Ochsner Ironman 70.3 New Orleans - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Swim course was long.

I started out one person deep in the pack. Gun went off and everyone started swimming. It was kinda shallow, so I ran in the water passing people that were swimming until it was too deep to run anymore. Dove in, claimed some space and started to draft behind some people. That was pretty much how the whole swim went down. Jumping from person to person. I probably drafted 50% of the time. After about half way we started to catch the waves in front of us. I came up on a few and caught a heel to the face. Nice.

I stayed with some dude for most of the rest of the swim. Came in, swept sand, got up and ran out of the water.

Swim faster. Draft better.

They had wetsuit strippers so I ran out of the water, pointed to one, pulled my suit down to my waist, laid on my back and put my feet up in the air. Two people just looked at each other, then one says to the other "He pointed to you." They were both just standing there. Finally got my suit stripped off and ran into the T area. The T area was HUGE and there was a median in the middle of it. They didn't let anyone cross it, so we had to go all the way around it then back to our spots.

Threw down my suit, shoes on, glasses on, helmet on and I was off.

Go faster.

Previous to this ride. The only rides I got outside on the bike were two 45' easy sessions. I wasn't all that sure how the legs were going to feel about this ride.

I hopped on the bike, took off and wasted no time. Immediately got up to my watt zone (280-290w) and getting settled on the bike. It took about 8-9 miles to finally get comfortable but I could already tell this was going to be a good ride.

I was passing and dropping people left and ride. There was stiff SW winds out there which made the ride out to the first turnaround very fast. Just before the first turnaround, about and hr into the ride, is when the first unfortunate event happened. I went to take a swig from the concentrate Calorie bottle (about 750 Cal) I carry for nutrition and I freakin' dropped it. I was going 28mph at the time and didn't want to waste the time to turnaround, find it, pick it up, get back up to speed, etc. Also, I didn't want to go backwards on the course, potentially causing hazard to myself and other riders. So, I just let it go. I thought I'd have enough nutrition with me as well as whats on the course to get me by.

I made the turnaround and started hammering back. I thought the wind was going to be worse, but it wasn't all the bad. My aero drink was about 60% empty and a another aid station was coming up. I slowed down a bit to grab a bottle of water, but the stupid thing popped out of my hand. The aid station was pretty short and by the time I put my hand out for another they were basically gone. I'm sweating like a pig, lost the potential hydration and Cal from the first bottle lost already and now I have about 10oz water to last me another 10 miles? This is when I knew I was going to be down on hydration.

Continuing on, passing people and eventually getting some hydration, I kept riding strong. Legs were good, body felt good, though, it was very muggy out. I had a couple relay riders pass me in the beginning but I caught and passed both of them in the last 15 miles of the ride. Felt good about that.

Rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. Focused on trying to get enough water in the remaining miles and bringing it on home.

Hydration/Nutrition: ~100oz water. 4 Roctane, 8 Gu Chomps (2 srv), a little from the Cal bottle before it was dropped, 5 S-Caps. Estimate 750 Cal total. 326 Cal per hour

Computer Stats:
Calories: 2495
Avg/Max Watts: 273/1201 (PM counts 0's when not pedaling, but still moving)
Avg/Max Cadence: 92/106
Avg/Max Speed: 23.4/33.3

kJ: 2322
NP: 281w
TSS: 172
IF: 0.853

Hydration/Fuel better.

Got off the bike and my butt/hips were really tight. This is usually not a problem and they loosen up pretty fast. Made my way to my spot. Racked the bike, helmet off, hat on, socks on, shoes on, grabbed my Fuel Belt and gel flask and took off.

In my group of racks (and probably my two AG waves) there were only 3-4 bikes already racked.

Go faster. It seemed like it took forever to get my socks and shoes on.

Over the first mile my hips are cramping, then my quads started. Guess the body didn't like a 2hr TT for the first hard ride outside. This seemed like it was going to be a long run. I had my Fuel Belt with so I started downing that water, a pair of S-Caps and a shot of Gu. After that first mile all was good with that.

