Let me begin by saying that I saw Bill Burke’s comments regarding things he intends to improve and that I am totally on board and was very impressed with the race given it was the first year of the event. I am a former New Orleanian and when I heard about this race I registered immediately: that was back in November of 2007.
Please forgive poor grammar as I am typing this quick and in a very stream of conscious way. This was my third half iron (not counting the one at the end of the TTT which was much harder than any other half iron for a variety of reasons)
To preface: I was very disappointed with my results having gone about 40 minutes slower than anticipated. My very first half iron was Steelhead in 2006 where I went 5:33 and I am an AWFUL runner and was actually HAPPY running 10 minute miles. My second was during the TTT in preparation for IM Canada in 2008 so I don’t count it in my tally of completed half-irons because it is truly another (much more difficult) animal. My third (second really if you are following), was Spirit of Racine in 2008 where the swim was shortened and there was a favorable current. I went 5:15 for this one with a slower bike split than at Steelhead but a significantly faster run (my running had been gradually improving). New Orleans would be my fourth (really third), and I hoped to do a 5:15 – 5:25 thinking the swim would be regular-length for a half iron and that such an early season race for us northerners would be TOUGH. Needless to say, I was roughly 40 minutes off of the low end of my goal time but I don’t think I could have done any better on this particular day. So while I’m not proud of my time, I put in the hours but I went in with the wrong attitude - - I was way too laissez-faire in my mental focus thinking the race would be easier than it was (I lived in New Orleans for almost 12 years which gave me the false confidence in regards to how flat the course is and how unpredictable the weather can be at this time of year).
The night before the race some serious humidity and heat rolled in. I heard the high was in the 70’s and still don’t believe that for a second. It had to be in the 80’s and the heat index was definitely from the 90’s. The only folks I’ve heard say the heat wasn’t bad are from tropical climates or recently had the opportunity to do some outdoor training in hot climates or are just gifted or implemented the appropriate stressors (like depriving themselves of a fan during their indoor trainer rides).
They provided buses from the transition to the swim start or you could walk…they didn’t provide MANY busses so most people pretty much HAD to walk - - but it was no different than Spirit of Racine really and I didn’t think it was a big deal. In fact it was better than Spirit of Racine because they were collecting bags that you could put your dry clothes and flip flops in and pick up at the finish and because there were SOME port-o-lets at the swim start (I recollect that Racine has none yet I heard more people complain that New Orleans had too few).
Port-o-lets at the transition and swim start (combined) were inadequate. Hopefully that was just an inaugural-year glitch.
The swim: Not bad at all but it seemed to be somewhere between 200 & 300 yards too long (I guess it was make-up for Racine where the swim was about that distance short). They had more swim support than any other race I’ve ever done - - possibly just to alleviate the fears of a lot of first timers that were out there and a lot of out-of-towners who had some strange ideas about the aquatic life in Lake Pontchartrain. I did have sort of a “coating” on my face though which I could feel as I dried off on the bike. Possibly it was salt and a little mud….so kind of like going to the spa and racing at the same time J
The swim ended with a long chute you had to go through before hitting the timing mat - - so that added about 60 seconds to your swim time and then of course if you availed yourself of wetsuit strippers (I did), it added a little more as they were before the timing mat too.
Lake Pontchartrain is Brackish Water (a somewhat salty mix of fresh/salt water with a slight essence of “metallic sushi” (I am actually quoting Ben Greenfield’s blog with that one), and can take off your sunscreen. You must re-apply in transition (actually sunscreen applying volunteers is an improvement I would like to suggest to the race organizers). I’ve never had this happen to me before - - could also have been that I was ALREADY burned on my shoulders a bit, but I burned up more as the day progressed.
