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| Great pre-race photo of John Tortorici, Gloria Shrewsbury, Ellen Kurtz-Hammond, and John McGowan! |
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| Getting ready for the swim |
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| John M., Gloria, John T, and Ellen |
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| Raz is ready to go! |
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| Gator-infested waters! Yikes! |
Here's a race report from John T:
"After a week of watching a horrible weather forecast, several members of FSC descended on New Orleans for the Ironman 70.3. The weekend forecast was for 100% chance of storms Friday - Sunday. On Saturday morning a light drizzle turned into a pretty good downpour for John and Rebecca during their morning run, so the weather was looking to be pretty horrible for the race, assuming it didn't get cancelled. Mandatory bike check-in was turned into optional check-in (very critical decision as it turns out). Because the weather was looking to clear, and not wanting to deal with bikes at 4am, we decided to check in our bikes, which as it turned out, VERY FEW PEOPLE DID. Saturday night was on-and-off rain, but by Sunday morning it was just overcast with a cool breeze.
Sunday morning we arrived at the race site to a VERY long line of cars, all with their bikes on their bike racks. After getting set up there was an announcement that the race would be delayed by 30 minutes due to cars parking and bike check-in \ inspection... see critical decision above. 7:30am the gun goes off for the pros. By 8:00 they are finally to the 40 year old men and then the females are the last group off at nearly 8:30. Swim times were incredibly fast for everyone. John M finished in 28 minutes, John T and Ellen in 31 minutes and Gloria in 34 minutes. This was due in part to the alligator infested waters that we were swimming in (pictures attached).
Once on the bike, we were greeted with 72 degree temperatures, overcast, with a slight 4mph tailwind. John T was averaging over 21mph with almost no effort for the majority of the bike ride. The tailwind that turned into a headwind at the turn-arounds was barely noticeable... until the last turn. With about 8 miles to go on the bike ride, the skies completely cleared, and we were greeted with a 20-25 mph headwind, and a temperature rise of about 15 degrees (again, see critical decision above). The bike ride concluded with a monstrous climb up a bridge before descending back down to transition.
The run was along Lakeshore Drive. The run starts and ends with a pretty severe 3/4 mile climb up a drawbridge. It's an out and back run that is mostly flat, but the hills are all bridges. Not to be outdone but the bridges was the WIND. As Gloria put it, it was like someone mixed the heat of IMTX 2013 with the wind of IMTX 2014 and served it up on one glorious dish. Not only was the wind dead in our face for the first 6.5 miles, but when it was to our back, it nearly stopped. That's when it got really hot. I have never talked to so many people during a race that said the same thing "what the heck happened?". The heat did not discriminate against anyone. Once I realized that my 5:15 race time was not going to happen, I made the race about having fun and helping other athletes on the course. I even stopped to help a girl I had earlier given a gel to because I watched both of her calves ball up and she went down (on the downhill of the bridge). It turned out she was a 3:20 marathoner that had never walked in a race in her life. She didn't even know what a calf cramp felt like (now she does).
In all, New Orleans is off the bucket list. The race was fun because of the company, but the weatherman totally screwed up the forecast. I think the majority of us would have rather had the rain storms then the 25 mph sauna."
Race Results
Claudel, W Dale USA 9 104 125 00:34:45 02:21:35 01:43:10 04:45:33
Tortorici, John USA 83 455 595 00:31:16 02:47:04 02:22:38 05:47:04
Shrewsbury, Gloria USA 28 280 984 00:36:31 03:21:12 02:22:33 06:29:44
Kurtz-Hammond, Ellen USA 13 345 1158 00:31:21 03:34:05 02:40:07 06:54:59
Dumitru, Razvan ROU 120 614 833 00:42:11 02:53:34 02:25:03 06:12:20
Mcgowan, John USA 116 581 780 00:29:31 03:00:48 02:29:17 06:06:12
Carias, Jesus HND 69 396 515 00:31:52 02:46:10 02:12:19 05:38:35
Photos
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbN2TFu2auHDnI
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