Virtual Race Recap: Best Damn Race NOLA 5K

The Best Damn Race in New Orleans, originally scheduled for March 22, 2020, was one of many events that had to be cancelled due to Covid-19. Those who had registered for the physical event had the choice to defer or transfer to a future event, or run the virtual. After all those registrants were taken care of, the race director still had a lot of swag left over. I signed up and got myself an affordable virtual race with some nice swag.

Virtual Race Goal
I've been having a lot of aches and pains. I wasn't sure when I was going to run this. Memorial Day morning Arthur and I went for a walk in the neighborhood in a light rain. After our 3.6 mile walk, I thought I felt pretty good and the rain was nice, so I decided on the spot to knock out this virtual run, without a time goal in mind.

Race Day: May 25, 2020
It was about 81°F with an overcast sky that really opened up in the second half of my run.

Mile 1: 12:58
The light rain was nice. I went out too fast after the long warm-up walk.

Mile 2: 13:18
I had to walk a bit extra to catch my breath. At one point I thought about cutting off the run and heading home, especially after the rain picked up, but I reached a downhill stretch and found a second wind.

Mile 3+: 13:01, 1:02*
In this last mile I got completely soaked, with a heavy rain and lots of standing water on the sidewalks. It was fun and I was relieved I didn't get any blisters.

Swag
Oh, what nice swag! I got a cool cotton t-shirt, medal, physical bib, plus socks and a tote. The kind of good stuff for which BDR is known.

Recommendation
I've only run one BDR race before, Best Damn Race Orlando 2018 Half, and I had a pretty good time despite the amount of brick on the course. These races are known for their fun atmosphere, good spread and top swag, and for the sale blitz tiered pricing. I've already signed up for next year's BDR 2021 10K in Orlando. The swag for this made the virtual run fun.

Garmin GPS elapsed time: 40:19
Cost: $28.25

Report written June 1, 2020