Cyman Triathlon

My 2017 triathlon season came to a very HOT end at this morning at the Cyman triathlon in Bondurant. To avoid a trip up to Ames on Saturday, I decided to take advantage of the race morning packet pickup so I arrived bright and early at 7:00 am. This is the latest race start that I have had this year. The first Olympic distance wave started at 9:00 am but I was in the last wave, with the sprint males, that didn't start until 9:40 am.

New tri bag packed and ready to go

I was one of the first people into the transition area and was surprised to run into a co-worker who was running the same race as me. He set up in transition next to me and we spent the next hour chatting about our recent big races (he competed at the Madison full Ironman triathlon 2 weeks ago). I also got to meet another co-worker that he knew was racing. It was nice to have some people to talk with as we killed time waiting for the race to start. 

Racers are starting to trickle into the transition area

The race start was new to me as it was an in water start, which means that we all entered the water and walked/swam out a little ways and waited for the horn to start swimming. The swim course was modified due to an algae bloom on half of the lake. I will add that the water conditions were also pretty disgusting as most of the lake was covered in vegetation of some sort. The altered course was a basic out and back but we had to complete 2 loops. The distance was 750 meters and my official time was 21:29, which is not great, but not my worst either. 

View of the swim course

I was very happy with a time of 1:40 for T1 (again, putting socks on wet feet takes a little bit of time). Since I was in the final swim wave, there wasn't many bikes left in transition as I left on the bike. With the wind at my back on the way out on the bike, I had an outstanding first 5 mile split, but that was offset with some hills on the back side of the course followed by a few miles directly into the wind on the way back. I finished with a time of 45:17 (18.5 mph average) for the 14 mile course which was the 43rd fastest time on the bike out of 84 racers. I can't say I was overly thrilled with that time, but it is on par with previous races this season. 

T2 off the bike was 1:05 which is also slower than I would like although, thinking back, I'm not sure where I lost time. Either way, as I headed out on the run course, I was feeling pretty good, but it was getting very hot and the sun was really getting high up in the sky. I felt fine on the run but I just wasn't running very fast. I finished with a disappointing time of 33:07 on the very flat 5k course. My overall time was 1:42:40. A solid performance to end the year, but certainly not my best. Overall, I placed 61/84 and 7/9 in the male 30-39 division.

I'll admit, as the race came to an end and I was loading up my bike to come home, I felt a bit sad. It has been one heck of a triathlon season for me and I am disappointed that it has come to an end and my next triathlon is nearly 8 months away. For now, it is time to get back to work. I still have a goal of setting a new 5k PR this year and an entire off season schedule to plan. My mantra for this off season is going to be "Get smaller, get faster." Weight loss is going to be my primary focus while also working hard to improve my swim time throughout the winter months. With 5 more races under my belt, I learned a lot this year and have started to get more comfortable with racing triathlons, but I still have a long way to go.

Thanks for following along with me this season, and keep checking back for more updates on my quest for a 5k PR.