In March we did the Rock and Roll half marathons in New Orleans and Dallas. That was a little tough on me, I was not really in shape to do two halfs three weeks apart. New Orleans was a great venue. I stayed in a hotel a block from the start line. The weather was excellent, cool in the morning and warmed up nicely by the end. The wind was pretty brutal and the long slow slog up Esplanade to the finish at the fairgrounds was not to my tight IT band's liking.
The course starts off Downtown on Poydras, heads over to the Garden District past Tulane and turns around at Audubon park. The course runs on either side of the St Charles street car tracks then past the World War II museum, across Canal st and into the French Quarter. I was sorely tempted to suspend my run and sit and have a beignet at Cafe du Mode, but the Sunday line to get in was too long. The route continues down Decatur and onto the dreaded Esplanade to the Fairgrounds by way of St Louis cemetery #3 (I think)
After the finish line, the food, drinks and entertainment are on the nice grassy park. Unlike Dallas and San Antonio which end in stadium parking lots. The best part was the air conditioned motor coaches that ferry the runners back to the start line downtown.
Three weeks later it was the Dallas Rock and Roll. I've done this one three times now, so the specifics are the day are a little fuzzy. I can't remember if this year was the cold and rainy year or it was last year. I do know that my finish time was slow and my IT band was killing me by the finish.
The spring came and I renewed my friendship with Jenn Sommermann on the triathlon circuit. First on the list was the Route 66 triathlon in El Reno OK. I came in a day early and checked in to the hotel and picked Jenn up at the airport that evening. This was my first Olympic distance race and I was nervous about the swim distance. Swimming 1500 meters in the pool with lots of turns and a wall to push off of is one thing, but this would be my first open water swim at this distance and my first wetsuit swim.
The swim was a two lap affair and I started out with my age group and in 5 minutes got caught by the fast swimmers in the ladies division who started after me. I soldiered on and had a 45 minute swim leg. I was not the last out of the water in my division, so I have that and it was my first Olympic OWS.
They had wetsuit strippers so my transition time wasn't bad and I was off on the bike leg. It was also my first race on my newly acquired (2nd hand) Zipp tubulars. Let me tell you, the RD ran a great race, but the course on old Route 66 was pretty rough. The course was a two loop 40K, the did have a bottle hand up at the end of the first loop. About half way into the second loop I hit the most bone rattling pot hole of my bike riding career.
I made it to the top of the hill and realized that I had blown my front tire. As I slowed down to stop and change it, I heard the most sickening sound that the owner of a set of carbon fiber wheels can hear. The distinct sound of crunching carbon fibers. Ok, maybe carbon wheels and a bumpy pothole filled course was not the best idea for a Clydesdale racer. I got off and pulled the wheel, stripped off the tubular and inspected the rim and knew I was done for the day. No need to bother putting on the spare. After a while, the neutral support/sag wagon came by. He had tubes and a pump and a few tools, but no wheels to lend. Dejected, I loaded up and was driven back to transition. I carried my bike to the rack and one of the race officials said, "go ahead and do the run if you want" so I took off on the run. Given my 45 minute swim, I wasn't going to get any age group awards. I figured that the time I spent standing at the side of the road cursing was about equal to the time it would have taken me to finish the second lap, so my finish time was pretty close to what it would have been.
For a first Olympic distance 3:47 is nothing to write home about. Yeah, i know it sucks. I think my age group's winner came in at about 2:30 or something ridiculous like that, but I'll take it.
Next posting: My second Olympic and boy was it hot.
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