My First Iron Girl...Bloomington,MN

[swanny70]

I also did the Iron Girl but am almost embarrassed to post my times. I have to explain a few things first, kind of makes me feel better about my horrible performance. First of all, I am a teacher and my lovely first graders gave me a horrible chest cold that has been hanging on since the first week of school. Although I have been working out 4 times a week at the YMCA, it was much more difficult to be "out" running in the real world. It also doesn't help that the entire day before the event was spent running around town with my family as my son's "Showcase" hockey team was in a tournament in which they ended up winning all their games on Saturday. This made their way into the championship game on Sunday at 11 am at Mariucci (U of M campus). So during the entire race, I was checking my watch because I wanted to make it to at least half of their game.

The morning of the race I got up at 5am and left the house to pick up a friend by 5:30. I ate some oatmeal and yogurt and sipped a little coffee. We got to Bloomington at about 6:30 and immediately got in the short line for minor bike adjustments. She needed air, I needed air and I knew my rim had a slight bend....but I didn't know how bad. They monkeyed with it a little and told me it was okay to ride but that I would definitely want to get it into the bike shop to be fixed as it would affect my ride.....it sure did! But I chose not to put the money into getting it fixed as I already knew I was going to get a road bike for next season...so it was my own fault.

We went off in the 35-39 wave and all was good. I just couldn't get the junk up out of my chest to get good deep breaths but I survived....time on first 2 mile run, 20:20, which considering I was sick is okay with me.

T1 took me longer than I'd like, I took off my long sleeved shirt and my bib popped off my race belt, had to fiddle with that and then get the bike, 2:13 time.

The bike was a 22 mile loop, as mentioned before, a lot of hills at the beginning. I think I started out going too hard. I didn't save enough energy for the second loop and by mile 17, I was so pooped! My horrible time on the bike was 1:35. (Note to self: stop at LBS Monday and bite the bullet, get a road bike for next season!)

T2 took me 2:47.....funny,because it seems like that one went quicker but I finally figured out it was slower because I walked my bike back into transition....I should've jogged with it.

Run #2 was the same route.....once I found my legs, it wasn't too bad. I was slow, but determined not to walk at all. I picked out a few people ahead of me (we had been near each other on the bike) and made up my mind that I would pass them and finish in front of them....I did. It gave me the extra push and my time on the second run was 22:37.

Total time: 2:23

I am checking my watch this whole time and because we started a bit later than expected (7:50? Instead of 7:34) I was worried about getting to my son's game. My friend came in about 20 minutes ahead of me. Her son plays on the hockey team too, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and got our bikes out of transition as soon as we could and headed off to Minneapolis. We made it there just at the end of the 2nd period and caught the entire 3rd period to see our boys win the championship game!

All in all it was a good day. I have already gone to the bike shop and started research on my first road bike! Considering I have done my first two sprint triathlons this summer and now this du, I feel great about myself. I accomplished a lot this summer!

Thanks,

~Kim

[Tri Girl]

Congrats, Kim! Never, ever be embarrassed about your times (which is easy to say, but I get embarrassed sometimes, too). You're out there doing it, and that's the most important thing! There will always be someone (or in my case: many) faster than you and always someone slower.
I'm so proud that you did it! Your run times are right about where mine wouldn've been, and for me in a du- that's pretty fast. Nice job out there!

Congrats! Now what bikes are you looking at, eh????