The transition: HUGE, but all in all pretty “fair” in that everyone had to run the entire thing. I guess folks whose bikes were right near the bike in/out had a slight advantage. I read some dumb things on various triathlon forums where people were complaining that they got yelled at for running through shrubs in the transition - - they announced no less than 500 zillion times that you could not cut through any of the landscaped traffic islands (it was a huge parking lot), so I don’t really get what folks were complaining about there. Those folks need to work on their pre-race announcement listening skills.
***The bike: While flat, (and by flat I am excluding the two steep bridges that you encounter twice on the course…e.g. 4 bridges at the very beginning and very end of the race), ***about 60% of the bike was into a nasty headwind and this will pretty much always be the case for this course at this time of year. The strength and endurance to remain in an aero tuck for the duration of the bike course is critical to this race and should be the focus of one’s indoor trainer sessions (for those of us from the cold north), and core strength sessions (I clearly need to do more strength training).
Winds were from the south/southwest - - if winds were from the north they have to cancel the swim because it causes too much chop and turns the lake into a Hershey’s milk-like pool of mud, so this is good to know for the future: There is a high probability that this race will always have demoralizing headwinds for more than 50% of the bike.
I think they really engineered the wave starts and order very well - - best I’ve seen - - because they had as many cyclists on the course as they do at Steelhead and Racine and the course is flatter but there was virtually no drafting. I did not see a single peloton. The only drafting penalties were for folks who were being pretty egregious about it and in one-off situations. So the bike may be flat, but it is NOT an easy course. A week earlier Natasha Badmann commented that with the right conditions she thought the world record would be broken…what we had were definitely not the right conditions! Road quality was pretty darn good save for the first and last 6 mile stretches which were “o.k.” with some crappy bits.
**
The bike aid stations however were the WORST ever of any half iron that I’ve done - - not acceptable for the 70.3 brand and I felt very bad for the volunteers who had to man the inadequately stocked stations. There really nothing worse for a race volunteer than having your heart in the right place but being utterly unable to deliver no matter how hard you try. Had I known in advance that I would be able to get exactly ONE bottle of Luke-warm Gatorade off the bike course, I would have started with two very jacked up bottles of nutrition on the bike and gladly sucked down the plain water which was all that was available (save the one station where I did manage to get a bottle of Gatorade). What the heck is the 70.3 brand for if it isn’t for the "catered training day???” Instead I started with one bottle of diluted Gatorade and one bottle of water with my “back up” nutrition in the form of Clif Bloks in the Bento box. Thank god I had the “back up” in place because I almost didn’t, thinking “hey it’s a 70.3, there will be tons of stuff on the course.” The bike course was also changed one week prior to race day due to road qualities on a bridge out by Lake Catherine (I drove over this bridge and there was a hole in the middle of it). This was too bad because they chopped off the most scenic part of the course and ended up with what was actually not all that scenic of a bike course. I hope they fix that for next year. However, being that the bike was out/back you got to see everyone which was very cool.
INFOMERCIAL ALERT
I want to take a moment to plug a new Chicago bike shop, Iron-Cycles, whose co-owner Matt made me a custom aero-bar mounted bike bottle cage which worked like a dream. I have serious issues when I dehydrate which happens very easily. Even the double-sized aero-drink is inadequate for me because it splashes and you can’t get ALL of the liquid out of it with the straw. I think I would have DNFd had I not had access to every single drop of liquid on my bike….so THANK YOU MATT. As soon as he gets his wonderfully simple design patented, I hope he can market it more widely.
