Jennifer's Joyous Journal

Quote of the Day

"Ugh! I smell like an athlete."

Contributed by Stepan while we were giving Magda her bath after an early evening, 2-hour walk in Walnut Creek Park.

Tri-ing Again

I've completed my first post-partum triathlon and I feel wonderful! The Danskin triathlon was yesterday and everybody I know who participated had a fantastic time. I just don't know why everybody doesn't do this! Here are the highlights...

As a workout leader for Team Danskin, I'm privileged to start with the Elite wave (the first wave which starts at 7am). I'm not sure what I was thinking about in transition, but I somehow wasn't paying attention to the time and missed my starting gun. At 6:59am, I look down at my watch, said a quick, "Oh! Crap!", and ran down to the Swim Start. As politely as I could, I raced through the hordes of women who were lined up for their waves and ended up swimming at the tail end of the Survivor Wave (the 2nd wave of the race - it starts about 1 minute after the Elite Wave. All other waves are spaced at 4 minutes.) In retrospect, it ended up being a good thing. I never had time to get nervous about the swim. I just did it and it felt great! I experienced a bit of a challenge in the first leg of the swim. My goggles leaked a bit on the left, so I tried swimming with that eye closed. Unfortunately, that made me swim quite a ways off course. Once I rounded the 1st buoy, my goggles seemed to correct themselves and I had few troubles for the rest of the swim. Though on a technical note for the Danskin officials, I found the red and blue buoys hard to spot while swimming and much prefer the bright orange ones. Also, a buoy should have been placed closer to the middle of the line from the last corner buoy to the shore.

After getting out of the swim, I actually ran the entire way to transition. I don't think I had ever done that before. I felt strong and eager to attack the bike course on my new bike. Hearing the cheers from the crowd and especially the ones who called my name from Team Danskin made it all the easier to get up that hill. My rack was pretty much as far as you can get from Bike Out. As I was carrying my bike to the mount line, through transition, one of the volunteers told me that I didn't have to carry my bike. I asked, "Aren't there stickers?" Yes there were so yes I carried my bike all the way to the pavement. I had a bit of trouble mounting my bike and clipping into my pedals, but I didn't fall off and I didn't knock anybody else down (though I think that was a near thing). Then I was off. I actually passed a number of people on road bikes as well as those on mountain bikes or hybrids. Of course I was also passed my quite a few people as well. I made it up all the hills and was able to encourage all the women on the route with a smile. At one point, I looked down at my bike computer and saw that I was going an amazing 30 mph - something I could have never achieved on my hybrid.

After dismounting, I was getting tired and I needed to get the blood pumping in my legs again so I decided to roll my bike through transition. I quickly changed my shoes, grabbed my hat and race belt, and I was off. I ran and walked the course, though I think I mostly ran, though not quickly. I did walk up the dam(n) hill though I used super long strides so I was able to pass a few people who were trying to run up it. Once I got to the street and could see the Finish Line and hear the cheers and applause from the spectators, I was able to maintain a nice steady pace. Once in the shoot, I picked it up to a respectable pace, and was deteremined to finish strong, and to finish ahead of the woman I could hear coming up behind me. I was pushing myself and pushing myself. And I could hear her coming. I pushed a little harder. I saw her approaching out of the corner of my left eye. I pushed a little harder and pulled ahead, but alas it was only a briefly held lead. She wanted it more and had more resources to help get her over the line just fractions of a second ahead of me. She may have beat me, but I certainly had fun trying to out pace her!

My goal was to finish in under 2 hours. My official Danskin time was 2hr 1min 40 sec, but remember that I started after my wave did. According to my watch (which I started when I got in the water), I finished in 2hr 0min .4sec. So I was technically only 5 tenths of a second away from meeting my goal.

And that is my Danskin 2005 story. For the minutia of my time, you can read the extended entry. If you know of others who raced yesterday and you want to check their times, you can go here.

These times are from my watch. The transitions, bike, and run pretty much match the official Danskin times. The official Danskin swim time for me is 23m 3s, but remember that I started after my wave did.

My official rank is 1681 of 2850. My class rank (the Elites) is 50 of 54. My swim rank is 1796, bike rank is 1104 with an average speed of 15.5 mph, and my run rank is 2091 with a race pace of 13:36.

Danskin Bonus: Daimond Girl

In commemoration of the 100th Danskin Triathlon to be raced in Seattle this year, Helzberg Diamonds has donated a Circle of Diamonds pendant to be awarded to every hundredth woman to cross the finish line in each of this year's race cities. I'm still in shock to think that I was one of the women lucky enough to win a necklace! If you've read my race report below, you'll realize how amazing it was that I hit that lucky number.

If I had made my race start, I wouldn't have won the necklace.

If I hadn't run to transition after the swim, I wouldn't have won the necklace.

If I had been on my old hybrid bicycle, I wouldn't have won the necklace.

If I had made my desired 10min/mile race pace on the run course, I wouldn't have won the necklace.

If I had tried to run up the dam(n) hill, I wouldn't have won the necklace.

If I had beat that last woman to the finish line, I wouldn't have won the necklace.

But all my stars were aligned and I WON THE NECKLACE!

Thank You Carol Owens

I checked out my official Danskin photos tonight. Some are good; most are bad (I look fat). What's really cool is the picture of me crossing the finish line shows the bib number of the woman who beat me across the finish line and hence awarded me the diamond necklace from Helzberg. Her name is Carol Owen and she is from Tulsa, OK. She competed in the 45-49 age group (so started 3-4 waves behind me) and had an awesome time of 1:44:38. It definitley bears repeating: Thank You Carol Owens!