The Danskin, part 1
Posted by z on October 6, 2009
The Danskin Triathlon is a bit misleading. The word triathlon suggests a three-event event. I have come to the conclusion that it’s at the very least a pentathlon with Registration being the first event held at least 6 months before the others. The Seattle Danskin has sold out rather quickly in recent years. Everyone logs onto their computers on the day registration is open and jockeys for position, hitting the refresh button time and time again, hoping for a chance to get to the next screen. It really is an endurance event. One must be really on their game that day or that will be the only event they participate in. We got lucky. I’m not sure what my official time was for this event but it seemed like an hour.
The second event then would be packet pick-up and racking your bike. The first year we did the Danskin (2005) the packet pick-up was in one of the old hangars at Sand Point. This year they went all fancy on us and had it at the Maydenbauer Center in Bellevue. Where it cost $8 to park. Ok. We stroll in and they’ve got awful signage. LIttle white signs where someone has taken a Sharpie and handwritten “Packet pick-up” and an arrow pointing us to the 4th floor. But first one must get their race number and these are on a huge display with about 50 women standing around it trying to read the 7 font type.
Race numbers were obtained and we started up to the 4th floor. I know we’re all athletes here but jeez, can you give a girl a break? We’ve got a big day ahead of us. Oh, thank gawd there’s an escalator! We find our respective race number line and get our packets. Then we are sent off to the chip queue. Ok, got our chips. Now off to the chip activation queue. Seriously, what’s up with the different lines? Why not just have everything in my packet? Ok, packets picked up, chips picked up and activated. Now what? Hey, there’s a line that we’ll probably need to get in, let’s get in it. Oh, crap, this is the line to register for next year? Hmmmm. If we register now we can avoid the debacle of trying to register in February thereby bringing it down to a quadrathon. Ok, why not? I’m feeling pretty excited about this year, why not sign up for next year? Oh, and as an added bonus it’s at this years prices! What a deal!
The next step is going back down to the first floor to get our shirts and various other swag. Oh, another line, this time for body marking. They write your race number on your arm and your age (!) on your calf. The arm is fine but when they write on your calf it feels like they are scratching you. We found the t-shirts and bags then headed for the Luna tent. There we tried their Luna Moons, some sort of energy gummy bear type of deal. Most were pretty tasty and we had a sample pack in our goody bag. We toodled around the expo and managed to snag a few Talking Rain Twists and a buttload of Jif peanut butter. The guy forced us to take 6 each and he wanted us to take more but we felt greedy. Sally Edwards had left Danskin to do another triathlon series so two women who’s names escape me at the moment came up to give an inspirational speech. It was getting close to 4pm which was the bike racking deadline so we decided to head out.
At packet pick-up
As we got closer to the staging area we began to see more and more vehicles with bikes on them. We managed to find a parking spot near the staging area where we unloaded the bikes. We took photos of each of us with our bikes then headed to the racks. In order to get to the staging area you need to show your race number, conveniently now located on your arm. Three of us are in the same area but one is in another area so we split off. We rack our bikes and acclimate ourselves to our surroundings. There is excitement all around and there are hundreds of people in the park. How exciting!
The next order of business is dinner: carb loading at the Old Spaghetti Factory. The place is packed and we finally get a table. I looked over at the next table and there was a woman with the distinct numbers written on her arm – a fellow Danskinner. We ate and chatted with each other and had a good time. When we left we flashed our arms to the woman at the next table and exchanged “good luck’s”. I wonder what people must have been thinking when all four of us were walking around with strange numbers written our our legs and arms.
