Below freezing temperatures is not what I expected when I awoke on the morning of the Louisiana State Marathon, but it was my first time in the state so there was no comparison.

Regardless of the weather I was on a high in anticipation of my first marathon of the year and eager to test out the alphaflys at distance.

A short drive in the rental car and some great parking beside the state Capitol building saw us basically upon the start line, the strategy for that day was a comfortable 3:20, the thinking in this was that this race came up by chance and I had Manchester Marathon on my mind in April.

After a quick rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner the start gun went and we were off! Louisiana is a pretty flat state so I didn't expect any real issues in terrain and the route took us through the LSU campus which is equipped with a real life tiger which lives on campus. It then wrapped around the university lake before heading through the city to the East. After the halfway point I was feeling ok so decided to pop in the airpods and leave the pacer group behind.

At the turn from east to west and with 10km to go what can only be described as a wall of wind hit me square on! Having trained regularly in Copenhagen where wind is part of life I put my head down and dug in.

It seemed not many other were keen to adopt my tactics for this final stretch and even though I had dropped by 20 seconds a kilometre I still managed to pass a few people on this final stretch.

Only the final corner and with the Capitol building staring me in the face the finish was finally in sight! I crossed the line with a 3:05, a PB and some added mental toughness.

At the finish I was lucky enough to speak to a local news channel regarding my current charity fundraising for Glasgow Children's Hospital and the donation I had made to the Lady of the Lake Children's hospital in Baton Rouge.

Overall a great experience and who knows, now that I have ran a marathon in one state I may run one in all!

-Chris