Race Report Times Two - Cyman Triathlon Sprint 2016

Missing the triracer ladies but
here I am with the fellas.
We had seven total.

Just knocking out some race reports tonight.  Last one of the season on Cyman Triathlon sprint distance 2016.  Since I had spent the day before hanging with my girl doing some volunteering for the Special Olympic equestrian games I figured she owed me some cheering for my last race of the season.  It was nice that this race doesn't start until 9am so we rolled out with the sunrise to head to Bondurant.  Another gorgeous day to race and a tad warmer on land and in the water than when I did this race two years ago.

My biggest concern going into this race would be my ankle. I know I still owe you a blog with that story and I will queue that one up soon.  Needless to day I was looking at the water exit from the lake straight up an embankment and a tad worried.  I had my KT tape on my ankle and I hoped that would be enough.  Although it was mid September the water temps were between 68 - 70 so I opted for my wetsuit for the swim.  It was a calm lovely day for a swim.  They adjusted the buoys a bit so we wouldn't be swimming directly into the sun for the first buoy.  We waited on the Olympic racers to do their heats and most were coming out of the water before we got started.  It was a solid swim for me but I probably held back a bit and my shoulder was barking a bit on the return trip.  They had four or five people on the climb out of the lake to pull people out of the water so getting out of the lake was not an issue.

Starting the bike
Photo by Abby

I made it through transition and headed out on the bike.  This course is a bit of a roller through the beautiful Iowa countryside.  Lots of farms, animals, and topography variety to keep me entertained.  The course essentially has two loops and a couple of short stretches were we overlapped going in the opposite direction.  Despite not having done many rides this year I had a much faster ride than when  I did Bluff Creek six weeks earlier.  All in all I felt a lot more comfortable on my bike for this race.

The run was a different course then when I did Cyman in 2014 so while I knew it was on a paved trail it wasn't on the same trail as before.  There were stretches of shade and sun along the trail.   It was starting to get warm towards the end but I felt like I was having a solid run and really tried to push the pace as I ran the last mile back around the lake to the finish.

The best part of the day was having my best girl Abigail with me.  She is twelve now and has a couple of triathlons under her belt as well.  It is important to me for her to see me race, and the payoff from all the hard work I do leading up to my races.  I also hope that she can see that I push on despite my limitations with MS and injury do the things I love like racing in triathlons.  Either way she was my rock star support team and was rocking the cowbell at the finish for all the finishers coming in.  Super proud of her and grateful to have her by my side.

My best girl and I after the race.

Another season is in the books since my running was derailed so no marathon to close things out. I'm looking ahead to next year and trying to figure out what races to do.  I'd hoped to do my first marathon at Grandmas in Duluth but it looks like I will be in Muscatine celebrating with my crazy extended family that weekend so will have to look towards some other options.  Time to formulate a plan.

As always thanks to my teammates (Triracers and Pearl Izumi), my fleet of medical professionals, and my family for another great year in the wilds of the Midwest.  #endureandenjoy