Michellie Jones IronGirl Race Report

Pretty much Atlanta lived up to it's famous T-shirt inscription Hotlanta....103 degrees and extremely humid...yep it was hot enough to fry some bacon and eggs on the road. At least we got to start just before 7am so not quite that hot but almost.A small but very, very talented elite group of pro's toed the start line.Mirinda Carfrae, MJ, Kate Major, Pip Taylor and Sam McGloneAlfac thought we needed some extra incentive to race hard by putting up a swim, bike and run cash primes. Sure we do..:)Pip Taylor exited the water a few seconds up on Mirinda and I. But they both put the burners on the first part of the bike..my legs thought otherwise and my burners did not kick in until 15km in to the 30km bike. So as Pip and Mirinda battled it out on the run I was happy to get the second fastest run spilt of the day over one minute faster than my time in 2007 and 3rd overall. Mirinda won the battle on the run with Pip taking 2nd. Sam and Kate took 4th and 5th. I was most impressed with Kate's performance as she was coming off racing an Ironman less than a week ago.You can see us all ripping up the course on the 2nd of August on NBC.To me this is what Triathlon is all about.....it is why I have been competing for so many years...the grass roots of recruiting first timers into our sport. I absolutely love the atmosphere in the Transition and the anticipation at the Swim start. I met so many wonderful women over the course of the weekend. It was an honor to meet so many wonderful women and be given the opportunity for them to share a little of their lives with me. Since the race I have has so many great comments on my Facebook page.Thanks so much for the invitation to participate in such a fantastic event. The race was well organized and very safe and really challenging. The volunteers were so enthusiastic and extremely helpful. The awards were great especially the Iron Girl necklace. So for anyone thinking of doing a Iron Girl race I highly recommend one.Next adventure Sunday July 12th 70.3 Rhode Island Ironman.
1.
Mirinda Carfrae
1:13:55
2.
Pip Taylor
1:14:56
3.
Michellie Jones
1:18:06
4.
Sam McGlone
1:20:11
5.
Kate Major
1:21:41