Athleta Iron Girl Columbia Half Marathon - Run

The run went very well. I started using my 3:1 Run/Walk ratio but after the 1st two miles pretty much abandoned it. I just felt like running. I walked through the water stops so about 8 times total. My hip flexor's were on fire by mile 8 - could be the shoes. I didn't have this when I ran in my New Balance 980's...but the Saucony Ride's have been my standard so rather than using a still under 75 mile shoe I used the Saucony.



I'd wear the New Balance 980 shoes and I would do walking intervals only on the steeper uphills.

Walked around, did a lot of static stretching


The bad: There were some big issues including the largest that the race started an hour late. They indicated it was because of some course issue - and though I don't know the real reason (if that is the real one or not) it completely threw off my nutrition. As a vegan/plant strong athlete timing for me is everything. I cannot use gu or gels because they make me nauseous. I use dates - and here it worked well but I found myself at Mile 8 knowing I needed more than a date so I broke out the Chia Bar and that worked fine. I'm always hesitant to use any sort of bar but these Chia one's are very small and appear to be easily digested.

The Expo was kind of blah - not too much to speak of. Surprising for a race of this reputation though. I almost wanted to go down to the Nike Women's 1/2 in DC to check their Expo out.

Additionally there were times when the police were letting cars through and I ended up waiting - no bueno during a race.

The post race food - this is my second biggest issue. After running 13.1 miles we were offered fresh fruit (melon, grapes - good) and Danish/pastries. What??? Seriously. After running 13.1 miles you think I should refuel with a DANISH or PASTRY? You've got to be kidding me. They were tiny. Other than water and gatorade that was it. As noted I'm a vegan and I do not eat processed foods...which I don't expect every race venue to accommodate. However - after running 1/2 Marathon I expected a way better food option.

And if I'm really being honest - not a fan of the t-shirt either. I like to have date, location, and the actual race I run (e.g. 10K, 8K, 5K, etc) on the shirt. The technical Tee (though it gets great points for fitting great) was just kind of blah. Just a logo and Iron Girl Columbia 2014 on it. VERY generic. I mean no one would even know it was a 1/2 Marathon.

Lastly the massage. So it was advertised that people got a free 5 minute massage after the race. However what happened is that you got in a line and were upsold to add time to the 5 minutes. $7.50 per 5 minutes. The kicker is that anyone who added time went first - and all those who just wanted the 5 minutes free were told to wait until after ALL the paid massage people were done. They were letting people pay for 20-30 minute massages. You can imagine what that does to a line. The massage itself was great (yes I bought an extra 5 minutes for $7.50 but it felt a bit off). Maybe this is the way massages work after races but it felt kind of cheap.

The good: Porta Potties (although at the race start were located in a strange place) were plentiful during the race and I used them 2 times and never waited more than 2 minutes. The course was marked very well and there were scattered spectator's - every once in a while but not a whole lot. Not the most exciting course - but then it's in a residential area so I didn't expect that. The Medal was very nice.


I know about the bankruptcy/financial issues of Tri Columbia. I know WTC took this race over late. However it was my first 1/2 and it just wasn't the experience I wanted. I paid my registration fee and prepared for months. Regardless of what happened behind the scenes if you couldn't put on a stellar race than we should have known that and been offered a choice.

In contrast I ran a local 8K on 5/3 that was just absolutely flawless. From the venue, to the t-shirt, to the food - it was picture perfect spot on. And it had less than 1,000 runners and was completely locally done. It just brought home to me how I kind of felt let down with the Iron Girl Columbia 2014 1/2 Marathon.