Pre Race New Orleans

I have arrived in New Orleans! The good news! Its not hotter than Hades! Its warm, but there is a nice breeze that is keeping things on the comfortable side.

Woke up early and went to the first race briefing to get the day started early. Not much new they could tell us. On the way out I passed Chris McCormack, the 2007 World Champion. Packet pickup was a breeze.

My race number is 2142. My wave is the DEAD last wave @ 8:20 AM. The pro's go off at 7AM....so by the time I am done with the swim, they will be over halfway done with the bike!!!

The race expo was pretty decent. The IronMan brand store was there with lotsa goodies.

I got an awesome visor for tomorrow's run and I have been chugging water all day

So today we noodled around the French Quarter and acted like tourists before we hit up Mena's Place for lunch and had some Po'Boy sandwiches.


After lunch we went up to transition to check my bike in and figure out the race site.

This is just a small part of the transition area. Its a rather large transition area for 3000 athletes!

My bike spot is not far from the bike in and out point, which is good because that means I don't have to run as far in my bike shoes! I am also pretty close to the Run out. Unfortunately I am as far from the swim exit as possible. Gonna be about a 1/4 mile run from the water to my bike. Hopefully that will wake my legs up for the bike!

Gonna be a tight squeeze out this small bike in/out.

Approaching the swim

The start of the swim. The rest of the swim goes waaaaaaay far to the left. The water was pretty calm this afternoon. I hope it stays this way because folks were saying it was ROUGH yesterday.

I am as ready as I will ever be. My legs feel 100% rested and I am hydrated as of this moment. The race briefing guy recommended that we not pick any fights with Jack Daniels tonight. For some reason he thinks that's not a great way to Carbo load? ;)

I'll try to post some quick results tomorrow night. Good luck to anyone else who is racing this weekend!