RR Kiawah Oly Tri

This was my first Olympic length tri and my first Ocean swim/beach run tri. Until now I've only done
inland sprints. What a difference! The race was today near Charleston SC. There is a hurricane off
Bermuda which is really effecting the weather. We went down yesterday to pick up the packet and the
organizers were discussing cutting out the swim and replacing it with a 5 k run. We walked down to
the beach and found out why, the breakers were huge, for this area at least. There were the usual
surfers out catching the big waves. Still I didn't come to do a duathalon and hoped that the swim
could be completed, I'd much rather do the swim than a 5k beach run. When we came in this morning we
got the word that the swim was on but would be cut down a little. The breakers were quite a bit
smaller but still above average for this area. The concern was the current. So after the race
meeting/announcments it was off to the swim. Oh, almost forgot, I heard this real interesting
question in the transition area whan everyone was getting ready. In an (to me) amazingly loud voice
this guy says to his girlfriend or wife "If you want to move up a couple of positions I'll wear your
chip" I didn't hear her response so I don't know if she took him up on it or not, I hope she was
rightfully offended that he didn't think much of her chances. It also seems that it would be real
easy to get caught with them writing your numbers and times down at the finishes. Anyway, to get to
the start we walked about a couple hundred yards down a path with loose sand to the beach. About
this time I noticed that 60 to 70 percent of the people had wetsuits. I didn't. I knew the water
wasn't that cold and I'm still not sure what he parameters are on wetsuits in this race, apparently
you can wear one if you want. I didn't think it would make much difference but I'd find out
differently later. The drill was we walked down the beach from where the path came out to about what
I was told later was 3/4 of a mile. They had 5 of the big orange bouys out past the breakers and
parallel to the shore. We would then swim out to the first bouy, turn right and swim parallel to the
beach to the last bouy, turn right, back to the beach and the path which would take us back to the
transition area. The guy with the bullhorn explained that they had one major rule in the swim, NO
DROWNING! I was much relieved and felt safer to know that this was against the rules🙂. All the
males of all age groups started at once and it was about here that I got my first rude awakening,
after fighting and getting past those breakers I was out of breath! I had to backstroke and swim
slow to finally be able to swim. It seemed that every time I'd start to get comfortable I'd get a
big wave in the face, miss a breath, and be back at square one. Well, a little way after the turn
bouy I finally got into a good stroke. It was sometimes difficult to see the next bouy so I started
breathing to the right more often and that way I could recognise the shoreline and pretty generally
stay parallel to it. I would swim about 25 strokes breathing to the right and then 15 or so the the
left. It worked OK and when you got near the bouys they were easy to see. Pretty soon I was at the
last bouy. Got out and ran up the sand path to he transition area. Here is where I saw, I guess,
what a difference the wetsuits make. It seemed that everyone was already gone! Not everyone of
course but I've never seen so many gone when I get to the transition from the swim. I'm usually in
at least the top third of swim times but this time no dice. Note to self: Get a wetsuit! The
transition went OK, and the bike portion was non-eventful. This is of course a pretty flat ride
being an ocean island, they do have these "hills" where they have made overpasses for cartpaths and
other roads for the golf course, (host to the 1991 and 1997 Ryder Cup) It's a very scenic ride, past
creeks and fishing/viewing areas all with big signs that say, Danger Alligators! You will spot some
along the way if you're looking. All the turns were well manned with enthuastic workers. The run
took us back out the sandy path to the beach, we ran down the beach a little less than a mile, and
we then ran up a boardwalk to the road, there we ran on the residential type roads for about 4
miles, back down the beach to another boardwalk and finally to the finish! Yea!I've now completed a
Olympic Tri. At the finish and awards they had the usual bannas, drinks, etc. but also had really
good spagetti from a resturant in Charleston and a keg of beer. It was a pretty small tri, I'd guess
a couple of hundred people at the most but all in all very enjoyable. Maybe some of this will help
someone else doing their first Ocean type Oly. Don't underestimate going thru those breakers and
have a wetsuit! Van