Waco 70.3 and What's Next!

Another weekend of touring a city in spandex has come to an end, and I had a blast! This last weekends race was in Waco, Texas - about two hours south of Dallas. Luckily, my father decided that this weekend would be a good time for some bonding, so decided to make the trip down from Minnesota to help sherpa me around for the weekend! We crammed all of the luggage into the back of his rental, then paid our $2.00 that Dallas charges you to leave the airport, and began our drive down to Lorena.

We stayed on a quiet farm about 15 miles out of Waco, which means about 10 minutes of driving at Texas speeds. I was alarmed at a sign that said there have been over 2500 deaths on Texas roads this year so far... In Utah this morning there was a sign that said there had been 25 during the month of October, and was discouraging drunk driving. The farm was really peaceful, and had everything we needed for the weekend.

Father, thanks for being there this weekend!

On paper, Waco looked to be a stacked race, however before the race there were a bunch of question marks as to who would start. Would Starky really race just 7 days before he does IM FL?? Would Joe Gambles do this just 2 weeks post Kona?? Metzler is on like 4 published start lists this weekend, will he be at this one, or the other one, or the one next weekend?? Would Sam Appleton really have to embarrass everyone and win by an unreasonable margin (again)?? Then there are always the people you've never heard of on the start list... Basically at this point, I've learned that the only thing you can count on is the people who are physically in the water with you also peeing in their wetsuits when the gun goes off are the ones you're racing.

People who put themselves on every start list

Summer seems to have come and gone without a Fall period here in Utah, so luckily this race would have a high of around 75 degrees. The swim was wetsuit legal, and the water was nice and brown. I would have liked to see how I fared in a field like this in a non-wetsuit swim (probably would have gotten dropped), but that will have to wait again until next year. It was a point to point adventure - and I managed to get off to a great start and found myself somehow sighting off  the person who was sighting off the person who was sighting off a group of people who were directly behind the lead kayak. I filtered around, and just did my best to hang on to feet and get as much of a tow as possible in order to conserve energy, knowing that if this group all came out of the water together I would probably be towards the back, and that is not a great spot to be in at the start of the bike.

As we came out of the water, we were about 20 seconds down to a group that contained Timmy Winslow and Elliot Bach, but I had exited the water with Steve Kilshaw, who I really needed to get away from in transition if I wanted to have a chance at staying in the group once we got onto the bike. Kilshaw has had some of the top bike/run splits at races this year, and I knew that people would try to hang on to him as long as possible. If I could get a jump on him and be in the group before he got to the group, then when he went to the front of the group I could just sit in, as opposed to trying to bridge to a group that he was towing, which would be basically impossible. I got a jump on him and a bunch of other guys in T1, and road aggressively until I caught the group with the guys I knew, and waited for Kilshaw. It took him about 5 more minutes than me to close the gap, and by the time he got to the front of our group I had recovered for the effort and was ready for battle.

Up until that point, the power had been relatively sustainable for a 2 hour pack ride, but once Kilshaw got to the front it was either 350w+ or 20w... I was not having a fun time, and knew that the speed hadn't risen enough to warrant these massive surges I was having to put in just to stay in contact. I reflected on previous groups I had been in where this was the case, and tried to move up in the group hoping that it'd be a bit steadier. After trying that and still being disappointed with the effort, I decided that I had to pee and would just let the group go. I used a downhill and lost a bit of weight, and then basically road my own power for the rest of the race. I could basically see the group the entire way to the finish.  By the end they had only put around 1 minute on me, and I had ridden relatively steady. I was proud of my tactical decision making considering how hard I've blown myself up in races earlier this year - I knew that I could have burned a lot of matches considering how hard the run course would be, and I hadn't cramped or imploded, so was probably going to be OK. The downside was I had already peed twice more (lots of vibrations from the chipseal in TX), and decided to not drink a water bottle I grabbed at the last aid station, so I didn't feel awesome getting off the bike like I had in Augusta.

In the mountains prepping for some cold weather racing

Looking back, if I had to change anything about my race - it would be to chug that damn water bottle and see if I could have run better! It's not that I felt "bad", I just could tell my body was already a bit closer to the thin line than it needed to be coming off the bike, and literally every race where I've had that extra bottle I end up feeling good on the run for at least a small period of time. During a 1/2 on the run off the bike, you never are going to ever get enough water/fluids in unless you stop at aid stations, and even then you'll still probably get dehydrated. Luckily, I'll have more opportunities to put that theory to the test...

Stole this pic

Anyways, the run course was pretty tough, and I was happy to be coming from a place like Salt Lake where we have giant hills we can run up to prepare mentally for the misery that is lap 2 of the Waco run. I came off the bike with Ben Deal like I have basically every time we raced, and this time I decided to see how long I could stick it to him out of T2. He's usually one of the strongest runners in the field, so if I could hang with him and feel comfortable I knew I was in a great spot. I quickly realized that it was not my day to do this, and committed to an effort I knew I could sustain for at least 10 miles.

Crossing the bridge on the way to the finish

I got some splits from my dad, was still down from quite a few guys, and making up time. But not as much as I hoped I would. I crossed my fingers that the all of the dudes ahead of me would all have to take a porta potty break at the same time and be stuck in line, or that they would all be walking up the hills, and eventually at like mile 10 I finally had another pro within reach. We ran shoulder to shoulder for around 800 meters before coming to an aid station, where I was able to pull away from him. Once we hit the out and back with around 800 meters to go to the finish I could see I had put a gap into him, and allowed myself to enjoy the bridge across to the finish, which was lined with spectators.

Post race chat about how we spent way too much on our sneakers

After the race, I ran into Erin, who was the president of the ASU Tri team back in the day (like 2 years ago). She's living in Texas, and works for every endurance athletes favorite company, active.com. After crushing some pizza and burritos, My dad and I headed back to the ranch to pack up and head back to our respective home states. On the list of the worst things to have to do directly after a race, packing up a bike and driving 2 hours to an airport is definitely up there. To make matters worse, when I arrived in SLC, my gate-checked carry on (you know, when they say hey we want you to check a bag for free) was missing. The lady made me sit around for another hour waiting for it, and when it didn't show up after an hour they finally filed a claim. TBH I just wanted a cheeseburger and a nap at that point and was basically acting like an adult sized toddler who hadn't eaten in the last 30 minutes (just ask Emily). The next morning my bag magically got on a different plane from Dallas and appeared at our apartment door.

Hangin with Erin!

Overall, I had a great time in Waco. The race was well organized, I got to spend some time with my dad, and ate some solid food. Experience participating in a tactical race and making decisions while under pressure was gained. At the end of the day, Elliot and I have focused this year on beating as many people as possible. And while I haven't really won anything big, each race has been super important and each time I've learned what I can do to potentially beat people who are actually better than me but just race like idiots. at the end of the day, I think now I've got a good idea of tactically what it takes to put yourself in a position to perform, and now it's all about just getting more fit and continuing to learn what the dynamic is like at the top level.

Thanks, Delta...

The next race on the calendar is Challenge Daytona, out in Daytona Beach Florida! The race takes place at 4:30 PM on December 14th, and is sure to be pretty sick! It's a 1500m swim, 37.5 mile bike around the race track (15 laps), and then an 8 mile run. I'm still looking for a Sherpa for that race, so if you would like to hang out with me and buy me food for a weekend, you can apply here