Race Result

Racer:	Andrea Wicks Milano
Race:	Lums Pond Triathlon
Date:	Sunday, September 28, 2003
Location:	Bear, DE
Race Type:	Triathlon - Sprint
Age Group:	Female 35 - 39
Time:	1:51:03
Overall Place:	236 / 427
Age Group Place:	5 / 11
Comment:	Really fun race!

Race Report:

As I've mentioned in previous race reports, I originally did not intend to race at all this season. However, I jumped into racing with the Odyssey Half Iron a few weeks ago, and of course got re-bitten by the racing bug. I felt really good at Odyssey, so decided to add on "just one more race" with Lums Pond. I had done this race in its first running 2 years ago and had good memories. Although I had come in at a less than speedy 2:05, that was good enough (by 6 whole seconds!) to win the Athena division that year. Looking at last year's race results, I realized that it had gotten a tad more competitive, and that I probably was not in contention for my division (I turned out to be right -- the top Athena beat me by 8 minutes). So I set 4 race goals for myself:

1) Have fun, and race happy.
2) Go under an hour on the bike.
3) Hit an overall time of 1:55.
4) Meet lots of RATS.

I managed to do all 4, and the day and the race exceeded my expectations :-)

Long Version:

Race Morning
----------------------

On the morning of the race, I woke up about 5 minutes before my alarm went off. That's always a good sign for me, and tells me that I'm at least moderately well rested. My friend Becky and I shared a hotel room, and we were able to get ready and out right on schedule. I ate my standard pre-race breakfast of a large plain bagel and a yogurt honey peanut Balance Bar, and was set to go. I'm not one to get to races particularly early. Spending a lot of time waiting for the start always makes me nervous, and uses a lot of energy better saved for the race. The race start was at 7:45am, and we arrived at the race site at about 6:40. Perfect from my perspective. We parked, inflated our bike tires, set up transition areas, hit the rest room, and were ready to go by 7:20. Once again, perfect. Some time to look around, but not so much time to get uptight.

Swim
--------

In contrast to the Odyssey swim, which was a mass start and pretty violent, I didn't get bumped around much at all on this swim. And in contrast to my experience with this race 2 years ago, I'm a stronger swimmer now, so I didn't get run over by the next wave :-) At the swim start, I hung out with a friend who was a first-timer, and showed her where to position herself at the start to avoid getting run over. She told me later it worked, so I felt good about that. I felt strong throughout the swim, and felt like I was in a good cruise mode. Probably a more appropriate cruise mode for a longer distance. In retrospect I think I could have pushed myself a bit harder. When I came out of the water, I glanced at my watch and saw 20 minutes or so. I had expected more like 15 or 16 minutes, and immediately came to the conclusion that the course must be long. I know my pace well enough to know that I was swimming faster than that. Especially given that I was wearing a wetsuit. I dismissed the thoughts, and ran through the mud to the transition area.

T1
-------

When I got to the transition area, I saw a friend from swimming, Laura, who appeared to be less than a minute ahead of me. That was good feedback, since Laura swims in my lane and is typically just a little bit faster than me. That was validation that I was on program. I need to work on my transitions though, since by looking at the race times, I realize that I could have been faster, and could have placed higher in my division if I had shaved some transition time. I exited transition about a minute behind Laura.

Bike
-------

The bike is always my racing strength. I've been riding a lot of hills lately, and I knew this course would be a lot flatter than the roads of Fauquier County. Since I'm not yet a strong climber, this is a good thing. I was a bit concerned about the water on the road from the previous night's rain, and decided to take the turns very easy, and hammer as best I could in between. I passed more people than passed me, saw (and cheered for) a number of friends on the course, and overall had a good ride. When I came back into transition, my bike computer read 58 minutes and change, so I was very pleased. Now all I had left was that pesky run!

T2
----

T2 is always a bit easier than T1 for me. I generally feel more composed. And there's just less to do. I changed shoes, ditched my helmet and glasses, watched Laura run out of transition still about a minute ahead of me, grabbed my race belt, and ran off.

Run
------

Unlike the bike, the run is always my racing bugaboo. Over the past three years, I've had a number of minor and not-so-minor injuries that have impeded my running. This season I've finally started to be able to put miles in, and have broken the barrier that had plagued me. Prior to this year, anytime I got my running volume over 15 miles/week, I've gotten injured. Right now my weekly mileage is generally in the low twenties, and I'm feeling pretty healthy. The other thing I've learned this year is that the heat and humidity have a dramatic impact on my pace. On a hot day, I'm at least a minute a mile slower than on a cool day. Coming into this race, my running was feeling pretty good although the hurricane threw me off (for details, check out http://www.milanofamily.org/isabel) and I had some missed/sub-optimal training days as a result.

Coming out of T1, I felt solid. The beginning of the run took us over somewhat muddy grass, so I started pretty cautiously to avoid twisting an ankle in the muck. Then we went onto the road. Originally the run was going to be through the woods, but the woods were knee-deep in mud, so an alternate route was chosen. On the way out on this out and back course, I was running pretty comfortably and was getting constantly passed by what seemed like everyone. All those people I had passed on the bike ran right past me. But I decided to ignore them and run my own race. At the turnaround I was feeling pretty good, and decided to try to push a little harder on the way back. Someone came up to me (or maybe I came up to her), and said she was hurting but was going to try to keep with me. I welcomed her along, we chatted a little, and pushed each other some in a friendly way. Before I knew it, we were back on the grass and I could almost see the finish line. At that point, I broke into a sprint, and finished pretty strong. I was absolutely shocked (in a good way) when I looked at my watch and saw that my run time was just over 27 minutes for the 5K. I was running 9 minute miles or maybe even faster!!! My training pace is typically more in the 10 minute/mile range for anything under an hour, and I can't remember running a 9 minute pace for any distance. I think the nice cool weather was a contributing factor, but I also think I need to re-evaluate my run progress, since I'm doing better than I thought I was.

Overall
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Unlike Steve, I didn't go out for a run after the race. However, I had forgotten how much easier it is to recover from sprint distance races, since my focus has been on the longer distances. I did swim and run this morning, and didn't feel too beat up, which is nice for a change after a race. Maybe that means I didn't go hard enough yesterday...I think I still have some room to learn how hard I can go in a race at this distance without blowing up.

I'll probably call my race season done at this point, although some friends are trying to convince me to go up and do Cape Henlopen in 2 weeks. I'm still thinking about it -- the biggest limiter being the drive time.

I had a great time at Lum's Pond, and my results exceeded my expectations. It was also great meeting several RATS and putting faces to the names from the mailing list. Congratulations to all on a strong showing!!!