Danskin Seattle 8/2004

August 15, 2004
Seattle, WA
.5m swim/12.5m bike/5k run

Some background first, I did the Seattle Danskin last year as my very first triathlon, it was incredible! I cried when I finished and so did DH. I finished weighing 280lbs after losing about 78lbs. Finish Time was 2:06.38

Fast forward to this year. I've now lost 132lbs and weigh 226. I have a road bike. I've done other sprint triathlons and a whole bunch of other running and biking events. My goal was to take 15-20min off my time from last year.

Friday:
Bush and Kerry are both in Portland today so we leave at about 12:45 to beat the highway closures for the motorcades. Stop for a quick bite and leaving Vancouver at 1:30pm, turns out Bush went from PDX to Seattle so after sitting in traffic for nearly 4 hours we get to our hotel in Bellevue.

***DISASTER STRIKES***

After checking in and enjoying a diet Roy Rogers at the free happy hour, I realize I am beginning to come down with a yeast infection, ugh! Wearing a damp trisuit all day on Sunday doesn't sound fun. Off to the store for water, medicine and to pick DH up after he biked to the path that he'll be riding on race morning. Stopped at DQ and enjoyed a small PB Cup Blizzard - YUMMY! Watched Opening Ceremonies, stayed up til Midnight but was super excited about the expo on Saturday.

Saturday:
Up at about 8am, delicious breakfast of french toast and banana. Got 2 bagels and pb & j packets for race morning, packed up my bike and headed to the race site. DH biked to the race site to double check his route. Infection felt like it was subsiding, got on my bike and practiced "killer hill" a few times. The hill isn't that bad in a low gear but it's narrow and at Danskin it's a cr*pshoot whether someone stops in front of you so I wanted to make sure I could unclip fast enough.

Met up with DH, headed to expo. Expo was a madhouse. Way too many people, way fewer booths, long lines, chaos abounds and outside so standing in the hot sun for most of it, ugh! Carol P and Tina came and I hung out with them while I waited to get my #, packet, bodymarked etc, found out I was in the WORST transition area.....

Tory - You were truly blessed to be in A, I was in H as far away as you could be from the Swim Finish, Bike Start and Run Start. Yuck!

Met up with Erickado, Prlgrl, Carol P, Tina at Mentor/Mentee booth, chatted cruised the expo a little and then DH and I took off to rack my bike. I mean sheesh if I have to have the suckiest area at least I can get a good rack spot.

WAS SUPER IMPRESSED WITH TANK TOPS THIS YEAR! Woo Hoo, Cool Max tanks that I can actually wear to exercise! Yahoo! Thanks to Ericka for letting me try hers on so I could determine what size to get. I'm wearing mine to spinning tonight :)

Racked my bike, got a good spot, talked to some newbies who were confused about what to do in transition and was happy I could help. Headed back to hotel. Packed up all my gear, doublechecked everything and then met Carol P and PrlGrl for dinner. Not as good as last year but the Chocolate Fondue was awesome as was the company so it was a great evening. Got back to the hotel just in time to watch the Olympics (cycling and swimming), shared some steak fries with DH and finally went to bed just before 11pm.

Raceday:
4:50am came all too soon, got up quietly, got dressed, mixed up my GU20, ate a banana, bagel w/pb&j and headed out. Carol P's friends live 3blks from the park so I parked there and walked to the transition zone. Glad I could do this! Thank you Carol P!!!!

Set up my zone, talked to some people, walked around, went down to the water for the swim start. Horn sounds and they're off. Last year it took the elites less than 8min to exit the swim, this year when my watch said 15min had passed and the first one wasn't out I knew we were in trouble. I happened to see Maggie (the VP Sports Marketing from Danskin) and asked her about the time difference, she said last year the swim was short and that she didn't know about this year but yes it did seem like it took a long time for the elites to finish.

Watched the Team Survivor wave go then walked back to BFE to drop my sweatshirt and sandals and carefully walk back to swim start. OUCH! All the gravel was hurting my feet. Saw Ericka just as her wave was about to start, wished her luck and then I went to the warm up area. Got my feet wet, talked to a few more newbies before I knew it I was on deck.

Swim:
Got into the water with the rest of the powder blue caps (it was warm and I was soooo happy about that), our secret word was Stupendous and we high fived Sally, counted down and then we were off. I have taken a cue from Puddy and worked on improving my swimming in the last few months. Also I'm swimming further as I am training for the Oly and 1/2 IM. I started in the front to the side and after making my way through the initial melee I found clear water and started to swim. I did freestyle the whole time except as I rounded the buoys which were very crowded. I felt really good about my swim but I knew something was wrong when I passed the first cap from 2 waves ahead of me before the first buoy. Hmmm okay that's odd, worked hard to avoid the breast and back strokers who were increasing the closer we get to the 2nd buoy. By this time, I'm passing swimmers from 5 and 6 waves ahead. Uh oh. Still feeling really good and swimming strong and fast. Had I not known how long it took the elites I would have exited this swim thinking that was easily a personal best swim time. Got to shore, look at watch and WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 29.11 WTF, saw Carol P and I'll I could say was "that swim was long" as I ran into to T1.

