First, I am so very sorry for the people that lost their lives, property and homes from the recent storms in Louisiana and Texas. I am so VERY fortunate that I was only inconvenienced with minor damage to my vehicle and loss of power for close to 2 weeks.
Hurricanes suck golden, deep fried, gargantuan, oderous, vampirelike, poisonous, monkey ballz! Life is JUST starting to get back to normal here in south Louisiana.
- No more waiting in long lines for gas.
- No more empty shelves at the grocery stores.
- No more generators.
- ELECTRICITY! YAY!
My training was also just starting to get back on track. I've even parted from my diet of Ho Ho's, Twinkies, Ravioli and MREs. (The MREs actually hooked me up with an expensive trip to the emergency room because I thought I had twisted my bowels again! FUNTASTIC!)
So I get a message yesterday from the race director of the Holy Toledo Triathlon. He tried as best he could but could not get the support needed for the race on the 28th of this month. This was my 'big' race of the year. 1 mile swim, 40 mile bike and 10 mile run. Many of my experienced buddies in my tri club that have done multiple half and full distance Ironman races ranked this race up at the top as far as challenge and difficulty. I was SO looking forward to it. While the other race cancellations bothered me I shrugged them off because, "Hey, I still have Holy Toledo right?" Well, Holy Toledo is no more. :(
Holy Toledo makes race number FIVE (5) that has been cancelled due to Hurricane's Fay, Gustav and Ike. H.T. was actually number 4 but I'm guessing that the Hi-Fi tri in Galveston is at the end of October is also going to be cancelled too since Galveston Island didn't fair so well after Ike. I'm scrambling to find a replacement for H.T. now. I found a full Half Ironman distance race in Knoxville that I'm looking at. Knoxville, or more specifically Oak Ridge, is in the mountainous region of Tennesee so I'm sure it will be challenging. I also found another Oly distance race north of Dallas that sounds like fun as well.
They didn't cancel the Meatpie Tri so at least I'm racing this weekend. The 1/2 mile swim / 20 mile bike and a 5K run will definitely be fun but it's hardly going to challenge me like Holy Toledo would have.