Quote Originally Posted by tracy7199 View Post
I am new to triathlons and completed my first last summer. I am excited for the start of the tri season this year, but am struggling to find a tri-top that works in the water yet is supportive enough for running. Any suggestions?
Some of them have built in shelf bras and depending on your size and distances that might work. Or... you could wear a sports bra underneath, as long as it was good at wicking moisture. Some ladies can get away without a shelf bra AND without a sports bra... I bet getting dressed is super easy for them (jealous).

Right now, I am using a Louis Garneau tri top with no shelf and wear a cw-x sports bra underneath it, works pretty well (except scratching my collar bone area to painful-town on long runs where the zipper rubs my skin, but I have yet to find a tri top that didn't and no amount of bodyglide seems to save me). Normally I have to wear two sports bras (even the cw-x), so the tri top acts effectively as one compression layer.

I have used tops/suits with the shelf bra before, it worked for shorter distances, but was not supportive enough for running longer distances without also putting on the regular sports bra (maybe 5-6 miles was my threshold?). You'd also want to make sure you got the right size for sure, if you bought something too big, you'll suffer in the bouncy bouncy department. Also, chlorine can stretch certain fabrics, so you'd want to avoid wearing it in the pool unless you rinsed really well.

For reference, I wear the medium sized cw-x, which is pretty much supposed to be a 34 B/C but technically I'm closer to the high end of that, a 36 in human bras. I like things to stay put!