The Camellia Crossing Gleaux Run

When I was home for thanksgiving several years ago we realized that there is a 5k the night before thanksgiving. I will admit that I have made little effort to make the run over the years mainly due to the complications of traveling and trying to make everything happen the night before the big meal. This year we decided to make it happen once I decided to hit up the LSU v A&M game and would be home for the whole week. I mean what could be hard about a 5k the night before thanksgiving, it should be warm and then after I can eat pie.

As the week of thanksgiving rolls around and we are in the midst of one of the coldest thanksgivings I can remember in south Louisiana the running of this 5K now seems a tad silly. But I have faith, it is going to get warmer on Wednesday night… yeah no. It turns out that Wednesday night was one of the coldest nights of the week if not the month. So there I was looking at what I packed, which is some but not all of my warm running gear and thinking this could be a long 5K.

In the end my mom decided since she had been a little sick that she just couldn't get out there (I think this was a wise choice, no one should get sick during the holidays) so my Sister-in-Law, Honor, got the extra place at the run. As we all get ready for the race, we start digging in our race pack and realize that we have gotten all kinds of glow in the dark stuff. Sweet!

We set out from the house with our greedy little fists full of glow sticks. Once we get to where we are going to park we take a minute to get all of our stuff together and on. It turns out we parked a long way from the start line (this happens to me just about every single race that I run, oops). But we head down to the starting area and wander around until the race starts.

We are ready!

As I had been running for a few weeks I decide that I am going to leave the family in the dust and jog the whole race. I also scoped out the course map and realized that this was a flat race, which is always easier.

Post race!

I ran the race in about 40 minutes, which is really good for me. I think I might have been able to run just a tad faster but I didn't want to burn out before I got to the end. I am pretty sure I under paced myself but that is just what happens sometimes. Oh well, I was pretty excited with the time.

Here they come!

My dad and Honor were about 5 minutes behind me and while I waited for them I had the obligatory post-race banana and some water. Once they got finished we headed to the race party for some food. One of the main perks of a Lafayette run is the food at the end of the race is usually very good. Each racer got two drinks (non-alcoholic) and some food.

Yummy

I opted for the jambalaya, which was so good. I also got lots of it, so it was nice to have something warm and filling at the end of the race. My dad got some Chili, which he said was pretty good. Honor got a shrimp bisque, what was more like puree and less like soup. I think she was a little underwhelmed by that.

After we ate, we were freezing (I think the temp was close to 40) so we walked back to the car and then headed home.

This was a great time, the cold was a little rough after the race but it happens. I hope to be able to run this again next year.