Miamiman Aquabike

Ages ago, I decided that a good end to this year's race season would be the half-ironman distance aquabike at the Miamiman Tri.  Fast forward many months, I wasn't that into it, but I was registered and had plane tickets, so Jason and I were off to Miami for a weekend!

When we arrived, we got a phone call from where we are staying; because of some renovations they had upgraded us to a luxury hotel right on the beach for free!  While we weren't really there for long enough to take advantage of that, it was still a great place to stay (even though it was pretty far from the race site).  We wandered around Deerfield Beach that evening, and woke up to a spectacular sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean the next day.

Good morning, Atlantic!

Outdoor pool = my happy place

Racked & ready for the last time in 2016!

Saturday was a whirlwind of getting a swim and a ride in, finding some food, driving to the race site, and getting everything checked in pre-race.  With the time change from east coast to west coast, we were exhausted!

Sunday morning was another gorgeous morning, and we watched the sunrise from the swim start area.  The race itself was huge, with over 2000 athletes since it was the US Championships for long-distance triathlon and aquabike, as well as hosting a standard distance race.  And lucky me (not), I was in the last swim wave... which meant swimming through a lot of people in waves ahead of me, never my favourite.

Sunrise from the swim start

One more race!

It wasn't my best swim - 1.9 km in 33 flat for the two loops.  The water was pretty warm but they claimed it was wetsuit legal... sure.  I had picked the race for the bike course, as I wanted the flat ride as that's where my strengths as a cyclist are.  It was an out-and-back with a 2-loop section.  There was some drafting, but like in any race you CAN make the decision to ride clean.  I did, and still PR'd with a bike time of 2:35 (although my garmin said it was only 87 km instead of 90, so ride time would probably be more like 2:41-2:42 - still a 5 minute PR anyway!).

Heading out for lap #2

Swim exit pics are always The. Worst.

Leaving T1

Heading out on the bike

 

Jason enjoying spectating instead of
racing for once!

Being the national championships, there was some fierce competition and I ended up in 8th place.  I was ok with that, since we wanted to do a bit of exploring rather than hang around for the awards ceremony.  We packed up my bike in the parking lot, did some sightseeing, then back on the plane headed for home.  

Heading back to transition after the ride.

Now for a few weeks of off-season!