Iron girl the event!

Huge shout out to Stephanie at Iron Girl - I can NOT even imagine the organized chaos that goes on for such a huge event. I think the organization did a fantastic job and the fan support rivals any of the big guys...no joke! There were cops and volunteers at every single turn (this will be important later), they cheered, they yelled, the announced everyone as they crossed the finish line, if there wasn't a 1:1 ratio volunteer to athlete, it felt like it, it was top notch. I would say if you EVER think you want to do a tri but feel intimidated (and have boobs and I don't mean moobs), an Iron Girl event might just be the ticket for you.

This was my first girlie event - here are some notable differences:

Boob talk was common and out there in the food line - she said - you have a nice dress, I said thanks, Athleta, she said, does it hold your girls in? I said yes but my girls are small. Yep, right out there in the open.

At the end of most events there are card tables and some folding chairs. This had tables, white table clothes, flowers and folding chairs.

I actually saw a woman push someone ahead of her at the finish - I don't know what transpired but she fell back and pushed her friend forward, ahead of her.

While 'against' USAT rules, a gaggle of women ran to the last finisher to 'bring her in' to the finish line. Yeah, yeah, no on course support, I get it but really?

In general, just women stuff like that. The touches were subtle but noticeable.

In my vast blogger experience, I have never met any of my out of stater fellow bloggers until Sunday. I met Chloe ...when I heard - MISSY, HEYYYYY! as I was setting up my junk in transition. She had a present for me, niceee. I love it. My gift to her was Jack Daniels. Maybe for the ride home, of course, it's made ~30 miles from me so that was my big TN gift. I met all of her friends too. What a time. You'll have to check out her blog. I can't steal her thunder, what a race. I also got to meet Wes and Dee Dee. It was like he just appeared! I met him earlier in the morning of race day but I was so glad to see Wes and Dee Dee when I was at the starting line. I went to this event solo, Ryan usually keeps me pretty calm and centered, so having the two of them there for that final 'race start moment' really helped me. (Thanks guys!) Crap, I think he got video too. I'm sure I said something ridiculous in all my nervous chatter (shocker) PLUS I had earplugs in so I'm sure I was yelling like granny does.

Things I saw and other funny shit...

There was every kind of bike under the sun - hybrid, tt, road, mountain, all of it. The one's that get the real prize are the gals that did it on a mtb with flat pedals. HOLY CRAP! That course is NO joke, I don't know how they did it. Kudos!

At the end of the race, I saw this...not sure if you can make it out but cigarettes must be quite powerful if you finish THAT race and need to hurry up and toke one down. Dang girl, give it up. By the way, in our faux pose so we could get this shot, shout out to Rebecca who was first in W35-39...yeah, and she did a 10 mile run (at least) when it was over. Ironman Lake Placid baby.

Seemed that newbie cheerleaders weren't too fond of my cowbell. Yeah, it's really loud, I mean super duper loud, irritating...perrrrfect. The REAL cheerleaders thought it was the shiz niz and ordered 10 for various Ironman races this year. My friend is a real, honest to goodness cattle farmer. He picked up a cowbell at the co-op and didn't think it was loud enough so I got this - please note the John Deere green color for good measure.

This was one of my favs - a nice little girl was giving me advice when I was setting up my transition space. Again, I'm sure just nervous chatter. She was telling me all about how she's a 21 minute 5Ker and how she's having a hard time hitting those times after swimming and biking, sure, totally understandable. The next time I saw her, she was coming in from her bike and throwing on running shoes. I was just standing there and she looks at me - you're done?! Yes, I'm done. Bless her heart (as we say in the South), nervous chatter, I'm sure. I just had to smile.

Coming in from the bike I still had on my cycling shoes - I'm not fancy enough to get the flying dismount, shoeless thing going - was running and damn near dropped my bike. I'm sure the photographer or NBC was right there. I looked like a jackass for sure. What are ya new, c'mon lady? Yeah, that was me.

I suppose I'm long winded enough. Stay tuned for Iron Girl the race. I don't like to give all the serious junk...does anyone really care about that? Doesn't everyone just want the funny nuggets? I will, though, I will. It was a great day of racing for me.