3:50am - Wake up. I did not have too much trouble getting up because I was excited for the race. I was a little tired because we ended up going to bed somewhere between 11 and 12. After I woke up, I took a quick shower to help wake myself up. This did a pretty good job. Next was my coffee. I had to have my caffeine if I was going to make it. So, I made the coffee took Colby out, racked up the bike and loaded up the rest of my gear and I was off.
4:50am - Depart for Columbia. The two hour drive down was very uneventful.
6:47am - Arrive at Lake Carolina Development, Columbia, SC. The volunteers were directing everyone to their proper parking spaces and mine happen to be right next to Rick and Mike's. I got out and said hello to them and proceeded to put my bike together and get my gear together. I loaded up my backpack with everything I needed because it was a good mile from the parking area to transition. At this point, my thermometer in my car is reading 84 degrees.
7:05am - Get registered, go through packet pick up, and body marking
7:15am - Rack my bike and start setting up transition. I made the decision to try going sockless today. We'll see how that works out.
7:50am - I make my way down to the lake. I was chatting with the guy next to me in transition. He was from Greenville too. He was a little nervous. It was his first tri. I jumped in the warm water and took a few strokes out and back. The national anthem was played and the waves began. I was in wave 3.
8:05am - Everyone in wave 3 in the water. The air horn blows and we are underway. It is very crowded. There are people everywhere. The course had three legs. It was a 200m swim out, 100 across, and 200 back in. Right at the end of my first leg, I could tell it was not going to be my best swim. I was tired from my 2500m swim the day before. I managed to pull off 9m 14sec. This ranked me 34th out of 255 people. Not a bad finish, but it could have been alot better.
Swim time: 9min 14 sec
8:15am - I was making my way out of the water and into transition. It was a short run and my bike was in the last race going into transition. The only problem was that I had to run the entire length of the transition area, uphill with bike in hand. It was not too bad. I made it out in about 1min 30 sec. This includes putting my shoes on.
8:17am - I am off on the bike for a short 11 mile ride. We are flying through the Lake Carolina Development and head out onto a couple country roads. The road out was pretty flat for the first 3/4 of a mile, then came the climbing. The hills were not steep, just kind of long. I was trying my best to just pound the pedals and keep my cadence up there. I was averaging a good 17.0 mph up the hills. This was a pretty good pace. Finally, we hit a couple flat sections and I started mashing. I looked down at my bike computer and it showed 27mph on the flats. I kept pedaling and looked down another 10min later and it was still at 27. I was moving it. Then, came some more hills. This one a little steeper - 13mph. At this point, my legs were on fire. Knowing that it was hot and getting hotter, I kept saying "make sure you drink." My plan was to finish my fluids around mile 9.5. At mile 8, I was out. I drank way too much, too quick. That is not good. Then I looked down at my computer again and see I only had another mile to go, so I start pushing it real hard. Then comes mile 11, and 12, and 13. Finally just short of 14 miles, we returned to Lake Carolina.
Bike time: 42min 12sec
9:00am - Return to transition with a little mental and physical fatigue. I had some trouble getting my running shoes on. For some reason, they did not want to go on my feet. Finally, I get them on and I'm off. Again the run start was right next to me. This worked out well. The run started out with a short flat section then came the hills. There were hills for the first 1.5 miles. They were steep hills. Many people were walking, but I said that will not be me. At this point, it must have been close to 90 degrees. Finally I make it to the top and make the turn back to town. I picked up the pace going down hill then, I hear this guy yelling from behind me- "Pick it up, I'm going to catch you!" He kept yelling this repeatedly! So, I said, no one is catching me, and I was in an all out sprint for the last 1/2 mile. I passed about 10 guys.
Run time: 26min 16sec.
Right when I crossed the finish line, I had a really bad feeling. A feeling of "Oh my gosh, I'm going to be sick!" I looked for the closest set of trees and walked towards them. Before getting to them, I stopped an hung my head down and began to feel better.
Total time: 1 hour 21 minutes
After the race, I went to find some water and something with some quick sugar. I found both - water and Coke. I looked for Rick as he finished just ahead of me, but could not find him until I started to leave. We talked about how hard that race was and how he had thought about quitting the run himself. It may have been the hardest race thus far in my short tri - life. It was fun though. I'm glad I made the trip down. Even a couple days after, I am still not sore. I am very tired, but not sore. I guess I am getting in better physical shape. I need to keep it up.
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