Swim Time: 29.11
Swim Rank: 1237

T1:
Into T1 and was super frustrated because I had all these time goals and this long swim has just made comparing this year to last year impossible in that department. Considering how far I had to go in T1 I was quick and off on my bike.

T1: 5.03

Bike:
Started on the bike and really hammered the first 2 miles til the killer hill, got in front of many more novice shaky cyclists who I thought may inadvertantly cause me to tip over while trying to unclip and powered up the hill. Saw DH on the side of the hill looking bewildered as to how long it'd taken me to get to said hill.

Got up killer hill, passed a ton of people as I literally flew down the hills :) Being big does have it's advantages. Made it to the turn focusing on keeping my speed high and HR low. Said good job and way to go a lot to women who looked like they were having a tough go of it. Back down killer hill and then into big ring to hammer back to T2. Bike was a bit short according to my computer it was 11.75.

Bike Time: 42.10
Bike Speed: 17.6 MPH
Bike Rank: 1033

T2:
Into T2 and then out again as I was really wanting to get to the finish since my time was messed up anyway. Came up with a new way of linking my race belt, GU and hat together so I'm not picking up multiple things :)

T2 Time: 2.44

Run:
By this time it's starting to get HOT and I am grateful for the water stations as I take 2 cups at each (one to drink, one down my back). 1st mile is 12.58, 2nd mile 13.31 so I'm a bit skeptical on how long the last mile was since it doesn't seem like it took me 16+ min to run 1.1 miles. Oh well. Shouted encouragement to a lot of women on the run, didn't wear headphones this year as I'm learning to run without them during races. Looked for DH at the corner before the final turn (he was here last year, crying as he saw me and I started crying, needless to say it was very emotional) but it was totally different this year so just kept running.

When I got to the edge of the chute I started sprinting as by then I really just wanted to be finished already. Crossed the finish line and there must have been 10,000 people there milling around.

Run Time: 42.55
Run Rank: 2673

Got some water, finishers medal, looked around for DH for like 15 min and decided I'd never find him in this crowd so I went to the transition zone and finally saw him there.
He'd been waiting by my section of the transition zone to watch me do T2 and he never saw me when I came in off the bike so he waited the whole time thinking something had happened on the bike and I was just super slow. What an awesome guy! He just waited and worried, hoping I was fine but figuring something was off since it took so long to get to the hill where I saw him earlier in the race.

I confirmed I was fine, finished and ready to head home so I packed up my gear and hopped on my bike and DH and I rode the 1 mile back to the car. He'd packed the hotel this morning before he left so we zipped home, got showered and the car loaded and then headed for PDX.

Watched Olympics and had some pizza for dinner last night after many minutes spent fretting over the swim and the aftermath it had on my times.

Final Time: 2:02.04
Class Rank: 215/337
Overall Rank: 1800/3426

Still disappointed that I didn't even cut 5 min off of last year's times and being an analyst I started doing some research:

2003 Swim - 18.45 Rank 2635
2004 Swim - 29.11 Rank 1237
Since we figure the swim in 03 was about 600yds and 04 was 1200 yds that's quite an improvement :)

2003 T1 - 6.14
2004 T1 - 5.03
Worse location for 04 so good improvement.

2003 Bike - 49.22 Rank 2713
2004 Bike - 42.10 Rank 1033
WOO HOO! 7.12 improvement

2003 T1 - 4.17
2004 T1 - 2.44
Again worse location for 04 so good improvement.

2003 Run - 47.59 Rank 3561
2004 Run - 42.55 Rank 2673
5.04 min improvement which really should have been better but I'll take it.

2003 Final Time: 2:06.38 Rank 3289
2004 Final Time: 2:02.04 Rank 1800
45% Improvement - WOO HOO!!!!

So even though I didn't technically beat my time. For an apples to apples comparison if I kept my times from this year and cut the swim time in 1/2 to simulate what I did last year my final finishing time would be 1:47.40 which is super close to my super secret goal of 1:45.

They say you can't go home again and I totally believe that to be true! The Danskin Triathlon is a fantastic race filled with memories and achievements for all involved but it wasn't the same for me this year.

The crowds, the mismeasured course and the increasing # of people who do absolutely no training and just show up on race day often put others at risk. There were tons of people who tipped over on the hills, and a couple of full on crashes. Yes this can happen at any race but it's worse at a race like Danskin because there are so many people new to the sport and already unsure on things like hills or for that matter swimming an extra 1/4 mile.

So all that being said, I love Danskin, I will always support their mission of getting women involved in triathlon and I thank God they are around because the path I am on is in large part due to finishing their race as my first ever.

Next year I think I'll be a swim angel and cheerleader for people on this board but I doubt I'll race at Danskin again unless my mom or sister decide to do it. I wanted to race this year to beat my time, the crowds and course pretty much prevented me from full on racing so I think Danskin isn't a good fit for me as long as I'm racing myself for time.

I still had an awesome time but it was tempered by a little bit of personal disappointment at not being able to meet my goals.

Train Hard, Race Fast, Be Safe!
Bonnie