I ran the 2024 Crescent City Classic!

I spent this last weekend in New Orleans with Palmer running the Crescent City Classic. It was a Big Deal for me. I used to watch it on TV when I was a kid, and as soon as I knew I’d be able to run again, almost a year ago now, I decided that I HAD to run this race.

We got to New Orleans on Friday afternoon and went to the expo in the Hyatt next to the Superdome. It was MASSIVE. I knew this would be the biggest race I’ve ever run by a long shot, but I don’t think I realized how big until the expo. I should have taken more photos, but I was consumed with getting my tshirt, Palmer’s RaceFest pass, and a beer since we’d just driven in from Shreveport. The beer was plentiful, as Michelob Ultra was one of the biggest sponsors. I’m generally not a Michelob Ultra drinker, but I certainly wasn’t going to turn down free beer. (Also, I drink it fairly regularly because it’s the best option when my blood sugar is really high, which it was because I ate a metric ton of fried okra at Cou-Yon’s in Port Arthur on the way down there.)

I’m pretty sure you’re going to see at least one beer in my hand in most of the rest of my photos because it’s New Orleans, and that’s the way it works.

Anyway, we walked through the expo a couple of times. FlipBelt, the company that makes the belts I always wear running, had a booth there selling running sleeves with SPF in them. I’d been meaning to get some, so that was good timing. I learned recently that sunblock sprayed on Omnipods will deactivate them, so thorough sun protection will be an issue – only on a bike, really, as I have no plans to be out running in the sun for long enough to get a huge sunburn.

It was two days before Easter, so Louisiana Running and Walking Co, a local New Orleans running store, had a creepy Easter bunny mannequin, so we had to take a photo.

We left the expo around 5, or so, so I thought we might have a chance of getting into Kenner Seafood, one of my favorite New Orleans(-ish) restaurants, before they got too packed. I should note that I was trying to scoot in and out of the city quietly, without a lot of extra plans because I knew I’d be tired. I get on the (packed) list at Kenner Seafood, stick my head into the bar, and who do I see but my sister and her husband.

Palmer had somehow never met my sister (even though we’ve been married for a dozen years), so it was an adventure all around.

We got up super early on Saturday morning for the race. Palmer dropped me off at City Park and found a parking spot about a mile away. I boarded a bus and headed to the Superdome. I was a little worried that I’d be cold, but the weather was perfect.

I think I got to Champion’s Square by 6:30 or 7, and the race started at 8, so there was lots of hanging around. I was in Corral F, and I think I actually started running around 8:30.

I don’t think I’ve ever taken so many selfies. In retrospect, it seems a little ridiculous. Anyway, once we got running, I was very careful to pace myself. I was trying to stay somewhere between 12 and 13 minutes a mile so I wouldn’t be exhausted by the end – and hopefully my stupid left knee wouldn’t give out.

I only took that one video and zero photos because I was otherwise occupied, but the whole experience was amazing. We ran down Poydras to Decatur, then down Decatur to Esplanade, then down Esplanade back to City Park. Lots of people were out to cheer us on, especially along Esplanade. Some were handing out food or beer – I was very grateful for a piece of bacon someone handed me along the way.

For whatever reason, all of the beer was round the midpoint of the race, so I didn’t have any because I knew better, which is unfortunate. I’ve never seen beer served during a race before, and I wanted to take part. I totally would have if it was after mile 5.

Palmer hung out at the Cafe du Monde in City Park and flagged me down as I ran by. I was very happy to see him.

Anyway, I was exhausted by the time I finished, and I had a limp for a while when I started walking because my knee hurt. My IT band felt like it popped against the side of my knee a few times, but other than that it didn’t hurt too much while I was running, so I was able to make it the whole way without having to walk (except at the water stations because I’m not that coordinated).

I was very grateful for the seemingly infinite supply cold beer waiting at RaceFest after I finished.

We hung out at Race fest for a while. There were so many people there. I drank some beer and had some extremely tasty red beans and rice from Blue Runner, another race sponsor. Eventually, we wandered back to the car, both spent.

That was by far the most fun I’ve ever had doing something hard. I’ll definitely be back next year to do it all again.

Let’s talk about running!

