Rock 'n' Roll New Orleans Half Marathon 2016 Recap!

Be sure to read all about the expo the day before!!!

I actually slept really good the night before this race! Yay! We woke up early because we needed to pack all our things and get checked out of the hotel. We also chose to park at the finish line and take the shuttle to the start line. So we had to get up earlier for that.

We made it in plenty of time...or so we thought. When we got close to the parking areas traffic was at a standstill! We were all panicking that we weren't going to make it on time. Luckily, despite the traffic, we made it onto a bus and to the start line with time to spare. We still had time to potty and take plenty of pictures before heading to the corrals.

Where the bus dropped us off had us walking straight to the start line. So we were able to stop for a few pictures! Yay!

I wanted my standard before the race picture....but I could tell something was wrong! Larisa was behind me!!!!! It was great seeing her!!!!

And don't worry! I still got my picture!!! ;-)

We left the start line and headed to meet our Sole2Soul Sisters for a group picture and prayer. 

Then it was time to head to our corral. We were in corral 4 but there were people that were supposed to be in corral 20 that were in our corral. Very frustrating. Rock 'n' Roll definitely doesn't enforce the corrals like they do at Disney.

It didn't take long and we were standing under the start line! It was time to Rock 'n' Roll!!!

We were off! And it was very crowded! We had to weave in and out of runners everywhere. The first mile we turn a few times until we end up on St. Charles Avenue. 

Jenny needed to adjust her sock because it was hurting her calf. So she stopped to do that and I took a selfie with the first band!!!

We kept on running down St. Charles. The course never got any less crowded. I forgot how big this race actually was. Luckily we were still able to keep a fairly decent pace. But the coolest thing about this race is as you are running down St. Charles you can see the elite runners heading back on the opposite side of the street! They are so crazy fast!!!

We turned around and started heading back around mile 4.5. We started looking for our Sole2Soul Sisters! We yelled at them as we spotted them!

I loved seeing all the Mardi Gras beads still dangling from the trees!

And beads on the power lines!

Around mile 7.5 we turned onto Magazine Street. We could hear the bagpipes playing before we saw them! They are always out front of The National WWII Museum in kilts playing the bagpipes! It's one of my favorite parts of the race! Gives you chills!

I just love running in New Orleans! 

Around this point in the race I decided to SnapChat a quick video. I told Jenny what I was doing but I don't think she heard me! Isn't she just the cutest??!!!

Around mile 9.5 we made it to Jackson Square!

And we passed Cafe Du Monde! Yummy!!!

We passed the French Market and made it to mile 10! At the mile 10 water stop the race crew was waving American Flags as we ran by. It was soooo awesome!!!

We then made a left hand turn onto Esplanade Avenue. This road would lead us straight to the finish line! There were tons of spectators out cheering us on! We even saw this lady who was dancing under a disco ball! We couldn't resist a selfie with her! She was so awesome!

Before long we had made it to mile 12.5! And they had the huge Brooks inflatable guy out this year!!! I missed him last year!

We ran under him and then turned left to go around the New Orleans Museum of Art. The finish line was now in sight!!! 

We did it! We ran the Rock 'n' Roll New Orleans Half Marathon the weekend after Princess!!!

My Garmin time was 1:58:27! My official time was 1:58:23!!! I was so pleased that we had finished the half under 2 hours on Princess legs!!!

We took our finisher picture!

And then we headed straight for the chocolate milk!!! I LOVE chocolate milk after a long run! And yes...we took TWO lol!

We then headed to a sunny place to sit and wait for our friends! We had to take a few after pictures of course! I LOVED my shirt and wanted a picture of the front and the back!

As we were sitting there we were chowing down on our food! We got lots of yummy food coming through the finisher chute!

I looked up at one point and guess who was coming towards us? Heather!!!!

 It was great seeing her as always!

Not long after Donna, Susanne, and Susie finished. It was then time to head to the marathon finish line and cheer for our Sole2Soul Sisters that were running the full. I always love cheering at the finish line and seeing people run in! There were several times I got teary eyed! 

And I LOVED seeing my friends all running in together! I was so proud of them!!!

After all our runners had finished it was time to pack it up and head home. But first we were starving and needed some food! This steak definitely hit the spot!

Rock 'n' Roll put on another great race! I always love running New Orleans and will definitely run it again next year!!!

