getting to the finish line one inch at a time.: 2010 Danskin Triathlon Race Report

It’s funny; I have good years and bad years with the Danskin Triathlon. If you’ll remember, last year I had my best time ever on the course. If I had been true to form, I would have undertrained for the race and performed poorly. It’s been my pattern after all.

This year, however, was different. If you’ll remember, I’d been coming off the leg injury and right as I was healing from that debacle, I was sidelined again with surgery. In my initial consultation pre-op I’d asked my surgeon (no this had nothing to do with my leg, more on that later) how long it would be before I could run again. I knew that the Danskin Tri was looming in the not too distant future. “2 weeks” he said. I did the math in my head and realized that from surgery date, I had 7 weeks before the race to get back into swimming, biking and running. 7 weeks is not long to prepare for any race. I was a bit scared.

I’ve had surgery before, twice before. Frankly, I don’t ever remember being able to run ANYWHERE 2 weeks after going under the knife. I wasn’t confident. I was also sad, much sadder about the potential of bailing on the Danskin than any other race in the past. This was, after all, the race that started it all. Laura and I have been swimbikerunning the Danskin for the last 5 years in a row. We’d agreed to keep doing it until we just couldn’t. Year 6 seemed ever so early to be backing out of that plan.

So the couple of weeks leading up to my surgery I jumped in the pool, hopped on my bike and hit the pavement as much as I could. I figured that the stronger I was going into the surgery, the faster I would recover on the other side of it. I figured that maybe, just maybe, I could get out there and try the tri.

My surgeon was wrong. When I tried to run at 2 weeks I barely made it down the block. At 3 weeks I made it down the block but then could barely move for 2 days. The clock was ticking.

I decided that maybe it was the running that was bothering me. So I got back on the bike. Success!

And I kept biking….getting stronger…telling myself that showing up and participating was the most important part. As long as I was there and finished, that would be enough. I kept telling myself that while I avoided running and didn’t get back in the pool.

Now I’m not totally insane. I needed to try the swimming portion before getting in the lake with 100+ other people. Not being able to swim would be a deal breaker. The night before I left for Austin I got back in the pool. This was the test. I knew I could handle the bike portion, and I could walk the run portion if needed. Could I handle a ½ mile swim?

Well I went to Austin and joined the 3000+ other folks participating in the 2010 Austin Danskin Triathlon. Yes, the swim that night went fine. I was IN.

The most wonderful thing about the race this year was the attitude I had this year. I didn’t go to beat my time as I have every year before, I went to finish. That alone would be a prize for me.

You know what happened?

I had my best swim time EVER!

While I chatted to folks on the bike course and didn’t push myself AT ALL I still only went one (yes one) mile per hour slower this year than I did the year before.

Ok, so the running stunk. At a little over an hour on the course I was out of juice and probably walked 50% of it. Let’s not talk about that.

Overall, I finished a mere 6 minutes slower than I had the year before, my second best time in the past 6 years.

Who knew? What a triumph!

You should know though, I wouldn’t have done it without Laura. She’s the reason I had to do it this year. She’s the reason I had to show up. She’s the reason I’ll show up again next year.