Since I clearly don’t get to talk enough to friends and family about my various sporting exploits, I’ll post some here, too. I’ll start with running because that’s where I got hooked, but I’ll soon move on to cycling, my new obsession. I’m really here for the same reason that I have social media accounts – and my ridiculous running and cycling tracker spreadsheets and Strava and TrainingPeaks, etc, etc: I would kill for this kind of data from when I used to run in my twenties.

Speaking of:

Here I was back in the day. These were from 2011 (bottom) and 2012 (top). I must have walked the Pie Run because I don’t think I could run at that point.

I’m not quite sure when I started running, but I think it was in 2009, or so. I’m also not quite sure why I started, though I know I was hooked from the beginning. I did Couch to 5k mostly at Betty Virginia Park (where I also started this time around), then mostly ran near my apartment in South Highlands.

Back in the day, when phones didn’t have GPS, I had one of the first fitness trackers, the Nike+iPod, which was a little device you put under the insert in Nike shoes. I tracked what I thought were 5k runs 3 times a week, but which I know now were only about 2 miles. So I ran WAY less than I run now. I only remember participating in three races: the Uptown Run, the Pie Run, and (probably) the Revel Run in 2011 and 2012. I know I ran the Uptown Run, and I think I walked the other two.

After Nike+iPod, when phones got (rudimentary) GPS, I switched to MapMyRun and Runkeeper. In the intervening dozen years, all of that data was lost (I checked!), so I have nothing but a few pictures and memories. My friends say that I was obsessed with running and that I said all problems could be solved with it, but that’s all I have. As I said above, I would kill for that data.

As to why I quit: I got sick. One day sometime in 2011, I was out running, and I tripped over my own foot. I was experiencing pain in my tibialis anterior, the muscle next to my shin, in both legs. I wasn’t injured, so I went on my way. A few blocks later, it happened again, and this time I sprained my ankle. Luckily I wasn’t too far from home, so I stumbled back. I went to my doctor, who sent me to an orthopedist who told me that I had foot drop because of how I was crossing my legs (I was super skinny because I was sick and didn’t know it yet, and I would double-cross my legs). He told me it would go away once I stopped sitting like that. So, of course, I did, but it didn’t get better. I found out later that I had type 1 diabetes and that it was actually caused by ketoacidosis.

So the dropfoot didn’t go away, and I slowly accepted that I couldn’t run anymore (or even walk fast). Every year or two, I’d get on a treadmill and try, and my feet would drop after a minute or two. I eventually gave up completely and got more and more out of shape.

Fast forward to last March, when, for some reason, I started walking (again) at Betty Virginia Park. I’d go just about every day and walk two or three miles. At the beginning was limited to 20-minute miles at the absolute maximum because if I went even a hair faster than that, my feet would drop. At that point, I decided that I wanted to do everything I could to start running again, so I made an appointment with a neurologist to see if anything could be done. That didn’t help (dude is a lunatic – I’ll rant about him later), and I just kept walking. Eventually, I realized that I could walk faster and faster. Around June I decided to try running, and even though the foot drop kicked in, it took it much longer. That helped me figure out what had actually happened: the ketoacidosis had zapped the nerve that controls my anterior tibialis, but when the rest of my nerves recovered, that one did, too. It just left the muscle very week, and I hadn’t done anything to strengthen it over the years. When I started walking, it strengthened again, and I was able to start running.

So I started Couch to 5k for the second time. I had some muscle pain at first, and my foot drop shut me down a few times, but I stuck with it, and eventually the foot drop went away completely. I almost never feel even a twinge in that muscle anymore, and I can run like normal again.

And running changes everything! I feel a million times better, I dropped fifty pounds (not from running, but from counting calories, which I’ll talk about in another post), and I’m completely hooked again.

That said, running at 42 is a very different situation than running in my 20s. My body isn’t as resilient, and I’m having problems with pain and injuries that aren’t related to my foot drop. I was signed up for a half marathon in April, but I couldn’t train for it because of an IT band injury (from overuse – totally my fault), so I’m carefully going with the flow and not overdoing it. I’ve learned my lesson!

So there’s my running story. Hopefully nothing else crazy will happen, and I’ll be able to keep it up for many years to come. I’m not sure why doing something so hard makes me so happy, but I’m running (haha) with it.