SubscribeWhat an emotional, suspense-filled week I’ve had down here in New Orleans!
From the time I arrived last Wednesday, the forecast for Sunday’s race went from implying there’d be no race, to clear, to crazy high winds, no calm, and pretty much everything in between. I did my best to resign myself to accepting whatever Mother Nature threw at us and rolling with the punches. Really, there is/was very little else one could do.
On Saturday it became clear that there’d be no swim on Sunday. The winds were so high that they couldn’t set the swim course and they were forecast to be stronger on Sunday. The race organizers, wizely, changed the format of the race and the routes to accommodate the crazy weather and insuing road washout conditions to provide for a good and challenging, while still safe, day.
The format for the day was changed to a duathlon: 2 mile run, 52 mile bike, 13.1 mile run. I’d been aiming for a 5:15 time for the tri’ and would have been ok with a 5:30. My time for the duathlon? 4:50:13!!! Now, if I add a few minutes ato the start run for the difference in swim time, and a few minutes to the bike to make it 56 miles, not 52, I’m pretty confident that I would have still beaten my 5:15 target. So even with the “triathlon time approximation”, I’m still happy with the result.
As always the staff and volunteers were AWESOME! Y’all (sorry NOLA creeping in there) make the event work and make racing so much fun. Thanks!
Generally, especially considering the rapidly changing conditions and routes, the event was pretty flawless. There are two things I’d call out for the organizers to try to improve upon for subsequent races:
- swim location, obvious and I know they’re already thinking about this one :This is the 2nd year of no swim, and while you can’t control the weather, you can put the swim in more sheltered waters where springtime variable conditions are less likely to impact the day
- road hazard marking: the roads around New Orleans are some of the poorest I’ve ever raced on! Poured concrete slabs with bumps every 2 seconds, and big sections or roads with longitudinal, tire eating cracks made for challenging riding and several crashes. In many cases these hazards were not marked adequately, if at all. A little extra here would go a long way to rider safety.
Looking at the overall results last night, the saying “The ride is for show,the run is for dough” kept springing to mind. I continually,race after race, close in on the leader’s time on the bike, only to lose that advantage in the run. It’s clear that I need to work on my run speed. I have the fitness to run and run and run (provided I’m fuelled) but my pace needs to get from 5:30/km to closer to 3:00/km if I want to be competative for a podium spot in my age group.
A few shout-outs for my sponsors: your equipment and support made this race truly amazing for me. Blacksmith cycles: Gertie (my Storck Aero2is) was a champ! I pushed a 200w average over the bike course and she worked flawlessly! Invisciddesign for shipping me a Speedfil A2 to replace my (yucky) Torhans system: the A2 is amazing, thank you so much! 4iiii.com for the Sportiiiis heads up display: these are a great training and racing device, keep up the great work! FirstEndurance for all my race nutrition needs: Kona Mocha flavour EFS Liquid Shot is AMAZING! Yum! And last but certainly not least, big thanks to my support team: Coach Ian MacLean, for his amazing coaching and my wonderful wife, Kim, for her understanding and support (even when she doesnt’t really understand why I’m doing this, she’s always in my corner cheering me on)!
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