2002 Louisiana Triathlon
By: The WM
April 27, 2002

The 2002 Louisiana Triathlon was held in the picturesque town of New Roads, half an hour from Baton Rouge, on the banks of a lake with the name of a river.  Race Director Kenny Dunaway, ably assisted by Axel Vasquez, Tammy & John Deshotel, Jordan Perret and many others, did a great job. 

The "800 meter" False River swim was a bitch, for me anyway.  The consensus after was that it was perhaps 100 meters or so long.  Water temp was around 74 - about half the field wore wetsuits.  I am notoriously cold-natured, but decided to go without one anyway.  That was not a problem - I warmed up quickly.  I guess the pool swimming I do spoiled me - I found the water a little choppy and could never get into a good rhythm, and ended up at 23 minutes and change - in the bottom 15%,  poor by even my relatively low standards.

The 18.6 mile out-and-back bike featured a newly resurfaced road for the downtown New Roads portion.  Overall the course was flat, fast, and very smooth.  It was not closed to traffic, but that was well controlled.

The 5k was fine - a few cars to contend with, but nothing major.  It was warming up a little by the time most were on the run, and I saw a few more walkers than usual due to the heat. 

The post-race party and awards were good.  The personal highlight for me was the 12 dollar massage I got.  I almost never get massages after races, but there was no line to wait on and I decided on a whim to get one.  Jill was knowledgeable and thorough and worked me over good - it was quite a bargain.

There were 194 finishers - you can check the results at lawired.com/results.htm.