2-time iron girl!

I wanted to blog on Friday or Saturday before the race, as I had many thoughts and flashbacks going into Iron Girl Atlanta for the second time. Flashback... Last year's IG ATL was my first triathlon. I raced with a group of friends and for most of us, it was our first tri. I completed my training and was unsure of what would happen on race day. I knew there were rollers on the course, to include a hill that was downright nasty. And it's still nasty! What I wasn't prepped for last year was the open water swim. Yes, I had practiced in open water but not with 148 other bodies around me. :)

I had read almost every OWS tip out there and performed the training drills. Long story short, I got caught in the crowd at the first buoy and was pulled under a couple of times (yes, pulled under). The clobbering wasn't on purpose. We were all simply trying to make that turn. I couldn't overcome that helpless feeling so I panicked and rolled on my back to backstroke, talking out loud...wondering what I had gotten myself into. I'm not sure how many types of swim strokes I used but it was at least 3 or 4 when it was over. LOL I made it through. Frazzled but an overcomer. Side note: to all you newbies out there, don't let a bad experience define you. Don't let panic or mishap rob you of the joy of what you accomplished. You could've given up—maybe wanted to!—but you stuck it out. Celebrate that!

I learned a lot from last year's experience, knowing exactly what I needed to work on. I'm the type of learner who prefers an un-cut version, so I couldn't help but laugh whenever someone tweeted this video clip of a simulated OWS start. I wish I would've seen this prior to my first tri.



This vid makes me laugh every time! I think one of the guys yells, "Sink!" at the end. :) I wouldn't be able to convince my sweet friends to do this to me so I tried different approaches in training this year and kept working on my balance.

Fast forward... I felt more confident this time around but still nervous. My age-group was once again the largest and the first to go (2 minutes after the pros). NBC cameras were scattered about. As we lined up at the start getting ready to cross the mat, I was smart this time—I waited. I walked slowly in the water at the back-left of the pack...I took my time, knowing full well it would cost me just that...time. It was quite humbling to take such an approach but I knew I needed to do it.

I made it to the buoy okay. Turned the buoy okay. Then I had a flashback of last year & freaked a little. LOL I quickly rolled to my back to talk to myself. But this time I told myself, "You have 30 seconds to work this out and roll back over." I rolled back over and forced that "excited" breathing back into the water and told myself to keep going. I still wasn't as calm as I would've liked but I was amazed that the more I told myself to keep going, I actually kept going...imagine that!

Over halfway through the swim, I rolled to my right to breathe and I could hear my kids along the beach screaming, "Go Mom!" That inspired me like you wouldn't believe. By that time, a few "fishies" from the 2nd wave had caught up to us slower swimmers. I grabbed on to a set of speedy feet & rode them all the way in. :) Wish I could learn that art in the beginning. LOL I was happy that I freestyled almost the entire time but my time was still very slow. I was slightly disappointed when exiting the water and my watch read 16:58 (for 587 yards), which turned into slightly over 17 minutes by the time I dashed to the first mat...only a minute faster than last year's multiple-stroke, frantic swim. The rest of the run into T1 was long and steep. It's slightly frustrating to be in the bottom AG half coming out of the water, see most of the bikes gone in T1, and come back into T2 and most of those bikes are still gone. It's good in the sense that it means I have good bike splits but still....gotta bring the swim up to par!

The bike was as expected—still very hilly and just shy of 19 miles (vs. 18). I shaved almost 8 minutes off of my bike time this year! I encountered several blocking situations along the way but thankfully motorcycles were all over the bike course warning ladies. As for the rolling run, I shaved a minute off of last year's time.

Over a thousand women registered this year, to include 6 pros who absolutely ROCKED! Mirinda Carfrae brought home yet another W. She "tore it up!" as we say in the South. :) 914 women finished plus there were 21 relay teams. I was 88th overall and 18th out of 180 women in my 35-39 age group. Top 10% ain't half bad eh? Within my AG, I was 11th on the bike & 8th on the run. Quite humbling when I think about it, especially with this venue, the ability levels there & the rockin' tough gals in my AG. The swim? I was near the bottom in my AG...blah, blah, blah. The good thing is it's always a great learning experience. How else would I know what I need to work on?!? Thankfully, I now have someone who's willing to get me to that next level of swim improvement. In the end & outside of all the stats, this is plain fun! Challenging fun. I love meeting new peeps and hearing their stories. Looking forward to my next race. Stay tuned!

with endurance...
laryssa