Ironman 70.3 New Orleans...Racing in the wake of Katrina

I have a love/hate relationship with large events, much like the love/hate relationship I have with New Orleans herself, a city where I worked frequently over a 5 year span following the millennium. I love the competition, energy, professional organization and pageantry of large races, but I find the crowds and logistics, especially for point-to-point triathlons, to be more of a challenge than the race itself. New Orleans, at least on the surface, has recovered from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina that I witnessed first hand on my last visit to the Crescent City, two months after the storm.

Sunday morning, 4:00 a.m....I strike out from the race host hotel outside the French Quarter as the buses line up to ferry athletes to the start line and T1. Since I will be bolting for the airport immediately after the race (almost a 4th event), I have checked out of the hotel and piled my gear in a rental minivan. As I skirt the French Quarter, making my way over the 5 miles to the start line, I am diverted into the Quarter by the first of several unanticipated road blocks. Suddenly I find myself in bumper-to-bumper taxi lines and surrounded by mobs of inebriated partiers. I crawl forward, escaping the Quarter only to find myself lost in a neighborhood where a guy dressed in Team headstrong kit and driving a minivan is way conspicuous. Back on track, I arrive at the start and set up my transition before the shuttle bus brigade arrives.



7:40 a.m....The wind that had been building for a week out of the north, and fetching across the 24 mile surface of Lake Pontchartrain, has created significant chop on the southerly lee shore from which we start the swim...I position myself to the far right and get an excellent start as the gun goes off sending our wave of athletes running down the beach and hopping into the water before dolphin diving out to swim depth. We are slammed by the chop as we funnel out past the breakwater and make a left turn. With the chop coming from the right, I am forced to breathe to the left in order to avoid swallowing the questionable lake water ("Dude, you're swimming in Pontchartrain??? Whatever you do, DON'T SWALLOW THE WATER" said my friends...) Sighting becomes very difficult and several athletes swim off course....Shortly before the turn-around buoy I am cut-off by a rescue kayak towing in 3 athletes who were beaten by the rough water...I turn and head back, forced now to breathe on my off side, but feeling good...


I race through T1, setting a PR for swim/bike transition and make my way out onto the bike course...the race directors had warned us during the mandatory race briefing that the first 3 miles were "a little rough", but they didn't tell us it would be Paris-Roubaix..."pop-bam", "pop-bam"...my TT bike complains as it slams over the pot-holes and broken pavement..."pop-bam-SQUEAK", "pop-bam-SQUEAK"...it takes me 230 watts to ride 18mph and I realize something is wrong...I hop off and spin my front wheel and notice that my brake has canted radically to the right and is jammed against the rim...the Inner Caveman comes out as I frantically search for stone and sticks from which to fashion tools for brake repair...after losing precious minutes, I'm back on the road and off the "cobbles", listening to the sweet tune of my aero wheels whistling happily once again....there's been a lot of chat on the blog lately about "racing" an event versus "sitting in", and I can tell you it's the same for triathlon. In order to "race" this event, I must stay constantly on top of my effort, maintaining my power output in the face of changing conditions; a momentary lapse of concentration costs seconds which add up to minutes which add up to lost places...midway through the bike leg and I'm on my game, "geezing" several 20-40 yr old athletes who started in earlier waves...the final 3 miles of the bike leg, and I'm flying back to Paris-Roubaix...as I approach an overpass at 27mph, I slam across a 1 inch gap in the pavement and instantly I know I've done some damage...on the back side of the overpass I feel my rear tire start to go soft, and I slow to maintain control...if I can just get to T2 without changing the tire...I limp through the last 2 miles of the bike course, babying my bike through the corners as the rear wheel begins to wash out...I finally make it to T2 just as the rear tire goes completely flat....

Another PR through T2 and I'm out on the hot, humid and exposed run course...exhaustion has set in early for many, for as I relax and allow my legs to "open up" for the run, I see several athletes from earlier waves walking...my legs open up and I focus on completing a series of 13 x 1 mile intervals, focusing on my race pace...before long I turn onto the Esplanade and head into the shady relief of the French Quarter, where hundreds of new friends line the streets, cheering us on...a final turn onto Decatur Street and I sprint for the finish in Jackson Square, crossing the line in 5:31 and 28th place out of 104 finishers in my wave (160 had subscribed)....


It would be easy to say the bike mechanicals cost me, and they did, but even without them, I still would have been a good 15 min off my target time, roughly 5 min in each event...so while I am particularly happy with the way I remained calm and focused during adverse challenges, I have my work cut out for me before ITU Nationals in Oct, where I must place in the top 20 in order to qualify for the National Team and the 2011 World's...rest assured, my motivation this summer will be at an all-time high.