This was my second Danskin, and 11th triathlon. My good friend Jayne Williams, author of Slow Fat Triathlete (what you haven't heard me rave about Jayne and this great book? Where have you been??) was up from the SF Bay area to stay with me for the weekend and join us for Danskin again this year. A weekend with Jayne is a pure treat, she's fun, she's inspirational, and just a great person to hang with. She and I have LOTS in common, a great time. It's a real high to hang with someone all weekend when women are constantly coming up to her, hugging her and exclaiming,"OMG, You're JAYNE!! Your book changed my life, you're the reason I do triathlons!!!".....now you know I didn't write that book, I had nothing to do with it, I didn't know Jayne until last year, but it is a real high to hang out and absorb that kind of energy all weekend! She has a great fan base in the Puget Sound, and her book is now the 7th best selling triathlon book on Amazon. Cool.
Jayne has I think probably 7 (?) seasons of triathlons under her (borrowed, she forgot hers) triathlon race belt, this is only my 3rd, a relative rookie. Neither of us had ever been more wet at the end of a race than we were getting out of the water. Neither of us had ever even done a triathlon in the rain. The weather for Danskin was miserable, but sure made it a memorable race.
We arrived early and easily found a parking spot a few blocks away, sloshed into transition to add air to the tires, hit the bathroom 3-4 times, and found friends. Especially fun to hang out with Laura Monahan, friend of Jaynes, new friend of mine, and wonderful person. We had joined Laura and other fans of Jayne both this year and last for a nice carbo loading dinner Saturday after the Expo.
The swim went relatively well for me, I haven't taken the time out of my busy schedule to train very much this summer, so I hoped to meet or barely beat my time from last year. Hard to compare times when they shortened the race to 604 yards---where'd they get the 604 anyway?? What if we'd only trained for 600 yards? Would we have to stop and drown at the 600 yard mark? My swim rank was 1060 out of the 3499 finishers, and I'm sure there were more swim finishers than that who couldn't complete the whole race because of the weather conditions. I'm ok with 1060 out of 3499. Last year I was 1429 out of 3967, so I'm moving up in the world!
I have no idea why my first transition was so slow, I'm sure it had something to do with the rain and every thing being wet, sloppy and basically miserable, but I'm not sure. How could it really have taken me almost 5 minutes to get in and out of there? No idea, that's the slowest transition I think I've ever done.
I was frankly a little worried about the bike ride. In addition to Danskin last year, I've done three Seafairs, it's the same route, up that little hill to I-90, and every since the very first time when people crashed three bikes in front of me on that hill, I've been nervous about the hill. I'm a fair weather rider, a little worried about riding when it's wet, a little worried about riding with so many inexperienced riders in the rain, and I was worried about the bike ride. I had hoped I would be able to ride hard up the hill on the left. Every race since that first Seafair has been a breeze, I've been able to scamper up the little hill without incident. This year, there were many other riders on that little hill, very frustrating to have them all stop abruptly 1/3 the way up, on both the right and left sides of the narrow lane. I was clipped in and almost bit it, I had to grab onto the woman who stopped right in front of me as I climbed up her back next to her and beg for help while I clung on to her shirt and unclipped my shoes. Had to walk up the rest of the hill, which took annoying amount of time. But I had a great ride after that. I surprised myself by not worrying at all about the wet road, and I went all out. I was very excited to catch up to Patty A (yes the infamous Other Patty--a godess in my eyes who actually finished an ironwoman race at almost my age, with a almost near athena body and with lots of kids and a busy job, she's a godess!), we were kicking it hard, Patty A announced that if she kept that pace, she'd have to walk the whole run. I contemplated this for a second, and figured I had enough to ride hard and run too, so I said goodbye and kicked it harder. I was so excited to catch up to Lisa and Robyn. I'm not usually fast enough on any part of any race to keep up with Lisa and Robyn!! I knew I was doing well, and knew that Lisa was on a new bike, and probably being tentative, but I was excited to play leap frog with Lisa and Robyn anyway. Thanks to both of them by humoring me and playing with me! The three of you really made my ride!
I LOVE that tunnel at Danskin. I love that it's always quiet until I enter it and start whooping it up. "LOOOOKING GOOOOOD!!" is my favorite thing to yell at the top of my lungs in the tunnel, and I love listening to everyone join in and whoop and holler in response, the great echoing of many women's voices cheering to each other, that's cool.
Passed the halfway mark with Lisa, up and back down the hill, still kicking it really fast, about 2/3 the way across the midspan my chain suddenly slipped off, I'm pretty sure I wasn't shifting at the time, luckily I was able to quickly unclip and get off to the side. And luckily I was able to get the chain back on very quickly, pretty sure this didn't cost me more than a minute. Lisa passed me once again, checking to make sure I was ok as she flew by, she's so nice.
At the top of the dreaded little hill, they stopped us all, announced there had just been a bad accident at the bottom of the hill, someone was being taken out by ambulance and we all needed to dismount and walk down the hill. OH, I felt so bad for the poor people in that accident, and was glad they were no longer at the bottom of the hill, they were off getting help. I hate walking in bumpy awkward clip shoes on flat dry asphalt, scarier to walk down the steep little hill in the rain on wet slippery asphalt. My bike time indicates my time was a minute and 37 seconds slower than last year. But I know better. Take off 2-3 minutes for walking up the hill, a minute to put my chain back on, and 3-4 minutes to walk back down the hill, and I know I had a great ride! 919 out of the 3499, compared to last year 1130 out of the 3967, again, getting better.
