Iron Girl Atlanta Race Report

YAY!  I got to race again!!  Sorry had to get that out right away :-)

This past weekend Nina & I went back to Atlanta for the Iron Girl Sprint triathlon.  It is a 1/3 mile open water swim, 19 mile bike & 3 mile run at Lake Lanier Island Resort.  It is a great race venue.

Saturday was packet pick-up & bike check in.  We headed over around 11AM.  I took a bunch of Clif Bars to hand out to the ladies waiting to check in.

While working the line I found Swim Bike Mom.  I have been following her blog since I started blogging.  I was excited to meet her in real life. She is one cool chick!

SBM, Me & Nina

Once we got through the USAT check-in line it took no time to get our packets & shirts.   We then headed off to check in our bikes & get our timing chips.   Once that was done we watched the tire changing demo because you can never see that done enough times & then cruised through the expo.  I picked up an awesome t-shirt.

Back of the shirt.  So true!

Before leaving Nina made a cheer sign for us.

We finally left Lake Lanier & headed back to the hotel to chill out for a while before meeting my friend Kara & her husband Larry for dinner.  Kara did the Iron Girl with me in 2010 but I have been unsuccessful in getting her to do it again.  

We were back to the hotel & lights out by 10PM.  We decided to set the alarm for 4:30AM this year.    

Usually at some point during race day I have a 'why the hell do I do this' moment(s).  For this race, my moment was at 4:30AM.  To date, I have never gotten a good nights sleep before a race & this was no different.  It was a bit frustrating too since I wasn't nervous & I wasn't trying to set any race records.  I think it is just the fact of having to get up so early that worries me.  

We were dressed & ready to go just after 5AM.  We got to the parking lot around 5:25AM & make the 15 minute trek to transition.  (In case you are wondering why all the detailed times - I referred back to last years race report several times this weekend.  It came in so handy to know what we did last year & how we should plan this year.)   I found out the night before that fellow Tough Chik Karen was race number 982, I was 987 & SBM was 995 so we all shared the same bike rack.  We had transition fully set up by about 6:10.  

Nina aged up this year so she got to go in the 7:15AM wave.  I was still in the 7:25AM wave.   So we  still had about an hour to wait.  We headed to the beach to chill out on the beach chairs.  We made a final pit stop then headed down to the swim start.  Air temp ~60 degrees, Water temp ~74 degrees.  

This is the 3rd year I have done this race & every year the swim is different.  They call it a 1/3 mile swim but I think they use that very loosely.  This year the swim start & exit were right next to each other.  It was a rectangle swim.  They also moved the timing mats from right next exit to quite a ways away from the water.  

I usually place myself way in the back of the wave but this year I decided to get up close to the front.  I was off to the side & was about 2 people back.  I thought the people in the front would start off swimming & not lollygag.  Boy was I wrong.   When they started our wave it seemed to take forever for everyone to start swimming.  This was the worst swim I have ever done.  It was like a washing machine.  I got kicked, hit, swam on..I kicked, swam on, got hooked on someone shoulder & inadvertently pushed someone down.  It was terrible.  I kept trying to get to the left but it was crazy.  Every kayak had tons of people hanging on them.   I started to see some clear water when I got to the first turn but had really burned a lot of energy getting there.  Once I made the first turn I was able to get into a bit of a rhythm & when I made the last turn I really found my groove.  I was finally able to swim for real.   I passed quite a few yellow caps & even a couple red caps.  These were the earlier waves.  This never happens so I was thinking I was swimming pretty strong.   I didn't bother wearing a watch this year so I had no idea what my time was when I got out of the water.  It was a good thing too because I would later be very frustrated with my time.

T1 was uneventful.  I did have a little difficulty clipping in at the mount line but once on the bike I was good to go.  I did have my bike computer on but really only wanted it so I could watch my cadence.  My goal was to average 90 & keep my legs from burning out too quickly on the hills.  Since I had only been on my bike 4 or 5 times this season & my longest ride was 18 miles I had no idea what to expect time wise.   My plan was to rip it as fast as possible on the downhills because I knew my hill climbing was not going to be strong this year.  Over all the bike was smooth sailing.  I only had a couple cars to contend with which was much less than previous years.  

I headed back into T2 again not having any idea what time it was.  I dismounted, took off my bike shoes & ran in to rack my bike.  I got my run shoes, hat & bib on & then headed out for the run.  My plan was to listen to my body & see what I could do.  Thanks to my injury I had not run 3 miles since August.  I used the Couch to 5K program to slowly build up my running but my longest run was only 2.6 miles.  I felt surprisingly good on the run.   I never got too hot or had any cramping issues.  I felt the slightest twinge of piriformis pain a couple of times but was able to keep it mostly at bay for the entire run.  As I approached the finish line the clock said 2h29 minutes.  I did some quick math in my head & realized I finished in about 2h05minutes which is only 5 minutest longer than last year.  I was super excited.  

I waited at the finish for Nina.  Since she started before me this year we finished within a few minutes of each other which was awesome.   We met Charity, another fellow Tough Chik at the finish line.  

Thanks Charity for getting this shot!

We chatted for a while with Charity before heading back to transition to pack up our gear.  

Iron Girls!

After a quick stop at the hotel to change & we met SBM & friends for lunch.   Best way to end a race - new friends & beer!

SBM & Friends

2012 Iron Girl Atlanta by the Numbers:

My time is exactly 5 minutes longer than last year which I am super happy about since my bike & run training was a lot less this year.  Steve told me what my times were shortly after I finished & I was pretty frustrated with my swim time.  It was only 25 seconds faster than last year.  I had such high hopes for a faster swim this year because I put so much effort & focus on swimming this past winter.  

Once I was back at the hotel I fired up my laptop & started doing some comparisons to last year.  That was when I started to think the swim was long this year.  Here is why:

2011 Swim Time: 18m45s

2012 Swim Time: 18m20s

2011 Swim OA Rank: 810/1005

2012 Swim OA Rank: 494/1038

2011 Winning Swim Time: 7m57s

2012 Winning Swim Time: 10m34s

Either the entire pack was slower this year or the swim was long.  I am going with the latter because it makes me feel better  :-) 

I did set a new PR on max bike speed.  42.6 mph.  There are some screaming fast hills here & I took advantage of them to help get my average speed up.  

Nutrition:

Saturday night dinner - Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken, yukon potatoes, haricot verts & a beer.  Oh & some bread pudding.  So maybe not the best pre-race dinner.

Sunday morning - Mix 1, ice coffee, banana & water.  Gel 20 minutes before the race & water

During the Race - 30 oz water on bike & gel at mile 14.  A little water at the 2 water stops during run.

After Race - I ate pretty much everything in sight.  Muffin & fruit at race, nachos, chicken wrap, fries & Fat Tire for lunch (Taco Mac).  Ice Americano mid afternoon.  Hibachi grill (Shogon) for dinner.  Bruster's ice cream for dessert.

On a sad note - one woman had a pretty bad bike crash today.  Rumor is that her front wheel fell off. Keeping her in my thoughts for a speedy recovery.  

Race safely y'all.