Jen F's Staging Area

Pros: The race started exactly on time, it was well organized and clearly marked, there were plenty of bathrooms at the start/finish and throughout the race, the first half of the race is beautiful and scenic, there’s lots of support and places for your people to come cheer you on, the shirts are THE softest I’ve ever gotten from a race, race merch is cute and high quality, the 4:40 pacer was spot on—he was fun, high energy, and ran all his miles within a 2-10 second margin, the last turn onto North Blvd is like nothing I’ve experience anywhere else. Tons of people yelling, you can see the finish line, the adrenaline is out of this world. BCBS had a sign making booth at the expo—SO FUN! And the people and volunteers everywhere were really nice! Protein shakes at the end of the race were delicious and much appreciated.

Cons: Expo was tiny, especially compared to 2022 and the previous years. There was a Louisiana tourism area, a selfie station that was an awesome idea but didn’t actually text us our selfies, a shoe area, a candy booth, a race merch area, a BCBS sign making area, a CORE power protein drink booth, and a girls on the run charity booth. We definitely missed browsing booths about the nearby races and running activities and products and services. The food they have at the finish fest is gumbo, jambalaya, fruit, and fruit cups (and the aforementioned protein drinks.) Would love it if they added something like king cake or doughnuts or pizza. There’s plenty of beer but we don’t drink so most of our tickets go unused.

Two small complaints among a really fantastic time. This is our favorite race weekend, we will definitely be back. We always register early so we get the “In Training” shirts. I think most of our wardrobe is Louisiana Marathon weekend merch after the $5 T-shirt sale they had in 2022.