INFOMERCIAL OVER*
The Run: The run is gorgeous but I tried to warn everyone in my group that save for the last 3 miles it is completely exposed (ignore what the race director said I told them, I pre-drove the run course at about the time of day I thought I would be out there and noted that there was almost no shade.). A few folks in the residential area at miles 4-5 had their sprinklers on which was WONDERFUL and very thoughtful of them. The run aid stations were better than the bike aid stations but could use some improvement at well - - namely ICE at every one of them and some schooling on how to properly mix Gatorade endurance formula. The first two on the run course had diluted Gatorade - - really dangerous. This made me think they had volunteers who really knew nothing about this type of event and what people are subjecting their bodies to. I imagine that more than one person who could have finished didn’t because the aid stations were pretty bad in this regards. A few random aid stations had ice as did some random angel of a woman on Esplanade right near Cafe Degas (I’ll post this somewhere in the hopes that one day she reads this and knows how much she was appreciated!) - - I was an ice hog putting it down my shorts, down my sports bra, whatever…but nothing could stave off that feeling that I was imploding. It was just too darned hot for me. The sun was too strong, I just wasn’t ready for it. My legs felt like they weren’t working at all - - the entire run felt like the beginning of the run right off the bike for me. I stopped at a port-o-let, I walked every aid station but I knew if I did any stopping beyond that then it was going to be a much longer day.
Both the run and bike courses were completely closed off to traffic - – this was awesome but had many unintended consequences - - one being that the course was very spectator-unfriendly for folks who don’t know the area. I did see a small handful of people out on the course on bikes and if they could put together maps for the future of how you can follow the course as a spectator, it would be a huge help for everyone else who is unfamiliar with the area. Unfortunately, friends of mine had a bit of a hard time spectating because of the closed course and they were on bikes!
As the run heads down Esplanade there is a bit between miles 11 & 12 where the neighborhoods on either side of Esplanade aren’t the greatest and having it closed to traffic was a necessity and not really a luxury. The huge police presence on the course likely deterred any hooligans (and by hooligan in New Orleans I mean someone who really likes to hurt people who have what they don’t have and - - I actually witnessed a very “heated” argument between a cop and someone who wanted to make a left turn onto the race course…the cop had his hand on his gun holster and the body language of a man who was about to engage in a fight - - and was motioning to his partner - - which helped me pick up the pace to get out of that part of the course), but prolly ate into the aid station budget. They will need to charge MORE for this race in order to do it right because they just can’t skimp on the police presence. It breaks my heart to say that but I lived there for a long time and will admit that it is the truth - - which is odd because the city is full of events that disrupt your life for two weeks (Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest), so you would think you wouldn’t choose to live there if road closures really irked you that much.
They are considering doing a full iron distance in New Orleans and I think it would be awesome - - instead of finishing in the quarter (which was cool as an idea but really not that cool in reality - - actually the finish area was utter chaos and I would venture to say that 50% of the crowd down there were not there for the race and were prolly as annoyed by us as we were by them), they would have an out and back run where you meander through the quarter. If they fix up the bridge near Lake Catherine, you can keep going quite awhile on your bike and do an out / back bike as well. And it is a big lake so an out/back swim for the full iron-distance or a big triangle like at IM Canada, is totally do-able.
All in all, I think they pulled off a great event for the inaugural year and their deep experience in event management was readily apparent but some of the stuff they have to fix or it will really dilute the “Ironman” brand (aid stations must be over-stocked, no excuses). The local support, especially from the police (and their families too given the current economic conditions), should continue to be fantastic - - It was the largest private security detail for the NOPD for the year - - even bigger than Jazz Fest. Many people don’t realize this but in New Orleans, private details are how the cops really make a decent salary and support their families as their pay for their normal and much riskier duties is pretty sub-par. I hope I am right in thinking that working the triathlon in the future will be a highly sought-after gig…I tried to thank most of them for being there.
I was glad to be at the finish. It was well-stocked when I got there but I understand the experience for folks who finished even 30 minutes after me was very different (no food, no hydration), so that is unacceptable. They paid the full fare too and need to get taken care of just as well. (One last thing for the organizers to work on.)
All-in I was VERY impressed given that it was the inaugural event. The things that I think need to be fixed are completely manageable and I’m sure they will fix them. Right after I crossed the finish I was thinking “No Way” am I doing this again next year, but after only 24 hours I started thinking that I have some unfinished business out there and would like another crack at it. I will probably be back next year or the year after (they are contracted for 2 more years for sure). Hope to see you out there!
