I was pretty happy with the swim and improved a bit on last years time. I tried to tell myself to get closer to the front of the start, but still lagged back 3 or 4 rows. Still it worked out pretty good for me. I actually even drafted a guy for a few hundred yards at one point. That was a pretty fun feeling since I haven't done that before. My energy was pretty good around the buoy so I started pushing harder and tried to pick off a few pink caps on the way in. Very fun swim.

I got a little caught up trying to zip up the back pocket of my tri top, where I was storing my tube, co2, etc. Not a big deal though. I purposely went a touch slower in transition this year in order to bring my HR down a bit before the climb up Lynch Hill. I felt it was important to be as calm as possible rather than rushing through, and I'm glad I did. I was much better prepared for the climb and it went by pretty quickly.

Maybe change to a seat mounted bag for my extra tube and stuff?

Even though I really wanted to push hard on the ride this year, I knew that I had to save my legs for the tough run ahead. I chose to not turn on my bike computer and did not wear my HR monitor or watch. I wanted to go out on feel and not get all caught up on speed, cadence, pace, etc. As a result, I really enoyed the ride, though know I could have gone harder, but I was satisfied in the end. I stayed in the saddle on all the up hills, except for the last few cranks over the top. Felt smooth and efficient. On the downhills, I was OK, but a little conservative as usual. On the flats, (yeah right, what flats) I kept a steady pace without really hammering. I'm looking forward to improved bike times this year in the rest of my upcoming races.

I was out of my bike shoes and into running shoes very quickly but then spent a bunch of time looking for my race belt, hat and shades. Turns out somebody took mine, so I ran without a race number, but fortunately had a backup pair of sunglasses and running cap. That wasted time seemed like forever at the time but was probably only :30 seconds or so in reality. I had to laugh about it though.

It was a tough run for me and I knew it would be. The lack of run training because of my knee problems over the winter, really slowed me down. Not that it was painful, because my knee is better and felt great, but my leg strength and cardio were lacking. It was a hot day out there, and I couldn't keep my HR down so ended up walking a bit several times, and stopped at all the aid stations to drink. I at least charged the last hill before going down Lynch Hill since last year that was the only one I walked some on. That part felt great and gave me some feeling of accomplishment on the run. Instead of improving over my previous time, which I wasn't happy with either, I ended up losing a couple more minutes.

Not enough bike and run training time for me coming in this year.


I had such a good time at Wildflower last year that I couldn't wait to come back. It was very cool that my wife and friends came up with me and we all had a great weekend. I think it's a great race event, in a perfect place, at just the right time of year. The event staff & volunteers are awesome.
Oh, and whoever it was that accidentally grabbed my (lucky) race belt, (favorite) hat and (expensive) sunglasses at T2 returned them to my spot after the race. Nice.