Quicker blurb for a race report than normal, since as most of you know we're leaving for ASIA in less than 36 hours
New Orleans Ironman 70.3 (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run)
Didn't really have any expectations for this one, as I was totally looking at it as a tune up for the full Ironman in China in two weeks. As such I knew about where I would be on each leg, and just wanted to test out my new race outfit and get some more work with transitions and my wetsuit.
Weather was quite hot especially later in the morning/afternoon, and very humid. There were some clouds and some shade on the run course so there were some breaks, but also a stiff wind on the second half of the bike course so it was pretty challenging.
One of the neatest things about these though is the pros use the same transition as everyone else, so when you drop your bike off you can see theirs sitting there as well, and you usually pass them on the out and back portion of the bike course and yell encouragement at each other and whatnot. Rare to see the pros of any sport that closely. There's definitely more of a camraderie than a "holier than thou" interaction.
Swim: 52:23
The swim was fun in that it was one way right along the shore of Lake Pontchatrain, so the spectators could walk along with you as you swam about 10-20 yards away. There were a few dozen waves by age group separated by 4 minutes, and everyone kind of took their own route, so it really wasn't that crowded at all, I only got bumped a few times. Given it was 50% more people than I'd ever done a tri with, and apparently the largest half ironman distance race IN THE WORLD, it was amazingly well organized. Cheryl got some great video of my flapping around getting passed as if I was standing still. Was within a minute of my previous and best swim split of this distance, and didn't feel that thrashed at all, so went well. It also included the wetsuit stripping time since that was before the timing mat.
T1: 3:23
Transition took a while mainly due to distance, having to jog past the 3500 bikes ($3.5 million dollars worth was a guesstimate) to find my area. Went as planned, and I was off on the ride.
Bike: 2:50:11
The bike was going obnoxiously well for the first half, as I was averaging 22mph+. I knew this must be due to some kind of tailwind, and coming back I was proven right. Managed to launch one of my bottles after a large bump, which was funny because there were already like 50 on the ground to tip me off to avoid it and I still managed not to. The thought process was something like "WOAH here comes a HUGE pile of bottles and tubes and CO2 cartridges and gear and everything, there must be a huge bump coming up, I'll probably avoid it, KERCHUNK, splat rattle rattle, there goes my Gatorade..." Had to go back for that, and a restroom break around halfway slowed me down, but this time was just 9 seconds slower than my best split while avging 19.75mph, so was right on PR pace through the first two legs.
T2: 4:05
This was a bit puzzling, a T2 slower than T1?!? That had never happened to me before. Part of it was deciding to wear the watch that I had running from the start on my right wrist so I could keep an eye on total time which will be useful in two weeks while adding my forerunner to my left wrist for the run splits. I'd never put a watch on my right wrist before, that's quite befuddling the first time you try it, especially if in a hurry! Also just dawdled a little extra time making sure I didn't forget anything. Can definitely improve here, only took me 2:11 last time out.
Run: 2:23:35
The run was a vast improvement over my previous two 70.3 attempts. Instead of having to walk nearly all, or in the second case having to do intervals the entire time, I actually ran the whole first 9 miles. I was exactly on 10mpm pace and had a shot at going sub 6 hours. The 7th and 8th miles were pretty rough though, my heart rate was getting outside the comfort zone, and the sun was just beating down. I could tell that if I kept pressing hard I'd be cramping like crazy and pretty much hate life for the last part of the race. So I made the conscious decision based on racing again in the big one in two weeks to walk most of it on the way in. Based on the imploding of athletes I saw all around me for the last few miles, it was probably a good decision. Jogged some stretches but for the most part just verbally shared in the suffering with the other athletes. Still managed to cut 10 min off my half marathon time from the previous attempt, which made it about the same improvement in total time over my last attempt of 6:23:39.
Finish: 6:13:34 - PR
1074/2317 Overall, 837/1670 Male, 109/186 Age Group
Interestingly enough, out of over 3500 people with a number, they only have 2317 people listed as finishing, 1670 men, 647 women. Over 1000 DNFs?
Another interesting number was the avg finishing time of 6:23:10, so I'm top half, woo! I was in 173rd in my age group after the swim, but passed 62 of them on the bike, and a couple more on the run.
Hm I said it was going to be short, now look what happened, geez!
And now in two weeks... April 19th... The BIG one...
And our flight leaves Wednesday morning at 6am!
GO! WISH Team GO! 
We'll see! I'll be back with pictures tomorrow afternoon.
Good Luck everyone.
With all our rain you might get a feeling for what muddy buddy would be like!!!!!!
Have fun-filled events and good races. 
You are A-M-A-ZING! I WISH you all the best in China! 
