Race Result

Racer:	Melissa Hancock
Race:	Iron Girl Columbia
Date:	Sunday, August 27, 2006
Location:	Ellicott City, MD
Race Type:	Triathlon - Sprint
Age Group:	Female 35 - 39
Time:	2:25:10
Overall Place:	903 / 1273
Age Group Place:	26 / 40
Comment:	My First Triathlon

Race Report:

Race Report: Irongirl Columbia 2006

Prologue (Feel free to skip down to the Actual Race Day section if you don't want all of the boring details of my life. Since this was my first triathlon, I just wanted to give other newbie's some background on how I got there)

Spent 10 years competing in Eventing (that's kind of like a triathlon with horses) in high school and college. Got married, retired horse to nice pasture, got fat. Wanted to try something new, so I took up swimming for a year, did a little running and biking. Got overzealous, slipped disk in back, had surgery. Had baby #1, slipped disk again, and had another surgery. Had baby #2. Started swimming with Reston Masters. Am talked into signing up for a triathlon by team mates who tell me how much fun triathlon is.

So with no solid background in any of the 3 sports, and an extremely low fitness level, I had 3 months to prepare for my first triathlon. I had been swimming with RMST all winter, and although I was still in the slowest lane, I felt really comfortable in the water at my slow pace. I did a couple of 1-mile open water swims in the spring (Jim McDonnell and Chesapeake Bay).

With a toddler and a baby, it was hard to make room in my schedule for the additional training the triathlon would take. My wonderful husband was very supportive about letting me run off to swim practice 3-4 times a week, and I didn't want to burden him any more than I had to (taking care of a toddler and infant for 2 hours by yourself is extremely stressful!) So, I was able to fit the cycling in by commuting to work a couple days a week (14 miles each way) on the very hilly Fairfax County Parkway trail. My manager at work is a cyclist, and was very supportive of my endeavors. We worked out a schedule for the whole summer that allowed me to leave work early once a week so I could do my bricks.

The running was the hardest part, because I was so overweight to start with, and had not run in 5 years (and was not very fast back then). I followed a triathlon training plan on trinewbies.com, and it was really helpful. It allowed me to start with walking/jogging 1 minute each, and over 12 weeks progressed all the way up to a 60 minute straight jog. It was easy to fit running into my schedule, because I got a double jogging stroller and could take both kids. That allowed Rob some time to get out on the W&OD with his bike and de-stress.

During this time, I also found the RATs Website, and read all of your great e-mails and articles. I found the race reports a great way to get the feeling of how the race would actually be. You also gave so many tips that I would never learned from a book or magazine.

I went to the IronGirl dress rehearsal a couple weeks before the race, where they let us swim the lake, and run the course. The race organizers also gave a lot of good advice for first-timers, including how to set up a transition area and rack your bike.

I didn't have time to do the bike course that day, so I went back by myself the following week. First I drove it in my truck. It was very hilly. I called my husband to say that I couldn't do it and I was coming home. Rob said that I didn't have to do the triathlon if I didn't want to, but since I drove all the way up there, and took time off from work, I should at least try to ride some of the bike course. I said I would think about it and went over to Princeton Sports to have my bike inspected. The inspector said "Oh, sweet, Dude" about my little Bianchi, so that made me feel a little better. I returned to the park, and saw a group of ladies returning from the course on fat-tire bikes. I told myself that I was prepared for this, so I went ahead and rode the course. It was the hardest ride of my life, but I did it! In 1:20! I was so sore the next day, but at least I knew that if I did it once, I could do it again.

On race weekend, my parents graciously offered to take care of not only both kids, but the 3 dogs as well, so Rob and I decided to get a hotel in Columbia. I went up early Saturday for the bike racking, pre-race talk, etc. I had my traditional pre-race dinner of Sushi (what – I grew up in Japan. Hey, it's all carbs and lean protein with no sauce or anything to weigh you down or upset your stomach). Rob joined me that evening after dropping off the kids, and I showed off the new 2-piece tri suit I bought at the expo hall (I know, I was going to do my fist triathlon in a new outfit, what was I thinking? But it turned out okay).

