This was my third time racing IMWI, and I still consider it to be my “hometown” race even though now I live in Colorado. It’s great to be able to go back to Wisconsin where I am familiar with the course and venue and can have the support of friends and family. I flew from Colorado on Thursday before the race which would allow me a few short workouts on the course, as well as time to catch up with some old friends. I was very relieved to hear that the weather was going to be a perfect 83 and sunny all weekend (if not a little hot), as the last time I raced WI in was 45deg and raining!!

SWIM- 54:59

The swim start is an open water start with a very large starting area. I positioned myself between the turn buoy and ski jump where I have started previously. If you are a strong swimmer and not afraid of a little jostling at the start I think this is the best spot. I had a good start and pretty much open water infront of me. I jumped onto what was a large group of probably 20+ people and thought I would have a nice tow in the front group through the swim. Unfortunately a gap opened up about 8 people infront of me and a lead group of 10 or so were motoring away. I did make one effort to bridge but then thought better of it and dropped back into our group which was down to about 5-6 people. We were on pace for my goal swim time of 54-56min, so I was comfortable staying put. The second lap we had to deal with lapped traffic, but I made it through without too much trouble.

Bike- 5:16:53

After a solid swim it was out onto the bike. The bike course here is very tough; the hills are steep and relentless. Knowing this I wanted to take the bike out easy, because pushing it hard early will cost you serious time later. I tried to keep my heart rate down and let a few crazies go by me up the road. This year I really focused on my nutrition plan and it payed huge dividends. I knew what I was going to eat and when. I did have to make an increase in fluid intake as the day was going to be on the hot side. I was feeling strong the first 50 miles, but then onto the start of the second lap around mile 60 I started feeling a little lack of power in the legs. I was concerned as I was losing several positions and watching people go up the road. This lasted until mile 90. I tried not to panic and took in as much nutrition as possible. It did seem to help as I recovered and felt good the last 22 miles. This was a great confidence booster going into the run. I had some friends giving me position updates from their wireless devices and I was sitting 1st in the age group.

Run- 3:35:42

I came into T2 with Hilary Biscay and a few other Euro’s that looked like strong runners. This would be a great help to help pace off of these other runners. My goal run time was 3:20-3:30, but this would be tough as the day was over 80deg. (No one ran under 3hrs on the day). My first mile I had a little bit of excitement and ran a 6:40 (damn crowds!!). Had to cool that down a bit and settled into a comfortable. pace. I felt solid going through 13 miles, but thats still a long ways to go! At about mile 16 I started to struggle a bit and had to start walking the aid stations to pound the coke and gatorade. Although you feel weak walking the aid stations, it is a good strategy if you are hurting as you can comfortably take in some nutrition. A few strong runners were going by me in the following miles but I just had to run my own race and stay steady. As even after mile 20 if you put in an effort that you can’t recover from you can lose major time in the last 6 miles. I knew I remainded in the top 5 in the age group at this point (kona slots). The last 3 miles my IT band and piriformis were really tightening up and I was praying for them to last just a couple more miles. I looked at my watch and knew I was going to be close to breaking the 10 hr. mark. This was defininate motivation the last several miles. I was able to hang on, but unfortunately a guy in my AG passed me in the last 2/10 of a mile!! I just couldn’t do anything about it. But I was fortunate enough to hang onto 4th position in AG, and a slot to Kona 2010!!

9:55:49

Mission Accomplished; 36th overall, 4th AG, ticket to Kona 2010!!

I want to give a special thanks to all my friends and family out on the course cheering me on!! Also thanks to all the Sponsors at the race including; Aquasphere, Timex, Bontrager, and Trek.

Now time for the off-season!

While most of the posts recently have been Kona this or taper that, I’m here to offer a change of pace for those of us that dont consider IMs to be the end all, be all in the triathlon world.  Hawaii is great and all but 112 mile bike ride + 26 mile run is just stupid.  So due to the fact that Clearwater isnt until November 8th, I’m still in full training mode.

However because I still have a while until the race I wanted to find another race to break up the monotony before then.  The solution?  The South Carolina Half.  So last Friday I started a two day mini taper and then Saturday morning I jumped in the car for the seven hour drive from Huntsville over to Greenwood, SC.

I arrived at the race site without any hassle and after parking the car I started getting my bike ready. After heading over to transition for the usual prerace nonsense, I got to meet Jeremy Sipos, a fellow member of the Posse who lives in the ATL. Soon enough it was off to the swim start, which was about a quarter mile from transition.

After pulling on the awesomeness that is my Helix wetsuit I only got to warmup for about 5 minutes in the water before we were called out for the start. While I would’ve liked to have loosened up a bit more I wasn’t too worried because we were allowed to wear wetsuits even though the water was reported to be a cozy 73 degrees.  Ater a prayer and the national anthem, the largest open field in the (short) history of the race was back into the water for an air horn start.

