Bluff Creek Triathlon - 2017

The day got off to a rough start as I woke up before my 4:45 am alarm to thunderstorms rolling through. A quick check of the radar showed that they wouldn't be ending anytime soon. Either way, I got changed into my tri suit, ate a quick breakfast of a bagel with peanut butter and a banana and hoped in the truck to drive the 45 minutes to Don Williams Lake. It wasn't a lonely ride as my mom and dad had come down to attend my race and rode with me to the race. Upon arriving (in the rain) I checked the races Facebook page to see a message that the race was being postponed. In addition, the Olympic distance race, the one that I was signed up for, was cancelled and all racers would participate in the sprint distance.

As you can imagine, I was having flashbacks to the Accel Triathlon last summer, which ended up being cancelled. After a stop at the campground bathrooms, we sat in the truck and waited for the rain to stop before heading to check in and setup transition. My sister was planning to come up with 2 of her kids and my wife, Erin, was going to bring our girls to the finish as well so I texted to let them know about the delay and change in race. While I waited, I reviewed the sprint distance maps on the race website. Unlike the Olympic bike route, the sprint was a 15 mile straight out and back with very little elevation change. The swim was 500 meters straight across the lake, and the run was a single 5k loop of the same course. The distances of this race were nearly identical to the Crossroads Triathlon 2 weeks prior.

I'm not going to lie, with the wait and change in race distance, I wasn't feeling nearly as motivated. In fact, the only thing that probably convinced me to not just head home was that so many people were coming to watch me race. Luckily, my focus returned as we lined up across the beach and sprinted in the water to start the swim. Boy did I get off to a good start! As I got out of the water on the other side of the lake, I looked at my watch and was surprised to see a time of 9:34. Transition was quite a ways up the hill from the lake so my official swim time was 11:33 which put me at a 2:07/100 yard average. To put that into perspective, I averaged about 2:45/100 yards during my last 3 triathlons.

Out of the water and headed to T1

Before I was even out of the water, I could hear the cheers coming from my sister, Melissa and her kids, Aubree and Brycen. Having a cheering section made the race even more fun. The race continued to go well as I headed to transition 1. I made it out of T1 and onto the bike in 1:39. My previous T1 PR was a little over 3 minutes. 

Headed out on the bike course

There were a few small hills on the bike course, but for the most part it was flat. Unlike past races, I didn't pass many people on the bike. I suppose this was in part due to my faster swim and starting out ahead of more people, but the field for this race was certainly more competitive over all than my past couple of races. Even though I wasn't passing a lot of people, I managed to finish the bike in 47:04, which was a 19.3 mph average (another triathlon PR for me!). As I was turning back into the park, I got to see Erin and the girls as they had just arrived. 

Back in the park and finishing off the bike

T2 was another good one as I got through in 48 seconds (my previous best was over a minute). I really liked the run course as it had a couple of challenging hills as well as some grass and gravel portions and took a route through the woods. I didn't push very hard on the run (a little by design, and a little because I was getting tired) but ended up with a decent time of 31:58 which is a 10:17/mile average.

Home stretch

Final turn into the finish line

Finishing strong

My official time was 1:33:04 which was nearly 4 minutes faster than the 1:36:59 of the race 2 weeks prior. I'm continuing to see improvement, not only in the 3 different disciplines, but also in my overall race strategy and pacing. These are things that take practice and experience which I keep gaining with each race that I complete. After my 2nd strong sprint distance race in a row, I really think that I have found my groove. 

I was also excited to be greeted at the finish line by the best (and quite possibly loudest) group of fans!

With my mom, dad, and oldest daughter, Abigail

With Erin, Abigail, and Bridget

With my sister, Melissa and her kids Brycen and Aubree

Next up on my schedule, in less than 3 weeks, is the biggest race of my season. On September 10th, I will be making my first attempt at completing a long distance/half Ironman distance triathlon at the Legend Ad Astra Legend 70 in Lawrence, KS. The race includes a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run. To be honest, I've been getting more and more nervous about the race as it gets closer, but I'm going to give it my best effort. More on that race in a future post.