I have never really written a race report before but I thought I would give it a tri.

On Friday April 30th I made my annual pilgrimage to Wildflower. There is something mystical about this race. I find myself anticipating that race all year. Already I cannot wait to sign up for next year’s race.

Why I like this race so much I do not know. Every year this race tries to kill me. I swear I am jinxed. I had 3 flats this year (more on this later) and last year my car had a flat. Not to mention that it is such a hard race. I told my wife that it must be like childbirth. It hurts so much that you block it out in your mind and before you know it – there you are anticipating the next one. Of course my wife proceeded to tell me childbirth was way worse.

I pulled into Lake San Antonio on Friday afternoon about 1PM and proceeded down to the festival area to check in. The weather was not very hot – compared to last year. After checking in I wandered up to grab a burrito and stopped to listed to Peter Reid and Norman Stadler talking about Tri Dubai. After a while I walked back to my car and drove about 30 minutes to my hotel. I have never camped at Wildflower. I figure the race is going to be hard enough without being tired and sore from camping out.

Race morning I packed up all my gear, hopped on my bike and headed down Lynch hill to the transition area. At the bottom of the hill my back tire popped. I had plenty of time before the start of the race so this did not bother me too much. I changed the tube and then took bike to one of the shops to get the tire pumped and to by another tube. As I was waiting in line to buy the tube the back tire blew again. The rim tape was worn through so this was causing the tubes to pop. I used some electrical tape to fix the problem and then changed out the tube again. I then headed back to transition.

The rest of the morning went without any excitement. I got into the water a few minutes before my wave to warm up and then before I knew it, we were off. I swallowed a little more lake water than I would have liked during the first 500 meters but after that things smoothed out. I was out of the water in just under 34 minutes. Onto the bike and pray for no more flats.

The bike was fairly non-eventful or at least as uneventful as the long course at Wildflower can be. I had a decent bike but my legs were just not as strong as I would have liked. The reason for this is probably because I had just done Ironman Arizona exactly three weeks prior to wildflower. I also did the California Half Ironman exactly 3 weeks before IMAZ. Needless to say I was feeling all of that racing in my legs as I was pedaling up Nasty grade. I think they need to come up with a better name for that hill because Nasty grade just does not do it justice. Eventually I was back in the park and headed down Lynch hill and into transition. As soon as I dismounted my bike, the front tire blew. I had three flats and none of them affected my bike time by even 1 second. I finished the bike in 3:05.

I was out of transition again onto the run and looking forward to the naked aid station. Well, there was no naked aid station this year. I found this to be a major set back for my race. I did pass a couple of Cal Poly coeds that flashed me as I went by. Where else does this kind of thing happen then at Wildflower. I ran whenever I could and walked the steepest hills. My legs were pretty much shot. I pushed as hard as I could the whole way and finished in 5:48.

Now here I am anticipating next year.

Regards,
Dave