the course split. But once you leave the half course, you were left by the waterfront in an almost residential area. It was a series of overpasses that were crossed with little course support other than water stops. Honestly, it was pretty boring and disappointing. And while I wouldn't say the course was 'hilly', the overpasses were constant enough that we were surprised at how 'not flat' the race was. Especially compared to our experience at the half the previous year. I wavered in putting two stars for elevation difficulty but if you were planning for no elevation gain, you would have been a little surprised as well by the frequency of these bridges.

When we finally made it to the finish line, we were relieved to be done but as middle (ok for this one we were likely 2/3 of the packers) in, we made it to the 'exclusive' marathon area with time to get into the recovery line before they closed it off. We then waited about an hour eating our free jambalaya (best part of the day) for our free cooling leg compresses and watching later finishers get upset as they were turned away from enjoying the perk because they weren't 'fast' enough. I could completely understand their frustration being that close to the cut-off ourselves. Overall, I'm glad we did the race, but I'll stick to the half marathon course at RnR NOLA.