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5150 New Orleans Race Review

By on June 26, 2012

Racing puts a big smile on my face

I’m pretty excited about how this race went mainly because it’s the first time I put a plan together, stuck to it, and executed the exact plan on race day (other than going a little too fast on the bike, oh well).

The swim was 1500 meters and I definitely think PEM will have to take a closer look at the “M” shaped course because at one point I was swimming in my CORRECT lane and about 20 swimmers were swimming against me, LIKE COMING TOWARDS ME… I had to sight every stroke just to keep from banging my head into the mass of orange caps coming towards me. Since they were swimming an “M” course and NO ONE was swimming in their proper lanes (and a ton of people just skipped the middle buoy and swam right across from the top left buoy to the top right buoy cutting  about 300-400 meters off their swim LOL…) It would be much more safe to just make the swim two laps and cut out the crazy middle portion… Just my opinion.. Especially since this will be the Ironman New Orleans swim next year…

The bike was 40k, two loops, had 8 small climbs, it was windy because you are directly on the shore, going west was fast as hell and going east was slow as hell… So there ya go!! It all worked out  and balanced itself out in the end… All in all there was nothing to complain about and it went pretty smashing…

The run was 10k, two loops, and was very flat without one hill or climb… It was hot..

I enjoyed the race and I will definitely do it again next year I just hope they fix the swim because two people knocking heads in the water isn’t a great idea.. It’s hard enough to swim in a big pack of people going the same direction but to swim in packs going with you AND against you is pretty nuts… I 100% would have had a 3-4 min faster swim time if the course was a little more safe and you didn’t have to look up every stroke and stop because 5 people were right in front of your face coming right towards you and you had to push them and say “hey dude, swim in the proper lane”… Next race, Ironman Louisville!!!