I Raced the Athleta Iron Girl in August: this is the post about everything that happened before the race.

Hello, newly minted marathon runner here.

I am updating that race post almost daily as the fog of the day lifts and more details come back to me.

In the meantime, I have to catch you all up on my summer races!  I did 2 sprint tris over the summer: the Dilettante Women's Tri, and the Athleta Iron Girl!

I'm *some* kind of fool, anyway.

The Iron Girl is the former Danskin, which was my first ever triathlon and the one that got me into this whole racing madness.

I had already been thinking about doing the race when I got an email in June from Meghann, the Iron Girl event coordinator.  She had read my Danskin posts and wanted to offer me a free race entry to compare my experiences!

She didn't ask me for anything in return, and even offered a coupon code for my readers! Luckily, my friend Christy wanted to do the race too, so she snagged the discount!

Race day started bright and early, very early, with a 4am wake-up.  Christy was lovely and offered to drive.  By 5:15 we were on site and getting ready.

Not surprisingly, in the wee small hours of the morning it was cold.  Since the transition area closed an hour and a half before our wave start, I decided to don my wetsuit.

And my swim cap.

They say 80% of your body heat is lost through your head, so it seemed logical.

Fortunately, Christy has done a couple of half ironman races, so she didn't need a wetsuit to swim a measly 800 metres.

Unfortunately for her though, this meant that she did not have anything to keep her warm.

And as 90 minutes slowly ticked by, the benefits of my wetsuit began to wear off.

Luckily, I was distracted when I discovered two hipsters wandering through the crowd.

Of course they knew each other.

And then they high fived.  True story.

Once the race started, the announcer called out different inspirational women, including a 75 year old who started training at the age of 60!

As I stood in the lake with Christy waiting for our wave, I began feeling slightly ill.

Perhaps it was my complete lack of training creeping into my subconscious.

But finally, we were mere seconds away from starting.  We wished each other luck,

and Christy moved up to the front to dominate the course!  While I brought up the rear of the pack.


UPCOMING POSTS: THE ACTUAL ATHLETA IRON GIRL RACE, TRAINING RUNS, RUNGER, THE MARATHON 

Is It Reefer Madness?? No, It's TAPER Madness!!

And y'all? I am losing my ever-loving mind.

When I first started my marathon training, I had some trepidations, just like any other sane person who signs up for this race.  For instance, I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to reach the mileage on the long runs.

But I did that run. Yay, me!

And then came the reality.

No, no, the REAL reality.

Now that I've done all the long runs, even the 20 miler (!), the mileage is backing down.  This is a good thing since I have been training for races since December.

And now?  I literally don't know what to do with myself.

After Saturday's run, I chatted online with TriGuy who has been away on business for the past ten days.  (Lucky guy gets to come home to the insanity today.) I said that I was feeling antsy, and that maybe I would clean. I know. Utter madness.  Ultimately though, I came to my senses.

Still, for the rest of the day I couldn't shake the feeling that I needed to be doing something more.  Then 8:00 p.m. hit.

And just like that, I was exhausted.

It was a wild Saturday night.

Monday night was my second rest day and I was bored, so I picked up my beautiful guitar  that has been gather dust since oh, June?  Of 2012.

Ok, so in my defense, my shoulder was messed up and it would really hurt when I strapped on the guitar so I didn't play while I was going through PT.  

Which I stopped in the spring.

And then I was, you know:

Anyway, I tuned the guitar (after looking up what notes the strings are), and plunked through some chords.

April was not impressed.

Tuesday night I got to run again, but it triggered another thing has been bugging me over the past two weeks:  I've been plagued with mysterious pains.

First, I was worried I had a stress fracture in my foot. Then, my hip was driving me crazy. Today, my ankle is clicking.  I realize there is a mental aspect to this but I'm also trying to be smart-yet-cautious (that's an expression, right?)

So I've iced.

 I've foam rolled.

 And I've lain on a tennis ball to stretch out my iliopsoaz...es.

The ball feels that big.

Oh, and now I'm starting to have crazy dreams.  I'm going to consider that just part of the process.

So I guess all in all I feel ready for race day.

I just hope that little tingling in the back of my throat isn't the start of a cold.

Questions:

1.  If you do races, do you get crazy too? How do you deal with the madness??

2.  Even if you don't race, what do you do to make yourself feel normal when things get wacky?

UPCOMING POSTS: SUMMER RACE REPORTS, LONG RUNS, RUNGER (RUNNING HUNGER)

I'm linking up with my most favorite writers' site this weekend, Yeah Write!  Click the button to get to lots of awesome blogs!