Every week before the race, Rob and I had tried to make time for him to show me how to change a tire, but it never happened, and I was really paranoid about getting a flat on the course. So Rob took a wheel off the jogging stroller and brought it with him, and we practiced on that in the hotel room.

Race Day:
Got up at 5:30am Sunday and ate a power bar for breakfast (Big mistake, because it went right though me.) Had some diet coke to wake me up, and then started drinking watered-down Gatorade. Got dressed, packed up the truck, and headed over to Centennial Park. The sun was just starting to come up, and all of the competitors were filing into the parking lot. I headed over to body marking to get my body marked with a big "A" to signify that I was in the Athena division.

I have to take a moment to say at this point that if nothing else, all of my hard work in the past few months had made me a 40-lbs-lighter-Athena than I was when I signed up for the triathlon. So in that regard, I considered myself a winner even if I did not finish the race.

Next, I went down to the transition area to check on my bike and set my transition stuff out. I had a really primo spot right near the end of the rack, just 2 bikes away from the center aisle, so I was psyched about that.

Everything ready to go, Rob and I headed down for the start area. I ran into Hope Hall from my swim team, who was one of the ladies who talked me into doing this triathlon (Hope ended up getting 4th place overall in IronGirl!!!) I also found my other team mates Karen Tine and Jamie Roberson, who also talked me into this crazy endeavor (I can never thank you guys enough!) They did great, too, but I'll let you read their reports... Tara Lyn (RMST photographer and Webmaster extraordinaire) was also there to cheer for all of us. Everyone was really supportive and helped calm my nerves.

Actual Race Report:
I chugged my first gel about 10 minutes before my wave was due to start. When my wave was called, I walked down the pier and jumped in the water. I figured with my 1 year of Masters swimming, I should be near the front of the pack (not so true, though), so that's where I headed. We had to tread water for about 3-4 minutes before the whistle blew. I sprinted off, and was immediately surprised by the number of women passing me. It was a great swim, though. I didn't get beat up as much as I had in the co-ed open water swims I'd done. It was a nice round course, and very easy to sight. I didn't do as well as I hoped, but still respectable in the 700's (out of almost 1300 women).

I came of the water and jogged over to T1. Found my bike easily, and pulled on all of the bike accessories. I had never practiced this transition, but it went pretty smoothly. Ran up the hill with my bike to the bike start, jumped on the bike and I was off!

My performance on the bike completely took me by surprise. I thought that would be my weakest leg, but it turned out to by my strongest. Even on all of those big hills, I felt great, and had so much fun! On one downhill, I let loose, and reached 40mph – the fastest I have ever gone on a bike. The camaraderie with the other women on the course was great. The faster riders coming back from the loop shouted encouragement to my group, and it made me work even harder. I finished the bike course in 1:11 – even faster than I had done it the week before in practice. I also moved up by about 100 places overall. I ate a second gel about 5 minutes before finishing the course, and drank 1 bottle of Gatorade while on the course.

T2 went pretty well. Racked my bike without knocking over any other bikes, and hit the run course.

Although my practice run times have always been pretty slow (around 42 minutes), I still had visions of adrenaline kicking in, powering me to speeds until then unknown, and thereby letting me breeze in under 30 minutes. That didn't happen. What happened is I got really tired, and had a hard time with the rolling course. I did pretty darn good though, and managed to keep jogging except for just a few yards on a couple of the steeper hills. However, I lost a lot of ground in the run, and was passed left and right. I am trying not to beat myself up too much because I still finished the run in 43:44, which is not too far off my practice times.

I was never so tired in my whole life as I approached the finish line. I tried really hard to sprint, but I didn't have anything left in me, and it was all I could do to keep up my pathetic little jog. But I did finish! I got a really nice finisher's medal – silver with a pink flower in the middle – how cool is that? I found Rob and he gave me a big hug and kiss, as gross as I was.

IronGirl Finish: 2:25:10.

I had the best time of my life, and with some more training, can't wait to do another one!