Call us Triathletes !!

Woo Hoo - We Did It !! All three of us completed the 2007 Seattle Danskin Triathlon on Sunday August 19 so now you have to call us Triathlete Deb, Triathlete Karen, and Triathlete Diane! And we are all thinking of doing it again so I think I can speak for all of us when I say that it was a lot of fun (except for being drowned rats while packing up our stuff after the event because of the weather).

One of the really cool aspects of finishing my first Triathlon is that now I have my very own Triathlon shirt -- I volunteered as part of the kokua crew for the Kona Ironman for years so I have several souvenir t-shirts, a hat, and what not... and now when I wear those I can also say, "yeah" I was kokua crew in Kona in the 90s, but I'm also a triathlete! and I completed a sprint distance race AD. (We use BC and AD to mean "before cancer" and "after diagnosis"). BTW, our trainer, tri-turtle Lisa, says that not only are we allowed to wear our bright fuchsia shirts all week, and our medals, we are supposed to!


Thank You to all of our friends who have showered so many good wishes upon us - we really appreciate all the interest you've taken in our adventure and all the good vibes you've sent in our direction -- huge smiles and grateful hugs!!

To recap: the distances (per the medal we received afterwards, yep, we got nice medals) -- swim: .75k, bike: 20k, walk/run 5k ... those are approximates printed for the entire 2007 Danskin Tri series, which occurs in at least 5 cities across the U.S.

For the Seattle event, those distances, translated into miles, which most of you are probably more comfortable with were -- swim: 1/3 mile, bike 13.6? miles, walk/run 3.1 miles. The swim was originally supposed to be 1/2 mile but then was shortened to 1/3 mile so that the event would be over sooner so that the I-90 express lanes could be reopened to automobile traffic sooner. That may be have been because of the Mariners game and a messy I-5 construction project.

This was what is classified as a sprint distance triathlon. There are also Olympic distance events, half-Ironmans, and the famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) Ironman events. The sprint distance events are the introductory level. Danskin Tri was a nice place to start. Since it was all women, 99% of the participants were polite and helpful, and did nice things like attempt not to kick me when they swam past. Of course I racked next to one of the rude 1% - not only was she a space hog who didn't see a problem with having her gear spread out under my bike, when I came back from the bike leg, I found her wet suit hanging exactly where my bike needed to go... but - she also said that she didn't go through any of the training so hopefully she was thoughtless because she was nervous. Our fabulous leader, Lisa, the Tri-Babe's Tri-Turtle, also schooled us on proper behavior for safety and consideration during these events.

Yes we have maps of the courses and I'll see about posting those when I have some time. If you haven't heard from us, or haven't heard much, it isn't because we're hurting after the race, it's because there was so much to do - essentially we were gone all weekend - both beforehand to get ready and afterwards to unpack and dry out everything... plus catchup on chores, work, and/or family stuff.

Our results are below - for some reason this blogging program wants to put a lot of blank lines before the table, even though there is no code telling it to do that, so scroll down a little please.

	Deb	Karen	Diane
bib #:	48	56	47
overall rank:	2109	2284	3066 of 3495
class rank:	132	151	222 of 259
swim:	00:16:56	00:16:15	00:24:12
swim rank:	1545	1308	3104
transition 1:	00:08:30	00:09:10	00:14:51
bike:	00:50:34	00:47:10	00:55:40
bike rank:	2146	1556	2765
MPH:	14.7	15.7	13.3
transition 2:	00:06:53	00:08:07	00:04:57
run:	00:33:43	00:38:29	00:43:41
run rank:	1681	2408	2856
pace:	00:10:52	00:12:24	00:14:05
final:	01:55:48	01:59:13	02:23:24

As you can see, Deb and Karen made good time - they are both inspirational athletes! Plus, to appreciate how well they did, you should know that they didn't even go through a formal training program like I did. They are awesome women!

To help you get a feel for our finishing times: the top finishers' total time was about an hour and fifteen minutes, but I don't think they had as much fun as we did. I achieved my goal, which was to finish with a smile. In fact, my husband said I was one of the only ones he saw with a big smile when returning from the bike leg although I saw lots of smiles when I went through the photos on brightroom.com. I'm sure I probably could have done a little better if I had pushed myself harder. I did my best on the swim, but could have gone a lot faster on the bike and a little faster on the run, and could have shortened that first transition time. And of course I would have preferred to hang closer with my friends, and maybe even nip playfully at their heels a little, but overall, I'm not unhappy with my times. I really thought it was going to take me closer to 3 hours and I'm simply thrilled to have the experience to savor. I've set a nice comfortable baseline, and if I can learn to breath better so that I can also do the crawl in the swim and also get more comfortable running on my toes, I think that next year I should be able to reduce my time to under two hours and still have time to enjoy the event.

