The 2013 Athleta Iron Girl Race Recap Part 2: the part where I actually race.

If you missed the lead in to this race, check here.

I was hoping my new plan of starting at the left side of the swim wave would keep me out of the washing machine and away from slower swimmers.   It may have worked if I hadn't been sidetracked by other issues.

Issue #1:

I "drank" from the lake several times.

Issue #2:
No matter how much I swam, that second buoy never got any closer.

I really need to work on my upper body strength so this doesn't keep happening.

Issue #3:
As I rounded the third buoy I got a solid clonk on the head.

She was super apologetic though and we kept swimming.

After the swim I went through T1 agonizingly slowly and started biking.

I felt really good.  Being on a familiar course was helpful, and I was glad that I had made progress on my cycling skills compared to years past!

OLD ME:

NEW ME!

I got to the turnaround where I almost did not actually make the turn.

I should really work on that.

On the way back I still felt good, but rode my brakes pretty hard on the narrow, steep turn-off of the expressway.  The girl behind me was a little annoyed.

I guess New Me still has some work to do.

The run was good.  Nothing scary/exciting happened and I managed to keep my pace just under 9 minute miles.  I hustled to the finish line to claim my wonderful finisher's medal.

I found Christy, who had already finished, gone home, showered, and grabbed some post-race food.

I high-tailed it to the food tent and got some delicious wraps, some Chobani yogurt, and, of course, coffee!  But, as I was drinking said coffee I felt something touch my lip.

So, I guess that made up for the lack of "exciting" moments during the race.

I love this course and will probably do this race again.  Athleta/Iron Girl was very organized, had great swag (hello Athleta t-shirt!), and had phenomenal course support.  And thanks to fellow FitFluential ambassador Axel, I found out that Meghann is from FitFluential too! How did I not know that??

Also, somehow I managed to shave 5 minutes off my swim from 2011, giving me a 5 minute PR!!


That said, the Athleta Iron Girl gets my official seal of approval.

So, who's joining me next year?

I joined the lovely people at Yeah Write again this week! Check out the great writing submissions by clicking the button!

UPCOMING POSTS:  5K RECAP, TRAINING RUNS, MARATHON RECAP

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