The swim was not great but not terrible either. The start was crazy but not any more than what I expected. The usual people swimming on top of you, various body parts hurled in your direction, etc. etc. After the start I tried to draft but people were swimming EVERYWHERE. By that I mean there were people constantly swimming across my path. I thought my sighting was bad but some of these people were just WAYYYYY off. These guys cleared out about halfway and I was actually able to focus on swimming. I felt pretty good and just swam for a while. I saw 2 green caps come flying by me and I tried to draft and hang with them but I could not keep the pace. It was fun to try though. Man, they were fast. Water got a little choppy towards the swim exit.

Nothing that I can think of right now.

I came flying out of the water and people were just standing around.... it looked like they were chatting and having tea. I pushed (sorry if it was you I pushed) through the bunch and went to the very last wetsuit stripper (per Tommy's advice) which worked out great. The suit got stuck on my heels but it did not take long before I jumped back up and headed for my bike. I used 2 large trees to mark my spot and it worked out great. Grabbed my helmet and tossed my other stuff down. At the mount line there was a huge bunch up so I ran past it with my bike and jumped on there.

nothing

Bike course was tough. There were 8 "significant hills". I paced myself on the bike so that I would not bonk on the run. We drove the bike course the day before the race and it was pretty obvious to me at that point that it was going to be tough for me to hit my bike goals. Once I got out on the bike course though it was not too bad, I hit the first 2 hills with no problems and then started out for the remainder of the course. On the first long straight area heading south I thought that I was a freaking speed demon.... I was hitting 30+ on a flat with pretty low effort. Little did I know that I was hitting that because of the strong tailwind. :) Once I U-turned and headed the opposite direction I realized what was going on but kept plugging away. The other hills were long and I was feeling pretty good. I was keeping my avg pace over 20 and was feeling strong. Around mile 30 or so I saw Tommy as he passed me on a hill and he was looking good. I saw my Dad also coming the opposite way and hollered at him. Things were going fine until it really started to rain. The whole course was pretty much wet from the rain but it came down pretty good on me for about the last 30-45 minutes. I slowed (not intentionally) and my avg was just dropping. I also really had to pee. I figured it was raining anyways so what the heck.... I waited until one of the handups and yelled for water, at which time I just let it go. Rinsed myself off with the water I picked up and kept moving. Not sure why I'm even putting that in here.....

I did not realize how lucky I had been until I was packing up my gear to leave. My front tire was flat and there was a thorn stuck in it. Somehow I made it through without getting a flat until I set the bike down. How lucky is that????

Push harder and not be so conservative... I was underpacing and probably could have pushed harder.

Did not use the feet on top of shoes technique like usual because of the hill coming into transition. All of my gear was completely soaked and water logged. Other than that transition was good.

Cover my gear if I know it might rain.

When I started out on the run I actually felt pretty damn good. My legs were there and I had no pain. My goal was to keep the pace @ or below 9:30 so I focused on my pace. I took the first hill no problem, although I went slow I did not stop. Headed out of the park and then hit the first descent. The next hill was not so nice but I refused to walk. I pushed up the hill and kept going. Hit energy lab rd and was still feeling good. The last hill was just staring me in the eyes as I came up to it. I think just looking at it as you approach is more of a battle than climbing it. I climbed it and did not stop on this one either. Came back into the park and pushed it on home. About a mile from the finish I saw David and I yelled something encouraging to him as he was walking and he told me he was hurt and needed a ride home..... I thought to myself as I was looking at him that his front tooth was missing. I dismissed it as a delusion and kept on trucking (Turns out he did lose his tooth. He shattered it on his aero bottle straw).

Nothing

Came throught the finisher chute and saw my brother waiting for me. No real warm-down.


Training and the weather.


Great event and great course. This is definitely a course for those folks who want a challenge. I raced the N.O. 70.3 and this one was A LOT tougher.