This was a floating start--a first for me. A pretty straightforward swim. Got off course just before the last turn. I was sighting to my side and watching a swimmer from an earlier wave hanging onto a kayak. I just didn't realize that the kayak was well inside of the swim course. Looked up and had to swim left in order to make a legal right turn.

Really tried to draft as much as I could.

Sight a little better.

The T1 included a quarter mile run to the transition. A part of it was on a steep downhill grassy portion which was wet from a 2AM sprinkler session.

Nothinkg much.

This is where the wheels fell off. Okay, not literally. At about the two mile mark, my chain sort of seized up, and I couldn't pedal anymore. It was an uphill segment so I really couldn't fake it. I was off the bike two or three times fiddling with the chain/gears and then decided to walk up the hill in order to take a jgging trail back to transition (the other direction was downhill).

Encountered a volunteer who helped me fiddle with the bike enough to get it working again. By this time, the whole world had passed me so I was firmly in workout mode. But I didn't even get a very good workout. The course was too crowded and I felt I had to slow down a lot to avoid drafting and I swear that at half of the 90 degree turns I had some guy bearing down with a disc wheel so I hit the brakes in order to turn sharply on the inside. This race was not worth a tangle with a serious rider.

Lube the bike the night before.

Since I knew my race was over, I decided to sit down and put socks on. I didn't need blisters on top of the nightmare.

Nothing.

Longer than advertised. Concrete. Not very interesting.

Walking back and forth.


My bike time was a disgrace.


There have been several races in Louisiana cancelled due to the hurricanes, so on one hand I'm glad the RD kept the race open to all and managed it as best as she could. On the other hand, there were too many racers on the bike leg. Too many.

And while I'm signed up for one more race this season, I'm not sure I'm going to show up. This morning before the swim start, my mantra was that I didn't want to do this. And this was after a drive and overnight stay at a hotel. Looked at the water and all of the other racers and said to my 16 YO daughter that I thought I was done for the season.

I can't decide if my crappy bike leg means that I need to do the last one to redeem my season, or to just be happy that my A race went as well as it did. I don't mean to sound lazy. This was my 10th tri, my 12th multisport event this season, and I've done five 60+ bike tours with another scheduled for this weekend. Perhaps I'm just exhausted?