OK.. here is a really LONG detailed race report… Iron Girl 2008What a great weekend.. Joe, Mom, and I drove to Columbia Maryland so I could participate in the Iron Girl Sprint Triathlon.. which is a .62 mile swim, 17.5 mile bike, and a 3.4 mile run… it’s an all women’s event and it was AWESOME!
I drove while Joe and Mom played with their new cell phones sending text messages to G-d knows who…..AND THEN since they were SOO exhausted they took naps…….
We arrived in Columbia around noonish and had no problem finding packet pick up and getting all my goodies… they gave us lots of stuff.. a stuffed duck, a flower lei, a shirt, and water bottle …and wow there were A LOT of women.. but the atmosphere was good..
Actually there was only once incident and that was some big a-s guy standing in front of me where you are suppose to look up your race numbers.. he was looking up the number for his wife… like CANT she do that for herself!@ !!!! And then he would NOT MOVE out of the way so I had to nudge him aside.. and say excuse me.. so instead of him saying sorry he just glares at me.. [F_ you too.. a-s hole… this is a F- women's event so get the F- outta the way.. ]…. I thought for a brief moment that I may have to put the beat down on him…….. ..anyhow.. back to peace and harmony… and we head to Centennial Park to get bike inspected and drop it off..
The one thing I love about women's events is that the atmosphere is fairly positive.. perhaps it’s the lack of testosterone ….but usually there is a lot of niceness going around.. however I did encounter a few women who just give women a bad rap… either they didn’t read the rules or didn’t care to follow the rules and had to argue with the officials in transition….
In the rules that were sent to us by email... and online at the website, AND were given to us in our packet, AND were told to us when we were given our arm band were ……. NO ONE was allowed in the transition area except those participating in the event..
Fairly basic.. right.????. only people in the race were allowed in transition area….
SOOO.. you get these women who are arguing with the officials in the transition area because they want to bring their HORDS of children in with then .. when the official say no .. they say.. well what am I suppose to do with them????
(YOU GOT TO BE F_ KIDDING ME.. what do you do with them when you are racing!!!!! PUT THEM ON YOUR handlebars???...)..
I can see why the rules state no one in transition area but the participants.. can you imagine 2,200 participants and their entire families in transition area!!????..... HOLY SMOKES.. and then kids running around .. and accidently knocking over someone’s bike or gosh getting hurt on someone’s bike… NO WAY>>> FOLLOW THE RULES>>> JEEZ!
The day blew by rather fast and by the evening we were all tucked in watching the Olympics … and I had to remind my “support crew” …..LIGHTS OUT @ 11!....
The next morning we all got up around 4:30am.. even though I swear I was awake every half hour since 2am… and I put the two sleepy heads in the truck and get to the race by 5:20am .. as I am lugging all my stuff to the transition area I realize it’s really dark.. oh yeah.. I definitely needed a flashlight to see what the reading on the bike pump is.. but nope forgot to pack it.. gosh not like me to come unprepared… thankfully the girl next to me had one… I had myself set up and out of there in 15 minutes…
So now Joe, Mom, and I sit around and wait and watch things.. we got to see the pro’s swim come in.. GOSH I wish I could swim like that… then it was time for me to go and get in line for my swim…
The water was warm 84 degrees.. nice…. I thought it best to get right in and make sure I was used to water as I wanted NO ISSUES… however by getting in first I had to tread water for 8 minutes prior to my wave start since it was too deep to touch… and there was some sort of seaweed or something wrapping itself around my legs.. seaweed doesn’t really bother me but when someone mentioned that this lake was cleaner today than usual.. I thought gee what a swamp…
When we started I tried NOT to position myself upfront but someone I got caught up in middle left and got pummeled... thankfully I am a big girl and can hold my place but I found it next to impossible to get any kinda rhythm going… and we were swimming right into the sun for the first bit and I was blinded.. I even had on tinted goggles.. but found it impossible to see…
So this pummeling continued until the first buoy… there were just too many girls in a small space… I HAD to get my breathing slowed as my heart was racing.. and I was getting outta breathe and this was not good.. finally I broke free and there was only a handful of girls around.. then someone knocked my goggles down, and they started to fill with water and that is NEVER a good thing when you have contacts…..
