Folly Beach Splash -n- Dash - Biathlon (swim/run)

We started a good ways up north from the first buoy, since the current was so strong. As soon as we got in the water, it was obvious that starting that far up was necessary in order to even manage to round that buoy and not overshoot it! Oh my gosh, that was a serious current! I had my doubts, once I started swimming, that I would manage to round that buoy at all, and if I overshot it, there was no way I would try to swim back against the current. That would have been my first DNF. (I know one other lady that was swimming near me did turn back because it just felt too crazy out there for her. I talked to her afterward and she was fine, did the run and all, but just couldn't handle all the chop and current.)
But then I did catch sight of the buoy once I was past the breakers and was really surprised that I had not overshot. I checked with a lifeguard and he told me I was ok, so I just buckled down and got swimming. This was the easy part, the swimming down. I did have lots of trouble finding the individual buoys with the incredible chop out there, but I sited on the pier and on the beach and just made my way down. The final buoy had drifted, so I am sure I swam a bit too far and had to run back to transition.

That's a hard question - better? I might not have even tried under those conditions, but I did, so I am pretty proud of myself for that. There is really nothing I can do but practice swimming, get faster and work on being more aggressive about getting through the breakers.

I decided to go without socks to avoid the trouble of putting them on my wet feet. We had a little kiddy pool to run through, but there was still enough sand on my feet to give me a nasty, painful spot on my instep! That was really a mistake!

Socks, socks, socks!!

Worst run in ages. At first, my spirits were good and I was fine with being at the back of this small pack. As the people passed me on their return leg, I shouted encouragement and they did to me, too, so it was all fun. But, my knee was already hurting from step one, and I was just trying to ignore it and hope that when my legs warmed up, it would be fine. It really never stopped hurting. :-( And then, remember when I mentioned how windy it was? Well, that was the headwind we were running into on the way back up the beach. No fun! The icing on the cake during the last mile was the spots that I wore into my insteps from running with sandy feet and no socks. Dumb, I know! I could not wait to be back to the finish line.

Frankly, I probably should not have run any more when I noticed that my knee would not be getting better. But by then, it was halfway over. Definitely, socks would have helped.

None really, just got the shoes off and looked at my poor feet, talked to my family, collected my prize winnings! Seriously, even DFL got a prize in that small field. That was kind of sweet.


1) my knee
2) the wind



With more participants, this could be fun. I am not crazy about the running at high tide because there are a few areas where getting your feet wet is unavoidable. Some guys were running barefoot, and this would be an ideal barefoot run, I would think.
I would definitely do it again, depending on the condition of my knee.