After I got my legs back I tried to drop down into race pace. I was shooting for a 1:22-1:24 run, but new that had to be adjusted due to the conditions as well as being in a deficit (Calorie and hydration-wise) from the bike. It seems that holding 6:30s was reasonable based on my HR so I kept it at that. When I hit the aid stations, I walked through them and grabbed all the liquids I could - alternating water and Gatorade, dumping water over me, etc. Ive never had to walk an aid station before during a half marathon since I've been racing.

I passed a few AG'ers in the first couple of miles and started to look at people coming back from the turnaround. I saw first in my AG coming back and timed it how long it took me to get to that spot. He was about 10' up at that point, early in the race. Good news was that I didn't see anybody else and I was sitting in 2nd in my AG. I saw the other AG'ers behind me coming back from the turn around and they were all 2-3'+ back.

The next few miles pretty much sucked. I could feel my pace slowing and RPE raising. I kept hitting the aid stations hard and took in another pair of S-Caps around 45' in. All I kept telling myself was to hold pace and I'll be fine.

The second half was, well to be honest, brutal. I was starting to get really cold, goosebumps on me, etc. I was dehydrated badly and it was too late to recover. I kept taking in everything I could, but nothing was helping and I kept going downhill. There were times that I thought I was gonna pass out. Others where I would walk to get fluids during an aid station and I was weaving around; almost fell over a couple times.

Not many people passed me on the 2nd half. Those that did were mostly from the 30-39 AG's, who's waves started before mine. All was good (relatively speaking) up until the last 2 miles when people started to speed up to finish. An AG'er passed me and I tried to stay with him for a while, but just couldn't. He wasn't running that much faster but I was done for. Pitiful.

Eventually made my way to finish and was happy to be done with the worst run of my life.

Hydration/Nutrition: 3 Roctane, 4 S-Caps, some Gatorade from the course. Estimated 450 Cal total. 300 Cal per hour.

Computer Stats:
Calories: 1866
Avg/Max Pace: 7:15/6:21 Footpod was ~.08mi long
Avg/Max Cadence: 88/95
Avg Stride Length: 4ft 2in

Hydrate better.

I crossed the finish line and was really dizzy. Two volunteers came to me and I put my arms around them. I told them I was fine and just wanted to sit down. As I was walking with them to find a place to rest my legs started to give out a bit. I was weaving around while holding onto them. I initially refused going to the med tent, but finally realized how dehydrated I was and we headed over there. No harm in getting some fluids in my body straight to the source.

Med people said I was very dehydrated as they had problems getting the IV needle into my arm, even with my veins popping out. After being prodded for a while, they got it in and started to pump me full. I took in FOUR liters of saline solution. Also, while I was laying there I drank another 50oz water w/ my recovery drink and another big thing of Gatorade - another ~30oz. After I left I didn't pee until 3 hours later. Yeah, pretty dehydrated.

Not sure how long I was in there, but I stared to feel better pretty quickly after they got the drips going. After four were done I headed out to find everyone else, stretch a bit and get some more Cal in me.


Dehydration. Lack of nutrition during the race. Looking back it looked like my Cal/hr was close, but it wasn't enough for today. Going from training in dry 30-40F to pea-soupy 80s probably had a hand in it as well.

This race report seems pretty negative, but I kept it positive for the most part during the race. Overall I'm fairly happy with the results given the situation(s), just disappointed that it felt apart so hard during the run and came in over 10' after what I was shooting for.


I thought they put on a decent race, but it was a logistic nightmare. The swim was a point to point so the start for that was a mile away from the T area. The run was also point to point, having us finish downtown. The awards/after party was a mile walk front the finish area. And the expo/registration was at another location a ways away. Also you had to pick up your bike by 6p, but no shuttles were going to/from the finish area and with the awards beginning at 4p, it was pretty tight.

Aid stations on the bike were good. Though, I heard they ran out of water and Gatorade at the last stop later in the race. There were not enough aid stations on the run. Everybody agreed on that.

It was nice riding on a totally closed course. They had a cop and a car blocking every single intersection that has access the course. They also reported that more police officers worked this event than Mardi Gras.

Overall decent race for its first year.