The Sweet Smell of Success - Danskin 2011

When we finally got to the staging area to rack our bikes, we were in awe at the size of the race venue. Row after row of bike racks were laid out to accommodate over 2000 bikes. It finally hit me how big a race this was. It was my first Seattle Danskin Sprint Triathlon, August of 2011.

I should have realized the size of this all-women's race, when my buddy, KO, and I had to wait two hours in line for race marking and packet pick up. But the time in line didn't phase us as we chatted it up with each other and others in line. The most common question being, 'Is this your first?'. Even though I had only done one Triathlon a cpl months earlier, this was KO's first, which made me the 'experienced' one. Ha! What a joke!

My reputation as the experienced one was quickly squashed when we drove the 15 miles to rack our bikes and then realized we had left our bike numbers at the hotel when we had checked in after packet pickup. She couldn't help but think it, but didn't say it (cause she's nice), but I did: Um, I guess I should have known we'd need the bike numbers to leave our bikes at the venue overnight. Duh! With only a half hour left until the bike racking would close for the day, racing back to the hotel to get our bike numbers and then back again to the park would become the first leg of the race. Thanks to lots of green lights and skillful speeding driving by KO, we made it!

Next, we raced off to join the TriBabe group for a pre-race rally. LisaB, our fearless leader, gave last minute tips to calm nerves and remind us that, after 3 months of training, we were ready to COMPLETE this race (note she didn't say COMPETE, just COMPLETE)! She explained the Danskin course a bit, mentioning that the 12 mile bike course was relatively flat except for a short, steep climb to get up onto the freeway overpass of the I90. She told us that we absolutely must whoop and holler as we bike through the tunnel portion of the I90 and that they were closing the I90 Bridge across Lake Washington for us to bike across. Pretty cool, we all thought!

I marked the tiny buoy waay the heck out there that we had to swim around. 

The last event of the day was the traditional carbo loading dinner. We meet up with my other buddy doing the race, KB, and I felt compelled to try to rehash all the LisaB tips that she had missed at the pre-race rally. I was taking my 'experienced' racer role a little too seriously, perhaps? Hehe. We laughed and had a great dinner. It was full of pizza and pasta, only ONE rum-n-diet coke, and plenty of water for pre-race hydration. Then  it was back to the hotel to try to sleep. But there was only one thing was on my mind that night -- THAT DAMN SWIM!

My first season mantra

After a fitful nights sleep, I awoke at 5, put my pink TriBabe jersey on and my pink TriBabe sweatshirt with my favorite TriBabe mantra on ('The miracle is not that I finished, the miracle is that I began'). I was nervous, but nothing like the bundle of nerves I encountered when first seeing KO that morning in the parking lot of the hotel. She was shaking from head to toe. I hugged her hard a few times, trying to stop the shake and reassure her that she was going to do great and all would be ok. But, honestly, I wasn't so sure at the time!

Hold me!!

It was still dark when we got dropped off at the race venue amongst thousands of other women. We set up our gear and struggled into our wet suits, all the while gazing in wonder at all the different ages, sizes, and shapes of women preparing for the race (you wouldn't believe it!). KO and I headed over to the swim start to survey the 1/2 mile swim, clutching each other for comfort and support. I had the visions of my last swim-panicked race dancing in my head and she had visions of her own swim-panic experience in training dancing in her head. At that moment, I think we both wished we were somewhere else just dancing!

Our wonderful husbands and my sweet D#2 were there to give us support and good-luck hugs (and to pictorially document our extreme state of fear). KO, KB and I were all in different swim start waves. The announcer revved up each swim wave by giving them a 'group name', such as 'Courageous' or 'Strong'. I giggled as the announcer got to my wave and shouted 'This group is 'SEXY'! Obviously she wasn't looking at me when she said it! Sexy was about the last thing I was at that moment -- shaking from fright, in a wet suit, with lime green swim cap on, 'old lady' goggles and nose clip, too! I think there is a reason why Sports Illustrated has a swimsuit edition and not a triathlon edition.

