I read many recaps and stories of others’ Iron Girl experiences before I did it myself last year but I figured that my sister wasn’t going to do that. So, my awesome plan was to get her to volunteer so that she could get a sense of the environment before race day on August 7th. The Columbia Tri is in the same location and put on by the same organization as the Iron Girl Columbia.
I thought it was probably best if we only signed up for body marking, because that would get her familiar with the first part of the day and then leave us to cheer on for a while before going home to nap. She seemed willing to come along until she found out that we had to be there at 4:30 AM but with a promise of a Tutti Frutti reward later in the day, she signed up to volunteer with me.
Sunday morning wake up call was at an exhausting 3:45 AM. I had to leave the house just after 4 to pick her up and be parked by 4:40. Once we had gotten our shirts and markers, we had a quick intro with the group leader and then waited around until transition opened at 5.
