Aflac Iron Girl Columbia Women's Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I don't know why I had it in my head that I'd do this in under 20 minutes. Not even close! I got pretty much the same split as my other races this year. I'm starting to wonder if I only have one speed swimming. I wouldn't say it was a bad swim, just average I guess.

I was surprised at how many women were swimming into me. The worst sighters EVER. I don't mind the bumps, but people would literally swim diagonally into me again and again. It didn't hold me up or anything, but I found it curious given this was my 6th race and usually you encounter one person like that, not a whole crowd.

Transition was fine, I was worried about it being slippery given it had been raining, but no slips. You had to run your bike up a steep embankment to get out into the course, but that went flawlessly.

It did take me a little longer then usual to get into my bike gear because I had wrapped everything in plastic to keep it dry in the rain.

Maybe speed things up. I wasn't being lazy, but I wasn't in a rush.

Again, I thought I'd finish this closer to the 1 hour mark. I felt SO good, too. I charged all the hills, worked my butt off, didn't slack for a second. I did have to stop once because my chain was acting up, but wasn't still for more then a minute. I was passing people left and right, way more then I got passed, which was new to me. I thought when I finished I'd for sure hit 17mph average. My perception was SO off, I averaged only 15.1 FAIL. Still, I really did work as hard as I could've and you can't be too hard on yourself for that.

Nothing to say here, it went pretty smoothly. I even remembered to take my bike gloves off without having to run back as an afterthought for once!

I really felt like I was going so slowly during the run. I worked the hills on the bike so hard I thought I'd have nothing left. Still, I ran up all the hills, even if it was a mere jog and I have to say I'm pretty happy I averaged 10:38!

Now that was one well organized race! The expo moved along quickly, the volunteers in transition and along the course were plentiful... I'm definitely doing this again next year.