Iron Girl 5K Race Report

Suz picked me up at 7 so we could make our way to Green Lake for the Iron Girl 5K. We parked near the Bathhouse so we had a nice 1-mile warmup walk, then milled about for a while in the "expo". A bit of people watching, a bit of browsing, and then we lined up in the corrals.

"I'm so proud of you, total stranger!"

As usual, we lined up in the correct spot... and as usual, a lot of people did not. So when we started, we had to work our way through a LOT of traffic. Women walking with toddlers. Really? You think you're gonna run a 10-minute mile? REALLY?

But we took it easy and just slowly worked our way through the crowd for the first mile. It was a warm, humid morning, and a little strange that so much of the run was on the outside loop. But around we went, cutting in by the golf course in time for the water stop by the aqua theater.

Suz kept us moving at a steady pace, while I just kept chattering away. We passed mile 2, then 2.5, and then we could start to hear the finish line announcer. I warned Suz that the finish area might be weird -- we might need to do some weird little loop -- and she said the thought that was the case. (I always think of the finish at Chelanman, with "just a loop around the parking lot" before the actual finish....)

who doesn't love a personalized bib?

But we got to the finish area and realized that it was just a straight shot to the line... and Suz took off. I mean, TOOK OFF. So we sprinted towards the line, while I kept saying "Nothing in the tank! Go go go!" Suz told me that she was concentrating on neither tripping nor throwing up. :)

We collected our medals, took a nice post-race photo, got our food bags, did a little stretching, and then headed home. All in all a nice 5K -- and a great job by Suz running a PR!

and a good-looking medal to boot!