Athletic Adventures: IronMan 70.3 Zell am See - Day 2

Friday happened to be more about me than the Husband in the end. I decided that I would also run a race this weekend - the Iron Girl 4. 2km race, which was held on Friday. But first I had to register, so the first thing we did on Friday morning was to go to the conference centre and register me for the race, as well as picking up the Husband's registration pack for his race (on Sunday). Given we were in town then, we picked up pastries for breakfast (I had this delicious pastry that was a combination of a cinnamon roll shape, but with baklava type filling, which was great!)

Then Husband decided he wanted to drive most of his bike course (80km total), to have a look at the climbs and the road conditions. We stopped in a small town called Dienton (about 80% of the way up the climb) so that he could ride down but then mostly so he could ride up the climb and decide how hard it would be on the day. While he did that, I went for a walk through the town, then climbed a hill in the outskirts of the town to visit a lovely little church. It had really cool wrought iron headstones in the graveyard, but the gate was closed so I didn't go in. However, there was a walking trail which went up further and into the forest, which I followed until it got too muddy for my converse. It was a delightful way to spend an hour or two!

After that we drive the rest of the bike course, stopping in a town bakery to pick up some fresh rolls and ham for lunch. We think it was Maishofen, but we didn't make a note of it at the time... Then we headed back to Zell am See for a quick rest before my race!

It was a lovely place to race, running through the cobbled town before heading about 2km out of town along the lakeside path, then turning around and coming back. I actually ran practically all of it, which was a record for me, and I even made it 1.3km before I saw the winner coming back the other way! In the end, I ran the 4.2km in 27:27, which was pretty quick and I was very pleased with the result (about 200 out of 270 ladies). Plus, I have a new finisher shirt and a medal now!

Then I only had time to shower and change, really, before heading back to the conference centre for the pasta party! Basically, it was a huge buffet with lots of types of pasta, and they used it as a welcome dinner, with a few speeches and discussion about the race and the Iron Man organisation. It was pretty delicious and a great reward after my race!