Race Result

Racer:	Andrea Wicks Milano
Race:	Odyssey Half Iron Triathlon
Date:	Saturday, September 25, 2004
Location:	Lake Anna State Park, VA
Race Type:	Triathlon - Half Ironman
Age Group:	Female 35 - 39
Time:	6:45:00
Age Group Place:	2 / 3
Comment:	Tough day for me. Maybe next time I’ll taper…

Race Report:

This is the third year I headed down to Lake Anna for the Odyssey Half. In 2002, I was finishing my push toward The Great Floridian, and had an ok, but not stellar day. Being the only one in my division (Athena), I took first. Last year, with no IronMan in the picture but coming off an early summer back injury, I had a great day and was 20+ minutes faster. There were two people in my division, and I took second. This year, I’m once again in IM training mode, and had done a 7-hour ride and a 2.5 hour run within 9 days of the race. Also, my back was acting up, I was fighting a cold, and various other whines. So while I wasn’t quite sure what the day would bring, my expectations weren’t particularly high.

I headed down to Fredericksburg with my friend Kelly on Friday afternoon for packet pickup, etc. Everything was uneventful, and after checking our gear and eating a nice pasta dinner, we made it an early night. Saturday morning, we rose early and drove down to Lake Anna, which was about 40 minutes from where we were staying. In the pre-dawn hours when we arrived at the race site, the weather seemed beautiful to me -- 55 degrees and little or no wind. I did notice that it seemed darker than it had in previous years, though. What I didn’t realize until a bit later was the reason for the lack of visibility – dense fog. The fog was so dense that even after it got light, visibility wasn’t more than maybe 100 yards. Needless to say, the coast guard boats couldn’t even get in to place the buoys. There was some chatter about canceling the swim, but the roads were foggy too, so that wouldn’t have worked. So the race was delayed in 15 minute intervals until the fog lifted and the course could be safely set up and used.

The race had been scheduled to start at 7am. By the time we got in the water for the mass swim start, it was probably 9:15 or 9:20. So much for my pre-race nutrition plan! But sometimes that’s what the day brings you, and it’s all part of the challenge. Plus, everyone was in the same boat, and the race director had definitely made the correct decision, so I really couldn’t complain.

Swim

This was a relatively small race, so despite the mass swim start, I didn’t get too beat up in the water. Unlike last year, the swim was wetsuit legal, so that provided a little protection. I had a happy swim, and felt like I did a pretty good job of sighting, and got into a nice rhythm. If I had been told to do the swim course a second time, I think I could have without slowing down much if at all. This is a good sign for my upcoming iron distance race, so it made me smile. I came out of the water in about 43 minutes, which is slower than I expected. Based on other people’s times, I think the course was maybe 200-ish meters long, so all it was all good.

Bike

T1 was uneventful. The one mistake I made was I forgot to grab my salt tablets – DOH!! I didn’t think about it until I was already a couple miles into the bike. The morning was not that hot, so I hoped it wouldn’t be an issue. The bike is 2 laps, starting in the park and then heading out on some nice local roads. The hard part is in the park, where you start with a ¾ mile climb, and then have a few rollers. The part outside the park is more gently rolling. I felt pretty good on the first loop, and was averaging on the order of 19 mph, which I was happy with. Then my back started to tighten up about 20 miles. This is not a good sign, this early in the ride. I took a 30-second stop to stretch, which helped some but didn’t resolve the issue. I made it through the first loop ok, but my back really started tightening on the second loop. The issue was not so much the pain, but that I couldn’t get any power going. The only comfortable position I had was with my hands resting on my aerobar pads – which was not particularly aero. I stopped once more about 35 miles in and got off the bike for a minute to stretch. This helped again, but only for 5 or so miles and then it hurt again. I wound up averaging on the order of 16.5 mph overall for the bike, so while I haven’t seen my splits, they can’t be good for the second half. This was pretty disappointing, since the bike is generally where I’m strongest. The only positive thing I can say is that I managed to not get past by the girl with a basket on the front of her bike!!

Run

I was very happy to get off my bike, and move to what is usually my weakest part of the race – the run. Once again, even though I had thought about it hard and promised my self to remember it, I left my salt tabs behind. Bad on me!!! The run at this race is a 2-loop affair, and is entirely within the park. This means that it covers the hardest part of the bike course. Going in, I hadn’t decided on an exact plan, but thought I’d start off running, walk at aid stations only long enough to drink, and switch to a true walk-run at some point. This is exactly what I did. I ran nearly the whole first loop, and then went to a “run 4-walk 1, but skip the walk if it’s on a downhill” plan for most of the second loop. Knowing I was going to be short on salt, I drank mostly GatorAde on the course, and ate half a banana at an aid station halfway through. I felt pretty good on the run, and was satisfied with the result. If I were doing a full marathon, I think I would have really needed the salt, and would have needed to eat a bit more while running. I think I had it in me to do, though. Maybe that means I went too easy, but I’m not sure. I kept my running intensity at the point where it felt hard, but not so hard that I wanted to puke. The couple of times I tried to pick up the pace, I did almost puke, so I decided not to do that again until the last half mile when I didn’t care and wanted to finish strong.

Overall

I was not at all happy with my overall time of about 6:45, which was over 20 minutes slower than last year. Plus with the training volume I've been doing for the past several weeks, I was tired coming in, and couldn't really expect a PR.
However, my time did turn out to be good enough for 2nd place Athena, so I took home some hardware. And this year, there were 3 people in my division, so I actually did come in ahead of at least someone, which was an accomplishment.

My next big goal is to mess some more with my bike position to see if I can get my back to not seize up on me (plus all the things I’m already doing with ice, stretching, chiro, massage, etc.). I think tilting up the handlebars is the next thing to try, and hopefully that’ll work. If not, it’ll be a long day at GFT.

This is a well-run half IM on a great course within reasonable driving distance of us that you don't need to sign up for a year in advance. I'd highly recommend it!!

Congratulations to Debi on her second place finish, and to Brad Kirley who had a great race as well!