I arrived at Lake San Antonio around 11am on Friday and started to set up camp before the rest of my camp buddies arrived in the afternoon. It turns out that Friday morning was too late to grab a prime camping spot, so we ended up in the overflow camping in Lupine Meadows. That was OK though because we were away from the rowdy college kids (yeah, I'm old like that), so I was able to sleep well at night. I actually decided to sleep in my car and let my bike sleep in the tent.
The overflow camp sites in Lupine Meadows do not allow ground camp fires. We improvised by using a grill, which worked perfectly fine. Many marshmallows were toasted and consumed as part of my carbohydrate loading strategy.
Saturday was a rest day that allowed me to watch and cheer on the long course racers. I also had a chance to take one more look at the transitions. My biggest concern was the bike-out and bike-in as the Lynch Hill climb was almost immediately outside of the transition area. I got a chance to watch the long coursers make the transition and was able to finalize my strategy: get in and out of my bike shoes as quickly as possible on small section of flat course between the transition area and Lynch Hill. Saturday night I asked my camp buddies whether they had been visualizing their race throughout the day like I was. They all said no. I guess I'm weird like that.
A portion of the long course run route passed through the camp grounds near my camp site and every so often I would hear some pretty loud cheering coming from a section of the course. I decided to walk over to the course to find out what was causing this cheering and this is what I saw...
Yes, at about mile 8.5 of the half marathon there was a beer bong aid station. In the five minutes I hung around, I saw 3 people hit that thing...impressive.
On to Sunday, the day of the Olympic distance race that I was in. Wildflower has a pretty unique swim start as it occurs on a boat launch. Because the boat launch is fairly narrow, it keeps everyone bunched together at the beginning, creating a pretty hectic environment. I decided to go with a strategy of starting in front and putting a little more effort at the beginning in order to swim away from the madness. It worked as I avoided getting punched in the face.
I didn't feel my strongest during the swim leg. Maybe I took it out too quickly. Maybe it was because I am used to the added buoyancy of saltwater in the ocean, and this was a freshwater lake swim. Who knows. Regardless, my swim was good enough to get me into T1 first in my wave.
I think all of the visualization and scoping out of the course the previous day helped because I was able to quickly slip into my bike shoes during the short flat section before Lynch Hill. I had previously ridden the course so I was prepared for the hilly terrain and I believe I handled it well. The only hiccup during my ride was that I dropped my chain with about 3 miles left on the bike. This was the first time that I swore out loud during this race. I wasn't able to get it to reengage, so I had to stop and put it back on with my hands. I think this only cost me about 10 seconds, but I ended up with black greasy fingers and somehow cut myself on one of the cogs. I looked like a mess but had more important things to worry about, like running a 10K.
This race was my first race wearing my new Zoot Ultra Race 3.0 shoes that I recently purchased from TriSports.com. I was very pleased with them as they helped make my T2 super fast and kept my feet quite comfortable. The run was a gradual climb ending with a steep descent down Lynch Hill over the last 1K. Although the climb was gradual, it culminated in a brief steep climb just before the Lynch Hill descent. At that point, my legs momentarily started to cramp, but luckily it only lasted a couple seconds. That was the second time I swore out loud during the race.
As I went down Lynch Hill I tried to simply open up my stride and let gravity do it's job. Running down the finish chute was a pretty cool experience with all of the fanfare that was surrounding me. I ended up just edging out the 2nd place finisher in my age group by 13 seconds. You can see him trying to run me down in the background of the picture above.
Final Results:
Time: 2:05:10
Placement: 1st AG, 3rd OA
After the race, I hung around the festival area and had some post race refreshments with my camping buddies while waiting for the awards ceremony. Although slightly daunting, I am now leaning towards racing in the long course event next year. It was tough to wait around all day Saturday for my race the next day. I guess I'll see how Vineman goes later this year.
Special thanks goes out to my sponsor TriSports.com for their assistance leading up to this race.
