I am IRON......

......BABE!!!

Here me ROAR!!!

Yeah, whatever, but I now have a title with Iron in it!!!

Anyway, this morning I participated in the Ironbabe Sprint Triathlon which consisted of a 300 yd open water swim, an 11 mile bike and a 3 mile run - in that order for you non-tri people out there.

The day started good - no rain. Of course it was still dark - because I had to be up and out the door before the crack of dawn. Well, this posed a problem on the drive out there. While I was on the major roads I was okay - there were street lights and such so I could see the street signs. Not the same situation out on the back roads. My only complaint about this triathlon was there were no signs indicating where to turn on these back roads. But I eventually made it and it was okay because they delayed the start and the closing of the transition area because there were lots of other people who missed the same turn that I did - even the announcer!

So, I made it to the transition and set up and got body marked then made it over to the swim start and my TNT friends. Then the time was upon us and the race was on.

I was at the back of the pack for the swim and that was not a good thing. I just could not get through the throng of women in my age group. I would get past a few, run into someone, then I would site, try to find a hole, made it through then ran into another one. It was like that the whole way.

The swim finally ended after about six and a half minutes and it was off to the transition area where I took too long because I just couldn't get all the rocks off my feet by standing up so I finally sat down to put my cycle shoes on. I need to get some tri shoes that do not require socks.

The shoes were on, the helmet and gloves were in place and then off I was. The course was relatively flat with one down hill and two small ups and there were lots of trees out in the park which made it nice and shady. I averaged 17.6 mph out there on the course which I do not feel was too horrible. Actually I am pretty okay with it.

And then it was time for the run.

That is what I was disappointed with. My training has not been the greatest and it showed, especially since I could not seem to get going during that first mile. I walked and walked and then would try to run a little but then I would walk some more. By the time the first mile was over with I was doing better but the damage was done and my average on the run was about 13:42 per mile (I will hopefully get the official results in a week or two). Oh well, there is always room for improvement on my runs!

My overall time was around 1:30:26 which I am good with. It was my first triathlon since CapTex on May 30 2005. At least I am back in the tri swing of things. And to prove it I just signed up for the Cinco Ranch Triathlon.