When Triathelte magazine ranked B2B as one of the top 5 best races in the country I knew I had to check it out, especially since it is only about a 2hr drive from my home.   It is a national race in my back yard and all 140.6 miles of it did not disappoint.  First off the race is based out of Wilmington, NC, which is a great city and provided plenty for the family to do before, during and after the race.  I was a little nervous about the number of logistics involved in racing a point to point swim, and point to point bike, but Setup Events did an outstanding job and everything went smoothly.

The race begins at the southern tip of Wrightsville Beach, where the swim course follows the intercostal waterway back to downtown Wrightsville.  The bike then takes athletes out around Wilmington up into some beautiful scenic and smooth roads and back to the USS North Carolina Battleship memorial/museum.  The run course takes athletes from the Battleship through downtown Wilmington into a great park and back to the Battleship…hence the name beach to battleship.

Race morning I got to transition early, finished my bike set up and hopped on the bus and arrived at the swim start at 6am, over an hour to take care of business, get the wetsuit on, warm up and get ready to rock.  The water temp was in the mid 60’s which was great, but the air temp was around 40 at race time, so there were a few very cold and anxious minutes before the gun went off.  However, before I knew it I was battling my way thru the first 100 meters of the swim course where I found myself leading the second pack.  I was determined not to be left behind so I picked up the effort and found myself comfortably sitting at the back of the first group.  I settled into a steady rhythm and felt really good.  The last few hundred meters of the swim involve navigating an “S” turn around some small islands.  It was this point I noticed some athletes swimming off course so I took it upon myself to break away from the group and I put a steady surge effort for a few minutes and found myself breaking away from the pack and leading a small group.  I resisted the urge to cut the course and followed the “S” turn because I had heard from some locals that there are eddy currents close to the islands which can significantly you slow down.  I was well informed because I saw some swimers trying to cut the course only to be slowed way down and I made it to the swim finish well before them.  I got out of the water with only a few people ahead of me, but was surprised when I saw the clock read 57min, it turns out the tide and wind was against us almost the whole way.  Given that I was perfectly satisfied and would considered it a pretty good swim result for me.

The transition is pretty long as the swim finishes at a marina and you have to run a few hundred meters across the road (don’t worry it was closed to traffic) to get to the field where transition was located.  The whole run was packed with spectators cheering and making all kinds of noise, so it didn’t matter that I could not feel me feet, it was a “rock star” moment.  I took a few extra minutes in transition to put on a long sleeve jersey, a skull cap, gloves and I had already put toe covered on my shoes.  It felt like this took forever, especially while wet, however, it turned out I had one of the fastest T1 of the day and I was perfectly comfortable the entire bike ride, not too cold or too hot…just right.  In fact I took the skull cap and gloves off around mile 70 once the temps got up into the 60’s.

The bike course is great and within 10 miles I found myself riding with the eventual winner of the race, Zach Ruble.  He and I rode together taking turns setting the pace until about mile 75.  There was a light to moderate head wind most of the first 75 miles.  It was not terrible wind, but it was unrelenting and began to wear on me after awhile.  As a result it was nice to at least not be alone for this portion of the race.  Around mile 80 Zach rode away from me and I let him go as I began to run a little low on energy, as I had missed some important nutrition and I was doing the best I could to take in enough carbs and sodium, however, it was not enough.  Of note, at some point on the bike I must have received a penalty because when I was looking at the results I have a 6min penalty.  Fortunately this did not change anything in the overall results.  I have no idea where or how this occurred, because no one ever said anything to me.  This is the first time I have ever received any kind of penalty, I would like to know what the referee thought I did wrong so I can avoid it in the future.

