I was discouraged at first until I looked at all that happened. First, I'll never wear that tri top again w/o a wetsuit or skin suit over it. That damn thing felt like a lead vest about half way into the swim. Second, it was a river swim which means half was into the current. The water was very choppy and afterwards my wife said the boats and jetskis went up and down the river watching us as we swam = waves.

Wear my one piece suit, no jersey, or no shirt at all.

There was a long run up switchbacks to get to street level from the river. That ate up some time. I put on my socks to make for a short T2. Otherwards it was a good T1.

Wait to put on socks in T2. My socks were supersaturated by the end of the run.

I drank 48 oz of water, GU gel every 30 min, and (2) Hammer electrolyte tabs every 30 min.

Not much I can do. Cycling is my weak link. I'm just not very fast while maintaining a manageable HR.

This went good, racked my bike by the bars. My socks were saturated and later wished I had changed them out or waited to T2 to put them on. Don't need them on the bike.

I walked at every station and drank water and took (2) electrolyte tabs. I held a 9:00 m/m pace easy and looked forward to increasing for a negative split (HR Zone 3.2 - 3.5) until I hit the unexpected hills. Wow! I kept a slow jog going up all of them which was far better than most around me. The last couple of miles were just hot! I held a 9:20 pace or so at about 4.0 HR Zone. I could have pushed it some more but knew I couldn't make up any real ground at that point.

At one time there was no one in front of me and no one behind me. I almost stopped and ran back to the last aid station. Decided to push through and came across a couple with a little girl cheering me on. We all had a laugh at that.

Learn the course, run some hills in training.

I didn't have enough gels for the run and didn't think it would be an issue. It probably wasn't but eating a couple of more during the run sure couldn't have hurt.

The heat was draining. I ate, drank, and rested. My wife was hot from being there for six hours and ready for a break. We went to the hotel, showered, and had a nap. Afterwards was a damn good mexican food and margaritas!


This wasn't an A race for me at all. After coming off IM Buffalo Springs I was a little burned out and really just maintained.
As I suspected I had some hamstring overuse going on. After taking extra time to rest during my taper I had NO hamstring issues during the race.


My first time at this venue. Darn good race in Waco!!