It’s Aug. 23. Which means Aug. 21 has come and gone. Months of training create such a build-up! Iron Girl being over is definitely a relief, but it’s also got me thinking about next year already. I wanted to give a quick race weekend report for those who are interested and especially anybody preparing for their first tri who wants to know what it’s like. Okay so it’s not quick at all. Feel free to skim :)

6:30 a.m. Saturday: My alarm goes off. I have no reason to get up early other than to prepare myself for an early start on Sunday. I take my time getting up, read and have some oatmeal bars.

9 a.m. Saturday: Vinyasa yoga to stretch out my tight hamstrings. (And just to get some light exercise for the day.)

11 a.m. Saturday: Cat and I start packing up. Being the obsessive list-maker and planner that I am, I have an extensive packing list that includes three sources of hydration, multiple backup clothing items and reminders to myself (as in, wait to put on sunscreen until after body marking).

12 p.m.(ish) Saturday: We load up the car with our stuff (and the bikes on a rack) and head to the Sheraton in Columbia, which is the host hotel for the race.

1 p.m. Saturday: We head to the Team in Training lunch, where we load up on some carbs and listen to speakers. One of the best: a woman who races for her son, who is 10 years old and five years cancer-free. He had leukemia from age 3 to 5. We sat at a table with a woman whose 66-year-old mother races in Iron Man triathlons -- and places every time.

3:30 p.m. Saturday: Time to rack our bikes. We drive over to Centennial Park, which is already bustling. We get our bikes through the safety check and leave them in the transition area. We won’t see them again until race morning. We find our transition spots, which luckily are right next to each other. We run into Coach Nancy on our way out, and her enthusiasm is infectious.

5 p.m. Saturday: Pre-race talk by the Iron Girl organizers.

6:30 p.m. Saturday: Dinner at Champps at the mall. Wanted a burger and a cocktail, but I had a turkey wrap and water. It was actually pretty good, and more importantly, I felt good after.

7:30 p.m. Saturday: Shopping!

8:30 p.m. Saturday: Head home for early bedtime

9-9:30 p.m. Saturday: Shower, read some awesome e-mails, texts and Facebook messages from friends and family, then lights out.

4:30 a.m. Sunday: Alarm goes off. It’s definitely still dark out. Cat goes out to the hall for ice and discovers the Maryland TNT folks left us sweet notes at our hotel room door, with dark chocolate!

5 a.m. Sunday: We meet up with the TNT ladies in the hotel lobby for a breakfast of bagels, peanut butter and bananas.

5:30 a.m. Sunday: Catch the shuttle over to the park. Yes, it is still dark out.

5:45 a.m.(ish) Sunday: We enter the park, which is quite a contrast to the quiet, sleeping neighborhoods we passed on the way. Music’s playing, the parking lot is full, and there’s a line of cars waiting to get in on Route 108. Though there’s some lighting set up, the transition area is still pretty dark, and we realize the smart ladies brought headlamps. Whoops. I set up my transition area (Camelbak, running water bottle, socks, sneakers, etc., laid out on my folded yoga mat under my bike), and I head over to get body-marked. My bib number goes on both arms and one hand, and my age goes on the back of my right calf.

6 a.m.(ish) Sunday: Argh, it’s sprinkling. It’s warm enough that it doesn’t matter much, as long as it doesn’t get harder. I get the Princeton Sports people to help me with an ornery tire tube and find safety pins for my bib.

6:30 a.m.(ish) Sunday: It’s pouring. Total downpour, thunder, lightning, the works. I huddle with the other TNT ladies under our team tent. We hear the race is going to be delayed 15-20 minutes. I worry that they’ll cancel the swim, which would suck. But after a couple different downpours and some impressive lightning, things seem to be clearing up.

7:15 a.m. Sunday: The first swim wave goes off. Lots of cheering, long lines for the Port-a-Janes. (Yes, Janes -- they were pink and had smiley faces.)

8 a.m. Sunday: Catherine’s parents find their way to us. We explain the race order -- waves are going off by age group, and we’re near the end, in neon orange caps.

8:20 a.m.(ish) Sunday:

The Swim: We join the other neon orange caps and shuffle down into the water. They have us walk into the lake and tread water for nearly two minutes before we can start. People are a little jostle-y. They do a countdown, and we start swimming. It’s a big counter-clockwise loop (or more like a “U” shape, really), making two 90-degree left turns around big buoys. It’s actually less crowded than the dress rehearsal, though people are more aggressive. I only get kicked a little. The swim actually feels great. I remember even thinking “I love swimming!” I pass a bunch of red caps, then eventually a few green caps and even one blue (the waves before me). Finally I reach the shore and run up onto land while taking off my cap and goggles. I run over to my bike and put my shoes and helmet on, and strap on my Camelbak. My Gatorade is already in a bottle on my bike.

The Bike: The Columbia bike course is notorious for its hills, and the talk is definitely true. This is a tough course. It’s not long before I pass women walking their bikes up a hill that’s not even supposed to be the steepest (still pretty rough). My speed isn’t great, but I probably pass as many women as are passing me. I’m fine with middle of the pack. The course is beautiful, the route’s easy to follow, and the race has plenty of staff directing people and stopping car traffic for us. (They didn’t fully close any roads, but you wouldn’t want to be a driver in this area on Sunday.) Along the way volunteers and spectators are cheering for us. Anybody related to TNT sees my uniform and yells “Go Team!” Depending on how out of breath I am at the time, I try to return the yell. At more than one point, I have to down-shift into gears that I’ve NEVER been in. They say one of the hills has a 12 percent grade. I think if I weren’t part of the pack of bicyclists slowly climbing it inch by inch, it would be kind of comical. Women wobble, women stop. One woman is just standing next to her bike, examining it. Luckily the course ends in mostly downhills, which gives me a little boost for the home stretch.

