Wildflower-finished! Read the epic story below about one man’s battle vs. his bum legs in a quest to understand his own unhealthy obsession with time!
For weeks I had been hearing about how tough the course was, so I gave myself a finish goal of under 5 hours. It was very hot that day (85-90 degrees), so I knew I would be having a tough time.
The 2,701 athletes were split into 25 waves, each wave starting the swim at 5-minute intervals. I was in Wave 11 (white swim caps). The water was about 65 degrees, so we were allowed to wear wet suits.
The swim was enjoyable, as Lake San Antonio is a fresh water lake and I didn’t have to inhale sea water (inhaling regular water is much better). However, I had a fairly new wetsuit and I was feeling slow and sluggish in the water. Also it seemed like I was getting kicked/hit more than usual, so I attempted to pick up my pace and get ahead of the “human blender” that was creating so much chaos around me. When I ran out of the water I was shocked to see that I swam the 1500 meters in under 34 minutes…an improvement of almost 5 minutes over my 0:38:40 Lavaman time. Official swim time: 0:33:54.
Once out of the water, there was a 200-yard (or so) run to the transition area (aka T1) where my bike/bike clothes were. As I’m running, I realize the zipper on my new wetsuit won’t budge. I was getting close to my bike when I realized I would have to rip it, but one of the race volunteers saw my problems and came over to help. I stripped off the suit, threw on my race singlet/bike shoes/socks, and ran the bike out of the T1 area. Official T1 time: 0:03:34.
The Wildflower bike course is very hilly and challenging. In fact, as soon as bikers run out of the T1 area and start riding there is a very steep hill (“Lynch Hill”) about a mile long (not fun to do after a hard swim). Also, I recently got rid of my small chain ring (aka the “granny gears”) to make my shifting smoother; unfortunately this makes hills more difficult. I stood up and hammered up the hill as best I could (which turned out to be about 5mph).
So I’m riding through hills, hills, and more hills…I am going hard, but at times it seems like I’ve been passed by most of the other 2,700 riders. At the 12.5 mile turnaround point I realize my time will be much better than 5 hours. This cheers me a bit and I chug down some Gatorade and head back.
I finally get to the end of the bike course (I hit 40mph going down Lynch Hill). I was hoping for a slightly quicker bike time, but that was before I realized how difficult the course was. Official bike time: 1:45:19.
At this point my trusty watch tells me I’ve been on the course for about 2:18:00…I realize that not only will I blow away my original estimate of 5 hours, but that all I need to do is to run the last 6.2 miles at a 15-minute-mile pace and I will break the 4-hour mark! A 15-minute mile is nothing! This will be easy! I happily hopped off my bike to enter the T2 area…and both my quadriceps cramped up as soon as I hit the ground.
Ok, maybe this won’t be so easy…
I gingerly trotted my bike to my transition area (aka T2) and changed into my running shoes. I grabbed my trusty water bottle and racewalked as fast as I could onto the run course. Official T2 time: 0:02:31.
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The run course was very hilly, like the bike course. I started off walking; I had planned on walking at first anyway to make sure my running muscles were warmed up, but now I was just limping along. I had drunk about 60 ounces of water on the bike so I didn’t think I was dehydrated. I stopped along the way to stretch
occasionally but that wasn’t helping. I figured my only hope of breaking the 4-hour mark was to drink so much water that I could flush out any lactic acid in my legs. I started drinking 20-25 ounces of water at each mile aid station and racewalked whenever I could. The cramping started going away by the time I hit the steep 2-mile hill at Mile 4 and I was able to start running. I sprinted through the finish chute (and passed 3 people…woo hoo!) with a run time of 1:25:06. Total time: 3:50:24.
FUN FACTS:
Here are my official times:
EVENT TIME RANKING COMMENTS
Swim 1500m 0:33:54 1,409 out of 2,701
1st Transition 0:03:34 1,389 out of 2,701
Bike 1:45:19 1,887 out of 2,701
2nd Transition 0:02:31 1,418 out of 2,701
Run 1:25:06 2,514 out of 2,701 Definitely need to improve on the run!
OVERALL 3:50:24 1,894 out of 2,701
Heart rate average: 137 beats per minute
Heart rate max: 176 beats per minute
Calories burned: 3,050
