Columbia Downtown Triathlon - Triathlon

This was one of my best swims ever. I usually go out to fast in the 1st 100m of the race so I decided to keep it slow, every 3rd stroke breathing. I kept this up for 50m found a groove and went with it. I passed 3 people and got passed by 1 in the 1st 350m of the swim. With 150 left a guy overtook me and I was able to draft him for the last150m. Overall, really strong swim. The skinsuit makes such a difference for me, easliy 3-4sec/100m faster.

Nothing

Took 10 seconds to get the suit off over my heels but the savings in the pool with it on was well worth it. I have mastered the running jump onto bike, feels nice getting up to speed quickly.

Take a gu on the bike and not waste time eating it in T1.

Came out of transition and immediately hit the big hill, really struggled keeping breathing under control. After a half lap I found my breath and was able to get aero. The 1st lap I held back more than I could of as I learned the course. 2nd lap was faster and 3rd lap was fastest as I exploded through the backside. I would estimate easily hit 40+mph of the backhill. Took a gu right before coming into T2. I was hoping for a faster bike but the hills prevented anything faster.

pre-drive the course if time permitted.

My shoes had some major issues during the run. I was wearing zoot ali'i 6.0's and the tongue on one folded over which made me stop on the run and the other shoe had a gu tab stuck in the bottom that rubbed my foot for the entire run. Time was fast

proper donning of shoes.

It hurt bad for the 1st .5 miles going up the hill but really got into a groove until the flight of stairs and and the overpass, this point blew me up with 1/3 of a mile to go.

Nothing, I ran the cooper river birdge in prep for the hills. Overall still <7min/mile pace.

Sat down on the hill and cheered all the people we know.


Hill work, Charleston is too flat. I was hoping to break 1 hour but am satisfied with my time.


I liked doing the swim and bike portion of the race. The run course needs to be redone; I'm not a fan of urban-athalons. There were no bathroom facilities except for when the pool building was open, so before and after the building was open you were out of luck. The Police support was fantastic but other volunteer efforts were bad. There was a line of 80 people to get body marked and there was only 1 person doing body marking, so my wife grabbed a marker and started marking people. The girls at the water tables were just standing by the table and not actually handing out and water (also no cheers or enthusiasm from them). The awards were also kind of lame, I took 2nd in age and got a wicking running hat. I like the hat but it was pretty much the same thing you got for entering the 2013 try charleston race.