We started at the just delightful hour of 6:46 am. Those of you that know me, know that I'm a night owl. Deb doesn't get up early either, and even though Karen is used to getting up earlier than we are, I don't think she ever gets up at 4:30 by choice. We were in the 2nd wave, with green bathing caps, right behind the elites because of our status as first year participants and TSNW members. This gave us a little breathing room before the waves behind us started overtaking us... well, I should say "me" because Karen and Deb were long gone by the time I crawled out of the water. Notice Karen's swim ranking - she is in the top third - and notice that even though Deb was only fourty-one seconds behind her, there is a difference of over a hundred in their ranking. Interesting. Our swim started our wave only one minute after the elite wave, the rest of the swim waves started only 3-4 minutes apart. Next year we will be responsible for our own registration and will probably be in something like wave six, so we won't have to start until around 7:15, but will be closer to the middle of the pack.

The Seattle PI/Times has some photos http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/photos/. The swimmers with green caps may have been our wave, because that was our color. I don't see any of us in the photos though. There are a lot of Tri-Babes in pink shirts in the photos - that is the group I trained with.

The swim was in Lake Washington. We started from the boat launch in Genesee Park, swam a triangular course and walked back up a different boat ramp. Then we walked our bikes out of the racking area onto the street that runs around Lake Washington and headed north towards the floating bridge.

The bike course was mostly flat except for an interesting short, narrow & steep "S" curve up onto I-90 to the Express Lanes, and some gradual slopes at each end of the floating bridge. When I went up the "S" curved onramp, 70-80% of the women were walking their bikes. I was very proud to ride up the whole way even though one woman fell off her bike almost right in front of me. One of the many volunteers was really nice and helped catch her and move her out of the way. Thank You to Tri-Babe Coach Lisa, our Tri-Turtle and all those hills you made us ride during training! Deb and Karen both rode up that hill also. We Rock!!

Also notice Karen and Deb's bike times and ranking! They both made great time again. They were very close together (see Deb behind Karen in the photo of Karen on the bike). Karen was a little faster than Deb on the bike course; roughly 3 minutes - but look how many people separate them in the bike rankings! A 16 minute swim and a 47 minute bike must be the hot times, and my goal for next year (I'll have to learn to pedal faster while enjoying the view :)).

The course along I-90 was really neat - imagine riding your bike on an express lane! Plus the views were gorgeous even though the day was overcast and rainy. At that point it was only misting and raining a little. I feel for those women who had later start times because it probably poured buckets on them while they were on their bikes. We turned around about half way on Mercer Island, under one of the tunnels, and had a little wind against us on the way back. They made us dismount for the S curve descent. I'm still such a newbie that mounting and dismounting are still scary for me so I was particularly proud that not only didn't I fall, my dismount was even a little graceful, and there was a nice curb to help with the remount. This probably sounds pretty funny and wimpy coming from a "Triathlete" - ha! I guess it just goes to show how much of an achievement this was.

After reracking our bikes, we trotted off south towards Seward Park, turned around about Orcas Street, and headed back to Genesee Park. Notice that Deb's time was only 10 minutes per mile! There is one steep hill at the end, and there were two drummers set up there who were fabulous... their rhythm actually made it pleasant to trot up the hill. I've heard they are there every year... and that there is usually some naked guy standing there also, but he wasn't there this year, perhaps because of the weather.


I was almost to the finish line when I heard my mentor, Pam, yell out my name - what a rush! Thank You Pam! Lisa's husband, David, and some other Tri-Babe supporters were close to the finish line cheering everyone on. I tried to get over by them afterwards but couldn't figure out how to get there, so cheered from the other side before getting too cold and wet and packing it in. Tri-Babe supporter, Dane, Lisa's son, gave me my medal after I crossed the line. That was sooo cool. Terry was even at the finish line and I got a surprise hug.

About the time we finished, the light showers turned into a downpour, so gathering things up, and waiting for our rides to make their way to the pickup area was a little miserable, but we dealt with it. What an adventure!!

P.S. Go ahead and laugh at my run outfit -- it's not very well coordinated and I left on my glasses and my biking gloves, but hey, my transition time between the bike and the run was only 4 minutes (as opposed to 14 between the swim and bike)

and YES, we'll do it again!

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A Sad Postscript

On October 19, 2007, Karen was overwhelmed by the cancer that had invaded her and passed over the rainbow bridge. We really thought that if anyone could beat this disease, it would be Karen. Karen was such a strong, wonderful woman. She was very other-oriented and touched many lives with her caring. She was a loving mother, a naturalist, a physical therapist, an artist, an avid gardener, and a gourmet cook, to name only a few of her many talents and diverse interests. At her celebration of life, her family summed up her philosophy as a parent, which was that she felt there were really only two important jobs: to give her children roots and to give them wings.

I Believe in Magic

by Karen Zischke, 2006

Magic is
.....Fairy dust
.....A twinkling in the eye
.....Falling in love

Magic is
.....The sun rising and setting each day
.....Green leaves unfurling in spring
.....Waves lapping the shore
.....A sparkling moonbeam on the water
.....A fairyland of moss carpeting the earth
.....Snowflakes gently falling from the sky

Karen, we love you and miss you.