Iron Girl 10K Race Recap

So the Iron Girl 5K/10K race in Seattle occurred on Sunday September 9th.  This would be my first 10K race (and distance) that I've ran, and I was pretty nervous about it.  However I knew that this was an all-women event and had heard great things about the Iron Girl racing series events, so I felt I was in good hands.

My friend Danielle was running the race with me and we got some great pictures in before/after the race.

 

Standing in line for the porta-potty before the race.

 Getting my stretch on before the race!

 Obligatory porta-potty picture.  HA!

Starting line craziness!  Look at all the people waiting to run!

The race was two laps around Greenlake to complete the 10K distance.  The course was PACKED during the first loop.  All the people running the 5K and the few that were running the 10K.

 Hubby grabbed some great action shots of us running!

 Rocking my pink Brooks running skirt!

The race markings were fine, the course was easy, twice around the lake, not difficult.  The water stations were placed well and stocked up so there was no shortage of the necessity.  Since there were 4 stops, one at every 1.5 miles, I decided not to take a water bottle with me and just trust that it would work out, and it did!

The second time around the lake the course had thinned WAY out.  There was so much space in the coned off area that you didn't have to worry about bumping into people.  During this time I had to keep my mind in the game and focused on keeping a steady even pace.  My legs felt good, REAL good and they could have gone on for more miles.  But my lungs, that was a different story.  I couldn't seem to get into a steady breathing pattern and constantly felt out of breath.  It was SO FRUSTRATING!  For the first time I felt good in a race, I felt strong on the course and I was actually picking people off.  WAHOO!!!  It was an awesome feeling.

This was at the end, just about to round the corner to the finish.  I was spent, not because my muscles were tired, but because my lungs were.  Felt pretty defeated at this moment!

 Grabbed my medal and met up with my friend and the hubby for pictures and water!

Another medal, woohoo!  Was it a hard race?  Only in the sense that I couldn't get my breathing under control and it threw my cadence and stride off so much.  Regardless of that, I felt good physically and did so much better than I thought I would considering I had never run this distance EVER!

A few things about the race:

- I was not impressed with how Iron Girl put on this race.  After all the hype of it being their 7th race here and the fact they have races all over the country, I expected more. I'll tell you why...

- The t-shirts you got for the race were not race specific at all, no date or city was on it.  Just the "Iron Girl Series" was on the generic shirt.  Lame.

- There were only two people working the gear check booth and the line was immense!!

- There were only two speakers along the "corral" area and no one knew what was going on towards the back. People were talking through the National Anthem and the countdown happened without us knowing.  We didn't know until after things happened...and that's because people started moving.

- There were NO porta-potties anywhere else on the race course except for the ones at the expo. So if you had to go while on the course, you had to hope there was no line at the public bathrooms scattered around that area. (which there always were lines for the ONE public bathroom anywhere near the course)

- In the finish chute there was only water and just one person handing it out.  This is the ONLY race I've raced in/been to that there weren't any bananas or other things to fuel up on immediately after the race. Disappointing.

- HUGE lines for the fuel that did come with the registration, the "breakfast box", which had nothing breakfasty or fresh in it.  All the items in the box were shelf stable, sodium laden items.  Just what I want to eat after running 6 miles.  Needless to say, I didn't eat anything in the box.

I'm glad I ran this race.  I got to experience how this series puts on a race and I know now to avoid it.  I wasn't impressed and didn't feel it warranted the price you paid to run it.  At $50-60 for the 10K, I expected more than what we got.  I can run Greenlake for free anytime I want.

It was also a learning experience for me as well.  I tried a new product as my pre-race fuel and let me tell you, Energybits is making me a believer of their product.  I had loads of energy and I never felt a dip or crash.  Completely sustained me, my legs never felt fresher!  

I also ran my first ever 6 miles!  This is a new benchmark for me and I couldn't be happier.  Now it's time for me to build on my endurance at this new distance and add more to it.  I've got longer races planned for the not to distant future and I can't just sit and rest on my laurels now.