Louisiana Marathon

I ran the Louisiana Marathon in Baton Rouge yesterday.  It was my 91st race of a marathon or longer distance.  Since I was leaving early Saturday morning for Baton Rouge (5 hours plus drive) I ran at the track after midnight Friday night to get in my Saturday run.  We stayed in the Hilton downtown next to the Mississippi River and only about 3 blocks from the race start and finish in front of the state capitol building.  The race started at 7 a.m. with the temperature in the 40's.  Before the race was over, it was in the 60's.  Beautiful running weather and no rain or wind.  The course was relatively flat and very scenic.  It included a loop through the LSU campus.  Those people in Baton Rouge are really nuts about LSU.  Purple and yellow everywhere.  We went to Mass at the cathedral Saturday evening and half the people there, including a 90 year old lady in front of us, were wearing purple and yellow.  Back to the race.  I got to the halfway point in 3:00:51 and finished the race in 6:08:46.  While it was nearly 30 minutes slower than my pre-hamstring pulls and tears last year, it was my best marathon time this year.  I ran into several runners from Texas that I knew.  What really surprized me was running into John and Karen Wallace of Michigan.  I have been communicating with John and Karen and their son, John III of Seattle for years, but never net them in person.  They are all streakers with streaks much longer than mine.  John III ran across the USA a few years ago and John and Karen ran from Michigan to Mississippi.  I ran into Karen and John on an out and back section of the course and had a nice visit with them after the race.  Then, we drove an hour west to Lafayette and spent the night there before driving back to Huntsville today.  This evening, I worked out at Nautilus and ran laps at the track.