by Christian Baughman, Kyle’s Bikes 2014 Triathlon Team

Cyman Triathlon (Olympic)
1500 m Swim, 39.5 km Bike, 10 km Run
Bondurant, Iowa
September 21, 2014

Well I was able to wrap the 2014 season with a strong overall performance at the Olympic distance after an out of balance Bluff Creek and the shortened Hy-Vee. The weather for the inaugural Cyman Olympic was gorgeous, save for the northwest wind that started at 15 mph and ended up increasing to over 20 mph over the course of the race.

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by Christian Baughman, Kyle’s Bikes 2014 Triathlon Team

Hy-Vee Triathlon
750 m Swim, 20 km Bike, 5 km Run
Des Moines, Iowa
August 31, 2014

You can look at it two ways: minus 4 minutes, 7 seconds or plus 12 seconds. The first was how much of a sprint course PR this was for me, the second how far out of qualification I landed for the 2015 5150 US Championship. I guess it is a glass half-full or half-empty proposition and mostly I’m choosing to feel glass half-full.

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by Christian Baughman, Kyle’s Bikes 2014 Triathlon Team

Bluff Creek Olympic
1500 m Swim, 40 km Bike, 10 km Run
Don Williams Park, Boone County, Iowa
August 10, 2014

This was another new race for me with the Kyle’s Bikes/Discount Tri Supply team. The Bluff Creek Triathlon takes place in Don Williams State Park, just North of Ogden and South of Pilot Mound. The latter town is still riding its fame of being home of “Twister Hill” from the epic midwestern storm-chaser film of several years back. I’d ridden Twister Hill once on RAGBRAI a few years ago, and all I remembered is that it was a comparative monster of a climb compared to what we’d been doing that day or week. So a week before the race, when Coach Julie instructed “ride a hilly route,” I loaded the SHIV and did a little scouting ride of the race course.

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by Christian Baughman, Kyle’s Bikes 2014 Triathlon Team

Well, I didn’t take the finish line down this weekend. I did knock out my sprint distance PR by several seconds. And I found my new favorite sprint triathlon! There’s a reason why TJ Tollakson and Iowa Momentum magazine name it their top sprint: Copper Creek Triathlon is a real class act.

It is very well organized, including a monitored swim preview on Saturday, a very clearly communicated race schedule, and really decent swag! Not to mention there is a bar patio that overlooks the run course for the spectators. The course is very good and the transition and finish line areas are well laid out. I can’t believe I haven’t raced it before, but I’m sure I’ll be back.

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by Christian Baughman, Kyle’s Bikes 2014 Triathlon Team

My story of the Holiday Lake Triathlon is more about getting there (and back) than the race itself. In fact that’s most of the fun(ny) stuff. So, let’s get the race details out of the way first and we’ll have a little chuckle at my expense.

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