Meat Pie Tri Race Report
In life we are fortunate to be able to face new and exciting adventures each day and the first annual Natchitoches Meat Pie Tri was no disappointment when it came to adventure. Weather forecasts all week and even the two days before the race said that we would have sunny weather on race day, but this is Louisiana and things can change in a matter of hours.
Race day brought clouds and rain, but that didn’t dampen the spirits of the over 200 racers from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Natchitoches has to be one of the greatest venues for the spectators in Louisiana – maybe even in the nation. Spectators have a parallel view of the swim and an elevated view of the transition area.
The swim is not in the clearest water that we could compete in, but the lake or so-called river is fairly narrow, so it is easier to keep your bearings in the swim. I had a decent swim and, as usual, started in the rear of the group and fought my way up in the pack as the race proceeded. I didn’t have to sight the buoys as much in this race, and didn’t have to stop and gain my composure. I feel that I swam a fairly good race and was disappointed with my time until I found out the swim was longer than had been publicized.
T1 was probably a little slow, but my bike shoes had gotten wet which made them a little hard to put on. Also, I was trying not to get in to big of a hurry which could result in a fall. The transition area still had a good many bikes in it and that is always encouraging.
The slow drizzle turned into a steady downpour on the bike course. Water could be seen standing on the roadway on a large portion of the bike course. I had a new set of racing tires on my bike and they had very little if any tread on them. Since the course was going to have a good bit of climbing on the first part of the course, I made up my mind to stay on my small chain ring in front for the first half of the race unless I was on a downhill. This probably worked to my advantage because I didn’t push a big gear too much on the hills for the first part of the race and help me conserve some energy for the run. I did have a couple of instances where my bike got a little loose and gave me a scare and I did ride a little tentatively after that. I came into T2 feeling good about my bike leg, but really had no idea about time or average speed for the bike.
T2 was slow and I had to try to get my legs back, and they just don’t seem to want to come back some days, but that’s just part of the game. I exited out to the run course.
The run course started by coming out of T2 and up about 20-30 steps and that was fun, oh, to feel the burn. Beside the run being just physically demanding on me, it has always been a mental battle. Weeks before the race, I had been telling myself that I could make the run without breaking stride to stop and walk. I did stop and walk, but probably for no more than a total of 200 yards the entire 5K. Granted, my run was only equal to some competitor’s walks, but I was doing what I set out to do and that was trying not to break stride. It would have been nice to not have walked those 200 yards, but overall it was the best run, I had ever had in a triathlon and I have to be satisfied with that.
When all was said and done, I had taken twelve minutes off my last race time and the last race had a shorter bike. Even though it is human nature to go back and try to figure out if you could have done anything differently, I know that I did something right since I took off that amount of time. Overall, great race, great venue and a great time.
Finish Line Photo