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Race Result

Racer: Andrea Wicks Milano
Race: Lake Montclair Triathlon (Olympic)
Date: Sunday, June 25, 2006
Location: Montclair, VA
Race Type: Triathlon - International Distance
Age Group: Female 35 - 39
Time: 3:50:00
Comment: One of those days....



Race Report:



Ever have one of those days when everything that could go wrong pretty much did? That was Lake Montclair for me. The only thing that went right was not getting injured....

I knew going into this race that I was a bit undertrained and coming off a minor injury (pulled calf muscle), so my expectations were not particularly high. But a number of my training partners were racing, so I thought I'd give it a go.

I got a new bike (custom Seven! Yeehawww!) about a month ago, and have been doing quite a bit of riding. It's a road bike (no aerobars), which I knew would hurt my time slightly on this course, but I couldn't resist taking it out for a spin.

The day started with a 45-min pre-dawn drive to the race site, which is near Prince William Forest. It would have been an easy drive except for the torrential rain. Not a great sign for the day to come, but thankfully, by the time I got to the parking area the rain had tapered off. The parking area was over 1.5 miles from the race start/transition, so I rode my bike there, and everything seemed to be in good order.

The swim went fine. The lake is quite clean, and I had no trouble sighting despite the drizzle. Looking at my watch coming out of the water I saw my time was slower than expected, but was pretty sure I'd had a solid swim. I was right -- I believe the course turned out to be closer to 1.25 miles than 1 mile. No problem.

The troubles started when I left T1 and hit the bike course. My bike computer was showing me cadence, but not speed or distance. I futzed with it for a minute or so, then gave it up and decided to rely on my stopwatch for lap timing, and get an approximate speed that way. I think the rain may have gotten to the computer, but it's still not working, so who knows. I started to settle into a nice cadence and rhythm on the bike when about 3/4 way through the first loop (it's a 4-loop bike course) I started to feel like my rear wheel wasn't smooth. Then I started hearing the telltale "thunk thunk thunk" that let me know I had a flat tire. "Perfect", I thought. That'll help my race.

Thankfully, I race prepared, and carry a spare tube, plus tire irons, CO2, and a hand pump just in case. So I pulled to the side, and proceeded to work on my tire. Being a pretty new tire, it was tight and seated really firmly, and it took me forever to get the tire iron engaged to get the tire off of the rim. After a few minutes of struggling, it came off, and I switched tubes after a quick debris check. I got the tire back on (which was also a struggle for the same reason it was hard to get off), and then went to use my CO2. I had gotten a new CO2 rig for the new bike, and managed to mess it up. Then I messed it up again with the second cartridge. So I was down to my hand pump (I knew there was a reason I carried that!). It was also new, so it took a while to get it going and inflate my tire as best I could. It was still underinflated, but the best I was going to do, so I remounted it, and took off to the cheering of the nice spectators who had watched my ordeal and kindly volunteered to dispose of the trash left after my tire change.

So I continued onward on the first loop of the bike, having lost over 15 mins in my struggles, and riding on an underinflated tire in the rain. Not bad for traction, not great for speed. I pretty much cruised through the rest of the bike...couldn't tell you how fast I went since my computer still didn't work. I managed to drop my chain twice (still getting used to the compact crank setup -- I used to ride a triple, and probably have a derailleur slightly out of alignment), which didn't help any. Luckily, I'm not bad at recovering from such things, but they sure didn't help my race any. I just kept chanting to myself -- suffering is temporary, quitting is forever!!

I finally finished the bike, having completely lost track of time -- oh yeah, my stopwatch had stopped somewhere along the way, so I just reverted to looking at the clock time on my watch, and estimating when I started knowing my wave.

And now it was on to my weakest event of the 3 -- the run. This was where my calf could have been a real issue. Thankfully, it never really was. The run was incredibly hilly, and I walked the steeper uphills, but managed to finish the run in exactly my target time.

I stuck around and socialized for a little while, then biked back to my car for the drive home in the rain. On the way home, I managed to get into a car accident on the wet roads about 10 minutes from home -- thankfully no injuries to anyone involved. But it will lead to many headaches over the next couple weeks as I get my car fixed, etc.

So overall, it was not the best day I've had by any stretch. About the only thing I feel good about is completing the race. If I hadn't, I know I would have had to sign up for another one in a couple weeks to prove something to myself. Now I can just go out and ride my bike and have fun, and maybe do some longer riding later this year. The other thing that was great was seeing some RATS and other friends I hadn't seen in a while.

I thought the race was extremely well run. Kudo's to Shandra and LJ!! There were an incredible number of volunteers at virtually every corner (even ones where you didn't turn) along the bike and the run. Plus many people sitting out on their lawns cheering on the athletes. I was really impressed.

Thanks for reading, and I hope others had a better day than I did yesterday.