The Iron Girl is a series of women's-only events. This was the first year they had one in New Orleans. It would be on essentially the same course as the 5150 race last week, just shorter. It was advertised as a 1/4 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 5K run. The day before the race though, as I was signing up, I heard they had shortened the bike because the area where they originally had the turnaround was being used for something else on race day. The bike would now be 10 miles. Holy Hammerfest, Batman! This was going to be fun.
Iron Girl also attracts a lot of first timers. I heard someone say that 50-75% of the field would be first time triathletes. Very cool! I am a competitive person by nature and enjoy pushing myself to the limit, but this wasn't going to be that kind of race. Of course I always want to do my best and this time would be no different, but I just couldn't go into it with my normal race day killer instinct, knowing that I was racing with ladies who had baskets and bells on their bikes. I looked at it more as a chance to practice some race-day skills & strategies in a low-stress environment. And a chance to enjoy some raging Girl Power, of course.
The whole race experience was a bit of a whirlwind- starting off by being mega late to transition. Somehow I must have miscalculated my morning prep time, because I ended up showing up at the race site with about 2 minutes to get body marked, pump my tires, lay out my stuff, fill my bike bottle, put on my sunscreen, lube up my shoes, and get the heck out as they were closing transition. I was already DFL, and the day hadn't even started yet!
We FINALLY had good conditions in the lake and were able to actually have a swim (the swims have been canceled at the last two races at this venue). In fact, the conditions were just about as perfect for swimming as I'd ever seen them.
On the start line, I thought I recognized the girl to my left, though I don't think we'd ever spoken and I couldn't quite place where I'd seen her. Probably at other races in the area. She looked awfully serious- definitely had her game face on and looked like she'd done this many times before. I decided that she looked fast, so I'd try to stay with her through the swim.
She did end up being fast, and I lost sight of her before we even got to the first buoy. Oh well :) I swam strong- and more importantly, straight- but wasted some time in T1 getting out of my wetsuit (Race Day Skill Practice #1- wetsuit removal). It was only my 2nd time having to take my wetsuit off by myself in a race, so even though I could've swam without it (water was 74-75 deg), I figured I could use the practice. It probably would've gone a tad faster if the empty bike rack I leaned on hadn't started to fall over when I leaned on it.
Bike- hammertime! The bike is my weakest leg of the 3, and I always push the edge of under-performing because I'm afraid of blowing up on the run. Since this race was so short, I knew I really couldn't hold back at all (Race Day Skill Practice #2- GO HARD on the bike). The 10-mile shortened bike route must not have been measured very closely, because everyone's Garmins had it as closer to 11. Remembering the slight mishap from last week's 5150, I started the feet-out-of-shoes thing a little earlier and managed to get it done properly before the dismount line (Race Day Skill Practice #3), but I did not attempt the full flying dismount.
I wasted some more time in T2 fumbling with my race belt, trying to get it to clip properly. If I were smart, I would've finished putting on my shoes, grabbed my visor, and taken care of the race belt while on the move out on to the run, but I guess I didn't think of that. So I stood there fumbling with it for several seconds and THEN finished the shoes and headed out. Lesson learned. Race Day Skill Practice #4 (although unintentional)- order of operations in T2.
Run- I came out of T2 right on the heels of the girl in my AG who I had seen on the start line for the swim. I had caught up to her on the bike, she passed me right back, I passed her again a few minutes later, and apparently she rolled into T2 right behind me. Whatever lead I had on her had evaporated while I was messing with my race belt. After doing my best to hammer on the bike, my legs weren't exactly feeling perky. I tried to rally my spirits by telling myself that it would be over quickly, I only had to go half the distance that I did last week when I came through that exact spot onto the 10K run at 5150.
The other girl and I were matching stride-for-stride with me slightly behind as we rounded the parking lot out of transition to get out on to the road. I didn't like the idea of running like that the whole way, but I wasn't willing to go much faster at that point than I already was. I'd find out soon enough if she had speed to burn or was just hanging on. If it came down to which one of us could gut it out harder, I knew I'd have the edge. At least that's what I always tell myself- running is so mental that any confidence boost you can give yourself will help.
Another thing I'm pretty good at on the run is running the tangents. If you run corner-to-corner rather than following the middle of the road, you can save a significant amount of ground. There were a few right-angle turns heading out onto the road, and I couldn't believe it when I saw her sticking to the middle of the lane. I lined myself up on the tangent line and, without altering my speed at all, squeezed out ahead of her around one of the corners. Tangents, people! It works!!
I was ahead, but now I had the problem that I couldn't see her. Was she falling back, or keeping pace with me, or about to blow past me and leave me in the dust? I had no idea, and wouldn't know until the turnaround. I read one time that it takes a lot of guts to come from behind, but that it takes a different and special kind of guts to run in front and stave off challenges from behind. I always remember that passage whenever I'm running in front of someone I'm competing against. (Race Day Skill Practice #5- general tactical running skillz. I know I had said that today wasn't going to be about all-out killer competition, and it wasn't- but I could tell this girl wasn't new at this, so between her and me was fair game, I reasoned. We were both pushing each other to be our best.)
I wasn't running all that fast for a 5K- not nearly as fast as I would've liked. But it was what my legs were giving me, and I had to work with it. In between the one mile mark and the turnaround my legs finally decided that they'd had enough racing after all I'd put them through in the past 6 weeks. Unfortunately, I still needed them to deliver me to the finish line, so we struck a bit of a deal: just keep moving, legs, and I won't ask you to go much faster. They accepted, barely.
At the turnaround, I saw that my fellow age group competitor had indeed fallen pretty far back. Of course I knew that wasn't a reason to slack off, so I kept to the deal I'd made with my legs and plodded along steadily to the finish line. One step a time, until- YESS! DONE!!
I did the usual post-race mingling, found my friends & other GNOTri-ers as they finished, congratulated my competitor on a great race, and headed over to the post-race "Breakfast Cafe", complete with danishes, pancakes, coffee, fresh cut fruit, and bagels with smoked salmon. They even had capers! This is a women's race, after all- of course they'll remember all the important details! Our male support crew was bummed that there was no beer. I joked that maybe they'd have Chardonnay instead, but alas, no.
Turns out that I ended up 1st in my AG, and 5th overall out of 305 ladies. Very cool! My transition rankings, however, were more in the 40 to 50-something range- lots of room for improvement there!
Because there were so many first-timers though, the day really wasn't about the final placement- it would be hard to rejoice too much over "beating" an 11 year old or a lady with a basket on her bike. There was some great racing among the more experienced competitors in each age group, but for me the day was more about going out and trying to get the best out of myself and also enjoying the opportunity to race on my home course. The fact that I won something was a really nice bonus.
And of course, Miss Kai had to model the hardware.
