Rough roads, winds and alligators.

After a decent transition, I was off on the ride. Projected to be flat and fast. I was told that the “big hill” on the ride was an overpass.... Ooohhhh, I train in the mountains so a few overpass climbs shouldn’t be too tough to handle. I was trying just one bottle of water with Prolytes and a flask with GU in it. Due to all the Katrina construction the course needed to be altered. They changed the first three miles and wound us through the streets of New Orleans making the first 3 miles bumpy and full of turns. On the way out we were headed into the wind. I though at least we would have a good tail wind coming in!! Once we got onto the scheduled course the roads were much better and the pace started to pick up. On one stretch of the bike course they have us take a side stretch that runs along a marshy area. I try to look around on the rides so I can appreciate the different area’s of the country I am in and not finish the ride just seeing the road directly in front of me. On this particular glance to the right was marsh, only this time I saw an alligator swimming in the middle. Oh poop - someone is gonna get eaten! No more than 20 seconds later, I came up on a guy that had flatted and was walking.... "Dead man walking!" I thought, "He is lunch for the alligators!" Then I started praying really hard that my flat streak from the week of training would not continue on this stretch.

Around mile 40 of the bike ride I rode up on a lady with the number 80 on her calf. It was sister Martha Butter. Hell yes - can I say that sister? I said hello and wished her well. My wife has a picture of her up on out bathroom mirror as an example of how we would like to be when we are that age. What an honor to be on the same course as this incredible woman. Thank you for your incredible example of what is possible - 80 years old people! It is never too late to get off your butts and get healthy!

To my disappointment, it seemed like there were more stretches into the wind than moving with it. We did have some good stretches where the speed was over 24 mph... but they never lasted long enough. With a less than 6 miles to go, I finished my liquid and pounded a Powerbar. As I rounded one of the corners, I saw an athlete in my division on the side of the road. I recognized him as he had a unique disk wheel. I thought, "Too bad, he is a strong biker" since he blew by me earlier in the race. I thought he must have flatted, how unfortunate... for him. A few minutes later this same athlete blew by me again. When he passed me I realized that he didn’t flat, he had crashed. His shoulder and arm were opened up and the top layer of skin was missing. That is one tough dude! Passes me, crashes, then passes me again. NICE WORK and BIG UPS!