With local multisporters champing at the bit, a contingent headed south to open their seasons. Several pro and amateur racers made it to the Dannon Florida Duathlon and Powerman Alabama. The local season also opened with the 10th annual LaPlata Duathlon hosted by Brad Jaeger's Triathlantic club on March 24th.

Dannon Duathlon Florida
Acclimatizing is tough. Although few local athletes had complaints about our winter, it did take an adjustment for some of them to go to Florida to begin their seasons at the Dannon race in Grenelefe, FL on March 10. The mostly flat course featured a 20 mile bike between two 5K runs. There was enough sun, wind, and humidity to provide a challenge to those arriving from cooler climes.

The pro race started with England's Vicky Pincombe blistering the first run in 16:48. Second place seesawed between Americans Andrea Ratkovic and Desiree Ficker of Potomac, both of whom finished about a minute later with Ratkovic ahead by seven seconds. Ficker, with her formidable bike speed, then took over the women's race. She passed both Pincombe and Ratkovic in the first quarter of the course and even passed some of the pro men. Ficker put nearly two minutes on the second-place Ratkovic and lost only about 30 seconds to her on the second run to stake her claim for the largest woman's share of the $15,000 purse. Ficker finished in 1:28:39 followed by Ratkovic (1:30:06) and Pincombe (1:30:59), who prevented an American sweep of the first six places. Another top local woman multisporter, Holland's gift to US duathloning Marjan Huizing of Gaithersburg, took fourth place pro honors with a 1:31:49 clocking. Amanda Pagan of Glenn Dale, MD was the 10th pro woman in 1:37:57.

Contrasting the dominant US performance among the women pros, five different countries were represented among the top five pro men. Delaware's Greg Watson regarded himself in very good shape, expecting second place behind the seemingly unbeatable Benny Vansteelant of Belgium who had won over 30 consecutive dus. Vansteelant was second among three pro men who averaged between 4:45 and 4:47 minutes per mile over the first 5K run. Vansteelant was felled, however, by running afoul of US rules. He was caught in a drafting violation that cost him his second spot on the bike (at the time) behind Australia's Jonathan Hall, one of the cycling world's top time trialists last year. Hall went on to win in 1:18:34 as Watson did claim second in 1:19:46. Britain's Martin Yelling took third-place honors with a 1:20:17 that edged Vansteelant who was credited with a 1:20:43 that included a 30-second time penalty.

Among the age-groupers, our area was well-represented. Rockville's Mary Kuta took top honors among 55-59 year olds with a time of 2:04:46. Ray Plotecia (55) of Baltimore, long active in USA Triathlon, earned fourth place in the male version of that age group. In the very competitive 30-34 age group, Trey Cassidy (33) of Ellicott City and Alida Anderson (32) of Bethesda each took second place with clockings of 1:27:24 and 1:39:54, respectively. Cassidy was edged by North Palm Beach resident John Reback by a whisker's breadth two seconds. Duathlon newcomer Anthony Molina (20) of Olney, MD was 6th in the 20-24 age group.

Powerman Alabama
What are the odds?!? Well, actually, the odds are the top performers who finished first, third, and fifth among the pro women and fifth among the pro men at Powerman Alabama in Irondale on March 24, all had local ties.

Desiree Ficker's peerless biking was sufficient to hold off hard- charging runners to earn her a three-minute win over the 8K (4.97 mile) run, 55K (34.18 mile) bike, 8K run course. Her 2:38:53 clocking again bested fellow US pro Andrea Ratkovic who finished in 2:41:50 and our Dutch transplant to Gaithersburg (and NIH) Marjan Huizing who had a time of 2:43:00. The win earned Ficker her first back-to-back victories. (Sandwiched between those displays of power, Ficker also took fifth among more than 2000 women at the local St. Patrick's Day 10K race in DC in 36:56. Huizing's 36:02 earned her third place honors at that race). Those who raced or followed multisports in the early '90s will remember Dolly Ginter (then of Columbia, MD) who used to dominate races here--once winning a back-to-back local duathlon and triathlon in the same weekend--and took fifth place among the pro women in Irondale. Ginter left the area to continue her schooling. Delaware's Greg Watson was fifth among the pro men (the second US finisher) in 2:24:41.

La Plata Duathlon
Reston's Jeff Fritz (34), the duathlete-turned-bicycle-racer, returned to duathlon and averaged almost 24.5 mph on the bike to take the 10th running of the rolling La Plata Duathlon on a beautiful racing morning. Fritz essayed the course that starts and finishes at La Plata High School (3 mile run, 16 mile bike, 3 mile run) in 1:15:21 to edge a pair of 20-something Marylanders, Otho Keller (24) of Timonium and John McGreevey (28) of Silver Spring, by 12 and 35 seconds, respectively.

Steve Petouvis (53) powered the bike to lead home the masters in 1:23:44, good for 16th place overall. He bested Ed Jablonski, a dozen years his junior, of Cockeysville by three places and 14 seconds. In one of the most exciting subplots to this race, Jablonski nipped Robert Cole (40) of Patuxent River at the tape. Both were credited with 1:23:58 efforts. Harry Bratt was the only male grand-master (60+) finisher. Bratt (73) of Bethesda finished in 2:00:33 good enough for 145th place overall.

The women's race was won in 1:30:20 by Whitney Johnson (31) of King George, VA. Johnson's three-second lead over second-place finisher Karen Merrill (34) of Woodbridge at the end of the first run lengthened to 16 seconds after the bike and 45 seconds by race's end. Andrea Marsh (36) of Washington gave up little on the runs but could not bike with the other two women. Her third- place finish time was 1:34:28.

Carol Housaman (41) of Woodbridge was the first masters division woman with a 1:36:42 clocking. She outran the second master, Hampton's Connie Maxwell (44), by more than six minutes to overcome Maxwell's strong (19.8 mph) bike split. Maxwell finished in 1:38:03. Alison Suckling (46) of Arnold, MD, the third master, was just a bit slower than Housaman on both the runs and the bike and finished in 1:38:44. Reston's Sam Robey (58) took the women's grand-master (>50) title in 2:13:15.

Finally, having gone through 40+ years of cycling with little more than road rash, I had my second major biking injury in three years recently. This one was my fault (unlike the hit-and- run a year-and-a-half ago). Cracked ribs as I tried to avoid the ubiquitous traffic. I am running and biking again, but I've lost a lot of conditioning. Still, I hope to see you on the circuit this summer. Be careful on the roads!