Make sure you check out my day 1 post first!
Day 2 of our trip started out a little rough. Due to the travel and stress of being in a new place, I woke up with an extreme tension headache at about 4AM and was in a ton of pain for a while. It really sucks having to deal with my stupid headaches and they always seem to roll around when I'm trying to have a fun weekend! I was up sick until about 5:30 or so before I could finally fall asleep for a couple more hours. Once we all woke up Erin, Cullen, and Brett headed down to the grocery store to get some healthier foods to keep in our AirBnB for the weekend (need dem pre-race snacks!) and I took off on my last shakeout run before the big day. I went a bit faster than I probably should, but the sun felt so good and I was so excited to be feeling better that I let myself go as fast as I wanted!
We were all ready for some brunch and some exploring by the time we all got back to the house, so we headed to this restaurant called Jimmy J's which had fantastic reviews. Of course, everyone else in NOLA that weekend had also heard of their great reviews and we had to wait in line for a solid 45 minutes before we got a table. Let me tell you -- the wait was SO WORTH IT. All the food we had was fantastic and we all chowed down. I had blueberry brandy glazed French toast stuffed with brie and a side of homefries and I gobbled the entire thing up. SO good. Totally recommend waiting in line for this gem of a restaurant!
😍😍😍
After getting sustenance it was time to make our way to the expo! Race expos are usually so fun but we had to walk through the *entire* convention center to get to the hall that the expo was in. That convention center was easily the biggest one I've ever been in and I swear we had to walk a solid mile from the entrance to the race expo. By the time we got there we were all so pooped from walking that we did not stay for all that long! It was not a big deal, though, because we were all super excited to get down to check out the French Quarter.
We made the most of our short time at the expo!
Bib acquired!
We opted to Uber back over to the French Quarter. The city was PACKED with folks in town for the marathon as well as a few Mardi Gras parades that were happening that evening, so getting around was a bit of a challenge, but we had a great time exploring different bars, art vendors, and shops on foot. Knowing that I had a big ol' race in the morning, we were strategic about peppering plenty of walking breaks thoughout the day, which I totally appreciated! After exploring for a bit, we wound up grabbing dinner and listening to a blues band at B.B. Kings.
We knew that one of the parades was going to be coming through the street we were eating on, so we opted to stick around a while longer to watch it. When else are you going to get to see a Mardi Gras parade, right? Welp, the parade was supposed to start at 6:30 and we waited for an hour and it never came down our street! We weren't sure if it got re-routed or what, but it got to the point where we really had to start heading back home and getting ready for the big day, so at 7:30 we made our way back to the AirBnB. Such a bummer!
#disappointment
We got back to where we were staying around 8:15 or so and we immediately got to work planning the next day. Erin, Cullen, and Brett studied the course map and made their plan for #cheersquad-ing, and I gathered everything I would need for the race. Of course, I made time for a flat runner pic! You might notice I tried to incorporate Mardi Gras colors in my race outfit. I feel like you kind of have to, right? 💜💛💚😜
Brett did a good job of staying on top of me getting in bed and getting to sleep. I feel like the night before a race I can just be buzzing and staying awake for no reason, but he made sure I got in bed and got to sleep as early as possible. I want to say I was asleep by 9:30, which is perfect! Go Brett! 😂 We were all looking forward to a great race day. More to come on that in my next post!!! 😉
Don't forget to watch the below vlog to see day 2 in action!
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