Road to 140.6
A dispatch from an expedition still being provisioned
Burke Ruder, forty years old, cleared IRONMAN 70.3 Waco just inside the cutoff in October 2024. He is now outfitting for the full distance — 2.4 miles of open water, 112 by bicycle, 26.2 on foot — around a full-time job, a side business, and three deckhands under seven who never signed a waiver. Standing order for the whole operation: nothing shoves off before 6:30am.
Orders of the day
Today's orders — Sun, Nov 8
Nothing posted for today yet. Orders are written each morning from what's left in the week's budget, today's readiness, and the gaps in the calendar — never read off a grid.
This week's manifest
2026-W43 · Re-entry · Oct 19, 2026 – Oct 25, 2026
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Mon, Oct 19
Nothing logged.
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Tue, Oct 20
Ride Kickr, Zwift Z2 endurance ride, 45 min. First ride in 4 weeks: keep it at full-sentence talking pace, HR 118-146, cadence 85-90. Ride in Zwift (not the watch) so power records. Fallback: 30 min easy spin after 8pm.
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Wed, Oct 21
Nothing logged.
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Thu, Oct 22
Nothing logged.
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Fri, Oct 23
Nothing logged.
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Sat, Oct 24
Nothing logged.
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Sun, Oct 25
Nothing logged.
The week is a budget, not a schedule: 2.3 hours, with at least two swims, two rides including the long one, two runs including the long one, and one short strength session. Which day each lands on is decided the morning of. A missed easy session is dropped, not owed.
Nothing committed yet
Three routes are spread out on the chart table. None are inked in — the decision doesn't have to be made until mid-October, and until then all three stay in play.
Full steam ahead
IRONMAN Texas, The Woodlands — April 2027. Thirty-two weeks of runway, peak weeks pushing 14–15 hours. The ambitious line, and the one with the least margin for error.
The recommended course
A fall 2027 full — Chattanooga, Florida, or Arizona, still to be named. Fifty-five to sixty-two weeks, with a 70.3 in Galveston next April standing in as the dress rehearsal. Currently in the lead.
Taking the scenic route
IRONMAN Texas again, but April 2028. The better part of two years of runway, and the gentlest slope for a life that already has plenty going on.
All three routes share the same first leg — a ten-week rebuild running through mid-November — and the same near-term checkpoint: a continuous 2000-meter swim, a three-hour ride, and a ten-mile run, all inside one ordinary week, by mid-December.
"Here's the next adventure being planned. Nothing committed yet."— B. Ruder, Captain
Waypoints
- no fixed date Register 70.3 Galveston (Apr 4, 2027)
- Sep 27, 2026 Book first Barton Springs swim + find an Austin open-water meetup group
- Sep 27, 2026 Find/confirm an open-water venue for acclimation swims (lake, reservoir, or OW swim group)
- Nov 15, 2026 Rebuild block complete
- Dec 15, 2026 70.3-ready on 30 days' notice (swim 2000m continuous, ride 3hrs, run 10mi in one week)
- Oct 15, 2026 Decide the specific fall-2027 full (Chattanooga / Florida / Arizona)
- Apr 4, 2027 IRONMAN 70.3 Texas, Galveston — full-dress rehearsal
The record
Every session since Waco — 261 of them at last count, each with the weather it happened in — lives in the ship's log.