Crescent City Classic 10k 2015 Expo and Dinner...

I hope you guys had an amazing Easter weekend. I spent Friday and Saturday in one of my favorite cities attending one of my favorite races, The Crescent City Classic in New Orleans LA.



This is the 4th year in a row I have ran the Classic and the 3rd year to head up the Blogger group that attended. I am always amazed at how a 10k (6.2 miles) can attract over 25,000 people to want to register to run. YES 25,000 PEOPLE, IT'S CRAZY!

Everyone has their reasons why they race the Classic. Some for charity, others for the town (it is New Orleans, ya know), exercise maybe, and even for the downright crazy course party. The people of New Orleans make sure that everyone has a blast while they are there.

I thought I would tell you guys why I race the classic every year. Its going to be a little lengthy so I decided to break it up 2 parts, the expo and dinner and then of course the race day, so here it goes...

On Friday, 2 of my best friends Tiffany and Jennifer came and picked me up for our trip to Nola, we arrived around 12 and headed to the gorgeous Hyatt Regency hotel to check out the expo and packet pick up. Neither one had ever been to the CCC10k, so they were about to be in for a really fun time. (I also used them as my models for this post, LOL!)



This was Tiffany's first race experience ever, so as you can tell above she was super excited to check the expo out. As we headed into the expo, I was super excited to see the Winn Dixie booths right in the front. Winn Dixie was a sponsor for the race and was giving out some pretty cool prizes and healthy snacks for the attendees.



They also had a "Breakup with Salt" booth, where you could pledge to use less salt in your diet. We thought it was kind of funny...



As well as an Easter bunny photo booth. They had it set up to print the pics right there which I loved...



After we walked around for a little while looking at some of the vendor booths, we headed to the packet pick up area. One of the great things about the ccc10k packet pickup is that it is all computerized, so you don't have to have any paperwork or stand in line behind your race number or last name letter. You just walk up to one of the many booths, give them your name, they pull it up on the computer, and hand you your race number. Super easy and convenient.



Another title sponsor for the Classic is Michelob Ultra, so of course as runners we had to partake in a couple samples.



We headed over to the Official CCC10k wall so we could take our race number pics



Then we headed over to the stage to listen to a couple speakers talk about the treatment of common running, walking and exercise injuries. One of the great things about the speakers at running expos is that you can learn a lot of really good advice for free that you would normally have to pay a doctor to hear.



We also may have visited the Community Coffee kids area and played a little cornhole. Jennifer is a cornhole veteran, she has her own game at home. LOL! So you had to play to 10 to win the LSU coffee cup you can see sitting there in the middle. I was not impressed with the prize, ROLL TIDE! LOL!



After playing cornhole we grabbed a bowl of red beans and rice from the Blue Runner Foods booth. I look forward to this treat at every CCC10k. Trust me when I say that the Blue Runner red beans and rice in a can can stand up to any homemade red beans and rice any day, it is delicious!



Both Jennifer and Tiffany had been wanting some new running shoes. Jennifer was able to find a pair of her favorite Asics at the expo, however Tiffany is a new runner and wasn't sure what type of shoe she would wear. So we headed outside to the Brooks Running gait analysis van that was in front of the Hyatt. If you have never had your gait checked, check with your nearest running store to see if they offer it. (Local readers can get it done at Run-n-Tri company in the Piccadilly Square Shopping Center.) Basically they have you run on a treadmill for about 30 seconds barefooted as they record you from the back. Then they slow the video down so that they can see exactly how your foot and ankle hits the ground. Than they can tell you if you overpronate or underpronate or if you hit the ground with a midstrike. Based on the results they can fit you in the correct shoes for your feet. In turn possibly solving any aches and pains you may have while running. Its really cool and kind of freaky to watch how much impact our ankles and feet take while we run. Here we are being analyzed...



After being analyzed we headed into the Varsity Sports booth to check out the shoes that were suggested, unfortunately they didn't have the shoes Tiffany wanted to try on, but they did give us a card with the $20 off shoes they were offering at the expo to take over to the actual Varsity Sports store that was only 2 miles away on Magazine street. So we did what any other runner would do, we ran over hitched a ride to Varsity Sports to try on new shoes. LOL! Tiffany ended up buying a pair of shoes and we all ended up with really cool t-shirts.



By this time it was close to the time of the ccc10k pasta dinner, so we headed back to meet up with some of the other bloggers and friends for some amazing food at 8 Block Kitchen and Bar on the 3rd floor of the Hyatt. For $35 you could join the elite runners, ccc10k staff, other participants, and of course some really super cool bloggers for an amazing buffet of delicious foods.

Jennifer, Tiffany, Joe, Jason, Heather, Bobby, Gina, and myself at 8 Block

The food was amazing. I forgot to take pics of the food for you guys, blogger fail. Some of the things we had were steak and shrimp to order, salmon, pastas, flat bread pizzas, full salad bar, a sandwich bar, and tons of dessert choices which I did manage to take a pic of, go figure...



I know that $35 sounds like an expensive pre race dinner but I promise you it was well worth it. If you decide you want to join in on the pasta dinner next year, you can sign up on the CCC10k website under registration. I hope to see more people there next year. After dinner we headed back to our hotel to get some sleep, 5 AM was coming awfully earlier in the morning.

I will recap the CCC10k race day with my partner in crime Mr George Melichar tomorrow, until then I will leave you with this little on course gem...



Stay Tuned...

Have you ever raced in New Orleans?
Do you enjoy race expos?