I am an Iron Girl!

Yesterday was the Athleta Iron Girl triathlon in Atlanta.  In January, I registered for the event with the goal to simply finish without killing myself.  I am pleased to report that yesterday I finished my first triathlon!  Not only did I just finish but I finished well!  It was so encouraging to be able to meet my goal and feel the benefit of all of the training and hard work I put into accomplishing it.  Not only was I thrilled to accomplish my own goal, I am so proud of my coworkers and friends who were able to accomplish their goals as well.  I am proud of all of our Iron Girls!

For those of you interested, the triathlon was 1/3 mile swim, 18 mile bike ride and 3 mile run all at Lake Lanier.  Here are my times.  Swim: 14:20  Bike: 1:19:48  Run: 28:23  My total time was 2:09:59  The event benefited Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, where I work, and our employees made up 20% of the athletes competing in the event!  I definitely felt very proud to be a Children's employee and felt so supported during the entire race.  All of our supporters wore bright green Children's shirts and cheered us all on during the race.  It was a great feeling to have people you don't know yelling for you as you got out of the lake or rode by on your bike.

Some of my favorite supporters :)  (Note: Sally
was the photographer)

Some of my favorite moments were during the run.  We ran 1 1/2 miles one way and then turned around to finish the race.  I loved seeing my coworkers who were running ahead of me, on their way back to the finish line, or those behind me (once I turned around:).  We would yell out to each other, cheering the other on during the last leg of the race.  It was so sweet and encouraging to know that we were supporting each other and that we were so close to finishing the race!

After the race, all of the Children's employees who finished got together for a picture.  This was another of my favorite moments.  There is something sweet about bringing a group of people together to accomplish something big.  This is something I was able to be a part of a lot during high school, college, and nursing school, but those moments simply become fewer between the older you get.  This was one of those moments.  One where you don't care what your time was, or who you beat, or how to do it better next time.  It was one where you felt a sense of pride for yourself, your friends and coworkers and where you felt honored to be a part of something bigger than yourself.  I was so proud of everyone for finishing what they had set their minds to and for doing it well!  Thank you all for letting me be a part of it!

Our Children's Group

Happy to be an Iron Girl!

We did it!

Yes, it was hard.  And yes, it was fun.  I would love to do it again and have my friends do it with me!  Maybe next year :)

Enjoy a few of these pictures!  (One of my coworker's husband took a bunch of pictures, so hopefully I will be able to share those once they email them out.)

Heading out on the run

Coming in from the run

Love,
Katy