danskin disneyland triathlon

[rottieruff]

Hi -

I haven't been on this board for a long time. I originally came here for the cycling forum. Now I have found myself doing triathlons and loving it.

I did the danskin disneyland tri this past sunday. It was fun. Here's the breakdown of my expreience:

Swim:
In the lagoon at california adventures. The water was clean but was literally poop brown due to food coloring they put in the water... The swim corral area was chaotic to say the least. Music was blasting and there was no real order. You had to listen hard to hear your wave being called. The boat ramp was not very wide - there were 100 women in each wave and the ramp accommodated maybe 8-10 people across. I made sure to be towards the front. Our wave went off and we VERY quicky caught up to the slow swimmers in the wave/s ahead of us. That made it somewhat hard to navigate around people especially because many would just suddenly stop swimming. I ran into several people because of this! I have to learn how to better and more quicky get around slower swimmers. There was an area where the water was really shallow and when I looked forward to navigate I saw women walking! I swam past them. Getting out of the water was tough. There was a big log jam of women being plucked out of the water by volunteers. I finally got out and jogged to the transition area. For anyone that did this event - did the swim really seem like approx 600 meters as advertised? It looked and seemed shorter - more like 400-500 meters. I ended up 26 out of 179 in the swim for my age group even though I got hung up a few times.

Bike:
The ride was a two 5 mile loop course in the community surrounding disneyland. Not very scenic but it was a fun ride. The course was essentially flat and fast. The only women that passed me were on time trial bikes (I ride a Giant TCR 0). My only complaint here is the lack of knowledge of staying to the right as a slower rider. There were some women on comfort type bikes that were all the way to the left going 10 mph. Had to do lots of maneuvering to get around the slower riders but it was ok. I ended up 27 out of 179 in the bike for my age group and rode an avg of 18.4 mph.

Run:
Felt great after the bike. Started the run hydrating. They only had one water station on the course toward the beginning of the run so I am glad I carried a water bottle on the run. The run was through some of the backstage area of california adventures - not very scenic or interesting. Most of the run was actually in california adventures and that was kind of fun to look at as you ran. I suck at running and saw tons of people passing me. They advertised the run as about 2.5 miles but it felt more like 2.0 at the most. I was conserving and was going to pick it up on the last mile when all the sudden a voluteer yelled out that there was only 1/4 mile left. I couldn't believe it! I thought I had about a mile left! Well, I picked my pace up at that point as best as I could. Two women in my age group passed me right at the very end. One was 2 seconds in front of me and the other was 1 second in front of me! DARN! I finished 88 of 179 in my age group on the run.

I finished 53 of 179 overall in my age group.

All in all it was fun. This was only my second triathlon and look forward the future events. I obviously need to improve my running. I was thinking of signing up for a chi running clinic in my area. My transition times could be better too.

I am curious as to the other experiences that people had for this event. Please post and share!

[colby]

Too bad they didn't make it more scenic, you'd think Disneyland would have a lot of cool options. I'm not sure how the Disney World one is in comparison.

I have trouble passing people on crowded swims... for so many things in the world of triathlon, the only way to learn is to do it. The more you do it, the better you get. The Danskin races are so well populated that it's hard to navigate around people sometimes on the swim and the bike, especially in any narrow corridors. There's a section of Danskin Seattle that is a narrow steep uphill that some people have to walk their bikes up... not a fan.

I'm with you getting passed on the run, hoping to change that this year. I'm sure I'll still get passed, but it would be nice to be passed a LITTLE less.

Congrats!

[roadie gal]

Congrats!

It sounds like kind of a zoo with the crowded water and bike ride. Did they do any review of the rules before the race?