New Orleans 70.3: Feeling a little rusty!

New Orleans 70.3. The first time we went, in 2010,  was not a great experience, mostly due to my work schedule which necessitated me flying Saturday night before the race from New Jersey and flying back to New Jersey literally from finish line to airport as soon as I finished. It was also because I finished the race forty minutes later than expected due to a bike mechanical. With all that happened I was sure that revisiting NO THIS time was sure to be a Great experience.

John and I wanted minimal impact to work and life so didn’t leave until Friday and got there pretty late. Saturday weather was bad, knew it was going to be a duathlon. Honestly, I wasn’t too upset mostly from the standpoint the lake is gross and I really didn’t enjoy swimming in it the first time.  We went to dinner with a few friends and acquaintances and got to bed at a decent hour.

Race day came and I was slightly leaning on the side of apprehension instead of excitement.  My first silly mistake was to basically not have caffeine prior to the race, which was dumb. I was yawning as I got in line with my time trial wave and envying the spectators that looked all cozy and warm on the windy day.

Second was to not put in place ‘the plan’ for the run. According to coach I was to run the first two miles fast, like all out. Sounds good to me.  Instead what I did was get at the back of our wave tt start, literally the last person to start. That seemed like a good plan at the time, but what I was actually doing was pretty much ensuring that I wouldn’t be in the mix from the start. All the contenders started at the front, together, and it goes without saying that I never saw them at all!

 At my time to take off, I started running at what ‘felt’ at the time like a fast pace, but instead was the pace I ran my half marathon at later in the day.  It felt fast because I was tired and sleepy and still passing dozens of people at the back of the wave so I figured it was fine.

Happy to make it to the bike and we were off. I won’t go into huge detail on this (if you really want to know you can ask), but suffice it to say I had made a few last-minute changes to my normal setup and preparation that were ill-advised. The combination of said choices plus the super windy conditions/bumpy roads had my bad shoulder screaming thirty minutes in. That would have been fine, I’m pretty much used to that since it’s been happening since the first time I got on a bike.  It was disappointing however, because I have been finally making some progress lately after a couple years of physical therapy.

This time though, a conglomeration of factors made it way worse than ever and only 45 minutes in nerve c6 or 7 was absolutely getting strangled to the point I was yelling every time I hit a bump. HOLY CRAP, ouch.  There was nothing I could do to get it to release (except it straight up) and being in aero was agony.

The wind was nuts, too. In fact, I was sitting up and watching a guy next to me and envying him being all aero and low and then a gust came and knocked him right over about one second later. Because of all this I was doing a lot of sitting up and moving around and generally sucking and watching my average watts go down.  I have never been so happy to see the end of a bike ride!

I pretty much knew I was out of the race at this point and thought that I at least had a shot at a good run. THANK goodness I had a Red Bull in T2 and that pepped me up right away. I didn’t want to be upset with not meeting some arbitrary pace goal after I had already missed all the other ones, so I tucked my Garmin away and just ran by feel.  I started to feel better and better each mile, and finally, for the first time that day, found some people to pace off of.

I was able to see John a couple times on the loop. John was such a champ and had a great attitude the whole time spectating. I know that spectating can be harder and more tiring than racing a lot of times. Thankfully, Elaine Sipos was there so he had someone to run with and hang out with during the race at least. (She was spectating her husband Jeremy, while he snagged the top 30-34 spot and third overall amateur!)

I saw Jamal on the run, too. I was bummed that he wasn’t having a good day, especially with as hard as he’s been training. I finally glanced at my Garmin at mile 10 and saw that I actually had a good shot at low 1:30s which was my ‘A’ goal for the run. On paper, it seemed like it was doable, but, as you know, it doesn’t really matter what’s possible in theory until you actually execute.

I picked it up significantly and actually may have achieved a negative split which, in my opinion, means I should have run faster in the beginning and overall. The run was definitely the high point of the day!

Overall, I was disappointed with the bike, especially. I have been working so hard on improving my bike and I am disappointed I didn’t get the chance to prove my progress to myself. Like I said before,  it’s one thing to know you can do something on paper, but it doesn’t matter until you actually do it!

The icing on the cake was that I actually ‘would’ have snagged a rolldown slot to the 70.3 Championships but we left before the awards. Whoops! You know what this has to mean, though. THIRD time to New Orleans will HAVE to be the charm! You can’t always have a good race, though. Nothing injured permanently either. I am absolutely itching to do another 70.3 before Augusta, but I can’t quite figure out how to do it… yet.  Overall, I feel good and am excited for St. George in two weeks!