Hot and Busy Time in the City

Well, a week ago we successfully pulled off the LAMBRA Time Trial Championship. It seemed more stressful than usual as we approached the date. Although I never really thought the event wouldn't happen, there was always that nagging slim possibility that I get a call from the Parish or the Sheriff saying that we would have to cancel at the last minute. It was just one new additional thing to worry about, on top of the usual things like the weather, turnout, crashes, results disasters, volunteer availability, etc. I made a few relatively minor changes this year to try to reduce the chances of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. 

Masked

We went with entirely online pre-registration, relying on the electronic BikeReg signatures. I really prefer to have people sign their waivers in person when they show up, for a number of reasons, but we wanted to minimize paper-handling. We provided hand-sanitizer and disposable masks, which were barely used as far as I could tell, we eliminated the start holder, and posted results online only to avoid the crowds around the usual printed results sheets. We also eliminated the podium, although pretty much everyone who got a medal ended up doing a kind of ad-hoc podium for Ty, who was taking photos. Naturally, there were some things that didn't go quite right. I'd brought my home printer, since the little one we usually use for races had dried-up ink cartridges. For some reason, my home printer, which was working fine the night before, just refused to print (good thing we weren't relying on printed results). Back at home, it printed fine. Maybe it was the cable - I use it via its wireless feature at home. The other thing was the megaphone, which needed new batteries and was basically useless - good thing start times were sent out ahead of time. Anyway, it all went pretty well. There were some very fast times despite the August heat, nobody got arrested, and nobody went to the hospital.

WeMoRi Cool-down

Meanwhile, I've just been doing my usual riding routine - Monday and Friday solo, Tuesday and Thursday with a few others on the levee, Wednesday with the WeMoRI, and weekends at the Giro. Last Wednesday turned out to be a pretty good, and somewhat unexpected, workout for me. As usual, I waited on Lakeshore Drive until I saw the headlights of the group coming, at which time I turned onto Marconi expecting to ease right into the group. Instead, I suddenly heard Woody saying, "Come on, Randy!" He and Eddie C were off the front (without headlights apparently), so when they came by I put the pedal to the metal and latched on to the back, where I would stay. As they would swap positions, I'd just move over to stay behind whoever was coming back. It was really about the best I could do because they were going 27-31 mph most of the time, which was only slow in comparison with my heart rate. Things in this 2.5 man break started to unravel after the lap around City Park as we turned back onto Lakeshore Drive for the last section. I could tell that Woody was suffering already. After making the loop at the traffic circle and coming back over the bridge, we went another half mile or so and Woody dropped off as Eddie was on the front. I somehow made it up to Eddie's wheel and when he looked back I told him we'd lost Woody. I could kind of see the wheels turning as he contemplated his chances of making it the final two miles with no help but me and the pack now just about fifteen or twenty seconds behind. He pulled for a little while longer and eased up, so we were swallowed up by the pack with about a mile to go. It was fun, though, for me.

The Tulane "Arrival Center" entrance at the Hyatt

Last week I spent two days at the Tulane "Arrival Center" aka the Hyatt hotel, volunteering. The entire hotel looked like it was a Tulane University facility. All of the incoming on-campus students had to arrive at the Hyatt and get a COVID-19 test, attend various orientation things, and wait for their results, which were mostly being turned around by our clinical pathology lab within 24 hours. Only then would they get the coveted green wrist band so they could board the shuttle with one, and only one, parent. All their dorm stuff had been shipped and already delivered to their rooms. Not the usual move-in experience, for sure, but I have to say, it was pretty damned well-executed by the university. Hopefully the students won't be responsible for another wave of infections in the city. The campus itself is probably the safest place you could be right now, if it wasn't for the fact the students can, and will, venture off-campus, in groups. I'm just hoping it will all remain under control. Guess we'll see.