Danskin Triathlon!

Oh how I love thee! the Danskin was this past weekend and the Danskin triathlon rocks my socks off! :) This is where I fell in love with triathlon's this is what got my heart into it, this is what made me want to do more, to accomplish more, and this weekend it once again touched my heart and made me want to come back and achieve more than I ever have.

The Danskin is an all women's event and the proceeds of this event go to support Breast Cancer. The Danskin is the greatest and far best begginers triathlon for any female! It's SOOOO worth the drive and it's such an amazing event.

This year I got to take my friend Amber with me to do her first triathlon, and I was excited to introduce another friend to the sport :)

I am going to break these posts up into a few different ones because there is just sooo much to tell ya! :)

We left on Friday afternoon, we meet my parents in Waterloo, THANK YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN mom and dad for coming with! you are the greatest!! and I was very thankful my mom got to come as well. We spent most of Friday making our way up to Kenosha WI, definitly taking the senic route, but enjoying the day, having a fun time as we drove. We stopped in Galena IL on our way up to do some sight seeing and walk around the town, my mom really wanted to enjoy some history, and it was a fun stop :) Amber enjoyed guessing what each building was before we walked into it, we found a couple shops, one old theather that had been turned into a craft store, and then another old bank that had been turned into a quilting store, the old bank even had the vault still in it, it was kind of fun to see :)

We also stopped at a couple other places along the way, including a few farmers markets for fresh fruits and veggies, and amazing dried beef, and mmm delicious pickles! I basically slepped the entire trip in the back seat and awoke only when we stopped, otherwise I get kind of car sick, but I was okay.

By 9:00 we made it to Kenosha!! :) yay!! We pulled up to the hotel that I had made soem reservations at and then cancelled some becuause I had made them way back in January and thought that there might be a few more people coming with us, but when we got inside, the hotel didn't cancel them, I had to laugh, they weren't having a very good night at the hotel, and so they fixed our room and sent us on our way, but then when we got to our room we discovered it was the wrong room! So back to the front desk we went, and had to get it straigthend out but eventually we did so, and all was well :) I guess it was a good thing they forgot to cancel my second room otherwise we would have the wrong room anyway :) After supper we went out to eat at Cracker Barrel which wasn't to far from our hotel, it was pretty good.

We came back to the hotel and everyone crashed except me, I went to the hot tub for a while to relax and vizulize my tri goals for the week. One of my books that I read said it was a really good thing to do, and that even if you don't belive it, it's still a good thing to do, as saying I am statements, makes you believe it or something I dunno, So I try to come up with an I am statement for each part of the triathlon. It worked great for the subaru, so why not give it another tri!

Then I headed up and back to bed! On saturday we didn't even have to get up to early, how wonderful! We got up around 9 went down and had breakfast, and then headed off to rack our bikes and pick up our registration materials :)

We arrived at the Expo around 10:00 Perfect timing! We quickly got into lines to get our bikes checked out by the bike experts, they are great!! Another reason why Danskin rocks my socks off! they have free bike experts that make sure everything is working right, and all your stuff looks good and such, I had a break that wasn't working quite right, and the guy fixed it perfectly, it looks sooo nice now!! THANKS REI!!! :) I think Amber had a back wheel that needed a new bearing so that it would roll straight and she got that fixed too.. :) REI is amazing once again :)

Then we went in and I picked up my registration packet :) I was in wave number 24 and I had a red swim cap! Amber was in wave number 25 and had a pick swim cap. However, that also meant that we would not be hitting the water till 8:28 and 8:32 and that was if everything was on time! EEK!

After we got our packets we sat down and listened to the course talk, which talked about the course, the guy prepared us telling us that it was supposed to be the hottest day of the year, with high winds! OOOH JOY! They were really worried about people getting heat exhaustion and heat stroke, adn I even started to worry, as I knew that I didn't do good in the heat... yuck! and the winds worried me on the bike as well. They also informed us that there was no shade on the run or the bike course! YUCK! but it was good to be informed.

After the course talk, Sally Edwards, who has won several iron mans and is the Danskin official spokesperson got up and gave us the first timers talk! :) I heard it last year, but I wanted Amber tohear it this year, it's a great talk, and I think this is another great thing about Danskin, this is one thing they really do to prepare you, get you pumped up and get ready to go, they prepare you to succeed!

Sally Edwards, started by having us all stand up :) And gave us the speach :) "Since this is an all women's triathlon we and we are WOMEN! we do things DIFFERENTLY!! we will build each other up! and have fun, and because we do things differently, we have a cheer, I want you to turn to each other and give a double high five and say YOU GO GIRLFRIEND!!" and then everyone does it, it still makes me smile, seeing hundreds of women united encouraging one another. :) Then, she says "and tommrow you will have a special word, (she turns to this other girl and says what is there speacial word and she comes back with FENOMINAL) okay.. The head angel says your word is FENOMINAL! So let's practice you put your arms up liek your swimming and say I AM A FENOMINAL SWIMMER!! then I AM A FENOMINAL BIKER!! then I AM A FENOMINAL RUNNER!! then I AM A FENOMINAL TRIATHLETE!!" then we all sit down :) every wave gets there own little word but ti reminds me of my vizulization techinicque :) I am..

Then she goes on to talk about what to expect, they talk about the swim angels, they talk about the bike, they talk about transition, she talks about things that can save you time, things that every beginner needs to know, and she talks about the most important thing... "Are you worried about being last?" You can't be!! Sally is last!! that's right, So they practice Sally going out and getting the final finisher :) and then they send us on our way :)

Amber and I then went and picked up our goodie bags :) Lots of good stuff of course, our free t-shirts and all sorts of other goodies from their sponsors. After all of that, we then had rack our bikes, which the bike racks were VERY crowded but we found some okay spots, by the bike out which was a good spot to be in, and it was easy to find, right behind the port o pottys! :) and then we got body marked as well.

After we racked our bikes we drove the bike course so we could see the hills and know where we were turning and such, even though they have plenty of volunteers on the course, it's really nice to know when your going to have to climb a hill and such. On the way back to the end of the bike was the Jelly Belly Factory, and we made a pitt stop, we ended up going in for a tour :) we even got free Jelly Belly's mmmm

My dad however suggested that we NOT make the pittstop during the race :) It was fairly close to the end of the route. I guess it would be one way to remember you were almost there :)

Then we went to supper and then to the grocery store for some breakfast items. My dad however pushed a cart into a cart bin, and a gentleman at the store, seemed to be very upset by this, he came running at our car, and then started SCREAMING at my dad who just rolled up his window and as we went to drive off, the guy stood infront of our car, so we couldn't get past him, It was kind of weird, but also scary! so then we started backing up, and then cars were coming into the parking lot so we couldn't back up and as we backed up the guy backed up with us.. freeky! Then we finally backed up just enough to make a sharp turn, ny dad pulls a quick U and jets out, whew! the guy was seriously angered by the cart! And then mom says, can't your dad do anything without getting into trouble, and I just had to laugh.

We went back to the hotel around 6, and Amber and I went to the pool for a little bit, so I could teach her how to put on a swim cap :) And then I think I went to bed around 7 or so, after all I had to get up at 4! :) My mom joined me by going to bed around the same time, both her and I could almost sleep anytime any where! :)