I rolled into T2 threw on my shoes and compression sock as quickly as I could and got out on the run course about 2-3 minutes behind the leader in 2^nd position and just began running.  The first 2 miles of the run course consist of crossing 2 over-pass bridges which was a bit of a jolt to the system, however once I hit mile 2 I was feeling pretty good and hitting stride.  At mile 8 I cut the lead down by about 30 seconds, however, then at mile 10 my nutritional deficit on the bike began to catch up with me.  By mile 12 I knew I was in trouble so I began stuffing myself with everything I could at the aid stations, but it was too little too late and the legs were simply running out of gas.  I just had nothing, I concentrated on my form, tried to relax as the body was hurting, but not as much as I was struggling mentally.  In addition my Achilles had been acting up the last few months and my run training was not where I wanted it to be heading into this race.  So my lack of run training certainly played a part in my less than stellar run performance.

The thought of quitting entered my head several times, but each time I banished it knowing that anything can happen down the road and I tried to simply keep moving forwards.  At mile 16 I saw my wife and 3.5 month old daughter and ran over towards them.  As soon as I got within 5 feet of them, my daughter recognized me and gave me a huge smile, I quickly kissed them both and that gave me a much-needed mental pick me up.  I knew that the chances of winning the race were quickly fading, however, I was determined to hang on for second.  I made it through some very tough mental stretches and some unscheduled and unwelcome port-a-potty stops, but did hold on to second.   Honestly, I am very disappointed with my run as it is one of the slowest run splits I have ever had in a iron distance tri, but I cannot complain too much give the circumstances. However, the hardest part of my day was shortly after I crossed the finish line my daughter needed to have her diaper changed…so with great difficultly I got down on my knees and changed her diaper leading my wife to say “Real Ironmen change diaper at the finish line.”  Maybe that should be formally added to the race next year.  By the way, for those keeping track at home, it only took me 64 seconds to change the diaper…

All in all B2B was an awesome race, I had a great experience and would certainly recommend it to anyone looking for a great fall half or full.  More importantly, I am satisfied that I finished my 2010 season on a positive note.  There have certainly been some highs and low over the 2010 season, but I enter the off season with the perfect balance of feeling satisfied, yet also motivated and hungry for a break through 2011.

Full race results here:

Thanks,

www.alexmmtri.com

Racing Ironman Florida in Panama City Beach, was a good point to reflect on my Ironman career thus far.  It was exactly 5 years ago at this very race where I launched my Ironman career, although at the time I had no idea that I would one day return to race in the professional field.  Before the race I found myself thinking about the highs and lows that I have endured over the years, spectacular race victories, and spectacular race explosions, but injuries, lessons and accomplishments aside, it was  the people who have helped get me to this point that were foremost on my mind

IMFL was supposed to be the explanation point on an amazing year.  I had some great races, but most memorable of all, my daughter was born in July.  My daughter’s birth certainly put a break in my season and I was eager to have a break through race.  However, IMFL did not go exactly as planned.

I arrived on Wednesday and had a great home stay in Panama City Beach just a few miles from the race site.  A few light workouts as well as visiting some friends at the expo and I was ready to rock and roll.  I was feel great, both mentally and physically.

Swim: 57min

Race morning I arrived with plenty of time to set up my bike and get set.  I also arrived with lots of clothing, as the air temperature was about 40 degrees on race morning, in a word, bbrrr!  The water temp was in the low 70’s and compared to the air it felt like bath water.  I got in the water for a nice long warm up, about 30min before the start time.  I find that I need at least 10 to 15min to get in some hard efforts and get loose before the chaos of an Ironman start.

I lined up to the right side of the main pack, as the wind was blowing from the right to the left side of the beach and I knew this would help me to get out clear at the start and then let the wind/current push me into the group.  My plan worked perfectly!  After a few minutes I found myself towards the back of the front pack.  I noticed that we were swimming off course, so I assumed the pack would veer back on course, so I decided the try to swim the tangent and cut the group off.  However, the group never veered back and I found myself swimming alone.  I decide to simply cruise and let the group behind catch up to me and save energy swimming with a group rather than solo.  So all in all not a terrible swim, but I know that I could have done better.

