Danskin Chicagoland Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I had some lasik surgery go ary in May and had not been able to start swimming again until a couple of weeks before, so I was very out of it. I had not done an open water swim for almost a year, and I paid for it here. Swam way out of the course, and had to get pulled back in. Didn't even get into my groove until the last 1/4 mile, and by then, it was too late. Never would catch up for the rest of the race.

Practice in open water a little more! Also, bring my mirrored goggles. The blaring sun was blinding through my normal smoke colored ones.

Handled this OK. Went with my running shoes instead of cycling shoes because I didn't feel like I practiced running in the cleats enough. I took 3 minutes off this time from last year, so I'm satisfied. Chose not to run with my bike because I was a little stiff from a very crappy swim.

Nothing.

Had a bit of a malfunction leaving T1 - my front dereailur popped the chain off. I decided to manually throw the chain back on the middle ring, and I think I recovered nicely. Ate a gel coming out of transition. Should have had another.

Bring another gel. Hopefully have access to the big ring for the flat portions :)

This is where things went wrong. If there was a water table exiting T2 and entering the run, I missed it completely. This hurt me later. At this point, I decided that I hated Danskin.

I now carry a little 4 ounce GU bottle filled with water to carry me over in case the water is not visible to me.

A word to Danskin - when it is 90+ degrees by 9am with no shade ANYWHERE, don't make us wait until almost mile 2 for water. Were you TRYING to kill me? Because you came pretty darn close. Combination of dehydration, heat, bum ankle hurting, and inability to monitor my heart rate caused me to walk most of this.

Not do this race. Seriously. This run made me ill. It is a beautiful course, but the poor organization came to a head here and was jeopardizing my health. I will forever look carefully for the water table leaving T2 and not assume we'll get water at mile 1.

Collapsed and then had to go and ASK for my finish medal. WTF, Danskin? My husband found me and walked me around while I drank a bottle of water and had 2/3 of a bannana. Then things got bad. They were letting people into transition, so I thought I could get my bike and go. For what it is worth, it is very uncool to have a couple thousand girls packing up their transition and blocking the exit when people are still on the course. But Danskin allowed this. Sat in the sun for 45 minutes in a mob trying to get out. I sweated more waiting to get out of transition than I did during the race. My husband took my transition pack and shuttled back to the car. When I rode my bike there, it took another 20 minutes to get out of the lot, then the lovely volunteers gave us directions down roads that were not opened to through traffic, so we got lost. It was horrible.


Pre-race health issues, not enough training, heat, lack of water on the course.


This review probably sounds negative, but let me assure you, I am not doing it justice. This event was terribly organized from packet pick-up to getting out of the lot after the race. I will not be doing it again. Luckily, I've done tris before and I was expecting a sub-par performance, so it didn't turn me off to the sport. I just hope that some of the other girls trying this for the first time didn't leave thinking "why in the hell would I want to do that again?".