Former swimmer tops at Danskin triathlon

It's a grueling test of endurance for most. For Alina Brown, it was simply a long sprint.

Brown was fastest among the 5,300 women who competed in the Danskin Women's Triathlon Series on Sunday by running away from the field at the end.

A former swimmer at Curtis High School and captain of the water polo team at Princeton University, Brown needed only 1 hour, 5 minutes and 16 seconds to win the event by 24 seconds over Susanne Achtenhagen of Boulder, Colo.

"I definitely had to extend myself at the end," Brown said. "She [Achtenhagen] pulled to within 100 yards so I felt like I really had to push hard through the entire run. I thought she was going to overtake me at any moment."

Brown was third after the half-mile swim in Lake Washington that began at 7 a.m. She took the lead midway through the 12.4-mile bike race across the I-90 bridge and back and then held on through the 3.1-mile run through Genesee Park.

"The hardest thing about this race is holding your speed the entire time," Brown said. "There are some really fast women here, so I had to go as hard as I could the entire time."

Despite her swimming background, Brown runs between four and 10 miles four times a week. The Danskin was her seventh triathlon this year, and she plans to compete in three more this summer.

"I usually just run the smaller, local races, so this is a really big one for me," Brown said. "Running is really meditative for me, but I really love swimming, especially in lakes early in the morning. Lately I've really been into riding my mountain bike."

Brown is pursuing her master's degree in business administration at Western Washington.

Brown said she never even considered winning when she climbed into the water with the rest of the elite field early in the morning.

"My goal coming in was to be in the top five, but I never thought I would win," she said. "I'm a little surprised, but it feels great."

Notes

• Registration began in March and reached its limit of 5,300 by April. The Seattle race, the seventh of eight in the Danskin series, is considered the largest women's sprint triathlon in the world.

• Maggie Hargus was the youngest in the field at 11, Matsue Watanabe the oldest at 79.

• More than 400 cancer survivors were said to be in the field.