Danskin Triathlon

I love to do the Danskin Triathlon. It all started five years ago when a good friend of mine, Maria, asked me if I'd like to do it with her. Startlingly, I heard the words "YEA! I'd love to try that" come out of MY MOUTH. It was an out of body experience. The beer drinking, French-fry loving me stood by silently shaking her head in disbelief. But I was committed.

At the time I was running about six miles during a good week. There was no swimming and no biking - AT ALL - before race day. Just for a shot of confidence, the night before the race I called my parents to let them know what an incredibly brave thing I was undertaking. My Dad said "well you know it's easy enough to quit running or biking when you get tired but it may cause problems to stop swimming in a 30 ft deep lake". Oh, sure, the little details. But I'm proud to say that I held off any logical thinking about the race right up to the very morning of the event.

Suddenly, surrounded by women with magic marker numbers tattooed on their lean, fit, Speedo-clad bodies the realization of the deep shit I was in slipped in under my swim cap. "I'm concerned that I haven't swam 50 miles since last week" they all seemed to be saying. I searched frantically through my brain files for a confidence building vision of my last time in the water. AH HA! It was the night I had been out dancing and drinking with a girlfriend on Sixth Street. We caught a limo ride with a band and ended up skinny-dipping under the 360 bridge (UPDATE: my friend emailed to remind me that we didn't actually get totally naked for this swim. Feel better now Jane?). Then there was the time when I was seven years old (approximately 400 years ago) that I moved up from a tadpole to a shark all in one day of swimming lessons. This was not helping. Help, Maria!

"You'll be fine" she assured me. Yea, easy to say when you're 6 feet, 140 pounds of triathlon fit perfection. "Fat actually helps when you're swimming". Now there's some encouragement that just might buoy me through this deep water. So there I was waddling slowly forward in a sea of colored swim caps towards the water's edge. The first group in the water are the elite athletes. The rest of us are grouped by age. Each age group has a different colored cap. We take off in waves; one age group a few minutes after the other so we're not all bunched up in the water.

Finally, it was our turn to get into the water. It felt good. It was actually warmer in the water than out. My group treaded water waiting for our turn to start. I suddenly realized I had my wedding ring on. Oh, great. No way was it going to stay on while I was doing my super-fast freestyle stroke for this half-mile swim. I waved down a race helper in a canoe and swam over to her. I handed this total stranger my rings and swam back to the group. That was about all the swimming I could do. Our group was signaled to start. I began swimming freestyle. I could almost remember how to do that. I can't tell you how far the turnaround seemed to be. Half a mile in the water is far! Pretty soon I was on my back just trying to move forward and keep my head above water. Somehow I got to the end of the swim. I was so proud of my backstroking self! I couldn't believe that women were actually RUNNING up the hill out of the water. While getting my rings back, I asked the canoe woman to carry me up the hill. I offered to trade her my rings for the ride. She declined but was otherwise very supportive. Everyone was very supportive. I got a few slaps on the back and a "come on, you can make it" on my way up that mountain. Oh my God, my legs were like lead. I could barely lift them to put one in front of the other.

I made it to the transition area. I slowly got ready for the bike. I noticed that I was one of the few people not concerned with my transition time. Can you believe that people were in a hurry to do more of this? Eventually, I made the twelve-mile bike ride and then walked most of my way through the 5K run. But I finished. I finished! I was truly thankful and happy that I had tried it.

I've done the Danskin two more times since. And I plan to do it again this year. Each year I've done more training. My second year I trained for the swim for a full month before the race. The next year I was swimming ½ miles 2 times a week for 3 months before the race in addition to some running and biking. This year I have a new bike, which I've been riding pretty regularly since December. I run to the swimming pool and swim a half-mile and run back home twice a week. The other days I run longer routes and I'm lifting weights. Pretty soon I might be one of those women talking about being concerned because I haven't swam my 50 miles the week before the race. I am definitely one of those women trying to encourage new tri-ers up the mountain. And if I could just get my bike shoes off 10 seconds faster in the transition.

Here's my results from the race on June 4, 2000.
Results from the Trilogy Triathlon October 28, 2000

Find out more about the Danskin Triathlon.