I Am Iron Girl

For those who are familiar with the Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osborne song - Iron Man, you will understand that I could not consider the title of the 5k race that I did on Saturday without in a deep voice saying, "I am Iron Girl". But I digress, before I even start. This past Saturday I ran the Alfac Iron Girl 5k in Denver City Park. I'd heard it was a good race, our plans changed and we were actually home for the weekend, some girl friends of mine agreed to do it with me and the next thing you know I was registered.

Friday, I did hot yoga for the 2nd week in a row and for the second week in a row, my calves were really tight. That doesn't happen with not-hot yoga, so I don't know what's going on there, but come Saturday morning I woke up and I knew my knee was not my friend. It was stiff and achy, but screw it - who needs a knee I have a race to run.

So I get my most comfy running shorts, my favorite running socks, my only running shoes, decide on a shirt that will keep my the coolest - I wonder what to eat since I normally don't eat before a 3 mile run but I normally am back before the 8:30 start time of this race. I decide on the good ol' stand-by of toast with PB and Honey. Jay gets himself ready, we both get Megan's stuff ready and then I rudely pull her from her nice warm comfy bed and put her in the car and we head off to pick up my friend Christen and go to the race.

The only weird part about the race is you had to "build your own goodie bag" but the line moved quickly and it was worth it for the nice shirts they were giving out (however, NEWS FLASH: It is not necessary to have pink shirts for women's only events. Really. I am collecting far too many pink shirts, and I don't care for pink. Although as Jay points out I could have a bunch of white shirts like he has.)After we build our goodie bags we find our friend Megan (aka Big Megan as not to get confused with my daughter Megan - which is such a bad nickname for her since she is this tiny little petite thing, but Old Megan, just doesn't seem right either)

We looked for our friend Sonja, but didn't see her before the race and we were nowhere near the front of the pack at the start line where she was lining up. We chatted for a bit after choosing where to line up at total random, were quiet for the National Anthem and then the gun was off and immediately we got split up. I saw Big Megan once again for a split second and lost her again until an out and back after the 2nd mile. Right when I thought I'd totally lost Christen, I realized she was running directly in front of me, but I was breathing too hard to say anything to her and eventually she was gone too. I saw her again at the out and back portion - we high-fived and that was it until the finish. I did spot Sonja once about a half mile in - she was at about the 1 mile marker across the park and looked to be in about 4th or 5th place. Other than that it was just me for the run.

I'd wished I'd brought my music but I entertained myself with people watching, wondering what some people thought wearing jean shorts to run in, avoiding those people that would race pace me and then I would pass again while they were walking, and being thankful that I didn't run the Mother/Daughter division with Megan as I passed more than one Mother/Daughter duo with the daughter crying and wanting to quit. Jay and Megan made it around to see me at 4 different points around the course, and I looked forward to each time seeing Megan on Jay's shoulders shouting, "Go, Mommy, Go!"

I keep glancing at my watch and noting that my pace was too fast, but I seemed unable to do a damn thing about it. The negative splits that I had done so well at my last 5k would not be happening for this race at all.

But in the end I crossed the finish line, without having to stop and walk once - which was impressive given the number of times I considered it. And I got my first medal! I've never done a race before that gave out medals.

Big Megan, Christen, Jay and Megan were all there waiting for me - we congratulated each other and then got down to business: breakfast.

All in all it was a fun race. I was shocked when I got home and looked at my 5k time from earlier this summer to find that I beat it by 3 seconds, despite how awful I felt. A new PR! 34:18.

Now back to bike riding - Venus de Miles is on August 31st. 35 miles here we come!