I just did my first tri today and came in second in my age group by a couple of minutes. In chatting with the guy who beat me he revealed to me that he uses creatine. My question is "is this legal"?

while it is probably legal, it might not be smart.

My limited understanding of creatine is that is promotes water retention in the muscles. This makes you look like your muscles are big, when really, they are just bloated! :)

For triathlons, you would be better being more lean. I doubt the creatine did too much for him. Unless he was combining creatine with other substances,

By the way, congrats on your race!

[edited]

http://www.usantidoping.org/files/active/what/wallet_card.pdf#search=%22WADA%20list%20banned%20substances%22

Don't bother with that sort of thing. Work hard, train smart, eat well... 'nuff said.

Creatine, legal? Yes

Some performance benfits? Yes

Perfectly healthy? No

Its a tricky supplement, hard to get all the benefit out of it. Most people who got the most out of it used smaller portions just before hard workouts and races.

I guarantee you there are 50 clearer ways to find those 3 minutes than creatine.

^I agree on that one if you are looking for the edge creatine will not give you what you are looking for though...