The lake was nice and calm and after a few minutes I settled into a group with two other guys. There was another guy out front so we were 2-3-4. I was sitting in third (2nd in our group) and about a quarter of the way through the swim the guy in front of me started veering off course a bit so I cut back to the inside. He must’ve realized his error because soon enough he came back towards me and I ended up pulling my two compadres the rest of the way. Fine by me as I was in a good rhythm; just trying to go as fast as possible without overheating in the wetsuit. Finishing up the swim I could tell the first place guy wasn’t too far ahead so I was hoping he’d come back during the run, if not on the bike.
I jumped onto the bike and I was ready to rock and roll. In order to not have a repeat of Almere, I was determined to not to go out too hard and I also wanted to make sure to eat enough. Not going out too hard was simply solved by trying for the same power as Almere as I was fine through 56 miles there (just couldnt quite make it 75…). So once I settled into my targeted power range I braced myself for what was sure to be a number of people coming past me on the bike because, well, that’s what usually happens to me in races.

However, a funny thing happened… no one was coming. On the other hand, I was actually catching the guy ahead of me… what a concept! About 12 or so miles in I caught him and was feeling good so proceeded to go right by him into the lead. “He must be a swimmer,” I thought and after passing him I was still ready for others to start coming by. I continued to lead up until the aid station at mile 30 when while I was grabbing a bottle of Gatorade, former #1 passed me to retake the lead. I let him lead for about 5 minutes then repassed him on a downhill as I was determined to keep the speed up and we just weren’t going fast enough with him in front.

So the miles ticked by and I kept riding my race, waiting for the others to come. 30, 35, 40 miles down. At this point, I was still feeling great. Additionally, I knew that time was running out on the cyclists. If someone else wanted to win the race, he’d have to catch me pretty soon or be ready to run really fast. 45, 50 miles down. By now I was pretty excited and I start kicking it in, just so I could win ST’s all important “race to T2.” The best part was that the power was still there and I finished strong.

Heading out on the run I saw my pursuers and realized they weren’t far behind. However, I also knew that as long as I didn’t totally blow up, I should have be able to hold everyone off. I felt good and came through the first mile in 5:42. The run course is two loops and I just told myself to just take it nice and easy on the first, then if I needed to I could always pick it up on the second. The miles started slowly clicking away (2= 5:48, 3 = 5:40) and I just sang along to the song(s) in my head and tried to stay relaxed. Finishing up the first loop, I got a huge boost from the crowd and headed out onto the second. There were some hilly parts around the turnaround with uneven footing but other than that I was feeling fine. It was nice to see the other competitors out on the course as well. Soon I arrived at mile 11 (11 = 5:52) which sat near the top of a hill and was a place that I told myself I just needed to get to as it would me mostly downhill from there. Still feeling good, I started to open it up a bit. I turned back into the park for the last time and it was a thrill running through the crowd again.

At this point I was still feeling great, but was ready to be done. However, the finish for this race is a bit evil. After running by the lake, participants had to trek up an ~13% grade hill. It was only about 20m long, but that’s an eternity at the end of the race. As I begin the ascent, the announcer starts screaming, “Come on, if you sprint you can break 4 hours!”

Do I want to sprint? Hell no. But he totally just called me out so I oblige, huff up the hill, and finish in 3:59:53. I’m told that it is a course record, so that was pretty cool.

The post race spread included a nice meal of hamburger, grilled chicken, pasta salad, and a brownie in addition to Coca Cola and lemonade. There was also Bruster’s Ice Cream which, unfortunately, was not free. However, I had no problem forking over $5 for a double scoop waffle cone of sheer goodness.

All in all the race was a lot of fun and tt certainly helps get over the poor performance in Almere and gives me confidence for Clearwater. For now though, its back to work!

Results can be found here.

Newspaper article: Hodges, McDonagh capture half triathlon

For more musings from an electrochemist, please visit http://ajhodges.blogspot.com.

The first time I thought it was silly. And maybe even a little flattering. The second time, I was surprised two people would base their definition of race success on someone else’s performance. The third time I heard it, I began to feel like a moving target.

The only person I want to beat at Kona is me. Which I realize gives me something in common with those girls. I will beat the me that decides somewhere around Waikoloa: Screw this ridiculously overpriced torture event, I’m going to drop this bike off at T2 and watch the winners finish from the stands. (With beer and chocolate.) The me that gets bored and chatty as I run through the energy lab, losing focus and making friends to pass time. The me that inevitably panics during the swim start and considers stopping to let the madness go by. If I do the best I can every leg of that race, and stay in the moment instead of spacing out, then I win. Even if some other girl does it faster and tops the podium. Good for her, because she probably had a great day and is ecstatic, and that is all hers.

As always, there are some awesome amateur women racing in Kona this year, many of whom could kick my butt on any given day. My goal is not to beat anyone. My super-secret goal is to beat my time from last year, because why not? If 9:56:19 puts me 12th in my age group, I will celebrate improvement. But I guess that’s not super-secret anymore..

