Race Report - Bluff Creek Sprint Triathon 2016

I am way behind in my blogging this summer so here is my race report from Bluff Creek Triathlon in late July.  After the car accident and then slogging through a half ironman triathlon three weeks later, I've spent most of my summer rehabbing my shoulder and then my ankle (see my national park post for details.).

Before the race

So going into July I knew I planned on doing one of my favorite races using the registration I couldn't use last year with my MS flaring.  The question was did I want to try for the Olympic or just get by with the Sprint.  It was looking to be less humid than last year, but was still going to have a bit of heat on the run especially if I did the Olympic length.  I figured since my season was toast anyway, and I really hadn't done any runs over three miles, that I would just do the sprint and have fun.  It ended up being a lovely day with a comfortable temp at the start and nice lake temp (I've done this race in May with water temps in the low 60's so I will take the 70's over that).

Hanging on the beach we noticed there weren't very many racers from our club this year.  We had a log of folks up in WI doing a training weekend for IMWI so pickings were slim.  I think I counted six of us and was grateful for a little company on the course.  As always we took the bus to the beach for the start.  The swim was pretty uneventful across the to the boat ramp.  I probably had more to give but my shoulder was starting to ache as I came around the last buoy.

Since the wreck in May I've done very little bike training (read none to speak of) and mostly just tooled around with the kids or the occasional commutes to work.  I didn't have high expectations on the bike and really felt my lack of training as people continued to blow by me the entire ride. This is a flattish straight out and back sprint course unlike Twister Hill on the Olympic course.  Looking on the bright side it was a beautiful day, and the wind wasn't too bad this year.  In past years I've done this one with not enough gears to keep up in one direction and not enough gears to stay upright coming back so this was pretty light work.

  

I wrapped up the bike course and then was off to the run course.  This is a bit of a rolling run course with a stretch on grassy and gravel trails, then into the park on the roads down a big hill, over the damn and up another long hill to the turn around point, then repeat in reverse. The run felt pretty strong for me and I probably could have pushed a bit more but heat was rising and I was enjoying the day.  All in all was a great race, not an age group finishs but I had fun and that is what counts.

Thanks to my trainer for the Stongar with Mongar plan who got me most of the way through July. Thanks to my physical therapist who worked to get my shoulder mobile again.  Thanks to my family who lets me wonder off in the wee hours to play outside, and to Pearl Izumi for the sponsorship this year #endureandenjoy365