We are a week out from Ironman Waco. Any Ags going to be out there? I am suffering Saturday for the full, and will be out supporting a few friends on Sunday for the half. (if i can still walk)

Not really as Ironman fit right now, but using this race to requalify for Ultraman Arizona in the spring. Will be a good training day for that. Planning for a long, slow, and hot death march Saturday. Hope to see some of yall on course

Didn't have any reply's but figured I'd give a race report anyways.

3rd Ironman in the books. I guess all I can say is I survived.
Charlie horse on the swim. Cramped for over a mile. Water was great. 74 degrees. Felt awesome. Weren't many athletes so we were pretty spaced out. No crowding. Made for a smooth swim. With my cramping I was super slow.

Started on the bike and was going well. Windy but steady. Then the wheels fell off.
Dropped a chain. No big deal was fixed and back on the road with in a minute.

We were riding on the shoulder of a highway for a bit and had rumble strips. I went to pass a guy and called on your left about a dozen times. He moved over so I started to pass. As soon as I got beside him he pushed back over sending me into the deep rumble stripa going 24mph. Broke my brake on the bump when I hit it. It gashed my tire and had a flat. Fixed the first one no problem. About a mile later I had another flat. From here I Sat on the side of the road for an hour. All I could do was laugh. This race was getting pretty comical by now.

Bike felt good too, but had trouble keeping my HR down. Road wise, the bike course was worst I've ever been on. Super windy and bumps everywhere. Roads are awful. Temps were in the mid 90s with 20mph gusts. Tough conditions but manageable.

Run was interesting. Pitch black and no one was out there. Volunteers were nice. Some of the aid stations needed a little direction bu lt not complaining. Volunteers are a god send.

Decided since it was obvious there was no PR, and it was 90+ degrees, I'd run walk the marathon. 4 min on and 1 min walk. Ended up around 12 min pace with the run walk.

I think 25-40% dnf. Only 380 out of 600+ finished.

Over 3 hours slower than my bet last itonman. Finished in 15:4x

Sunday I was back on course supporting friends for the 70.3. We had a tent set up about mile 1 under a bridge playing terrible music. If anyone was out there and heard a train horn that was me!

Man rough day. I followed along with the Ironman tracker and I felt pain just keeping tabs knowing it was a rough day.

Good news about all my bike trouble was I got to do a large portion of my run in the dark. Haha That afternoon heat was brutal on the run

I did the 70.3 last year. Mile 43 when you make that bend in the road out from the shade of the tree line and head back into the sun. Brutal.

This year they lengthened the run course and you had to run around Baylor football station 4 times. No shade fully exposed. At 95 degrees we were cooking

The run course didn't appear to run through the park and up the big hill this year.

Congrats on the finish. I've been there. I usually go into a race with three different scenarios / expected times in mind, one of which will play out: firing on all cylinders / PR, what I reasonably think I'm capable of, and then wheels fall off / just finish. Had to resort to the last one a time or two.

I did the full last year. Probably my least favorite IM course out of the six I've done. Pretty sure this will be the last year they have a full. Gotta be the lowest numbers on the IM circuit this year.

JeremiahJohnson said:

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This year they lengthened the run course and you had to run around Baylor football station 4 times. No shade fully exposed. At 95 degrees we were cooking

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And in wide open concreate lots to boot. Sounds miserable.

So if you had that choice or the Cameron Park hills on repeat, which would you take? :-)

Agree. I probably won't do the full again. The roads were terrible. I assume I will do the half again, but only because it is the closest half to me living in College Station.

we've all had those days. many people would have thrown in the towel. great job pushing through.

Thanks. By my 2nd flat all I could do was laugh. I knew I was in for a long day. I learned early in my endurance sports journey smiling and keeping a good attitude is the best way to fight through. I had a few friends have similar things happen and felt sorry for themselves and quit. That is not in my DNA!

I'm local so my wife and I volunteered Saturday - I was in the Info tent and my wife was in Medical. She said it was brutal come dusk.
I raced Sunday and had a good day:
Swim - spot on my average and considering I haven't swam since IMTX, I had no plans to expend any energy here.
Bike - Again, local so I know the route well and I've trained both in windy, hot, cold, and rainy conditions so I really enjoyed the ride. Once I made it to Lake Shore, I settled into aero and just ticked off the mile markers. I experienced zero mechanical or traction issues and my visor really shed rain well and improved visibility. I noted a lot of seemingly uncomfortable riders I passed that were forced to ride out of aero and squint through the rain because they were riding without eyewear. I took the corners overly cautiously trying to avoid other riders but still managed to average 21 and PR the route.
Run - I wasn't a big fan of the course but Webber construction has pretty well screwed the city so this years course was really a poor compromise between the hill weenie triathletes and routing logistics. I'd run most sections of the course previously so I knew what to expect and tried to pace accordingly. My bike nutrition was better than previous races. I did not experience the GI distress or cramping but felt low on energy. I took in a couple Maurten gels and dumped ice down my Tri kit at each water stop. The sun came out with a vengeance and cooked us the last 5k. My 9:30 average wasn't quite what I'd hoped but was enough for a solid 45min PR over my last 70.3 in Galveston.

Congrats yall! You will always have good stories to tell!

wcb said:

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Congrats on the finish. I've been there. I usually go into a race with three different scenarios / expected times in mind, one of which will play out: firing on all cylinders / PR, what I reasonably think I'm capable of, and then wheels fall off / just finish. Had to resort to the last one a time or two.

I did the full last year. Probably my least favorite IM course out of the six I've done. Pretty sure this will be the last year they have a full. Gotta be the lowest numbers on the IM circuit this year.

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They just announced no more full