QOTD: What is your favorite Rock 'n' Roll race?

Rock 'n' Roll New Orleans Expo 2016!

I always love Rock 'n' Roll New Orleans Half Marathon weekend!!! It's always so much fun! The course is flat and the weather is usually perfect! This would be my 6th time running this race! It's one of my favorites!

This year the race was the weekend after Princess Half Marathon weekend! I had just gotten home from Disney on Monday and then I left for New Orleans on Friday. My family wasn't too thrilled. And I will admit that I wasn't too thrilled either. I wanted to run this race but I had missed my family so much and wasn't ready to leave them again. But of course it turned out to be an amazing weekend that was so much fun!

It started out a little rocky though. I was driving my van to New Orleans. I knew that my van had some things wrong with it but my hubby assured me that it was ok to drive it. Well y'all...it turns out that it gave us quite the ride. The van started shaking really badly about 30 minutes into our drive. I'm talking really bad shaking that was making me super nervous and also a little car sick. Everything we read said it probably needed an alignment. After multiple calls and texts to all our husbands we were assured by them that the van would make it to New Orleans. It just wasn't going to be a fun ride. I can tell you that it was the LONGEST 2.5 hours ever!!!! I was soooo happy when we made it to our hotel!

And of course by that time we were all starving! It was way past dinner time! We headed to eat at the Cheesecake Factory which was right near our hotel. I got a super yummy cheeseburger with sweet potato fries! Yum yum!!!

And look at all that cheesecake y'all!!!

I got a slice of the Red Velvet cheesecake which I ate on all weekend long and still didn't finish! But it was amazingly delicious!!! 

We played a few hands of Phase 10 at the hotel and then it was bedtime!

The next morning I needed to get in a run for my run streak. I ran around the hotel. Donna came with me for safety reasons! She was my bodyguard!!! :-)

We got showered and then enjoyed the free breakfast at the hotel. Then we headed to the expo!

When we arrived there was a line to get in! I'd never seen a line for the expo before! Luckily it was a very fast moving line!

We made it to check in where we received our race bibs.

And then we picked up our race shirts.

The race countdown was on!!!

Next you go through the official merchandise area!

I didn't see anything I had to have. Plus I was a little poor since I had just gotten back from Disney lol! I DID win a free t-shirt from Brooks though! I was pretty happy about that!!!

Then Jenny and I got a text from our Instagram friend Heather! We were super excited to all meet in person. She was at the expo and was super amazing and precious in person!!! 

Then it was time to head to the actual expo part.

We played a few games, did a little shopping, and even got our picture made with the Geico gecko!

My friends also registered for next year's race. And they got a new tank for registering! I was a little jealous and said something to Megan Miller, one of the workers. I told her I was a Rock 'n' Blogger and that's why I wasn't registering since I would be able to run it with my Tour Pass. I told her I loved that tank though. She was super sweet and asked me my size...and brought me a tank!!! Thanks so much Megan!!!!

I was a little disappointed with the expo this year. It seemed much smaller than in year's past. It didn't take us long to go through all of it. 

We were all starving at that point and made our way out. By this time there wasn't a line to get in anymore.

We decided to head to the mall for some lunch. We also wanted to shop at Lululemon!!! I had never been to an actual Lululemon store before! I always just buy online. So yes...a new skirt was bought!!!

After more shopping it was time for a coffee break. We headed to a New Orleans coffee chain called PJ's. They had King Cake Coffee y'all!!!! I got their King Cake Velvet Ice and it was amazing!!!

We did a little bit more shopping and then headed back to the hotel for some down time. Before we knew it it was time for dinner!

We all wanted pizza (of course) so we headed to my favorite...Mellow Mushroom! They were super busy and we had a little bit of a wait but it was totally worth it when the pizza arrived! So yummy!

After eating we headed to K-Mart (did y'all know these stores even existed anymore?) to get throw away clothes for the next morning. It was going to be chilly and we didn't want to freeze. 

I saw Peeps pillows y'all! I had to take a picture for my sister-in-law who loves Peeps!!

We headed back to the hotel to get ready for the race the next morning! I posted my Flat Road Runner Girl!

We played a few more hands of Phase 10 and then it was lights out! We had an early wake up call!

Stay tuned for my recap of the Rock 'n' Roll New Orleans Half Marathon!

QOTD: Do you buy lots of things from race expos?