Iron Girl Columbia Women's Triathlon

How bad is the bike course (really)?  A friend of mind told me it isn't that bad and that the largest hill during the Columbia Tri is not part of the Iron Girl, although he's a die-hard cyclist and can do 100 miles at the drop of a hat.  That is not me, by any stretch of the imagination.  The swim is my best event, and my run is coming along, but I have not had the opportunity to bike very much at all.  Can a veteran please share? 

Thanks in advance!  Laurie 

There are three challenging hills. I haven't had to walk any. 

My hubby (wyecrab) just got an e-mail from the Columbia Triathlon Assoc b/c he did the Columbia Oly distance tri in May.  After some info about the '08 race it just happen to mention that there are 2260 women participating in the Ryka race in Columbia - it is the largest Ryka race in the country!!!  I think that is pretty cool!!! 

51 days to go - not that I'm counting or anything

I expect to come for the swim but I'm likely to skip the run since I'll be needing to get in to work and I was planning to do the run on my own some other time.

I'm still ramping up my swimming. Yesterday I swam 400m free style straight for the first time. On my current schedule I will have only done 1000m straight once by the dress rehearsal!

Come to Columbia every weekend and bike the course.  There is also a ride on Tuesdays at 6 pm from Princeton Sports in Columbia.  Do both.  Train running hills.  Swim, swim some more, and then do some more swimming.  Come to the practice swim on 8/3.  This is a challenging course for a beginner, but if you train adequately, you will do great and have fun.  The race organization is excellent.

Here's a link to a video of the Columbia Olympic distrance tri that was in May.  Obviously we won't be wearing wetsuits and somehow they manage to show just the few flat spots on the bike course.  But I thought it was pretty cool and it gave me a bit of a mojo boost - so I thought I'd share!!!

 http://www.oellaworks.com/pages/Columbia_Tri.html

Great video!  26 days until race day....

Thanks for posting, Brenda!

jennylee77 - 2007-07-29 1:21 PM Hi everybody! I'm brand new to all of this and am getting super nervous (but also really excited) about the race--just three weeks from today! ACK! My main goal is just to finish--even if I'm dead last. I'm gonna miss the trial swim next weekend because I'm doing the SheROX tri in Philly (what was I thinking?) . Please post about how it goes, though. I've never done an OWS, so that's probably the scariest for me. Are any of you pretty new swimmers? That video was great. Lucky for us, they didn't focus too much on the bike hills. Best of luck to all of you--can't wait for race day! P.S. Do any of you find the huge race size a bit intimidating?

Hi Jenny,

I started swimming in December and discovered I was far worse than I thought. I've been working really hard at it, with private lessons and lap swimming. Last week I reached being able to do 600m non-stop. With the plan I'm following I'll have done 1000m straight once before the practice OWS. This will be my first OWS. Yes, I'm a pretty new swimmer. Yes, I'm nervous.

I did my first triathlon last Sunday. The 300m pool swim was much harder than any of my practice sessions.

As far as the size of Iron Girl, my tri last week had about 200 women total. For IG there will be over 200 women in my age group! I can't imagine a race that's over 3 times the size! I've been to Centennial park several times and don't see how they'll fit us all. Yes, I'm a bit intimidated.

Those of you who have been before, how will they fit us all in?

The last OWS race I did had to do the back stroke almost the entire race, so don't worry about turning over on your back.  They will rescue you if you raise your arm for help.

As for training, I have to train mostly by myself. My girlfriend, KLYNNE, who is also doing this race trains on the bike here in Williamsburg once in awhile to get some hills in. Then we try and get a run in together occ.  Ryka is supposed to be a good beginners race but tough from what I hear and read, so you will not be alone in a sea of athletes. We were all beginners at one time, and consider myself still a beginner.  These women races are great for beginners too.  Everyone is VERY supportive and understanding.  You'll have a great time and get hooked just like the rest of us!! 

sk2a2005 - 2007-07-29 9:49 PM MD, did you do the 3 Sport race? That pool swim was a bear. I had to beat up an old guy. I got freaked out by the total yards today. Never really thought about this race in yards till looking at the web site today. This will be the 5th race I've done and the third OWS. Thank goodness our tri club started OWS practices every other Thurs. That's got me a bit less nervous. I did do the 1100 yards today and timed myself. 26 min isn't to terrible and will probably put me in the middle of the crowd on the swim. Would love to be able to make the practice but just isn't feasable The bike scares me the most. Happy training and see everyone in 21 days!!!

Yeah, I was at 3 Sport. I hated the swim; it felt like underwater bumper cars. My time was way off what I had been doing in practice. I had a great ride but then fell apart on the run.

My swim practice this morning was terrible. I think I was psyching myself out about Ryka OWS: no wall to push off of, no stealing a breathe and break at the wall, etc. I fully expect that I'll need to throw in some strokes other than freestyle to finish the distance.

I rode the bike course on Saturday and then "ran" the run course. The hardest part of Mt Albert  was shorter than I remembered but there were hard parts I didn't remember at all. I say I "ran" because I did an awful lot of walking. The uphill back section of the route is the hardest running I've ever tried.

Honestly, my goal with Iron Girl is finishing. Nothing more.  

FYI - there is an OWS clinic 8/5 at Gunpowder Falls St. Park.  Here's a link to the webpage http://www.triuscoaching.com/flash.html   KLgary did a tri clinic they offered at Sandy Point state park.  It sounded like they did a lot a work on siting, resting on your back and what to do if your goggles get knocked off, ect.   

 I don't think you will get rescued just for floating on your back - unless you are obviously in distress, they will ask if you are ok before they pluck you out of the water. 

I like a big race.  I am a proud BOP triathlete - my first race was Danskin at Sandy Hook last year.  There were about 1500 women there.  I was in the 3rd or 4th wave which gave me the luxury of having several waves go off after mine - it meant there were always lots of other people on the course.  I have done a couple of smaller races since then - by the time I finished there weren't many people left out there.   

The other day I saw a magazine article that was titled something like "Triathlon for mere mortals" - it was mostly about goal setting, but the title made me stop and think.  If there are 2200 women in the race about 2150 of us will be heading home without any hardware.  But we will all earn an awesome sense of statisfaction that because we drug out behinds out of bed and went to the effort training we could get across the finish line and that is no small accomplishment.  That is enough to keep me coming back for more.  DFL>DNF>DNS