Kiawah SC Olympic Report
So I have been racing short course for my first year of the EN 3 year plan and I wanted to finish the season with a longer race in route to HIM next year. Kiawah island is a ritzy golf resort just outside of Charleston, SC and about an hour from home. I was going to get up early the morning of the race but my wife wanted to come along as support team so we rented a beachfront villa for the night. Great venue, pre-race dinner at the Sanctuary which is a luxury resort on the property. The wife has declared that Tri support duty is much nicer than travel softball or travel soccer duty.
The course started with a 0.7 mile ocean swim. The temp was in the mid 70's at the race start and the start is in waves by age group. I had a gatoraide, protein bar, and gel about an hour and a half before the race start. My age group was small at only about 15 folks. Swim out around the first buoy and parallel to the beach then around another bouy and in. Swim felt fine but I am notoriously slow. 13th of the 15 in the swim.
First Transition 1:40 no problems.
Bike was a slight worry since I have had saddle issues and have a demo Selle SMP saddle on the bike for the race (not bright but it's only 24 miles, right?). Had a Gel right out of T1. Heart rate was Z5 coming out of the swim but I backed off to Z3 and then increased to maintain Z4 for the majority of the ride. Another Gel at about mile 20 and drank 4 bottles of gatorade and water. The course is flat but with lots of turns and parts had some significant headwind. Legs felt OK at the end of the bike, clean dismount and into T2. Slight chafe but no other issues.
Second Transition 1:34. For sprints, I have not been using socks. Teaching moment...use socks for anything longer than a sprint.
Run : was shooting for a pace of about 9:30 but started off at about 9:00 for the first two miles even though I was trying to slow down. Took a gel at the first aid station with water. HR data shows high zone 3 to low 4 for the first 3 miles of the run. At mile 3 the run goes out on the beach for about a mile. My pace slowed to about 10:30 and my HR started going up. Coming off of the beach, people started walking. I just kept plugging along and at the one mile to go mark started picking up the pace to about 9:30. The last mile is pretty straight and then a winding trail to the finish. total time 3:03:07.
Overall, how does this stack up? Well, my swim is pretty close to 2:00 hundreds which is where I live for now. Bike was slow but I am working on getting the saddle and fit right and I am going to hit that hard over the winter. Run was close to my best 10k time and I finished strong so i'll take that. I did get some blisters high up in my arch from the shoes so from now on, socks are my friend. Food at the finish line was lowcountry boil with shrimp, sausage, potatoes, and corn on the cob. Nice.
I feel that the race was a success and (perhaps more importantly) my wife really enjoyed it. It looks like my next race may be picked based on where she wants to visit.
Comments
You're screwed. Setting the bar kinda high with The Sanctuary! You're gonna need one of those Men In Black red blinky light things to erase that from your wife's memory
Great race. keep it up!