Wildflower Long Course Race Report

To start off, Wildflower Long Course is the hardest course I've ever done, hands down.  Many describe it as difficult as doing an Ironman and I believe it.

I arrived at the Wildflower campground on Friday morning with 2 friends and we set up camp and headed down to the lake to pick up our packets.  We knew we didn't want to make the long trek down to packet pickup that night again for food so we picked up some sandwiches at the local general store and headed back up to camp.  The rest of the night was spent talking about the course (read: friends telling me how brutal the course was).

Woke up in the morning for some pre-race breakfast of a banana and PB sandwich.  The race started at 8:00 so we headed down in the morning around 7:00 to set up transition and get ready to race.  I felt really relaxed, well rested, and energized.  I felt like I was ready for this race.

The water temp that morning was a cool 58 degrees - I got in the water to get acclimated to the cool temps and swam around a little bit so I knew what to expect.  The gun went off and off we went.  The course was an 'L' shape with a ~200 m out, then a right turn at the buoy for a long stretch, another right turn for ~200 m and then back.  Thinking back I think I pushed the first 600 pretty hard because I struggled for the rest of the swim.  My breathing was heavy and I couldn't find a good rhythm for the entirety of the swim.  Coming out of the water I walked to transition, which I didn't want to do and tried to get my bearings and get rolling on the bike.

Right out of the gate there is a steep incline that had my HR maxed out and my chain fell off as I was switching gears.  I had to stop, put the chain back on, and start sideways in order to get going again.  The first 40 miles of the bike after that were challenging, but very doable with some of the flats going comfortable at 22 mph.  Great scenery, some hills, and long descents.  One of my reservations coming into the race was my lack of comfort on descents.  On the first long descents I tried to reach for my brakes but my hands cramped up so I just went with it.  After that, I had no issues with the downhills and actually enjoyed going 35-45 mph down the hills.

On mile 41 there is a long hill, followed by 'Nasty Grade', an 8 percent incline, followed by another long hill.  About halfway up Nasty Grade my chain fell off again causing me to stop, put the chain back on, and bike sideways in order to get going again.  I have NEVER faced a hill like that before, and it is one I will never forget.  The remaining 8 miles of the course were a bear and I struggled to get to the end and couldn't wait to get off the bike.

Entering transition I was totally spent and hardly had any energy left.  I began the run and was only able to run about 1/2 mile before I had to stop.  My HR was high and I had no energy.  I set up a new plan to run a minute and walk a minute and even that was a struggle.  As a side note, the run course is harder than the bike course that is 60% trails and 40% road with very little flat stretches.  After struggling through the first 4 miles, I came to the conclusion I wasn't going to make it if I continued to run and succumbed to walking the rest of the course.

It was very hard for me to write this race report because I am really disappointed in my performance, but at the same time, it provides some motivation for the rest of the season and I was able to learn some great lessons:

- I used a 23 cassette which was not smart at all - I should of used a 27
- my base isn't near where it should be - actually, not even close
- need to re-evaluate my nutrition for pre-race and race
- need to pace according to the course terrain
- more dress rehearsal rides
- more brick workouts (didn't have any before this race)
- your back needs sunscreen too