Danskin Women's Triathlon - Chicagoland (Pleasant Prairie, WI)

Don't freak out!  It's fun, I promise. For OWS-a-phobes, the best part of any Danskin is the Swim Angels. If you feel yourself panicking or tiring (beyond the normal) you just put your hand up and a swim angel will come to you with a floaty noodley thing and you can rest and hang out for as long as you want.  it will NOT DQ you as it would in a typical race.  Take the swim super easy and slow, don't even think about racing it, stay relaxed and focus on your breathing. Then, when you finish (which you will) you can tear it up on the bike!

 Other memories of last year- the post race food sucks. There isn;t enough, so bring a cooler or snack.  The busses afterwards to the remote parking lots also suck, take forever, and are hot and stinky. you are better off riding your bike back to the lot.  That's all I can think of right now. We will also have to do a BT meetup which will defnitely help you relax and gett psyched!

Danskin was my very first tri two summers ago ... and I totally freaked out on the swim.  I'm soooo not a swimmer.  Wasn't then, still am not.  But - even though I hyperventilated, needed lifeguard assistance, and did everything but cling to a swim angel, I made it across and finished out the tri.

So - RELAX! - they'll take care of you out there.  No worries.  And it really is a great, supportive environment.  Definitely one of the best places to do your first.

And I agree with Possum - post-race food isn't all that good and parking SUCKS (get there early, it'll take you awhile to get to the race site).   But other than that - it's a good time.

I'll be there again this year - my third time doing it - so I hope to see y'all there! 

Thanks for the info on the swim! I did a 1/4 mile OWS (my first) in a race this past weekend and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. Good to know about the swim angels!

Also, I appreciate the comments about the post-race food and bus situation ... given the expense of registration and # of entrants I'm surprised the post race activity isn't better.  

Bike course is a lot of rolling hills. No major uphill climbs, but can be draining for those of us who train where it's almost completely flat! Last year, I had 4 friends in tow who were doing their first tri ... I had assured them that the bike was "pretty flat" ... and was yelled at afterwards by all of them because they thought it was a bit of a challenge. In my defense, the year I did it (before all of them), I was just soooo happy to have survived the swim that you could have sent me up a mountain on the bike and I would have been okay with that.

Last year we ran into a lot of traffic just getting to the parking lot. Once we got within a mile or two of the parking area, it probably took a good 20-30 minutes from that point. And then you still have to hop a bus to get to the race venue. It's fairly organized - just slow. The natives of the area may know some back doors to get there that aren't as heavily trafficked, though.

On Saturday, you just get your bike into the transition area - everything else you bring on Sunday and set up like you normally would.

You walk to the swim start, though it's probably a good quarter to half mile away. 

I wouldn't mind setting up a place and time, though I'll be with about 6 other people so will have very little control over my own schedule.   

Perhaps we could meet up while we're waiting for our waves to go off....  anyone have any other ideas? 

Hi all! I'm new to this board....

I haven't done any triathlons for the last three years, so Danskin was my first one after a while..... it was awesome!!!  I love it and am totally ready for the next one! I loved the bike course-a few hills, but the hills were gentle and didn't seem hard... run was great around the lake (though some shade would have been good hehe), and water was just perfect temperature, wasn't it?

The only fiasco was getting out..... They sent us toward the beach (swim start) for the Reunite area-and then-after walking barefoot on hot blacktop (blisters from no socks running) with a bike and a stroller for a good half a mile-it turns out it was THE OTHER way....UGH!  so we walk all the way back (in shoes at this point), and then another mile or so till we could meet our cars....a bit crazy, but at least the tri was totally organized..I felt that everything went so smoothly and without a hitch!

 How was your tri?

Now that it's all over with ...

I always love this race, but the parking situation was bad enough to make me want to stay home next year.  Which is a shame because otherwise I think they do a great job putting on a quality race.

Take the time to fill out the post-race online survey - let them know what you think!

http://www.timberlinetiming.com/index.cfm?action=dspClientHome&clientid=1&sh

Now that you pointed some of these organizational flops out, I do remember them....  I felt bad for people coming in at the very end...most ppl were already done and walking to the mysterious ReUnite area...as people were still in the race.  I thought that was just awful for those people. I would have liked everybody to cheer me on....but I guess you can't avoid that with such a huge race and such a big gap in finishing times... Still, there should have been volunteers waiting, cold water, fresh fruit and all that. 

The transition are WAS marked pretty poorly.  My bib number (2468) didn't even fall into any of the categories....I just went with the category closest to mine.

I guess you are right, with a big sponsor like Danskin, you would think they'd do a better job organizing this.... oh well, maybe next year it'd be better?