My name is Chad Soileau and this is the account of my swimming, biking and running the T-Gator Series Triathlon #2 in Lake Charles, LA.  Lake Charles Triathlete Club holds a series of 3 sprint triathlons called T-Gator of which I have participated in the first two and plan on doing the third as well.  The distances were 500m open water swimming, 13 miles on the bike and a 2 mile run.

I had such a great time at the first T-Gator tri that there was no way I would miss the next two even though Beth wasn't able to go with me.  Her nephew was getting baptized so she was out for this one.  This weekend would also mark the first time where I would attempt a two triathlons in the same weekend.  I was very tired but I got a good nights sleep the night before.    Lake Charles is just over 2 hours from Baton Rouge so I had to roll out of bed again on Sunday at 4:30AM to make it in time for the race start.   I loaded up the Element the night before and after taking care of the dog and parrots I was out the door by 5AM. 

I arrived in Lake Charles just before 7AM.   After a little gastric distress from the coffee and toast that I ate during the ride I had to make a pit stop at the BK Steakhouse on the way to the race.   I knew that registration was supposed to close at 7:30AM and I would be cutting it close.  I parked and ran with my bike and transition bag to the pavillion to register.  I JUST made it as they were packing up and getting ready for the race.   I got marked and headed to transition to setup my gear. 

I chatted with BR Tri members Caroline and Beth as I laid out my gear.  WETSUIT LEGAL again so that was a plus.  With all my gear set and ready to go I took off my Crocs, put on my wetsuit then started the walk to the swim start.

The race started promptly at 8AM.  I was in the third and last wave so I started at 8:06AM.  8:06AM came and the race director signaled us to go.   There were only around 20 - 25 people in my wave so I had plenty of room to swim.   No swim is every easy for me but like the Twin Cities triathlon I did the freestyle stroke for pretty much the entire race only doing breaststroke to navigate.   A couple times I found myself drifting heavily to the right which I am assuming is caused by my difficulty breathing on my left.    It seems like every time I attempt to breathe on the left I sink like a rock!   I exited the 500m swim in 10:59.22.    Compared to the first T-Gator triathlon I've improved a bit.  The T-Gator #1 distance was 400m and I completed that in 10:29.67.  

No clips on the bike today.   I borrowed Chuck's Speedplay's for waaaay too long and got them back to him on Saturday afternoon.   Thanks for letting me borrow them Chuck and sorry I kept them so long.   Philippe is selling me a set of his that he doesn't use anymore so I'll be good to go for TriAmerica this weekend.   I had the baskets for pedals so I knew that my T2 time would be quick since I didn't have to change shoes.  I pulled off the wetsuit with little trouble, slid on my BR Tri hot pants and my Team 464 race jersey, grabbed my bike and was off to the bike course.

The bike course was fairly flat with a few small rolling hills.   I knew that my bike time would probably suffer a bit because I wasn't clipped in but I still tried to maintain over 20mph average.   The bike was really uneventful and I was at the turn-around pretty fast on my way back to Sam Houston State park.   I don't think I was even passed once during the bike which is a first for me.   I was wrong about my average suffering too.   20.2 bike average speed again today!  

I barrelled into the dismount point at T2 and prepared myself for the run.   Since I wasn't wearing my bike shoes and I planned to do the run in my BR Tri hot pants I had my fastest transition ever.   TWENTY FIVE seconds!   I think that was the fastest transition for everyone for T2.  

I got out on the run course and really struggled for the first mile.   Some of it was physical but a lot of it was technical malfunctions.   For some reason my watch wouldn't pick up my pod on my shoe so I had no idea what my pace or distance was.   That's aggravating to say the least.    It was only two miles but I'm very anal about looking at my watch often to see what my pace is and make adjustments accordingly.   I guess the battery may be dead because when I ran on Monday my watch wouldn't pick it up then either.   I picked up my pace just before the mile 1 mark to what I thought was around 7:45 or so and finished strong with an 8:12 minute per mile pace.   I crossed the finish line in 1:09.11.   I'll take it and see what I can do to improve for T-Gator #3.

Next up is the TriAmerica Long course this weekend.   It will be my biggest challenge to date.   The swim is 1.24 miles, the bike is 40 miles and the run is 10 miles.   Should be fun!