Ironman Waco 70.3
RACE REPORT by Jim Peplow
After moving to Texas in March and doing the full Texas Ironman in April, I decided to sign up for IM Waco 70.3. It's less than 100 miles north of our home in College Station so it would be a fun local race. Being retired has afforded me a lot more time to train and despite all the miles I had been putting in I was actually feeling pretty healthy. An interesting caveat going into this race popped up after I did IM Oregon 70.3 in July. At the Oregon race I earned a roll down spot for the IM 70.3 World Championship in St. George, Utah at the end of October. Even though the two race were less than two weeks apart, I thought, “What the heck, how often do you get a chance to compete in a World Championship event.” People asked me if I was going to train through Waco to focus on St. George and my answer was “no way.” I was focusing on Waco as I had a good chance to podium there, whereas with all the top people coming from all over the world to St. George a podium there was not realistic. I decided to just enjoy the experience of competing in a World Championship event and take it all in.
RACE REPORT by Jim Peplow
After moving to Texas in March and doing the full Texas Ironman in April, I decided to sign up for IM Waco 70.3. It's less than 100 miles north of our home in College Station so it would be a fun local race. Being retired has afforded me a lot more time to train and despite all the miles I had been putting in I was actually feeling pretty healthy. An interesting caveat going into this race popped up after I did IM Oregon 70.3 in July. At the Oregon race I earned a roll down spot for the IM 70.3 World Championship in St. George, Utah at the end of October. Even though the two race were less than two weeks apart, I thought, “What the heck, how often do you get a chance to compete in a World Championship event.” People asked me if I was going to train through Waco to focus on St. George and my answer was “no way.” I was focusing on Waco as I had a good chance to podium there, whereas with all the top people coming from all over the world to St. George a podium there was not realistic. I decided to just enjoy the experience of competing in a World Championship event and take it all in.
Our hotel room in Waco, the Hilton, was great. We were right across the street from the IM Village, the finish line, the swim finish and the transition area. Waco was hosting what they called the “Texas Two-Step,” with a full IM on Saturday and a 70.3 event on Sunday. Three dozen people tried to do both races and it's my understanding 13 actually completed the task.
With the proximity of our room to the finish line, even though we were on the top (11th floor), I could still hear the announcer calling out the famous “you are an Ironman” line clear until one o'clock in the morning.
Even though it hadn't rained in weeks there was a chance of rain Sunday afternoon. Well, when we woke up Sunday morning the skies were definitely looking ominous. Sure enough as we were waiting in the queue for the swim it started to sprinkle, and as we exited the water it had turned into a down pour. The spectators were about a wet as the swimmers. The rain created an interesting situation in the transition area. Because of the heat and drought this summer the transition area was basically a dirt field and the heavy downpour instantly turned it into a muddy bog. Both my bike shoes and running shoes were filled with water and we had to carry our bikes out to the road, as rolling them out would have completely caked the tires in thick mud. Once reaching the road I had to take a few second to scrape the mud out of my bike cleats.
The heavy rain continued for the first ten miles of the bike ride. Not only was it hard to see, but we had to be very cautious on the slippery roads. Fortunately I had Continental Grand Prix 4-Season Tires on my bike which provided a little bit more traction. I saw several cyclists go down, especially in the corners. Fortunately I was able to navigate the bike course without incident. My goal time on the bike was 3 hours, but with the rainy conditions and taking the corners much slower than normal I was very happy with my time of 3 hour and 3 minutes. When arriving back to T2 I could tell they had spread a bunch of hay around the area to try mitigate the mud, but to little avail. Somebody on Facebook posted a video that shows the mud well - Click here to see it.
After tip-toeing through the mud I began the run and was feeling great. The Waco run is a really nice route. Most of the first nine miles is either along the Waco Riverwalk or in river front parks, while the next three miles winds through the Baylor University campus. The course is sneaky hard because there are several subtle inclines, mainly over bridges and overpasses. I was happy with my run and felt like I ran a fairly consistent even paced effort. The final stretch takes you across the historic Waco Suspension Bridge. My goal time for the 13 mile run was 2 hours and and I stopped the clock just a few seconds over that mark.
Going into the race I had two goals, one was to break 6 hours and the other (the main goal) was to finish on the podium. My final time was 6 hours and 2 minutes. Considering that the muddy transition area added about four minutes in my transitions I was happy with that overall time, but even
happier that I did well enough to finish on the podium, placing 3rd in the 65-69 age group.
It was also fun being able to watch the full on Saturday. Normally when I'm at an event I am participating, but this time I was able to take in the Saturday race as a spectator. The photos below show the the Saturday swimmers as I was running along the Riverwalk. The photo of the swim finish shows our hotel in the background. Our hotel room is the top floor left side, the one with the curtains wide-open.
Now after a quick five-day regroup back home, it's time to pack up the car and head out to St George!
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