It was every woman for themselves as the race started. I watched KO start out strong in the swim, but quickly lost sight of her in the crowd of swimmers. My swim went OK. I did have a bit of a trouble catching my breath again, but was able to regain control after about 5 minutes and resume a slow front crawl. And you know you are doing a SLOW front crawl when gals doing the breast stroke are passing you, frog kicking you in the face as a final insult. I did not do the back stroke at all -- only forward movement allowed during this race I had vowed beforehand. The swim was twice as long as my first race and seemed to take FOREVER! And again, elation filled my being when the swim was OVER! I knew the hard part was behind me...well, except for that steep hill on the bike leg LisaB warned us about.

In the transition area, I AGAIN lost my race timer from my leg as I peeled off my wet suit. This time the plastic broke completely and I needed a safety pin to repair it. I ran around like a crazy woman screaming, 'Who has a safety pin?!', to no avail. I finally had to track down a race official to get one. Guess what I never forget to put in my race bag now? If you ever need a few dozen safety pins, see me!

As I finally started out on the bike leg, I remember worrying about KO. Had she finished the swim? I didn't see her in the transition area. I hoped she was OK. I was happy to be able to shift down and bike up the worrisome steep incline onto the I90 overpass without having to hop off my bike and walk it up (like some did). WooHoo! All challenges behind me, it felt natural to scream and shout at the top of my lungs when going thru the I90 tunnel! Mine shouts and others blended and echoed through the tunnel and beyond, in true 'I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar' fashion. Helen woulda been proud!

The feeling of cycling over the closed I90 Bridge with beautiful, morning sunrise views of Lake Washington on either side was exhilarating! I enjoyed every minute of it. Except for the nagging question: was KO OK?! I got my answer in a splendid way. As I was entering the tunnel on the return trip, KO passed me swiftly and shouted 'Looking good, girlfriend!!'. Yay!! KO was OK!! Better than OK, she was killing it on the bike (and later the run also). I was so relieved, I let out my own congratulatory yells to KO and then whooped it up all through the tunnel. Oh what a feeling!

2011 TriBabes at Danskin

The run was fun because there were so many other TriBabes in the race. It is tradition to shout an encouraging 'Go Tribabes' or 'TriBabes Rock' when you see another in the familiar pink TriBabe jersey. Never underestimate the power of this encouragement. I love to give it and enjoy receiving it. I was thankful to have my watch on and knew that I wanted to try to run the 5K in 30 minutes. I achieved my goal, but just barely. The hill at about the 4.5K point is just plain mean, IMO.

KB, me and KO - Danskin COMPLETers! 

KO was waiting for me at the finish line (and later we met up with KB, too) and we all exchanged plenty of hugs of relief and joy. KO had actually had to back stroke much of the swim course, but, fortunately, she can do it in a straight line and had a very respectable time. We didn't care about our times (well, maybe KO did, being the numbers gal she is), we just reveled in our accomplishment of COMPLETING our first Danskin Sprint Triathlon.

D#2, the barefoot pretend-Triathlete

One of the best parts about the day was seeing D#2 get excited about Triathlon. She spent the day watching all manner of women come across the finish line and I know the seed was planted in her mind to someday train for a Triathlon herself. She even hopped on my bike and rode around the park for a while. SPOILER: one year later she was one of over 1500 women who completed the Seattle Danskin. Yay!

It was a great race experience! We felt good about our performances and we felt a connection to the 2000+ women who had competed that day. The comments written on the race banner after the race conveyed some of the huge challenges that some women had to overcome to be there.  I wrote '50 is the new 30' on the banner. For me, it wasn't cancer or health or finances that challenged me (like some of the other women there); it was just having enough confidence as a 50 year old to try something new, difficult, and scary!

Apparently he recognized the Sweet Smell of Success (?)

As is often the case when you are feeling good about an accomplishment, there is always something that happens to bring you back down to earth. On that day, that moment actually came pretty quickly. As I was posing for my victory pictures, H#1 caught this canine congratulatory sniff on his camera. LOL.

How about you? Do you have any embarrassing post-race pics? Or any stories of how you were quickly humbled post-race?