NOLA 70.3

On Sunday April 21st, I raced the New Orleans 70.3 all week I had a good vibe leading into the race, a few weeks early I had my first outing of the season at the San Juan 70.3, and had gone back to the grind in training to get set to race hard and fast in New Orleans.  I lined up with my friends and great training buddies Wes Anderson and Carlos Miranda; we enjoy sharing our racing experiences and are always there for one another along the way to have a fun and positive race day.  Wes and I got off to and not so smooth start in the Pro field, when the race officials decided to not countdown and blow the horn early, I was still un fogging my goggles and then all of a sudden it was GO!! I sprinted as hard as I could with my goggles all fogged up still, and managed to get back on the group, I felt great from the first stroke and started with the pack to the first turn which was about 500/600 out then we split and I found myself up front of the pack I was in, up until the last 400 or so when the other guys came around me, before we had to climb up the steep stairs for our Transition run. I had a great T1 and was out on the bike with no problem. 

On the bike we rode into a strong headwind after a quick out and back up a steep overpass, the bike course can be summed up pretty easy: wind from every direction, with super bumpy roads, mostly flat with the only hills coming for steep highway over passes.  My favorite part of the ride was heading down the road towards the Irish Bayou; I was thinking ‘I wonder if there is a pub down there somewhere??’   On the bike I felt OK, nothing special. There is some work to be done before I’m rolling at what I believe is possible and need to be hitting. But I’ll take it right now during the race I couldn’t push or drive, but the effort was more so a steady state effort. I was happy to be able to feel good in last 10k after having a not so great feeling previous 20k.  It’s always a joy to hop off the bike and feel a spring in your step, so many times we get off to heavy crappy legs and spend the first few miles on the run trying to find your running legs, I guess one of the positives of biking what felt below par was my legs were fresh from the start of the run. I straight away attacked after seeing 14 or so bikes in T2 (had a ball park idea from counting on the last out and bike) I charged hard and caught the guy I was riding with within 1.5milles, helped by a 5:12 first miles and then I locked into pace and held strong until the finish. I kept thinking of my soon to be born baby and was excited to be feeling so effortless and just be so consistence with my splits; slowest mile was a 5:39 up one of the small hills that we had to run up. I was rolling guys down and ended up 9^th at mile 10, after that I  couldn’t see another man up there road (afterwards found out the next guys was 2 mins up) On the last turn I was excited to hear my great friend Kyle Meyers of Silverback productions, shoot for me. He gave me the motivation to sprint to the line and I crossed in 3:56:09, which is the faster time by an Irishman.

Bill Burke and Premier Event Management did an excellent job with this race. We had a cool finish in historic Louis Armstrong Park. With lots of food afterward and a great free massage to speed up recovery!.

Couple of shootouts to my great support team,

My sponsors: Revolution Race Team San Antonio with the great backing of Alphia Warrior, The Fit Kitchen and Eoni, my employer Superfeet who just happens to make the best insole in the world which powers me to race fast and stay injury free.  My great training partners the Warpath’s!!! Susan Ingram and Tiitta Elias for all the work on my swim, it’s paying off.  Synergy Sports/Grey Wheels, Triathlete Health.com

 

Here is  photo of Kyle and I  @ the Finishline !