The run: After dropping off my bike, helmet and Camelbak in transition and grabbing my running water bottle, I jog onto the run course. My legs are heavy and jellyfied, my breath already labored. This is going to be bad. I start off with a pace that’s slower than any training run because it’s basically all I can handle. My legs are not interested in working anymore. I remind myself that Dave is going to take me to Cheeburger Cheeburger for dinner and I will get an awesome milkshake -- but I have to get to the finish line first. I remind myself that at least I’m not carrying 30 pounds more (like I was last year). I use all the mantras I can think of. I take a short walk break while heading up the first big hill. I finally get my second wind on the flat stretch between the two big hills, and it lasts a good way up the last hill. Finally one of the volunteers tells me I have only a quarter-mile to go. I pick up the pace a little. As I near the finish, I manage something closer to a sprint -- as close as my poor legs can handle. As I cross the finish, the announcer says: “Kendra Nichols, you are an Iron Girl.”

UPDATE: The results are in! I’m pretty happy with everything but my transition times, which were TERRIBLE. I wasn’t exactly hustling, but it didn’t feel like it took me more than five minutes for each one. Guess maybe I’ll invest in some of those stretchy shoelaces. Not sure what else I could have done except for just try to be faster. I am super happy with my swim time. Next year I want to be under 20 minutes!!

Iron Girl Columbia: 0.62mi swim- 17.5mi bike - 3.3mi run

Time: 2:19:53 (681st place out of 1633)

Swim: 21:09 (214th place)

T1: 5:16 (1162nd place)

Bike: 1:11:06 (713th place)

T2: 5:03 (1354th place)

Run: 37:21 (794th place)

"Here" being D.C. Man it's hot. It's tough getting runs in because it's 92 degrees and humid outside, and running on the treadmill at the gym is just. so. boring. Even with reality TV shows to keep me company. For now, my mornings (when the temperatures are still bearable) are taken up by swimming, but that should probably change. For now, I've got a date with the treadmill at 4 p.m.

So that's how running's going. Biking is better -- I've been trying to explore new trails, since biking three times a week means you run out of the stand-bys pretty quickly. Yesterday I took the Rock Creek Parkway trail down to Hains Point, which I hadn't done in about a year. On the way, there were a few too many tourists to mow down, but once I hit East Potomac Park, it was just me and a bunch of serious road bikers who are a lot better than me. But I'm happy to be passed by. Now that Dave has a bike, I'm excited to try the W&OD Trail in Virginia. And I even found a route to visit Aunt Patty and Uncle Ray in Alexandria.

As for swimming, it's going swimmingly (hahaha). Today part of my workout was to do two 500s in a row, and it was totally fine. So that bodes well for the race, which is a 1,000-meter swim. On the downside, swimming three days a week is wrecking my hair and skin. I bought some chlorine-specific hair and body wash, but I haven't gotten to use it much, because usually after I swim I'm showering somewhere other than home. I need to put some in a smaller bottle or something.

On a somewhat related note, I finally got a few photos from my triathlon last September. I still wear that running shirt from Aunt Patty all the time!

That's about one and a quarter miles. It makes the 300 yards we did in our first triathlon seem ridiculously short! But I guess everything's relative. By the way, the race is 1,000 meters (though I didn't do 2,000 meters straight today -- part of it was drills, and there were several breaks). If you're in the Adams Morgan/U Street area, Marie Reed is a great place for morning workouts.

Though I'm looking forward to getting out on open water :)

Yes, that sounds a little crazy to me, too. We're in a "build" week of training, so the workouts are getting longer. Yesterday's weather was beautiful, so I took advantage of that to get in an evening run. I took a roundabout, 40-minute route to power yoga class. My toes/foot/calf/knee were acting up, which I can't figure out is from the shoe or how I'm running. I ended at the running store where I got my sneakers to ask them about it, and they suggested it might have something to do with my sciatic nerve. I'm going to try and go back to my old shoes for a few runs and see if that makes a difference. Hopefully my fancy new running shoes weren't a waste of money.

After the stop in the running store, I went around the corner to the gym for power yoga with Mimi, where I was hoping to loosen up my left calf, which was super tight from the run. After running for 40 minutes, I may have been the smelly girl in class =/ Oh well. It was awesome anyway.

Then of course there was our crazy early morning swim practice this morning. I moved into the fastest lane because I'd been getting annoyed with lane crowding, and it improved things a LOT. It was a great practice. I found myself wondering why I haven't been swimming for exercise in the 10 years since high school swim team. I guess it helps to have a prescribed workout to do, and coaches watching to make sure you do it!

Anyway, the total timeline:

6:30-7:10 p.m. Monday: Run

7:30-8 p.m. Monday: Yoga

5:30-6:30 a.m. Tuesday: Swim

And yes, I am very tired!

I haven't used this space much except for a place for people to donate (and please do!), but I think I'm going to start posting training updates as a way for people to see what I've been doing day-to-day to prepare for Iron Girl. I'll try and see if I can start taking some pictures too, especially when Cat and I train together so I have a photographer!

Anyway, to start, yesterday I got up and went to the Wilson pool as soon as it opened and did my swim workout. It looked short on paper but was actually kind of rough. BUT. I swam a total of 1,600 meters, which is 600 more than I'll do in my race, so that's not so bad! (Of course, there were several breaks, which there won't be in the race.) Then I went home and met up with Cat for a bike ride on Beach Drive in Rock Creek Park. It was beautiful. The bike training workouts are still pretty short, so there hasn't been much challenge there, but according to the schedule, they're about to get longer! Today I have a 40-minute run, my longest yet. But the weather's cooperating for once, so I probably won't die ;)