Bike: 4:48

I cruised through T1, passing several people in the process and was out on the bike course cruising in no time.  I was freezing for the first 2-2:30hr of the ride, however, my legs felt fantastic!  In fact they felt so good that the first hour I rode around Half Iron race power and passed several more cyclists as I went.  I found myself with a strong group of cyclists, which I later found out was the second group.  I knew I was possibly riding a little too hard, but there were two factors that kept me going.  One, if I stopped riding so hard, I began to get really, really cold, as opposed to just cold.  Two, I wanted to take a chance and push my limits to see what I could actually do on race day.  After all, “you miss 100% of the shots you never take,” so I decided to take a shot, unfortunately…I took a shot and missed.

I felt great up until mile 65, at that point I began to worry that I might not be able to hold up this pace.  However, from miles 65-85 there was a head wind and a few small rollers.  I knew at mile 85 the course turns south and there would be a tailwind.  I thought if I could push a little bit more and stay with the group until mile 85 the I could cruise back to T2 in a great position to run a sub 3hr marathon.  However, mile 85 came and my legs began to revolt.  I had nothing left in my legs and I began to loose power like crazy.  I also began to get passed like I was standing still, so I just cruised into T2 while considering my options.

Run:

There was a run, but it was just 1mile.  As I spun the last few miles of the bike I realized that the chance of my taking home a paycheck was minimal at best.  After all this is what I do for a living and I have a wife and daughter to support.  As a result I decided that it was not worth beating myself up over the marathon with little chance of taking anything home.  I knew there was another Iron distance race the following weekend in my own state of NC where I had a much better chance of taking home a paycheck.  I know this is a slippery slope, but I decided to cut my losses and live to fight another day.  I thought of it as a business decision.  Although, I had  thought about just stopping in T2, instead treated it like a training day and ran to mile 1 just to get in a short T run.

I hate DNFing, but I need to support my wife and daughter.  I have tremendous respect for all the athletes who pushed through and made it to the finish line, both age group as well as professionals.  Although it was frustrating I thinking that given the circumstances living to fight another day was the best decision and I have been told my numerous people, including my coach that I did make the right decision.  So I have some redemption waiting for me this Saturday in Wilmington, NC and no matter what I will finish because this is my last race of the season! J

Thanks for reading

www.alexmmtri.com

I have start off by saying that I knew my race in Lubbock, TX was going to be fantastic, or horrific…I just wasn’t sure which.  Unfortunately, it was the latter.  However, there were 8 Timex Multisport Team member racing and part of the great things about being on a team (aside from sitting around the pool drinking beer post race) is that when one member has a bad day (i.e. me) the other members pick you up by having great races!  Tim, Dennis, Chris, Cindy, Andrew, Laura and Barry all had great races, aside from being awesome teammates…all in all a great showing for Timex.

As many of you know, my wife is 8 months pregnant and I wanted to get in one more big race before I take a mid season break and adjust to life as a father.  However, I had been on the road for 12 days the prior weeks, and I wanted to be around as much as I could to take care of her in the late stages of pregnancy I decided to make this trip as short as possible.  I landed in Lubbock at 8:30 Saturday night 10hrs before the race began.  My awesome host family picked me up helped me build up my bike and even fed me.  Thank you!  I had a feeling the stress of a last minute arrival, travel and the prior weeks of racing and traveling would either leave me exhausted or I would simply be racing on pure adrenaline due to all the chaos.  Unfortunately it was the former.  That is not to say that I am not glad I came, I am actually very glad.  As I had mentioned in my Eagleman race report, at this point in my triathlon career I need to race as much as I can to get the necessary experience.   My goal was to come to TX to race, good, bad or ugly, I came to the race with high hopes, but no expectations and I think it is safe to say I achieved my goal, I raced and I learned.

