Pale as a light bulb hanging on a wire

Third time is not really a charm. But back to New Orleans. My friend Rob was in town so we drove there from Houston.

It was fun and we learned a little bit about the city so we could at least say we went off Bourbon Street. It was fairly tame for there but with the heat in stunk to the high heavens. Frenchmen street was neat with some great live music venues and great New Orleans restaurants.

So now my life has come to this. It is New Orleans on the weekend and I am in bed by 11.

Ever since I have been a kid I have heard the battle cry, Remember the Alamo and it was of interested to me  to learn more about it so Rob and I took another trip to San Antonio. In my opinion, it has a lot more character and vibe vs Houston. It is the center for the Texas Liberty movement and the Alamo is well worth a visit and to learn more about American icons of Davy Crockett, Sam Bowie, Gen. Travis etc. I didn't know that there so much of San Antonio built around the rive. A unique city in North America (I think)

And this is what to remember

River walk

No trip would be complete without this

My First Full Tri

I think every play on words have been employed regarding a tri but I have not read Tri your arse off so that is what I did for three plus hours of my life.

I had the flu and was too dumb to cancel the meet but I finally have a full tri completed.

This one was in Austin and is one of the more popular (I think) ones in the US where the big boys and big girls come to play. Lots of competitors and as usual when I sign up they change the sign from Welcome Athletes and Frank.

The swim at 1.5 km was excruciatingly slow and even slower today. Typical mashing and thrashing until you found some free space in the river with the faster swimmers passing me from the previous age group.

I was a bit disoriented after the swim and it took forever to find my bike so lots of time lost. The bike racks looked like a penguin rockery to me at this point. But now I run through the transition area and hop on my bike. There was a bit of wind of some hills but nothing too serious. I woman wiped out or more likely passed out on her bike and hit hard on the asphalt. I stopped to help but another woman stopped and said she was a paramedic. So I said I was an accountant and if you want to know how to correctly depreciate that bike to call me.

So now I am back on the bike and back into the beehive that is the race. There were some hills and some wind in Austin that day but some amazingly strong riders in which I was not one of them.

So now I am done with the bike and don't really feel like running 10k in 95 degree heat but through self loathing this is what I signed on for.

The run was slow again. 15 minutes slower than what I was aiming for. The running for me is the toughest phyically but easiest mentally. Hot and tired but you just have to run. I find there is so many moving parts with me swimming that I over think it and being clipped into your bike with people whizzing by you, yelling of your left and almost touching pedals can be a bit unnerving as well.

But running is just running. I don't like drinking or taking goo when I run so that is something I need to work on.

Now I am now making this up, as I ran towards the finish line a dude dressed as a banana jumps out from the crowd and hugs me as I am breaking the tape. He was pissed drunk and I was too tired to care.

I was too tired and too sick to wait around to see how I did so I packed my gear and drove back to Houston. Glad to have the first full one done but I am also looking forward to the next one and hopefully feeling better.

This reminded me of a penguin rockery 

Onward,