So last weekend was my first race back in the northern
hemisphere after my operation. It was the New Orleans 70.3 and unfortunately
due to the bad weather they had to cancel the swim and add a 2mile run at the
beginning of the race. This wasn’t ideal but I was happy with where my running
form was at to have a good race.
I arrived in New Orleans at 1am on Wednesday morning and
struggled until race day to get into the time zone after travelling from New
Zealand. I was sleeping 11-12hrs a night with the sleeping “supplementation”
and still struggling to get going when I rose at an embarrassing noon.
Thankfully my training partner up here, Sam Leblanc was patient enough to wait
until I was up to start training.
The lead up to the race felt pretty usual but looking back
my legs never came back to normal after the flight even with the help of my
Normatec compression boots. Soon race day came around and with it a DNF (did
not finish). The only other race in my career that I have pulled out of was the
Wiesbaden 70.3 in Germany where I retired due to my Achilles. This is not
something I do or intend to make habit of but given the circumstances it was
the right decision… I think. My legs had struggled the whole bike and after
keeping it together for three quarters of the bike they started to give way and
blow up which was strange. Heading onto the run I was determined to put the bad
part of the race behind and start moving forward but my body had other ideas
and every stride felt short and there was nothing I could do about it. Soon the
exhaustion of keeping going that long, caught up and putting one leg in front
of the next was impossible.
I learnt a bit more about my body which will help me
understand how and when I am ready to push its limits, so I am thankful for
that. This was my third less than ideal race in New Orleans and I am determined
to come back next year and break this tradition.
Congrats to Trevor Wutele, Richie Cunningham and Tom Lowe
for filling up the podium and congratulations to everyone who held it together
after the change in race structure and got to the finish line.
Now I am in St. Petersburg, Florida getting ready for the
St. Anthony’s Olympic distance tri this weekend. The field is one of the
strongest in the history of the race, but I am looking forward to getting out
there and racing the best race I can, which all going well will be a good swim,
a bike where I feel I can push my legs but stay in control and squeeze a bit
more speed than usual out on the run and this will be a good opportunity to see
if I have managed to get on top of the bad legs from last weekend.
Touch base after the race
Regards
Terenzo
