The first couple miles took us through a not so scenic part of downtown NOLA, but once we hit about the 5K mark we were in a beautiful residential area full of gorgeous old houses on St. Charles Avenue. I was taking a GU every 5K, and Ali wasn’t carrying water so was taking Powerade and water at the aid stations. During our walk breaks, Ali’s New Yorker paced walk made itself known, so she’d walk way ahead of me and when the walk break was over I’d run to catch up with her. Throwing in sprints for about a minute during a run interval actually felt pretty cool, knowing I didn’t have to keep that pace but that I could motor over a tenth of a mile in about 45 seconds when needed.

Around mile 5, we were still feeling good. Ali said she was already feeling like she was running stronger than she had at the NYC Half, and that a couple of times she was able to, when her body started to think it felt tired, tell her body, “No, we can totally do this!” I told Ali of a mantra I’d learned from a blog post I’d read months and months ago – when you feel like you want to stop to walk or slow down, you do a quick check in. “Legs okay? Lungs okay?” If the answer to both is yes, you know it’s all mental and you’re stronger than that. So a few times throughout the race I’d ask her, “Legs okay? Lungs okay?” For most of the first half of the race, it was always a definite yes for both of us.

For more, visit my blog! https://writingreadingrunning.wordpress.com/2015/01/29/race-recap-rock-n-roll-new-orleans-half-marathon/