Swim: 26

I hate beach starts, but there we were standing on the beach about to start the race.  I began aggressively and jumped out and got into the mix of some of the heavy hitters at this race, but my arms did not feel much like swimming and I was quickly shot out the back on the lead group.  In retrospect I was hammering away trying to go as fast as I could, but doing so at the cost of proper form and technique and as a result I ended up in a small pack a few minutes behind the main group.  Lesson learned, swim form always triumphs arm turn over.

Bike: 2:24

Not a horrible day out on the bike.  I certainly felt better than I did at Eagleman, however, not stellar.  A crash lost me some time and hurt my ego, but I continued on.  Having not driven the bike course did put me at a disadvantage, but I’m not here to make excuses.  The bike course has a little of everything, some short steep hills, flat straight sections, a few technical descents (hence the crash) and on this particular day…wind!  The winds began to pick up throughout the ride and began to wear on me mentally.  I had made up sometime and a few places on the bike and was ready to hit the run.

Run: 1:32

The wheels didn’t just come off, they exploded.  I must admit at mile 3 and 4 I have never wanted to quit a race so badly in my life.  The first 3 miles my legs were exhausted, my lower back was seizing on me and I was running low on perseverance.  I actually stopped and stretched out my back a little and did some of my physical therapy exercises.  They didn’t really seem to help right away, but I continued on, because as much as I wanted to, quitting was not an option.  I took in as much nutrition as I could and began to just jog along.  I slowly began to feel a little better and by mile 6 I had found my running form and some semblance of a rhythm.  I decided to try to pick up and decided to salvage what was left of the race and give it everything I had.  I am a goal oriented person and at the turn around my Timex Tap watch read 3:43 race time and I said to myself, ok 4:25 is the new finishing goal!  With my mind newly focused I began feeling better and to my surprise I actually ended up passing a few of the runners who had previously passed me.  I crossed the finish line without my usual enthusiasm and went to the medical tent to clear off some of my road rash and have some food.  However, the clock read 4:25…one small victory accomplished.

Nutrition:

The race day conditions were hot, although wind, high cloud cover and arid climate made it deceptive and if you did not pay close attention and stay on top of your nutrition and hydration then you paid the price.  I did my normal halfironman nutrition approach with a few hickups:  Running out of T2 I grabbed my hydration belt with sports drink and PreRace, I knew I was goign to need all the help I could on the run.  I began my normal routine, however, as I began to break down at mile 3 I went into survival mode and drained both my bottle between miles 3 and 4.  After I started running again, I then grabbed water, sports drink and coke at the aid station.  I realized around mile 10 that I was pretty dehydrated, I was no longer really sweating and my arms, mouth and hands felt bone dry.  Because of the deceptive conditions as well as my nutrition/hydration and run plans going out the window I had fallen behind on hydration.  At the next aid station I slowed down and took in as much fluid and salt as I could and continued onward.  At that point it was late enough in the race that I was able to make it through on fumes.

As I write this I am left with a mixture of frustration and excitement on my mind.  I am frustrated, because know exactly what parts of my day I would do differently if I had the option to do it again.  This is part of gaining the race experience I need in order to improve.  However, I am also excited because I learned a lot from this race and I know that I will carry these mistakes with me make sure they do not happen again.  Additionally, I learn more and am more motivated after a “bad” race than a “good” race.  Races such as this, initially are pretty disappointing, but long term I think they do more for me long term.  This race has light a fire in me and will help me to become more dedicated and more focused each and everyday on being the best athlete I can.  So watch out!  Next time I do a major race, not only will I be motivated by my new daughter, whom I will be racing for, I will also be more focused and more dedicated than ever!  J

First off let me start by saying that this was by far the most difficult race I have ever done…I found a depth of mental and physical pain that I had never encountered previously.  On the other hand, this course also consists of the most spectacular views and scenery that I have ever seen.   The race course took you past red rock cliffs, white stone canyons, high dessert plains and even black lava rock, not to mention expansive vistas.  It was amazingly beautiful!  St. George is also a great town, small enough to be a great Ironman venue, but large enough to have hotels, restaurants and shops to support 2,000 crazy triathletes.  Additionally, everywhere we went the whole town was a buzz about the Ironman and the community support really showed.   This was my first Ironman since Ironman Arizona in 2008 where I DNF’d, and in hindsight the beginning of my stress fracture, which sidelined me for most of 2009.  Ironman is my bread and butter distance and where I feel like I perform best as an athlete and I was really excited to get back to the distance I love after an 18 month break.

