I ran the Gulf Coast Half Marathon for the first time! I have been very excited about this race for several reasons: * This was a “Girls Weekend” trip with my running friends, Karen and Amanda. * A large group of runners from our running group Go Run were going to this race. * I was going to get to meet in person some of my new running friends that I have met online through #RunLA and Claim Your Journey.

This race was great. The weather was perfect. The route was beautiful. And I PR’d!! I had a great time meeting Katie, Theresa and Brandon. You guys rock!



We left Lake Charles bright and early Saturday morning so we would miss the traffic in Baton Rouge due to the 2:30pm football game, which I will not discuss. We timed it really well, because we were not stuck in bumper to bumper traffic.
Once we reached our destination city, our first stop was Varsity Sports for packet pick-up. That store is awesome. The clothing and shoe selection was unbelievable. I have to go back soon because I did not get a Varsity Sports t-shirt and I so regret that!

After packet pick-up, we walked next door to eat lunch at The Broken Egg and then headed back to Covington to find our hotel. That evening we walked to McAlister’s to fuel up and had a blast hanging out and cutting up with some of our Go Run friends, Rebecca, Ursula and Joan. A quick stop at the fro-yo place and then we headed back to the room.

Once we settled in, we attempted to watch the Rangers ball game but the tv sound was totally irritating and the game was postponed twice by rain, so we fell asleep before the game was over. But the Rangers did win!!!!
At 4am the alarms started going off. Up and out the door by 5am and once we arrived at Fountainebleau State Park we met up with our Go Run group. The morning started off chilly but it warmed up and the weather made for a great race day.

I have put next year’s date on my calendar and I am so looking forward to another “Girls Weekend” to Mandeville.