I posted a few weeks ago that I hoped to reach another milestone over the weekend.  Well, it happened.  My family and I made the short trek down to Waco where I raced the TriWaco Olympic.  I knew going in that 3:00 should be possible and that if everything went off perfectly that a 2:45 might even be in the cards.  In the end I wound up with a 2:55 which I was completely fine with.

The swim was fairly uneventful.  It was about on par with other swims I’ve had here.  I knew what I needed to do to go 2:45 and I was a few minutes behind coming out of the water.  I decided to hit the bike hard and try to make up some time.

After 15 minutes of hammering the bike I finally decided to take a look at my heart rate.  It was in the low 160’s which is about 10 beats higher than I was wanting to see so I decided to slow things down a bit.  The course was a frustrating one due to (1) four U turns that brought you to an almost complete stop and (2) pavement that I would have preferred to be a bit smoother.  I’ve never had great times on rough pavement (and this was no exception).  I guess I’m a prima donna that way.

Starting out on the run I knew that a 2:45 was now out of the question but a 3:00 was still well within reach.  That meant I could pace myself and not go all out for the next hour which was a relief.  It was starting to get hot out and I knew what was coming.

The run at Waco is ~2 miles flat, ~2 miles of hills, then a final ~2 miles flat.  I made it to the the hills and was starting to get gassed so I opted to walk up them and then run the backside.  That worked well and got me in and out and onto the final two miles.  Knowing I was still well ahead of the 3:00 mark I took my time getting through the aid stations, filling my cap and my top with ice.  Walking the last one cost me a spot in my age group as  a guy I’d been playing cat and mouse with all day (we literally paced almost identically through all three legs) opted not to stop.

I could hear Sarah and the kids cheering as I came down the home stretch.  I crossed the finish line and another milestone was cemented in the books.  All in all it was a great day.  I PR’d both my bike and run times on this course and did it on a lower heart rate than in years past which is a good sign that my overall fitness continues to improve.

So that leaves two milestones yet to be completed.  I’m hoping to achieve another one in October at Ironman North Carolina.  We’ll see how it goes.

Race	Goal	Achieved
Half Marathon	2:00	1:55 Chisholm Trail 2014
Marathon	4:00	N/A (4:06 on my only attempt)
Olympic Tri	3:00	2:55 TriWaco 2016
Half Ironman	6:00	5:21 Redman 2015
Ironman	12:00	N/A (12:27 on my last attempt)