Tri the Midlands Race Report

Dee:

Last year Chad & I decided at the last minute to head down to Columbia, SC for Tri the Midlands.  We had an absolute blast and decided to race again this year.  The location is fantastic, the post race spread is plentiful, and Team Schmitz always does this race, so it was pretty much a no brainer.   Of course, nothing is perfect and the run course is an absolute beast, but you have to take the good with the bad.  I decided to race open, Chad stuck with age group.

Going in, we both wanted to beat our times from 2011.  Chad set a goal time of 1:07:15 and I set a goal time of 1:15:15- both looking for about a 4 minute improvement.   The race is a 500m swim, 14.8 mile bike & 5k run.  We both had good races and hit our goals.

Chad                                         Dee
Swim:  8:58                               Swim: 11:10
T1: 0:45                                     T1: 1:02
Bike: 39:14                                Bike: 41:42
T2: 0:37                                     T2: 0:55
Run: 17:45                                 Run: 19:19
1:07:18                                      1:14:07

My new P2! 

I was the 3rd Open female and the 3rd overall female.  Going in, I thought I was locked in for fourth due to the fast ladies racing, but surprised myself by passing one last woman with 400m to go to sneak into 3rd.  My time was 4:59 faster than 2011.  I broke out my brand new favorite toy for this race- the P2!  Despite having her for one whole week, I couldn't resist the chance to give it a go.  She did not disappoint.  Fast is an understatement.  Once I get comfortable on the bike, I know much faster bike splits are in my future.  I also finally ran a really good 5k off the bike.  I know this is the kind of time I can and should be throwing down, so it was nice to finally hit it.

Chad was 1st AG, 6th overall.  He jumped up 9 spots from last year and improved his time by 4:05.  He beat several of the Open Masters, which is always impressive.  The run up to transition from the swim was rather lengthy (30-40 seconds), making Chad's swim time even more impressive.  He's been working very hard in the pool and it is definitely starting to show in his swim times.  The biking just keeps getting better as well.  This is a slower course than Latta, but the time improvement from 2011 was substantial, showing that lots of progress has been made. 

The awards were bottle openers
with the race logo- pretty sweet.

Again, we had a great time at Tri the Midlands and will be sure to put it on the schedule for 2013.  It is just such a fun race, despite the fact that the run contains one monster hill that makes you want to walk.  That just builds character, right?  We now have a couple weeks off from triathlons, so we can focus on training (and rest!)  Chad is off until July 14th when he races the Triangle Triathlon and I'm off until August 4th when I tackle my first international triathlon at Stumpy Creek.  Definitely nervous, but looking forward to trying something new!