You might want to settle in, this one is a long one.
After my very successful 5k last weekend, on a whim, I decided to see if there were still spots available for the Danskin Triathlon in Seattle. There was, so I signed up.
I have been feeling very strong in the pool, and my riding has been pretty consistent. My running will always be the weak link in the chain that is the athlete Karen. I have frequently joked over the years that I run, when chased. And even then, don't worry. I'm the lame gazelle at the back of the herd. Y'all are fine. But after the 5k, and finishing under 30 minutes, I decided what the hell. Just give it a shot.
The Danskin Triathlon is a sprint distance. 0.5 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3.2 (5k) run. Very manageable. Additionally, it's a women's only race that supports breast cancer research. They have a survivors category, for women who have defeated any type of cancer. It's really hard to find a more inspiring, "I am Woman Hear Me Roar" kind of event. It is also very frequently, a first triathlon for many women. There are women of every shape and size, skill level, age, all out there, many with this being a huge win for them, regardless of where they finish. Like I said, very inspiring.
You start in waves, and they are grouped by age group. My age group, 40-44. My start time, 0710. My Swim cap color, light blue. It was a very early Sunday morning. After eating my usual breakfast of granola and fruit, and a cup of coffee (duh!), I set out to Genessee Park in Seattle at 0545. The park is right on Lake Washington, next to a great road called Lake Washington Boulevard. Making my way from where I parked to the transition area, where my bike was racked, I was reviewing in my head all of these videos I had been watching about how to make your transition as fast as possible, switching from one sport to the next. You arrange your equipment by sport, and set it up so that it takes you as little time as possible to change. The videos had some great suggestions, all of which I took advantage of. Additionally, I had purchased a tri-suit which can be worn for all three sports, limiting the change time. Very very wise purchase.
With about 60 minutes before my start time, my body started to do it's pre-race prep. If you've never done a competitive race, you might not have experienced this, but it's a flight or fight response where the body jettisons all material that might slow you down. No, not puking. Why it kicks in right before a race, I'll never understand. Sometimes for a bike race, it can take several trips to the bathroom. My worst fear was to be in my wetsuit and my body decide it was time. That was not the case today. Everything was fine with one trip, before the wetsuit.
Again, not being afraid to ask for help from strangers, I ask a co-competitor to zip me up. This time it's easier to get on, owing to the fact that it's about 60 degrees out and I'm not sweating.Once the wetsuit was on, I made my way down to the starting area to jump in the water before I begin (another suggestion from the videos). There is a swarm of humanity at the start, with all of these women in different colored swim caps (it's how they know you are in the right wave). The water feels great, and the wetsuit is the bomb! But my goggles, they begin to fog. I spit in them (little known fact, human spit helps decrease fogging) to now avail. Hmmmm, those goggles will probably need to be replaced. I then line up with my group and start chatting up everyone. It's what I do. Another tip, if you're a strong swimmer, line up at the front of your wave. I'm feeling strong, so I decide, what the hell. Front and center. I am secretly hoping that I'm not overly confident and I'll piss off a bunch of people.
As the waves begin to go, I start getting excited. Holy crap, I'm really gonna do one! And like I said, it's really empowering with all of these women. Roar! And then it's my wave...and I swim like I've never swum before! If for nothing else, but to get away from the scrum that is the start of an open water swim. I get kicked a couple of times, but I kick someone else a couple of times, so it's all even, and before I know it, I'm in open water with no waves buffering me, which tells me I'm out front. And then I just settle into a rhythm, swimming. As I continue on, turning the first buoy onto the second, I notice that water is getting choppy. Not because of wind, but because I'm now starting to swim through the waves that went before me. As I glance up I can see that there are maybe 2 or 3 blue caps ahead of me, but everyone else is from a different wave. The rest of the swim is pretty uneventful, except for the dodging of slower swimmers, occasionally having to clean my goggles and taking some mouths full of water because of the number of people.
Once out of the water, I see only a couple of blue caps. I make my way to the transition area, unzipping my wetsuit and pulling down the top (tip!), making sure I step on the timing mat and hear the beep acknowledging me (tip!). Once there, it's a race to get out of the suit, into my cycling stuff and onto the bike. Helmet on first (tip!) while stepping out of suit, then socks, shoes, grab the bike and run to the mount area. Not sure of my transition time, but it felt like maybe 2 minutes. And then I settle into a nice little time trial on the bike. Frequently needing to say on your left so that the people I'm passing know I'm there. As I'm making my way, I'm looking at the other numbers and I don't see anyone in my group. It's at this point that I start to really think about how well I might actually finish this thing. The only hiccup on the bike leg was on a small hill that we have to climb to get to I90. I came around a corner and there was were three women ahead of me, two of them seriously mashing their gears on this hill. They begin to slow down just as I approach them. They don't know that they really should be as far over to the right as possible. They are spread across. All going the same speed. And then the one on the left side decides that she is going to dismount her bike. Right there. She stops and loses control of her bike, crashing into me, which knocks me over, which knocks over the other two. She is apologizing profusely, trying to ask if I'm okay. In my head I'm like "Shut up! Just get up so I can get up and get back on my bike!". Outwardly, I say "It's okay, it's all okay". There was a volunteer right there who picked up my bike first and then gave me a hand up. I ran up the rest of the hill, remounted and then was off again. Seriously, no harm, no foul. She didn't mean to do it. It happens. I wasn't passed by anyone on the bike, so I felt really good about that.
Once done with the bike, I knew my menace was coming. The run. As I came out of the transition area, I saw Kirk, Ella and Evan, cheering me on and that gave me some strength! I wish I could say that I was like Forrest Gump, and that "I can run like the wind blows." I'm more like "I can run like the swimmer rides a bike". I did manage to average sub-10 minute miles. It was really fun running along, hearing all of these women cheer each other on, giving high fives along the way.
So, the results...
I placed 8th in my age group (out of 164). Yeah! Top 10, my first tri! Overall, out of the 2000+, I placed 138th. I'm very happy about this! My transitions were very good (T1=2:58-could be faster, T2=1:39). My swim split was great, 15:43, 5th out of the water. Bike split was good, but could be much better, 38:43, 6th done. My run split, sucked. 30:04 (my average pace was 9:42). The 7 women ahead of me all ran sub 9 minute miles, with three of them running sub 8. gah.
I can run like the swimmer rides a bicycle.
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