Wildflower Long Course Race Report
May 1, 2010
This was my third year going down to Wildflower – 2008 we cheered for Gareth as he tackled the Olympic course and 2009 I anchored the long course relay for Team Boilermaker. We put WFLC on our Ironman training schedule and knew it would be a gut check before we head for the home stretch into Coeur d’Alene and a time to get any kinks out of our race plan. The weather was perfect and was forecasted to be 70s all day for us. Friday evening was pretty chilly which made Saturday morning a bit on the cool side, but we knew the sun would find us at some point!
I was #2183 and had a nice, big “35” on my calf My wave wore black swim caps and our start time was 9:20am. I am pretty comfortable setting up my transition and don’t get too rattled. I saw Eric and wished him luck before his wave and snapped a few pix of friends and to mark the start of our day. The water felt cool and smooth during the short warm-up. I immediately felt rested and strong when I warmed up and was happy to get going! I felt like I had a good swim ahead of me. I seeded myself in the front 1/3 of the wave and we were off. I felt like I was pulling ahead of a lot of folks, but still had a crowd to deal with until we turned at the first buoy. Buoys on the right at this race? Oh, gosh….I was hoping I wouldn’t screw that up somewhere along the way. I was surprised how soon I caught up to some of the wave in front of us – that is always a confidence booster. My focus was to stay long, start my catch in “clean” water, and pull hard. The course is a rectangle shape and when I turned the corner to make up the short part of the rectangle and get to the home stretch, some sort of boat passed by and churned up the water and all sorts of waves were coming our way. I gulped in a few good mouthfuls of water, but just kept on going. The sun was hitting the water on the way in and though I felt I was swimming straight, perhaps that was not the case. As we neared the end I was with all sorts of other swim cap colors and we got pretty jammed up trying to funnel into the swim exit. I stood up checked my watch – 41 minutes. “Humph”. I was sure based on how strong I felt that I turned in a sub-40 minute swim. That is how it goes sometimes. I still felt like I had a good swim and was feeling strong.
The swim exit is up a boat ramp and my legs take a minute to get under me so I took my time getting into transition. I got my wet suit off, sat down to dry my feet and put my socks on and eat something before heading out on my bike. I felt like I was a mile away from the “bike out” and running in my new bike shoes was tricky. I had mntn bike shoes previously which allow you to run much better, so I was tentative and didn’t want to turn an ankle. I was surprisingly happy to be on the bike. I had been riding a lot and wanted to get out there and have a good day. Beach Hill comes at mile 1 and is a bit of a climb especially when your legs are just loosening up and you are settling into the bike. Some fellow racers were already feeling WFs wrath and decided to walk up this hill. I tried to encourage everyone I saw (“Way to work, Team in Training” or “You got this, LA Tri”) b/c I know that always lifts my spirits in a race. These are usually the folks you will see out there all day and you might need them to help you along as well. I had to stop and pee (a first for me; never had to stop on the bike before) at mile 12 or so, but other than that the first 40 miles flew by and I felt like I was sticking to my plan to a tee: high cadence, 1 water bottle an hour and some bits of food every 15 minutes or so. The course is beautiful – all the wildflowers and hills are stunning. The mix of hills keeps you thinking and makes it better than riding on all flat I think. I knew the climbing really would hit at mile 40 so I ate some bigger food items at mile 32 to be sure I was good and ready to climb. I took a bottle of water at each aid station and coupled that with the bottle of perpeteum and Gatorade/carbo pro that I started with. Little did I know, but I didn’t balance the water and the Gatorade/electrolyte very well at all and was depleting myself of salt out there. I did take 3 endurolytes as well. Nasty Grade is named that for a reason – it is nothing to slouch at and by that time it was pretty hot, so it does take some work to get up. The race volunteers and Cal Poly kids make it interesting and have various antics they perform to keep your mind off climbing. I vaguely recall a dude in an orange speedo with a blow-up doll cheering us on at the top of the hill. After Nasty, there are still 10 miles to go and some other hills to get up and by this time I was still feeling OK, but getting hot and looking forward to getting back into the park where the fans were cheering. I was *actually* looking forward to running. I got back to transition in 4:20ish from the bike and saw a few friends which always helps make me smile and pick up my spirits. My T2 was average – nothing eventful – just get running shoes on, visor on, take garmin off bike and put on wrist, get fuel belt and race belt….time to run. I did forget to re-apply sunscreen, though. The first mile is always slow going until my legs loosen up from biking so I just stuck to my run:walk intervals figuring I would get into my grove soon. Well, that never happened unfortunately. By mile 3 of the run I was not able to tolerate ingesting any food or hydration and I experienced a very new form of the “bonk”. When the dry heaves came halfway through the run, that was another added bonus of fun! I made the best of it and talked to everyone out there and just plowed forward. There was no way I wasn’t finishing even if it meant walking a lot of the run. So, the run took me about 3 hrs and 15 minutes and that pretty much shot my time goal to hell, but I can still say it was a great weekend and I took away an important lesson about my hydration. I was not entirely sure what was wrong with me on the run, but looking back I drank 1.5 bottles of electrolyte drink to 4+ bottles of just water on the bike and that coupled with not being able to drink anything on the run…..made for trouble. I was covered in salt by the end and clearly was depleted of electrolytes. I have made some notes on this and will take the next few weeks to refocus my hydration so I am sure to pay attention to what I am drinking.
Team Business Socks represented very well as we had several sub-7 and sub-8 hour performances. We had a few friends complete their first 70.3 distance race and did it in stellar fashion I must say! If I had to score I would say: Wildflower 1: Ally 2! 54 days til the Ironman! Its’ Business Time for sure now!
Ally
5/4/10