I arrived in St. George on Tuesday with my Timex Team mate, and fellow North Carolina resident Tim Surface.  We were hosted by Tim and Jamie who were the best homestay hosts I have ever had…incredible!  Not only did they volunteer at the race on Saturday, they also did everything in their power to make sure we had everything we needed to race to our potential. So, thank you , thank you, thank you to them!!  It also gave me a chance to catch up with old friends and make a few new ones.  Edde Burgess fromInsideOut Sports drove my bike and some equipment out along with his demo fleet for the expo, which was a huge help and a big stress off my mind.  Robert Kunz, took myself as well as a few other First Endurance athletes out to lunch as well as dinner on Thursday, which was great.  I have known Robert by phone and e-mail for almost 4 years, however, not until now did I have the chance to meet him in person and it was a real treat.

Getting to the race a few days early was fantastic, however, it also gave me plenty of time to read about all the talented athletes that were racing in the pro field, including numerous Ironman Champions as well as a number of very talented international athletes.  I tried not to worry about who else was racing and simply focus on my own race.  I previewed the course and knew it was going to be an epic race and I was right.

Swim: 0:56

The water was a crisp 58 degrees, and was a little chilly, but my newAquasphere wetsuit fits better, and I felt pretty good once I got going.  I lined up right on the starting line next to the first buoy and took off!  I settled into an up tempo rhythm to start and found a pretty good group to swim with.  The sun did not actually rise until about 10-15 minutes into our swim which made sighting a little difficult at first, but I simply did my best and followed the bubbles in front of me.  As we made the first turn we were swimming directly into the sun and I couldn’t see much.  However, I noticed a gap open up a few swimmers in front of me.  I thought about trying to bridge the gap, but though my energy would be better saved for later in the day.  I swam second in a group for the rest of the swim and simply kept a relaxed effort making sure to stay in the draft to save energy and honestly it was one of the easiest Ironman swims I have ever done.  The swim did seem to be a little long to me, and based on everyone’s times it may have been a little slow, or long, but that is simply my opinion.

Bike: 5:13

The air temp at race time was around 46 degrees, so needless to say, getting out of 58 degree water and onto a bike with an air temperature in the high 40’s was…well…COLD!  In T1 I threw on arm warmers, a skull cap and, per advice of my coach and former pro cyclist, put a single section of newspaper under my jersey to cover my chest.  This ended up creating just enough of a barrier to kept me warm for almost the entire bike ride…in fact I was getting a little warm by the end of the bike as the temperatures reached into the 60’s.

I was cold the first 20min of the bike, so I took it out pretty hard, around half Ironman race pace just to get going and warm up.  Then I settled into my prescribed watts and rhythm.  There were a few people who passed me in the first hour or so, but I knew that it was going to be a long day and being patient and riding conservatively would pay off.   As I began the first loop the road winds through some hills and gradually climbs up with several thousand feet of climbing.  The scenery was beautiful, the road was a little rough and there was a head wind, which made finding a rhythm difficult.  I honestly didn’t feel comfortable on the bike most of the day, for some reason I was not able to really settle, but I stayed relaxed and kept my eye on my PowerTap.  A few miles before I reached the summit of the climb, a couple of other cyclists caught up to me and we rode together for several miles.  Then we began the screaming descent back into St. George, I hit 50+ mph at some points…it was awesome!! J   The second loop felt pretty similar to the first, I felt a little flat and had trouble finding a groove.  This time around it was not nearly as lonely or desolate as there were many age groupers on their first loop of the course.