Ok, so I rank in the top 1/3 in the swim and the bike, both cool. But with my old arthritic right hip, I am a very slow runner, running at barely more than a walk pace. The run was epic. It POURED down rain on us. I was in an early pool, most triathletes were probably on the bike during the downpour. I was thankful to be running, and not cycling then, and felt bad for all those women riding in the pouring down rain. I did my usual slow fat triathlete run, didn't have to walk much, so that was good. I loved cheering for the older survivors as I passed them ( I don't pass many on the run, so truthfully I love to cheer on anyone I pass!)
Overall, I beat my last year's time by 16 seconds! Ok, the swim was shorter this year, but even with that, I hadn't trained as well, the weather was horrendous, those cycling mishaps, I had hoped to meet or beat my last years time, and I succeeded.
It was a good race.
Last year Jayne and I were so pleased that we had stayed until the very end of the race. We both watched with tears rolling down our faces as the very last finisher crossed the finish line with Sally and 8 or so of the race crew, it was a spectacular inspirational moment. We so planned to stay again this year to cheer in that last finisher. We finished the race, we were wet, we were hungry, we were wetter. Sorry last finisher, she was on her own this year without us. We were disappointed to have to leave her and go home, but we were wet to the bone, and couldn't hang out another 2-3 hours, not this year, not in that weather.
Next year we'll be there for her, and hope many of my teammates will stay and cheer her in too.
Brian - as I stood on the bulkhead of the Covington Aquatic Center ready to time your 500, I had no idea how far you had come with your swim. I figured the 1:18 you led off with was probably a fluke - you'd certainly pile 15 seconds on that pace by the 2nd 100. But that was a 1:20, then a 1:21, 1:21, and 1:23. That's a 6:43. l'd like to say that I was 100% excited for you. But because there is something in me that wants to be faster than anyone else (it's an unrealistic obsession but gives me joy) I remembered back to my own timed 500 a few days earlier.....6:45.
I am a mother of two great kids Katie 13 and Jon 11 and wife to a wonderful husband Dan. I was never a big athlete as a kid I played basketball and rode my bike but, as an adult I wanted to set new goals for myself and encourage my kids to be active by my example. I had always thought it would be a huge accomplishment to say I ran a marathon but, I could never find anyone who wanted to do it with me. So, when we moved to Ravensdale 4 years ago neighbors of mine convinced me that I could run a marathon. With a lot of long running hours I finished the Seafair marathon in the summer of 2005. I ran the half in 2006 with a co-worker from the gym. After doing all that running training I realized that it took up a lot of time in one area of fitness and I wanted to do other things outside instead like ride my bike. I thought I would try something new and attempt a triathlon. My first Tri was last year at the Danskin. I had a great race and came in 77th on the bike. That same year I did 2 duathlons, since my swimming was not my strong area, to finish out the year. That same year I started working at Tahoma Athletic Club at the front desk and taking spin classes again. I had been waiting for a club to open in Maple Valley that offered spin classes since I had not been able to take a class since we moved from West Seattle 2 years before. I love spin classes because they are such a great workout plus they give you the bike workout you need in the fall and winter months when the weather is not cooperating to ride outside. When the opportunity came up for me to get certified to be an instructor I jumped on it. I have been teaching classes at 5:30am on Wednesdays since last spring. I now teach every other Friday also. I try to simulate riding outside in my classes by working on the things that we need for improving our road rides outside while being inside a gym. I have learned a lot since I first started taking classes 8 years ago and I can tell the difference it has made in my strength on the bike at the beginning of this year’s tri season from taking the classes year round. I have had a fun time being a part of the RTB team this year. There are a lot of very supportive teammates and coaches to help you along the way.
What a fantastic day. It started out with lots of hugs from teammates/friends, fun pictures, lots of support and just plain good energy.
I love spontaneity. Can't pull it off very often these days, but on Saturday every celetial orb lined up perfectly and I ended up on the road to Ironman Canada with Kris Stolmeier, one of the managers of Team Fastt. No, we did not sign up for 2008. 
We left on Saturday afternoon after the Lake Sammamish Race for the 6 hour drive. We had no place to stay, but figured we'd find something. We had sleeping bags and a tent just in case, and a sparsely furnished cooler. It was dark when we got to Penticton. 2700 athletes signed up for the race and apparently brought everyone they knew with them to fill every hotel, motel, parking lot, dock, raft, sidewalk, and median. No lodging.....at all. We managed to make friends with Dan and Terry, two friendly Canadians who agreed to let us share their campsite. We pitched our tent in the pitch black and had a refreshing drink to celebrate our arrival.
My main reason for going was to see my teammates race. Cheryl Iseberg, Tim Larson, Win Van Pelt, and Sean Mabin. We learned before the start from Rob, Cheryl's husband, that she wouldn't be racing - she was sick all night. She's smiling in this picture, but her little Ironheart is broken, I assure you. Mine too.
The swim start was pretty amazing. It was really the only time of the day that I wished I was racing. This picture shows about 1/4 of the athletes, I suppose. They were endless. Tim tells me he started in this part of the crowd. He's in the black wetsuit and blue cap right there by that gal in the black wetsuit and pink cap. He beat her.
ou f
igure something out! 
I get my medal and am happy to be done. A near panic in the water. A bike crash on the ride. A run with a strained hamstring. A respectable top 25 finish in my age group and top 4% finish overall. I’ll take it!
