Danskin Women's Triathlon

San Jose, CA

July 11, 1993

Racing

Not me! (650+ women, NOT including Debi who wimped out this year)

Since I wasn't eligible to race, and since Debi was wimping out, we decided to volunteer at this race. We especially wanted to do so because this race, like the entire Danskin Women's Triathlon series, is done as a benefit for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

During the race we did "run-out" timing - getting the numbers and times of people going out on the run, so they would have their split times. This was fun and rather difficult! Debi was calling out numbers, I was punching numbers into a little "hand-held" (but fairly large, maybe 6x9") timing computer as fast as I could, another woman was writing down numbers and times (the times were already written) on paper, and both Debi and another guy were recording all the numbers into cassette recorders (not for time, just for ordering). Incredible - a "quadruple check" system just for timing splits!

Results

Michellie Jones literally blew away the field, coming out a few seconds ahead out of the water, and returning from the bike nearly 1.5 minutes up on the field, this in a 20K bike! Her time for the race (0.5M swim, 20K bike, 5K run) was 56:xx - awesome!

Awards

The awards ceremony had a lot to say about the Susan G. Komen foundation. A woman from Danskin told the story of Susan G. Komen, how she had died and how her family had vowed to do their best that this wouldn't happen to anyone else. She also gave the statistics of people, mostly but not exclusively women, who are diagnosed with/die from breast cancer - I won't repeat the statistics here because they are too frightening. They are raffling off a red BMW ("presenting sponsor" of the series) with 100% of the proceeds going to the Komen foundation - raffle ends at the end of the series in October. They also read a letter from a woman who had been cured of breast cancer and who did the race in San Jose this year as well as last year. All very moving, and, of course, more personal because of Stephanie.

Oh, by the way, if you do get a chance to buy tickets for this raffle, you can consider it as a 100% charity donation, since I'm already holding the winning ticket!

So - all you women who don't sink - get out there are try a Danskin triathlon! All you men - perfect opportunity to volunteer for an exciting and meaningful event.

 Steve "The next best thing to doing a triathlon is watching one" Patt   8)
 Palo Alto, CA (w)/Cupertino, CA (h)

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