Oh boy, are my family members ever good sports!
We'd been watching the weather for a couple weeks, hoping for clear skies and warmer temperatures for a camping weekend down in Mandeville, LA, when Jay agreed to me running the Dirty Soles Trail Half. No sooner had I made camping reservations and registered though, and the predicted temps dropped and rain showed up on the radar. Doh! So we quickly ordered the kids some 30 degree sleeping bags and hoped for the best...
We left town at 3:45pm (after school and packing the van, and later than we'd hoped to get on the road), got to Mandeville at 6:45pm, and were turned away from the restaurant we'd planned to go to for dinner (because it was well advertised by the race director, and originally packet pickup was suppose to be there Friday night) due to the fact that
The Barley Oak is a BAR and not a restaurant, so kids weren't allowed. We drove further down the street and were welcomed at
The Beach House though, so not all was lost (though we were pretty disappointed not to get to sample from
The Barley Oak's lineup of 30+ beers on tap, some local, some international...)
After a quick dinner, we drove the few more miles to
Fontainebleau State Park and set up the tent in the dark (and misting rain) while the kids hung out in the car. Then we bundled everyone into multiple layers and tucked in for the night. Yup, Buster came along. Poor thing - his first camping trip was tough on him (even with two bed mats and a blanket he was shivering by the early morning hours).
Cora slept great (she burrows...), but James was up at 4:45am, cold and itchy (from the extra layers), and I never went back to sleep after that. Jay and I had been up most of the night anyway, cold, because apparently our 10-year-old sleeping bags are now lacking in their heat retention capabilities... It never really rained again, but it was windy, and the "feels like" temp was a good 10 degrees colder than the actual 37 degrees.I finally left the tent at 5:45am to get ready for my 7-mile "warm up" run before the race (I needed 20 miles for the day - my final long run before the Mississippi River Marathon in 3 weeks), and was actually much warmer once I was out there pounding the pavement! I saw a bunch of deer and paused halfway through my run to take some pictures of Lake Pontchartrain (the park is located right on the lake next to the causeway, so there is a beautiful beach that we plan to return to play at in warmer months), then finished out the final quarter mile with Buster as Jay and the kids got dressed to take me over to my race.
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| If you zoom in and look REALLY closely, you can see the causeway out there. |
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| The pier that juts off from the Bath House. |
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| Looking back toward the east, you can see the national wildlife refuge land. |
Dirty Soles is the first event in the
Forge Racing Trail Series, and takes place at
Pelican Park/
Northlake Nature Center, directly across from Fontainebleau. We parked at the gym and walked over to packet pickup, which was located at the start/finish line, where they also had the post-race refreshment table (two kegs from nearby Covington Brewery and five kegs of homebrew!, plus pasta salad and Jimmy Johns subs!), gear tent, and a fire going (to keep the volunteers warm).
The race was cold, wet, and muddy. Most of the trail was covered in puddles, mud pits, or swamped grass, which made me feel like I was running through quicksand (which is exhausting). My feet were soaking wet and cramped the entire run, but at least I learned that my new trail shoes drain well (which is important, since my upcoming trail 50K will be run on a course with multiple stream crossings, and it's good to know that I can survive in these shoes without blisters). The course for the half marathon was two loops of the 10K route, so I ran my first loop with a few 10K runners (and one dog!) that had a good pace going, and I had a great time getting to know them as we ran along, taking zero walk breaks. My second loop was lonely (there were only 8 runners in the half marathon event) and much slower (I was getting pretty tired by the time I hit the 15-mile mark of my day, and without companions to motivate me, I took a lot of walk breaks - and stopped to take a few photos too). As I neared the finish, I could see and hear the other runners yelling and cheering! Turns out they were finishing up the raffle though, and not cheering for me - oops. Oh well, they still made me feel like I needed to run the final mile in it's entirety and not take a walk break within view of the finish line! Obviously I missed out on the raffle, but there was plenty of beer and food left, and I was greeted by Jay and the kids at the finish (with fancy donuts in hand from the nearby Mandeville Bake Shop). We hung out for a while, I accepted an award for winning first place in my age group (not a mighty feat, considering I was likely the only female in my age group, as tends to happen at these small trail events), and the kids played in the mud and water.
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| Running through the aid station at the 3-mile mark. |
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| And coming back through, on my way out for my second figure-8. |
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| The biggest of the puddles, and the one that almost stole my right shoe... |
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| A short and slippery boardwalk around the nature center. |
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| One of the longer, straight stretches on the upper loop. |
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| Getting my award, beer in hand (and jacket back on to warm up!) |
While I'd been running, Jay had been tracking me with the LiveTrack option that my new Garmin 220 features (it was a surprise Christmas present that I found in my stocking and I LOVE IT) while also taking the kids and dog for a hike around the wet and muddy Fontainebleau trails. They had a great time and apparently didn't mind the cold weather one bit.
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| Showing daddy her "lobster claws" and wearing the hat Gramma made for her |
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| Out on the pier before hitting the trails |
After the race, we returned to the Bake Shop to get some coffee and King Cakes to share with our coworkers on Monday (and a couple more donuts... the Bavarian creme-filled powdered donut was INCREDIBLE), then headed back to the campground to do some "camping", even though we had no intention of staying the night again (it was suppose to be even colder tonight). Jay built a fire, we ate camp food (and toasted marshmallows), and the kids played in the mud and water some more while I showered off and warmed up.
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| Looks like they'll be into Mardi Gras this year! |
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| "What's a King Cake mama?" Clearly we aren't raising them right... |
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| Shoveling and dumping: still important activities at this age. |
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| Building "booby traps" in one of the flooded campsites across from us. |
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| Showing off my race SWEATSHIRT (we never get those, it's usually t-shirts) |
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| Warming her soaked and cold feet by the fire... |
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| I got out of the car after spotting this armadillo on the side of the road so I could show the kids how high they jump when they get scared, but instead it just turned around and pawed at my shoe, not the least bit scared of me... |
Then we packed up the tent, visited the nature center, and went up to Abita Springs to eat at the
Abita Brew Pub (we couldn't
tour the brewery because kids aren't allowed).
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| The boardwalks were dry by now, but still a little slippery... |
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| You can see a portion of the trail I ran behind the kiddos here. |
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| James made us read each and every plant name along the nature path. When we came across PawPaw, the kids happily posed for a photo to send to "PawPaw" (perhaps their best smile photo of the trip!) |
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| Seated near the giant kegs. |
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| We ordered the Premium Sampler, which had Andygator, Restoration Ale, Jacamo IPA, Twin Turbo, and Mardi Gras Bock. Jay also ordered a pint of the Bourbon Barrel Aged Pecan Harvest, since you can't get it anywhere else. Everything was delicious, and some of them paired especially well with the spicy cajun/creole pastas we enjoyed. |
Then we high-tailed it out of there so we could sleep in our own, warm beds tonight. The kids watched a couple movies and promptly fell asleep within 20 minutes of the house. Perfect end to a pretty fun trip (despite the cold, we still had a great time!)
