I was in the third wave and it wasn’t until the 2nd wave that I realized I forgot to take my planned gel. Okay, no biggie. And we are off! I push the button on the 910xt and tried to swim. I started towards the front and the first 100meters felt like a combat zone but it was fun. I sighted a little more often than usual and kept fairly straight. Never really found myself too far off. The buoys had moved a little but nothing major. For some reason the wetsuit felt tight on the shoulders and felt like I was fighting it. Found a swimmer to almost draft off of and we went almost to the turnaround when he dropped off. Heading back was pretty much the same. Tried to swim until I touched ground but there were too many people and ended up walking early. Hit the lap button to mark the end of the swim. Goggles on head and unzip wetsuit.

Not sure what happened here. I was slower than last year but didn’t feel as worn out. A bit disappointing and I am considering a new wetsuit (or at least soaking my current one before each race).

Aahh! I am plain dumb sometimes. I was so excited about playing with the 910xt that I put it on the outside of my wetsuit. So I go to peel off the wetsuit and it’s stuck. Push sleeve back thru, take off 910xt, take off wetsuit and then put back on 910xt. Dumb! LOL!

This race is held at a city called New Roads but their roads are anything but new and some sections with pretty bad roads. Flying mount, got up to speed and slipped my feet in the shoes. Usual slow start, pick up steam and start passing some folks. Got passed more than I passed others but that is normal. I rode with the PT and I am thinking that I am not ready for that in races. Next time will go back to the wheel with the disc cover. About mile 5 the roads got rough. Now the only issue I had was that the strap on the aero bottle gave way on the rough roads and almost just chucked the dang thing (but that would be a violation) so just cupped it in place with my arms. About mile 12 I take a gel and prepare myself for the exit. Down the hill, flying dismount and I am off. Go to push the button on the Garmin and realized I forgot to do it for T1. So now the Garmin has having the world’s longest T1 for a sprint and the world’s fastest 18 mile bike ride as I have to push the button twice to catch up.

No clue what happened here and I averaged about 19.5 last year. Maybe I concentrated way too much on the PT numbers but honestly I thought I was going strong. Could be my training program, don’t know. Time to push the speed work again.

As I push the bike to the rack I realize that I really can’t feel my feet as they are quite cold. Later I hear several others had the same issue. So I rack the bike, lose the helmet, put on socks and shoes (was going to go sockless but decided with numb feet not to), grab my race number I am off. I put my race number on just before exiting transition. Overall time was actually 7 seconds faster than last year. Finally!

Start the run and surprised that my calfs were not tight. A younger woman passes me and she is now my rabbit. I pace her and the Garmin shows first mile is 8:18. Not bad. About the 1.6 mile mark I pass her and find another rabbit. Second mile show 8:08, wow I am moving! Now the surprise comes as mile 3 comes up with an 8:00 mile which is great but I am not that close to the finish line so either the Garmin is off or the course is long. Down the hill, sprint to the end and across the finish line, and I am done!

I really wasn’t pushed that hard on the run and really could have run if faster but was over a minute faster than last year. Now the official race results shows me with an 8:27 pace but the Garmin shows a total length of 3.22 miles and a pace of 8:09. Guess I am going to have to do a standalone 5k to see my true 5k pace.

This was a training race getting ready for the NOLA HIM. I didn’t really have any goals for it except hopefully beat previous years’ time. I didn’t really taper for it but did shorten my Friday ride to leave my legs fresh. Despite my whining I had a lot of fun but made a lot of minor mistakes.