Having just done my first tri as an Athena last weekend, I say race as Athena! You can always compare your times to those in your AG if you want to know how you'll compare later, but it's fun to race and know that if you give it an extra effort, you might actually place. At least, that was my feeling when I was racing on Saturday. I'm not yet competitive in my AG (usually MOP), but against the other Athenas, I actually got second place! The woman who had first was taller, fitter and MUCH faster than me, so there was definitely lots of stiff competition.

I hesitated when I signed up because I was afraid that there would only be a few of us and I'd podium by default and I did NOT want that. I checked to see who had signed up before me and there were 6 Athenas already, so I did it. There ended up being 10 of us in the masters Athena class on race day (I'm over 40).

It was a great experience and I now know that I'll continue to sign up for Athena for as long as I qualify.