Iron Eagle Triathlon

The Iron Eagle Triathlon was my third triathlon this season, and my fourth ever. For some strange reason, I was REALLY nervous for this one. (I think maybe it had to do with my crash at the last race.) So, I woke up early on Sunday morning to rain. Boo! Those of you who know me well know that I am not a huge fan of rain. (I hate when my hair gets wet!) Luckily, the temperature wasn't too cold, and I figured I would be wet after the pool anyway, so I sucked it up, picked up my friend Christina and headed to the race.

As I arrived at Eastern, I started seeing my teammates and my nervousness changed to excitement. I must say that I LOVE racing as part of Tri Fusion! My friends are so wonderful and encouraging and fun and hilarious and they always make me smile :) As soon as I got my Tri Fusion tats on (thanks Tim!), I was ready to race.



As I was waited for the swim to start, I made a mental note of my 3 goals for the race:

1) Complete the race in under 1:45:00.

2) Use my big chain ring when possible on the bike.

3) Run the whole run, EVEN on the hills.

Bonus goal: NO STITCHES!

My fabulous friend Christina came to cheer for me and count my laps. She is training for her first triathlon and I thought it would be good for her to watch a race before she did one. She was such a support to me during the race counting laps, taking pictures and cheering her little heart out! Thanks so much friend!


Okay, back to the race. The race has a pool swim (YESSSSS!) so we started in heats. Somehow all of the Tri Fusion peeps got to start in the same heat. It was really fun to see us all lined up and ready to go at the same time! We had to circle swim with 3 or 4 people in a lane, which is not ideal for me. I sometimes stress out when I circle swim because I worry too much about the people around me instead of focusing on my swim. I did pretty well though and when I got out of the pool, I noticed others will still swimming in my heat. Always a good sign :)


After the swim I headed out on the bike. It was POURING!! Now I know I said I would be wet from the swim anyway, but after the bike I was SOAKED! My legs felt good on the bike and I was able to actually pass people! That was my first time ever passing someone on the bike in a race and it was awesome! I had a really good ride and I rode the entire second half in my large chain ring! Goal #2 - check!

After the bike I dismounted in transition, felt a little wobbly, had to stop and get off the bike carefully, then started the run. The first little bit was pure mud, and I was a little nervous of slipping (and truthfully, of getting majorly dirty because I am not a fan of mud and I was in my brand new Tri Fusion race shirt!), but I took it slow and was able to pick up the pace when I hit the pavement. The run was hilly and it felt long to me, but I was able to run the entire time! Goal #3 -check! And I passed 3 people! WHAT!?!

Also, the highlight of my entire race was when Jessi, Tiffany, AND Tim came back to finish the run with me! I have to say that it was the most amazing feeling when I came over the top of the last sucky hill (and let me just say that I wanted to walk pretty badly!) and I saw my 3 amigos running towards me cheering their heads off! Jessi came back EVEN with battle wounds and Tiff came back EVEN with major blisters on her ankles. Now that is love! I also enjoyed the comic relief Tim added to the end of my run :) Thank so much friends!

I crossed the finish line feeling strong! I had some technical difficulties setting my watch when the race started, so I had no idea what my time was. But now the official results are out and my final time was 1:28:55! That means that I blew Goal #1 out of the water! And my SECRET time goal was actually 1:30:00, and I blew that out of the water too! I could not have been happier with my rainy day race :)

Shout out to Jen who completed her first race of the season after waiting for a knee injury to recover, and a shout out to Laura who completed her first triathlon EVER! These ladies did awesome and I am so proud of them!

And here I am with Tiffany and Jessi, my incredible teammates and friends! I have grown a lot closer to both of these ladies this year and I absolutely LOVE racing with them! These girls are phenomenal! After the race, a group of us headed over to Pita Pit for some post-race grub, conversation, and tons of laughter :) What a perfect ending to a fabulous race day! I think I might be liking racing more and more...