Crescent City Bridge Connection Race Recap

By: Blake Clark I ran the Crescent City Bridge Connection. It was a four mile race over the Crescent City Bridge that connects the two sides of New Orleans. I have been excited to run this race since I ran the Crescent City Classic 10K in April. I thought that it would be really nice to run to the top bridge and take a picture with the sun setting in the background. Unfortunately, New Orleans weather made that IMPOSSIBLE. It rained the entire day so the weather was less than bright and sunny. I worked the morning of the race and was tired when I got off, but was still excited to run the race. It had been raining all morning and afternoon and the weather was cool, but I was still holding out hope that the weather would lighten up and make for a great run. The weather had lightened up a little bit when I left work. I headed over to my friend Ryan's house, so we could get dressed together and head out to the race to get her registered. Of course I got ready in about ten minutes. Ryan on the other hand.... She waits until 30 minutes before we have to go to the race to start getting ready. And when I say start getting ready what I mean is she started to groom her dog. Yep, I watched her trim her dogs nails and brush his fur. After Tookie was all groomed, she proceeds to jump in the shower before putting on her race clothes, which she was about to sweat in. I love Ryan to death, but I am convinced she is the crazy dog lady with a cleaning phobia. LOL I finally get Ryan out the house and we head to the race. We decided to park at the end of the race and take the shuttle to the beginning. It started to drizzle a little bit, but I still had my fingers crossed for a break in the clouds. Once we got to the race start, we tried to register Ryan, but she needed cash. Luckily the race started in the mall parking lot. So, we walked to the mall to use the ATM. While we were in the mall and had a little bit of time to kill, I suggested a mini shopping trip. :-) I needed a new sports bra because with my weight loss the girls have shrunk a little and my current sports bras weren't providing much support. I tried on one sports bra before realizing how stupid it was to try to buy a sports bra minutes before a race, so we headed back to the start of the race. Once we got there, we met up with some of the New Orleans and Baton Rogue Black Girls Run. It's so nice to see so many other Black women embracing fitness, healthy and encouraging others to keep going. We talked a little to some ladies who were interested in knowing more about the organization. Then all hell broke loose!!! Well, more accurately the clouds parted and we experienced a torrential down pour. Ryan and I dashed off with another Black Girls Run lady and headed to the Dollar General to buy ponchos and take pictures where it was dry! ------------------------------------------- Blake Clark is a member of BGR! New Orleans. She is a "newbie" runner, and only has been running the last five months. She has a short term goal of running a marathon for her 26th birthday in January 2013. Her long term goals include documenting her journey on her blog, BeautyAgainstTheBeast.com.

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