This is my 2nd time racing in the Danskin Triathlon in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. An all women’s race put on to raise money and awareness for breast cancer.  My good friend Jeanie and I decided to race this year together. I’m a huge fan of all women’s races, I love when a woman is the first one to cross the finish line and there are no pushy men dominating the course.

Jeanie and I arrived in Pleasant Prairie in the afternoon on Saturday, towards the end of the expo. For one reason or another they did not have my assigned number, 4, for the elite wave. The race director was able to assign me to a new number, 2242, and I was to still start in the elite wave.

We went out to dinner and stayed the night at a friend’s house. Sunday morning we awoke early and headed to Lake Andrea.

Photo taken at 4 am

As we entered transition I noticed the elite wave was set up closest to the swim exit. While my number, 2242, was closest to the bike exit and entrance. I made the decision to rack my bike closest to the bike in and out. Hoping this would allow for quicker transitions.

It was a chilly morning, but the water temperature was warm. After we walked over to the swim start, I hopped into the water for a brief warm up. I was prepared for my legs to be tired on the bike or possibly the run after my Ironman race up in Madison two weeks prior. But in warm up I felt sluggish in the swim.

I lined up for my wave to start, both pros and elite amateurs were lined up together for the first wave. We began and I took off in the lead, two women grabbed my feet and began drafting. Similar to how I felt in warm up I began to feel tired, I slowed down a bit. Lauren Jensen swam around me and the other woman swam up next to me. We continued to swim together for the remainder of the swim. Lauren was about 20 seconds ahead.

We headed into T1 and I was 2nd out of transition. To my surprise I caught Lauren on the bike, she passed me back at mile 8. I stayed a few bike lengths behind her for the end of the course. As we entered into T2 I was only 3 seconds behind her. Here is where my transition set up really paid off. Lauren had to run all the way to the opposite end of transition, while my gear was closer to bike in and run out. I exited T2 20 seconds ahead of her.

My left shin has been bothering me since Ironman. I haven’t been running on it and was pleasantly surprised that I did not feel pain in my shin. Now I just needed to hold onto my lead. I ran chasing the lead motorcycle for the first 2 miles. At the start of mile 3 Lauren caught and passed me. I tried to dig deep and managed to stay with her, but could not overtake her down the finishers shoot. Lauren had a time of 1:03.56 while my time was 1:04.03.  This was good enough for overall elite amateur winner.

Lauren was kind enough to congratulate me and told me that next year this race will be mine as long as I’m not racing IMOO two weeks before again.