Cyman Triathlon 2018

It is hard to believe that my 2018 season has come to a close. I will write a blog post in the upcoming weeks highlighting my 2018 season. This post, however, is a recap of the Cyman Sprint Triathlon that I competed in today. I went into the race today feeling very confident. Over the past 5 weeks, since the Bluff Creek Triathlon, I have had quite possibly my best 5 weeks of training ever. On top of that, I am coming off my best performance of the year at Bluff Creek, the news that I won my age group for the Heart of America Triathlon Series, and blowing away my 1 Mile PR on Thursday night at the IMT Monument Mile.

In addition, I stepped on the scale before the race for my mid-week weigh in (my weight watchers weigh in day is Wednesday) to see a weight of 233.2, down from 249.4 when I raced at Bluff Creek. The Weight Watchers program is continuing to work wonders for me! This is the lightest that I have ever been for a race since I ran track in middle school and it is making a big difference.

The weather was nearly perfect with temperatures starting out around 50 degrees and climbing into the low 60s with low humidity, sunshine, and light winds. A later race time and short drive to the race meant that I didn't have to get up super early. My alarm went off at 5:45 am, after changing and grabbing a quick breakfast, I headed to Bondurant with my mom and dad in tow to get ready to go. We arrived plenty early and I had a lot of time to stand around after getting my transition set up. I had a large group of work friends as well as family come out to cheer me on for the race.

After a quick warm up run around the lake, I made my final preparations and got ready for the race to start. The water temperature was 67 degrees, meaning that the race was "wet suit legal" which made me very happy to hear.

Putting on my wet suit as race time approaches

The race started at 9:00 am with the collegiate wave followed by my wave, the Heart of America Champions Wave at 9:03. The swim course was a straight out and back with a distance of 750 meters and I had an excellent swim. I came out of the water in a time of 17:48, more than 3 minutes faster than my time at the Cyman last year. The 2:10/100 yard pace is one of the fastest of my career.

Waiting in the water for my swim wave to start

Finishing up the swim

Out of the water and heading to T1

This is my first race using clip-less pedals and cycling shoes. Even though it added some additional complexity and preparation, it ended up not having a large impact on my transition times as I managed to get through T1 in 1:32 which was just seconds off of my current PR time. 

I was feeling very good as I headed out on the bike. Although the bike course was only 14 miles long, it did include several smaller hills on the back side of the course. In addition, we faced a head wind as we headed back into transition. None of that mattered much as I managed to set a PR for my bike split pace at 19.4 mph, cutting almost 2 minutes off of my time from last year. 

Clipping in and heading out on the bike course

Off the bike and headed for T2

My T2 time was a little longer than normal with the additional shoe change, but still a really good time at 1:06. As I headed out on the run, I was feeling pretty good. As I passed the first mile marker I could tell that I was running at a faster than normal pace and was even happier when I tried to push that pace a bit during the 2nd mile and my legs responded without any complaints. As I headed around the lake and up into the finish chute I couldn't believe the time that I saw on the clock. I quickly checked my watch to see that I had run the 5K in 28:00 flat. That not only set a triathlon PR, but set an overall running PR for me. My previous PR was a training run last October when I ran 28:13. 

Heading out of T2 onto the run course

Heading into the finish line

Getting some high fives from my girls at the end of the course

My official time was 1:31:43, 11 minutes faster than the 1:42:40 that I posted for the same race last year. I had a top 100 bike split and finished 138/240 total racers. I felt great the entire race and couldn't have asked for a better way to bring my 2018 season to an end.

Official times

As icing on the cake, I had a lot of support at the race today. Several coworkers, both former and current, as well as family came out to support me today. Their support and interest goes a long way to help me along in my journey and means more to me than any of them will ever know. 

A whole bunch of friends from work

Sister-in-law Jess and Niece Ellie came out to
cheer me on

Always excited when mom and dad get a
chance to watch me race

Me and my girls. For as much as they drive me
crazy, they are my biggest cheerleaders.

My wife Erin and I. None of this would be
possible without her love and support

After the race, we headed back to our house to meet more friends and family to grill out and celebrate another successful season. Everyone had a great time enjoying chicken and burgers along with the beautiful early fall weather. 

In-laws in-driveway

Girls having fun with the neighbors

Brother and sister-in-law, sadly Paul's attire
wasn't enough to will the Packers to a win

Words cannot express how high I am feeling right now. 2018 ended on such a high note and I am looking forward to what is to come in 2019. For now, I'm going to shift my focus to recovery, family time, and deer hunting season. Thank you all for your support throughout this year, as well as over the past 5 years. It had been a great run and I'm still just getting started. Keep your eye on my blog and Facebook for my season wrap up and information on my plans for next year, chances are, 2019 will be even more epic than 2018 was.