The Danskin

Going into T1

When people find out I do triathlon, the next question is invariably "Oh, are you doing the Danskin ?" At least in Seattle, Danskin is almost synonymous with women's triathlon.

No, I don't do Danskin. I think it's a great event that has brought a lot of women to the sport in a safe, supportive environment. I am fully supportive of anything that inspires anyone (man, women, child) to a more healthful lifestyle. But the race the race is huge (5,000 women) and the style of the race, with lots of rah-rah at the start (Are you going to have fun?? Yes!!! Are you going to take care of the each other??? Yes!!!), just isn't my style.

I made an interesting connection yesterday, though. A couple of months ago I was in my local tri shop and there was a woman (probably in her mid-50s) who looked oddly familiar, but I just could not place her in my mind. She was buying her first wet suit. After I left the shop, I remembered who she was. She was a member of a church I attended for a while, but she had lost a lot of weight. And I thought wow, that is inspiring!

Today's paper had a story about the Danskin, and mentioned a group of 45(!) women from the church who were participating in the race. And so I put 2 and 2 together. I am sure that woman was on the church team.

I hope that she (and the other women) had a great race yesterday.