Ochsner Ironman 70.3 New Orleans - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

OMG, I hated this swim! The chop was just HORRIBLE!! I have never had a worse condition. First 200 meters were good because we were going head into the waves but as I turned the waves were coming in from my right, I swallowed about two gallons of that filthy water and the sighting was near impossible since the buoys were too far apart and the chop didn't help whatsoever. My time was well above normal, even the pros had awful times, First out of the water was Potts just under 24 minutes, about 4 minutes slower than his usual time.

Not swim?

Good transition except for the upper part of my trisuit that got stuck and I had to get help with. I lost about ten seconds on that.

Nothing.

My best bike average speed ever at any distance. Boy, I'm getting good on the bike! I was so happy when I saw the time I was extatic. I felt great all through the course. Never saw anybody drafting, a very clean race, unlike IMAZ. Lost my bottles while going over some tracks, never went back to pick them up. Gorilla cages are not that good after all.

Nothing.

Flawless T2.

Nothing at all.

OK, this is where things turned very ugly. Usually I pride myself of being a good runner who happens to like two other sports, but this time I underperformed big time. I made the huge mistake of fasting the day before (only fruit juices) and not having breakfast in the morning. I read it somewhere and gave it a try. NEVER AGAIN. On mile two my legs started to loosen up as usual (8:20 min/miles on the first two) and went on to pick up the pace. Something felt weird and at the 10K mark it happened, I had the biggest abdominal cramp ever, almost brought me down to the floor. I walked about two hundred meters and it felt a little better so I tok off again. Probably half a mile later it came back and form that point on it was just plain suffering until the end of the race. A planned 1:40 or 1:42 half marathon turned into a dissapointing 2:05!! The worst part is not hte time, it's the fact that this took the fun away from the race, after all that's what I do it for, right? The last quarter mile down Decatur is AWESOME!! The crowd is about ten people deep and they're drunk and cheering all the time. Too bad I didn't get to enjoy the experience too much since I was in damage control mode.

EAT, stupid!!!

I was so weak and exhausted from the pain, I just sat down and ate some. Curiously, after five minutes I felt great, as sson as the food hit my stomach.


Poor race planning and experimenting on race day.


I had such a bad run, I just want to put this one behind in the books. I never bothered to go get any finisher's gear, not even a cap. One to forget...