Crescent City Classic: Over 5K for 10K!

The day before Easter, I joined the Abeona House Team for the Crescent City Classic 10K, to raise funds for the beloved nonprofit pre-school that Paul and I helped open near 5 years ago.  (Thank you to everyone that support me!)

The CCC is 6.6 miles winding through beautiful New Orleans, from Jackson Square to City Park — with special New Orleans touches.

Like costumes.

With inspiration from “Heathers,” here are Emmy and me.  Afterwards, she took me to a Remington party.

Here’s our Gym Teacher, Coach Chrissie.

Allie is adorable.

Coach Chrissie warms us up.

Group photo taken by random race person who focused on Muriel’s.

The crowd of 30,000 or so.  We were back, waaaaay back, from Jackson Square.

Coach Chrissie was on us to keep sharp.

Finally!  The start line!  We ended up reaching it about 8:30 minutes after the gun shot.

The Hornet mascot was out right before the starting line, hooray crowd.

Others were in costume, too.

I managed to get them from the front, too.  This is one of 3 I took of them… and the only one in focus.  I’m learning that it’s hard to take a picture while bouncing.

I put away the camera after this and focused on the road.  I tried, but failed, to get pictures of the Jello-Shot group.  They run through the crowd pulling coolers full of Jello Shooters and hand them out among the racers.  Their shirts?  Front: “Jello Shots” Back: “It’s not like you’re gonna win.”

I did sneak in one more photo, of the prisoners… who were chained together.

So we got through those 6.6 miles in under 2 hours.  I felt fine, except my feet, which developed hot spots by mile 3.  I realized later that I wore old regular cotton socks on the morning of the race because I’d not done laundry to wash my good moisture/wicking socks.  I’m certain that this made a difference; I know better then to wear crappy socks on a hot day.  Still, I felt fine after some airing out and moleskin application.

We all had lunch at Felini’s after — where Paul, Will, and Kate joined us.  We found out that the team raised over $5000 for Abeona House!

Thank you to everyone who supported me in this!  It was a great experience and a wonderful morning!