At mile four, running up St. Charles Avenue, everyone broke into an impromptu rendition of Happy Birthday.
Scene from Esplanade Avenue at the 2015 New Orleans Rock ‘n Roll Marathon.
At mile five, a New Orleans jazz quintet stood on a platform, filling our early Sunday morning run with the buoyant, exuberant sound of Dixieland.
One of the close to a dozen live jazz bands that performed along the route of the 2015 New Orleans Rock ‘n Roll Marathon, which brought close to 20,000 runners to America’s craziest city.
At mile six, some runners pulled out smartphones to shoot photos of a guy — running while juggling three footballs.
Some runners juggled while running. Photo courtesy, http://www.photorun.NET
At mile eight, 20,000 runners jogging through the French Quarter passed by Cafe du Monde, the world famous all-night doughnut shop, undoubtedly causing a few slackers to quietly call it a day in order to pile drive some fresh, hot, deep-fried sugar-dusted beignets.
Runners pass through the legendary French Quarter as part of the 2015 New Orleans Rock ‘n Roll Marathon.
Along Esplanade, a gorgeous, wide-boulevarded avenue that borders the French Quarter, we passed Degas House in Treme (the neighbourhood that inspired the HBO series), where the famed French Impressionist lived for a while, and which is now a bed and breakfast.
Runners got into the spirit of New Orleans’ penchant for dressing up during the 2015 Rock n Roll New Orleans New Orleans.
There were Jell-o shots at mile 12 (skipped those!), and cups of beer at mile 14 (no thanks!) — and naturally, befitting a 26-mile road race taking place through the streets of America’s craziest city, multiple marathoners dressed in Elvis gear.
An Elvis-costumed runner at the 2015 New Orleans Rock n Roll.
New Orleans isn’t normally the first place people associate with fitness, unless someone made partying all night a new Olympic sport.
Chucks Sports Bar in New Orleans.
And yet, the final weekend of January, I found myself prowling Bourbon Street at sunrise, not trying to make it home to the hotel after an all-nighter, but rather walking it en route to the start line of the 2015 New Orleans Rock ‘n Roll Marathon.
Runners on Bourbon Street head for the start line.
I love running and I love New Orleans, which has always been one of the world’s most walkable (and staggerable) cities.
Bourbon Street cleanup crew, early Sunday morning.
Why not investigate how runnable it could be, too?
Runners start the 2015 New Orleans Rock ‘n Roll Marathon.
On the advice of Aimee, my talented, charming and savvy Airbnb host (she’s a photographer and documentary filmmaker), I rented a bike from Gerken’s on St. Claude Avenue for $25 a day.
Gerken’s Bike Shop on St. Claude Avenue in New Orleans.
On my rental bike, I immersed myself in the city’s distinctive neighbourhoods.
A garden in the art district off of St. Joseph in New Orleans.
At the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, on Aimee’s suggestion, I checked out Prospect.3, the city’s art biennial.
It was a wonder of global diversity — there were artists from Indonesia, Saudi Arabia (a woman!), Los Angeles, Argentina, Turkey and elsewhere, although my fave was probably painter Douglas Bourgeois, who combines Catholic with pop culture icons in a style that might best be described as Bayou Keith Haring — with a dash of Degas.
American Address by Douglas Bourgeois. Courtesy Arthur Roger Gallery.
From there, I took a spin up through the Garden District, a gorgeous area that borders St. Charles Boulevard, where the streetcars run all night long.
I stumbled into the Fresh Market (3338 St. Charles Avenue), a wonder of fresh produce, pink grapefruit to die for, and a counter full of King Cakes, part of Mardi Gras lore.
King Cakes are traditionally eaten during Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
From there, I segued over to Magazine Street, filled with small shops, restaurants, thrift shops, bars spilling – and lots of awesome paint jobs.
New Orleans is a very primary colour city, a place where sensible beige trim would be regarded as an affront to fun — and I happen to agree.
Magazine Street is awash in bright primary colours.
The colourful Magazine Street.
After an early evening pitstop at Juan’s Flying Burrito, a joint on Magazine, where I scarfed down a pre-marathon dinner of an $8 jerk chicken burrito and a couple bottles of the locally-brewed Abita Amber beer, I biked through the French Quarter over to Frenchmen Street, a couple blocks north in the Faubourg Marigny (7th Ward).
While the French Quarter is the famous tourist zone of New Orleans, Frenchmen Street on a Saturday night is the city’s musical mecca.
There’s an outdoor artists’ market, an Austin-like bar crawl of clubs and restaurants, all of whom offer live music — and quite often, on a Saturday night, you don’t even have to go inside a club to catch some epic New Orleans jazz.
Bands performing breakfast-hour sets along the streets of the 2015 New Orleans Rock ‘n Roll Marathon.
Frenchman Street is a rockin’ place to be on a Saturday night.
There was also an awesome swing band, the Russell Welch Hot Quartet, performing at the Spotted Cat, right across the street.
Spotted Cat nightclub, Frenchman Street, New Orleans.
Alas, the one thing about marathon running is that it doesn’t combine well with marathon partying, so it was early to bed and early to rise the next day.
From that awesome and amazing first two hours of the marathon, featuring live jazz, football juggling runners, Happy Birthday, Degas, doughnuts and long distance Elvis, we headed towards City Park, with a six-mile run into a hard Louisiana morning breeze that knocked some of the shine off my face.
It turns out that staggering home is very much part of my marathon tradition.
These Mardi Gras masks hanging from a building in New Orleans’ French Quarter also illustrate the feelings of many of the 20,000 runners who competed in the 2015 New Orleans Rock ‘n Roll Marathon on Jan. 25.
Marathon or not, New Orleans is a friendly, fantastic city where if you’re not having the time of your life, you’re not really trying.
Finisher’s medal from the 2015 New Orleans Rock’n Roll Marathon.
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