As always, my primary goal is to not die. Seriously, people. It’s an Ironman. It’s a miracle we all don’t die. My secondary goal is to race it. With every ounce of me. I would also like to smile through the entire marathon. And to not do so much math because my math sucks by the marathon anyway.

This was my third year doing this race but this year, unlike others, I had a friend, Lindsey Jerdonek, to head up to the race site with me. So at 4:15 AM she and I left my place in Winter Park to head down to Disney for the 6:20 AM start time. Upon arrival we were herded into the parking lot and onto the shuttle bus and soon enough we were at the race site.

Because my bike was already there, preparations were minimal and I was nice and relaxed as I was getting ready for the race. Pretty soon I was standing on the beach in the dark with all the other male pros listening to race director and man of many talents Tom Ziebart sing the National Anthem. (BTW, I was much more happy to listen to the anthem standing on the edge of the lake as opposed to having to float in the 55 degree water like we had to do in California…)

The gun was off and we were sprinting into the water. The beach start was a bit of a shock to the system as it seems they are a rarity now. In fact the last time I did a beach start was this race a year ago. Anyway, because of that I felt a bit strange running into the water and it took me a while to remember what I needed to do which probably resulted in a pretty poor starting position. Once we started swimming though I was pretty confident I was in the front pack so that was good enough for me. Because we werent allowed to wear wetsuits, I was in the pointzero3 and it was feeling great. Once again I settled in on some feet and had a relatively uneventful swim. A few times I moved to the outside to make sure the group was staying together but for the most part I was content to stay in the pack as I knew I wouldnt have been able to swim away from anyone.

As we came out of the water I was around 12th and at the back of the first pack feeling good. A decent (but long) transition and I was out on the bike. Right away I had to watch a few guys slowly pull away from me as I knew I wouldnt be able to maintain the power necessary to stay with them for the whole race. So I just settled into my desired wattage and started cranking. A couple miles into the ride Courtney Ogden passed me and I was a bit worried that he would be the first in a line of many. (Surprisingly enough though he was the only guy to pass on the bike!)

Unfortunately about 3 or 4 miles into the ride my left piriformis started hurting and my whole left leg got really numb. It was really weird… anytime I slowed down or stood up my leg would get that feeling like it was “asleep”. This made for a painful ride but I just stared at my PT and was determined not to let BIGZACH catch me. I saw him at an out and back just before 25 miles and it gave me some motivation to really focus on the ride and block out the pain and try to hold him off.  It worked and as I mentioned before, I finished the ride in the same position that I had started as in addition to being passed by Courtney Ogden, I actually passed TJ Tollakson. (As an aside he mustve been feeling bad as he can certainly destroy me on a good day but he was clearly having some problems and had to withdraw.)

Finally the bike was over and it was time to run. Usually this is a good thing for me but today I was worried as my piriformis was really hurting. After throwing on my shoes, I started to run out of transition and I thought I was going to fall over. The only other time I had felt this bad off the bike was Hawaii… and that was 112 mile ride with my seat too high. Regardless of this as soon as I left transition I was totally focused on just running with good form and stride rate and I decided I would let the speed take care of itself. After a couple of the early out and backs, I realized that as long as I ran nice and easy I could get by with a good-but-not-great run and maintain my position. Additionally, the next guy was so far ahead that even if I did have a great run, it likely would not have helped any. Quite simply, 10-15 sec a mile just wasnt worth the risk of blowing up later in the race.

So after a mile and a half or so I started feeling semi-normal and got into a decent rhythm, running between 5:55 and 6:05 min miles depending on the terrain. While the uneven ground consisting of roots and sand was quite unfriendly in a few spots, the weather was the best we could have asked for as it was overcast and even sprinkling a few times. Back to the race and I just kept clicking off the miles and got a nice boost when I saw Craig Alexander in a golf being driven back to transition. His dropping out in addition to a pass of a walking Victor Z meant I was now in the 8th place… Thats right, in the money! Finally I was finishing up the longest last 0.1 miles ever and the announcer was proclaiming, “In eight place, Andrew Hodges from Huntsville, AL…” as I came across the line in 4:11. Not a great time, as it turns out the bike and run were both long so the time is a bit irrelevant.

Overall I was really pleased with the result. Mentally the race had been quite difficult as it was basically a time trial from the time I started the bike and my piriformis had been killing me so I was really happy to finish with a good placing.

In addition to the money, I also found out at the awards that I got a Clearwater spot as none of the guys ahead of me claimed theirs. Additionally I may also be on the team for ITU LD worlds in Holland at the end of August as the top 2 Americans at this race were supposed to have qualified.  I’d be really excited to go as it is 4k-120k-30k which is great because it favors swimmers and runners a bit more.

Official results can be found here.

BTW… Lindsey in her first half IM had a totally kick ass race, finishing 8th overall… including pros! In fact the next amateur was over 8 minutes behind her!! Great job, Lindsey!

 For more musings from a rocket scientist/professional triathlete, visit http://ajhodges.blogspot.com

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