Wildflower Race Report

Long Overdue, I know, I know. My blogging has been beyond lame lately.  Without further adieu...

Reader's Digest:

• S: 1.2 miles in ~38 min thanks to the anti-fog coating on my brand new TechnoFlex 2.0 googles. Booyea.
  
• B: 56 mles in 3 hrs 30 min. Took it easy and handled the challenging hills much better this year.
  
• R: 13.1 miles in 2 hrs 40 min.  The run is always painful, but unlike last year I ran that whole damn thing.
  

Nitty Gritty:

Swim 1.2 Miles:

I swam no more than 10 times in prep for Wildflower this year. Oddly, this was designed because in my life post-transplant my biking and running are much poorer than my swim. Anywoo. I was pretty relaxed at the start, and gave some encouragement to Ryan (who's taken it to another level this year), Dan, and my buddy Adam (his 2nd triathlon). At the gun I meandered into the water and stayed out of the way of the gunners and newbies flailing about wildly.

Go!!!

I settled into a nice pace: 10 strokes, then a peek up ahead to make sure I was still on track. I figure my only asset in the swim is maintaining my composure and not going into the red-zone at any point. I kept this in mind as I plugged along and neared the half-way point. Wildflower is funny in that a new age group starts every 5 minutes. Being slow, and in an early start group means you get passed constantly thoughout the day. This began around the 2/3 point of the swim as gunners from the latter age group began swimming over me. Dang.  

Just Keep Swimming

Soon enough I neared the end, and was eager to get out of the water and on with the rest of the race. I managed to walk up the 1/4 mile stretch from the water to T1, and just took in the spectacular crowd. Second only to a IM, in my sheltered opinion.  By the way, it's tough to walk with people screaming at you to RUN! But nonetheless...

Vertical, after 38 min of horizontal

Bike 56 Miles:

Even though the temperature was pretty mild (mid-60's) I warmed up much quicker than last year (maybe because I've gained 10 lbs?). There's a fun (read steep) hill around Mile 2 which was a lot longer than I remember, but offered a further opportunity to warm up.

Warming Up

The next 30 miles were surprisingly boring. I concentrated on maintaining a comfortable pace, and eating/drinking at regular intervals. Vanilla GU, Mocha Clif-Shots, H20, and Gatorade Endurance make for a yummy brunch. 

Along the way, every single mile is marked and it's a constant reminder of your pace so it's not easy to get "lost" mentally, which is sometimes nice for us slower folks. However, I was feeling pretty good and the miles were a constant reminder of forward progress. 

Mile 40ish

Mile 42 is the beginning of "Nasty Grade", a nice 3-4 mile hill, which I felt extremely comfortable on. I passed several people, which was a nice change from the regular sound of carbon rims whizzing past me. I crested the hill and was happy to have the majority of bike climbing behind me. I kept eating and drinking and was feeling pretty good. The 45 mph descent back toward the park was lackluster as I was surrounded by unconfident descenders, and had to brake a couple of times...boooo!

I was a bit worried about the last hill coming into T2 because last year I was completely incapacitated at that point, but I was pretty stoked to just spin up it. I descended Lynch Hill and cruised into T2 feeling reasonably comfortable.  A far cry from my pre-transplant speed, but I'll take a ~16mph average speed over 5000 ft. of elevation change.

Run 13.1 Miles:

The first mile of the run is always interesting as you adjust from a cadence of 80-100 revolutions per minute to 60 or so. However, I was feeling OK, and quickly settled into my pedestrian pace ~11 min/mile. Miles 2-3 clicked by, and I was happy to get off the asphalt and into the notorious trails.  For my TMI moment, I'll share that I've never been happier to see the port-o-let after mile 1.  Being a BOP (Back-of-the-Pack) athlete I didn't exercise the oft used technique of relieving myself on the bike.

Mile 1-ish

The temperature began to rise, and I had to make a concerted effort to stay cool, by dumping water over my head at every opportunity, and constantly filling up my GoLite water bottle holder (highly recommended product, BTW).

Mile 4-5 is a pretty sick hill, but my singular goal for this race was to "run" the whole damn thing, so run I did. It was a pretty slow jog, but I motored up this hill with a vengeance. I passed at least 10-15 people walking, and felt pretty happy about it. Miles 5-8 were basically a heat induced blur as I continued my slow-run over the rolling terrain and back through the more populated areas of the campground. Around Mile 8 I saw Garuna and got a nice pleasant burst of energy from her cheering. Her smiling face always cheers me up! At this point I got a bit emotional, as I knew I'd have the opportunity to be able to complete my goal of "running" the whole run course.

Around Mile 10 things really started to hurt. Not an aerobic hurt, but a worn-out hurt. Connective tissue hurt. Knees, ankles, hips, and mostly feet. This is a little easier to push past than the aerobic hurt, so I just kept chugging.

At Mile 11.5 Adam finally caught up to me. I was looking in my rearview all day expecting to see him as he's a much stronger athlete than I am these days, but he did finally decided to show up after mousing around all day. He was holding an enviable pace which I was unwilling and probably unable to ramp up to, so I said some encouraging words (or moans), and off he went.

It took forever to crest the hill between Miles 10-11, but soon enough I made it, and hammered (or got hammered) down the last hill. It felt pretty awesome to see 6:40ish on my watch as I neared the finish line. I took a much greater effort and an extra hour and half to get here last time. Mostly, I was happy that Garuna and the rest of the crew wouldn't have to sit around all afternoon! Anywoo, it's always a great release to cross the finish line and I was super happy to accomplish my modest goals for this year. 

After gorging myself on oranges and gatorade, and congratulating my warrior comrades and support crew, I enjoyed a nice long dunk back in Lake San Antonio, completing a nice circuit for the day, and putting a stamp on another great Wildflower weekend.

Done!