Run: 3:09

I didn’t realize how much the bike course took out of me until I tried to pull my compression socks on in T2…my hands were not working very well and I was tired.  I got my socks on and headed out the door onto what I knew was going to be a very difficult run course, and it was.  Although my marathon time was over 10 minutes slower than my PR, this was by far the best run I have ever had in an Ironman; yes, this course is that hilly and that challenging.  The only portion of this course that is flat is the first 150 meters heading out of T2 and then the terrain immediately turns up and there was a head wind the first few miles to make matters even more enjoyable.  The first 3 miles were really tough, my lower back was really tight and began to cramp a little.  I had flashbacks to my DNF at Ironman Arizona in 2008 and negative thoughts immediately crept into my head.  Additionally, the 3 athletes that passed me in those first 3 miles didn’t help matters much.  I have to admit the thought of quitting did enter my mind, however, I banished it just as quickly as it had arrived. Again, I was patient and persistent, simply focusing on form, putting one foot in front of the other and said the word “easy” to myself with every footfall.  I immediately continued with my nutrition as well to help take my mind of the pain, more on that below.

Before I knew what had happened, my breathing settled, my lower back released, my stride lengthened, my Brooks Ravenna seemed to have a little more spring with each step and I began reeling in the runners in front of me.  As I re-passed the three runners in front of me, I knew I had a chance at finishing in the top ten.  I told myself to just “run easy” the first lap as I knew the second lap was going to be incredibly difficult, heck, the first lap was incredibly difficult, the second lap was insanely difficult.  I did not even bother with pacing as I normally take my mile splits, but on this course I knew there would be no point.  I ran by feel and focused on getting to mile 20 without pushing the pace too much, again that word “easy” was repeating over and over in my brain.  Besides, the race does not begin until mile 20 of the marathon.  My and my triathlon coach’s Ironman race day strategy is to get to mile 20 while expending as little energy as possible and then “emptying the tank” from mile 20 until the finish and believe me I emptied the tank more than I ever have before.

The last 4 miles of the marathon course are predominantly downhill with a few short kickers, to make life as miserable as possible.  I gave everything I had and the last mile felt like the longest mile I had ever run in my life.  My quads were burning, my feet were screaming and the downhill pounding was taking a toll on my body.  In the past, I have found myself wanting to slow down or give up when the going got tough, however, not at St. George.  Never before have I been able to dig myself into such a place of discomfort and pain.  As my coach refers to it, I was deep in “the pain cave.”  And as I found myself deep, deep in that “cave” I began to focus on many things, but thinking about my unborn daughter helped to bring me strength on this day.

After what seemed like forever, I crossed the finish line, but as I tried to stop running, my body simply rebelled, my quads seized up and I literally collapsed to the ground.  A few friends were making fun of me and said I was simply being dramatic, but I assure you I have never been so glad to cross a finish line in my life.  My legs were simply no longer willing to support me.  But for all the “drama” of my finish, it did get photos into the local St. George paper, The Salt Lake Tribune as well on the Triathlete Magazine website.

I spent the next hour or so in the medical and massage tents trying to encourage my quads to stop cramping and encourage my legs to support my body weight once again.  Additionally, I began to get very, very cold and could not stop shivering, which didn’t help matters any.  Some fantastic volunteers, staff and friends helped coax me back to lucidity and I cannot thank them enough.

I am very satisfied with my return to Ironman racing and know that I left it all out there on race day.  However, this is what I love best about Ironman, pushing our minds and our bodies farther than we ever thought possible. As always there are far to many people to thank, but on this particular trip, my wife, Ashley, my coach, my hosts Tim and Jamie, Timex, Edde Burgess, Robert Kunz and my unborn daughter top the list.  Thanks to Larry Rosa for the photos as well.  As I write this, I am not even 48hours post race, at least I can sit still without pain at this point, however, I find myself already beginning to think about the next race…I think I need a psychiatric consult.

