Can you stand another Iron Girl race report? I didn’t hate it like sfa or love it like MDHillSlug. It was a so-so race for me.
This is the fourth time I’ve done this triathlon course, so I’m pretty familiar with it now. Once again, I didn’t really train; I just did my usual bike commutes (haven't ridden the road bike since the last tri in June), ran/walked a few times a week, and swam only once since June. The triathlon is just fun for me, and I’m completely non-competitive.
I’ve also been having problems with a growth on the bottom of my foot that hurts when biking or running. (I had it removed this morning, so there’s a big divot in the bottom of my foot. Should solve the pain problem for the future.)
This time I decided to stay at the hotel where packet pickup was located, so I wouldn’t have to get up before 4am and deal with the dogs and drive a half hour to the race site. So I went out to a local vegan restaurant (where my decaf chai was actually caffeinated, I think, making for a restless night’s sleep) and went to bed early, around 10:00.
Sunday morning I got up, threw on my clothes, drank coffee and ate breakfast, and took the shuttle over to the race site. Then it started raining. I set up transition, pumped my tires, talked a bit with MDHillSlug, and made my way to the swim start. My wave started at 6:55.
The water was warm and didn’t have as much grass floating in it as there was in June. I only had it wrap around my arms at the beginning and at the end, but once again, my bra was full of it when I took a shower. I was, as usual, slow but steady, and finished in 31:24.
T1 was slow at 4:52 because of the rain. It took a while to get wet socks onto wet feet.
I got on the bike and, as sfa and MDHillSlug have said, had to be careful due to the rain. This race is getting so big that there were people everywhere on the bike. You were either beside someone or passing them. I held back to be sure I didn’t wipe out since my road tires have no tread whatsoever, and finished in 1:14:12, 14.2 mph.
I had a Gu during T2, which again was slow at 3:04.
The rain started up again on the run, which was awful. My foot hurt, my knee hurt, my shin hurt. I did a lot of walking, and finished in 43:11, 13:06/mile.
I got my medal and a cold sponge and grabbed some food. Then I packed up my backpack and rode my bike 2 miles back to the hotel in the rain. No point hanging out when the weather’s bad. After a nice hot shower, I went back to the vegan restaurant for brunch.:)
Total time was 2:36:42, 100/144 AG, 1336/1837 overall. (I just noticed that I finished one second faster than Sarah Reinertsen, the para-triathlete who was on Amazing Race. I saw her on the way in and told her I liked her book.)
My dog Sammy loves the stuffed toy they gave us, an Aflac duck. When he bites down just right, it says “Aflac! Aflac! Aflaaaaaaac!” It’s so cute.:D
