Cyman Triathlon: Scott's Report

by Scott Carkhuff, Kyle’s Bikes 2014 Triathlon Team Cyman Triathlon (sprint) 750 m Swim, 22.5 km Bike, 5 km Run Bondurant, Iowa September 21, 2014 This event was a bittersweet event for me. I was trying to train for the Des Moines Marathon so my focus wasn’t solely on this event. I had upped my mileage running and that had taken most of my focus. Also the weather had started to change so the temp was a little cooler and it looked like the wind was going to make an appearance. I arrived early to the event and got my bike all set up in transition. Normally I would go get in the water and swim a little bit before the event, but as I looked out to the water it didn’t look like anyone was doing any kind of practice swimming. Pretty sure it was because of the outside temp.

Swim

Swim went well with very minimal contact. The hardest thing about the swim, I think, was getting in and out of the water. There were big rocks at the entrance and exit, so trying to balance on or around those after swimming was kind of interesting. Also, I had a little sun glare at the beginning to make sighting pretty interesting. Overall swim went well for me. T1 was pretty boring. The run from swim exit was on grass up a little hill to transition, enough time to get the wetsuit unzipped and off the shoulders. Shoes, sunglasses, helmet, and grabbed my bike and I was outtie!

Bike

The bike was fun, great bike course with a couple rolling hills but nothing major. We had some wind to deal with which was probably the biggest challenge. I didn’t push it too hard into the wind as I wanted to have a good run. Pretty much the same as T1, not very much happening. Slipped socks on (still need to try to run without socks), shoes, and race belt and took off.

Run

Run was super flat on a trail, and it was an out and back run. Actually had my best run of the year. I think the cooler temps and running more getting ready for the marathon helped me out.  

Overall

Event was good! Well run, fun, good course, would definitely do it again. Swim: 15:19 Bike: 37:03 Run: 20:45 7th overall

---

Full results from the Cyman Triathlon are online at True Time Racing. Photo credits: "Scott in wetsuit" by Katherine Roccasecca. "Scott in T2" and "Scott floating over finish" by Kylie Carkhuff