Thanks, www.alexmmtri.com

Let me start by saying that New Orleans is a very cool city… neither my wife nor I had ever been here and since her birthday was the monday following the race she decided to take some well deserved vacation time and we as well as her parents came down for the race and to spend a few days enjoying the sights, sounds, smells and (most importantly) tastes of The Big Easy…I’m still not sure why they call it that.  The high points, Beignets from Café Du Monde, Gumbo, boiled seafood platters, jazz at Preservation Hall, the spectacle of Bourbon street, walking around the garden district and stumbling across a guy riding a bicycle with a parrot! J  There are certainly a lot of areas of the city still devastated after hurricane Katrina, but now I have a glimpse of what people are referring to when they speak of the spirit, history and energy of this city, it is truly a unique and special place. Anyone who said this city should not have been rebuilt after the devastating floods clearly had no appreciation for the beauty, culture and historical significance of this great city…and the most recent super bowl champions…but I digress…you want to hear about the race!!

Let me start by saying that NOLA was a “training race” for me.  It was the final icing on the cake of my training for Ironman St George, just 2 weeks later.  As many of you know my bread and butter is Ironman racing and this was the culmination of several months of hard work.  In the past I have raced a half iron distance race 2 weeks out from a major Ironman and it seems to work very well for me.  It gives me one last fitness boost as well as the mental confidence knowing that I can race well despite being fatigued. That being said I only took a few days of light training leading into this race, a 105 mile ride on Tuesday and a hard hour tempo run on wed had certainly made me a little unsure of what to expect on race day, but three days of relatively light training and traveling seemed to do the trick.  Overall my day had some hiccups (mainly the swim), but it was a great race and a great confidence boost!  The main focus of this race was to run well.  I know my swimming is making huge strides with my new masters group and my cycling fitness is coming a long nicely, both evident by my race at California 70.3 a few weeks prior.  However, I wanted/needed to prove to myself, and my coach, that I could run again after coming back from my season ending stress fracture last year.

Pre-race

I got up at 3:30 to have my usual breakfast, protein shake, banana, applesauce, vitamins (Multi V, Pure One Omega 3, ARX) and some electrolyte tabs.  I tried not to wake up my wife (it didn’t work.)  We went back to bed for a few hours and rolled into transition around 5:30, perfect.  I have to say how much nicer it is to go to a race with Ashley.  She has a tough day while I am racing (she’s a professional spectator you know), but this time she was 6 months pregnant and had an even more difficult day than usual, I am continually impressed by her endurance.  I got all my gear set up, ate half a Powerbar 30min before the race start, went for a short jog and swim and then drank 12oz of sport drink with a scoop of pre-race 15min before the start I was ready to go!!

Swim:  30:35 – Badness

The water temperature was 73.5, so no wetsuits for the pros, and the swim being my weakest legs of the race, I knew this put me at a disadvantage. The pro wave splashed, bounded and dolphin dived into lake Ponchatrain just as the sun was rising and the wind was beginning to pick up at 7am. Between the sun, 1-1.5 feet of chop on the water, wind and current, as well as the general chaos of a triathlon start I had no idea where I was going at several point of the swim.  I found some feet for the first ¼ of the swim, but he kept veering of course, or so I thought.  I decided to not waste energy, do my own thing and swim as best and as straight as I could while use as little energy as I could fighting the choppy water.  I exited the water a little frustrated, but knowing it is a long day I remained focused, put it behind me and moved through T1 as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