But was kinda funny as I started to see the water come up like a sinking ship.. I was like.. UH OH… .. I had to STOP, and empty them and put them back on… When I got back to swimming I had to swim around people doing breast stroke and dodge a girl who was swimming the so wrong way..
I started to relax and make up some time UNTIL …. I got clubbed in the head ….by a girl in the wave behind me… she dang near knocked me out.. I honestly thought that one of the kayak people smacked me with their oar…if I wasn’t in the middle of the lake I would have thought it was funny..... SH_T that hurt… she did say sorry as she continued on .. but jeez… so that got me thinking… GOSH that would be soo easy for someone to lose consciousness and slip under the water…. and this is NOT the kind of thoughts I should be thinking about WHILE in the water… !!!
Anyhow back to swimming.. finally done… look at time.. 28.38… oh much sadness.. I am as slow as a sea turtle!!!! According to my specs I came out of water in 1,273rd place out of 1,622… eekes..
The run up to the bikes was a long one.. and thankfully I found my bike without any issues… I get shoes, helmet, sun glasses on and …. D-mn… bike gloves just wont go on.. I think I blew 30 seconds getting them on.. and do I really need them???? …. UGH… they are pretty..hmmm… yes I need them… finally out of transition I go…
We have to push our bikes up a small grass hill before we could mount them and there was a lady who was walking her bike up this hill … and I wanted to run and she is blocking my way.. and BOY this IS A RACE NOW honey…. !! GET YOU’RE A=S MOVING… Finally on my way on the bike…
As soon as I got clipped in on bike I just pounded away…. I wanted to make up the time that I lost on the swim and I felt confident from my training I could pull big numbers for the 17.5 mile course…. There were some hills on this course and the first one I came down on I was hitting 35 mph.. which is never a good thing because I looked over and we had to GO BACK UP this hill on return bike leg… I started to question myself thinking wow you are going die on way back but I kept pushing it and passing hordes of people. …I can only assume that since I came out of water near last place that this is why I was passing so many people..... I felt my bike went exceptionally well.. my specs out of bike stated that I had moved up to 482nd place out of 1,622..
What I thought was stupid was…when we ended the bike they made you get off your bikes and run a good way .. I am thinking 25-50 yards until you hit the timing mats.. so the time you are running gets factored into the bike mph.. that’s stupid
Trans 2.. … got in.. couldn’t find my spot to rack bike… I am lost… WTF!!! Don’t panic.. count.. one.. two.. three.. four.. five.. aha..there I am .. GRRR… lost 20 seconds acting stupid.. racked bike… off goes helmet, gloves, bike shoes.. on goes sneaks… thank u LACE LOCKS… !!! … on in like 5 seconds.. I run out of transition and wonder if I am going right way…. as I only see girls walking..... ???
I am now plugging along on run… and I come up on more walking girls… I think at this point you have to make sure to tell yourself that just because everyone is walking does NOT mean you should.. so I tell myself .. no need to walk why do you need to.. ??? you don’t.. so I keep running…..
I hit two miles at 17 something.. ok… that like a 8.45 pace.. acceptable considering… then we hit this giant hill that is just really mean.. I can see WHY now they are walking…..but I keep running.. the last mile I should have pushed it.. it was fairly flat.. but I think I just mentally shut down.. just didn’t push it.. and that I have to work on… you cant let what is going on around you affect you (with everyone walking)… I did sprint last 100 yards… just wanted to be done… here is finishing race specs
Finish time 2.03.55
360/1632 overall
85/340 age
Overall this was a fantastic race that I definitely recommend to all women of every age, size, shape… very nice!