Bike: 2:11 – Pretty good

The first 5 minutes of the bike in any race is always a little tough, but I quickly found a rhythm and started into my nutrition early to try to get it all into my system well before T2 and avoid sloshing on the run.  On the bike I carry a 24oz bottle with 256g of carbs and 3000 milligram of sodium that I nurse over the course of the bike and I also drink plenty of water from my aero bottle that I refill at aid stations.  I knew it was going to get hot on the run and I wanted to make sure I was well hydrated.  I found myself cruising eastward and allowing myself to push pretty hard until the 1hr mark of the bike, my usual race strategy.  The only problem was the wind was blowing from the northeast and made it deceptively hard at times.  My legs were moving well, but I certainly felt a little flat, they did not have the usual pop and my power numbers were a little low, but I didn’t really worry too much about it, I rode by instinct and feel the first hour and then settled into my own race after that.  Aside from a few bridges and overpasses this bike course is dead flat…the only problem is the wind!  We are not talking Kona winds, but still…I would compare it in many ways to the Eagleman 70.3 bike course, for those of you have done that race.  There were a few out and back sections of the course where I got to see where I was and I was anywhere from 11-15^th place over the course of the ride.  Also this provided some respite from the head wind as the tail/cross wind was a welcome change.  The last 8 miles of so back into T2 it seemed I was barely pedaling, yet I was moving 30mph with the tail wind!   I rolled into T2 with a couple other guys and was ready, both mentally and physically to lay it all out on the run course.

Run: 1:18 – Solid, 6^th fastest of the day and a new PR

I was 13^th off the bike, quickly settled into an up-tempo pace and passed two guys in the first half mile…then I was alone…seriously, aside from aid station volunteers and the occasional cop at an intersection it was 11 lonely miles, followed by 2.1 miles of misery, with what I think were spectators and people cheering…I can’t remember… it was a blur.  The run course is point to point and beautiful, but desolate though some sleepy neighborhoods and New Orleans City Park, additionally, there was not a whole lot of shade in many sections and the day was beginning to heat up.  After a swing of concentrated sports drink I grab in T2 I settled into my routine of water and sports drink at the aid stations as well as 8g of carbs every 2 miles of so to try to keep my fatiguing muscles well fueled.  As I said, it was lonely, and I was running well and didn’t see any other racers, even on the long stretches of flat straight road until mile 5.  Miles 5-8 are through the park where there are a couple out and backs and I finally saw some other races, and at one point I measured almost 5 minutes between myself and 10^th place.  As I said, anything can happen down the road, keep going.  At mile 10 the course moved out of the park and began a long straight 2.9 mile stretch down to the French Quarter with a right turn then with the finish line in front of Jackson Square (a very cool finish line…more on that later).  This part of the course was well shaded, but I was certainly getting tired and the legs were beginning to tell my brain they had enough. However, I wanted to finally put down a good run split from start to finish, something I had not done in a long time.  I found myself literally yelling at myself “come on!” “don’t give up.”  Then, way, way…WAY down the painfully long and painfully straight road I began to make out a figure, which at first I thought was an aid station volunteer standing in the middle of the road. However, it was the guy in 10^th.  He was not moving very fast…see anything can happen…don’t ever give up!  However, he saw me coming, “You got him running scared” as one spectator yelled and as I gave my legs everything I had, he did too and he crossed the line just 7 seconds in front of me.  See, I told you anything can happen, so don’t ever give up!

Missing the top ten by 7, painful, seconds was certainly a tough situation, however, given the caliber of the competition, my bike and run legs and my main focus being St. George I am very satisfied with my race here in New Orleans.  All in all a very solid day and having my wife and in-laws here to share it with me made it all that much better.  The finish line was a great place, tons of people, jazz playing, restaurants and bars everywhere, all right on the banks of the Mississippi river.  After the race I had a serving and a half of Ultragen, another helping of all my vitamins, a beignet from Café Du Monde, compression socks and soaked in an ice bath…in a kiddie pool…hey I need to recover fast I have an Ironman in 2 weeks!

As always a huge thank you to everyone out there supporting me, there are FAR too many of you to list here, but you know who you are…the one exception, who I must mention here is my wife and our unborn daughter!