Wildflower Olympic 2009

Race season began yesterday with the Avia Wildflower Olympic Triathlon at Lake San Antonio in central California. Despite feeling that I was going to do poorly, I somehow pulled off 3rd place in the 20-24 age group with a 2:46:36.

Overall: 3rd place in age group (20-24) @ 2hr46min36sec
Swim: 18th in age group @ 27min50sec
T1: 5min1sec (SLOW!!)
Bike: 2nd in age group @ 1hr25min8sec (17.5 mph average)
T2: 1min27sec
Run: 1st in age group @ 45min56sec (7:24 min/mile)

I think that is a PR for me, which is surprising considering the hilly course. I felt strong through the entire race though. The training must be paying off! Especially for the run. I didn't know I could run that fast. Or that I'd ever swim a sub-30 minute 1500 meters.

Jocelyn and I went down to camp on Thursday and brought one of her teammates along. We set up camp on Thursday night, did a longer bike ride than expected on Friday, and met up with some people she had met. It also rained on Friday. Let's just say I am not a fan of camping and rain makes it worse. Saturday we did a run and tested out the water with the wetsuits. The water wasn't as cold as I would have expected. Then I got gelato twice while watching the long course race.

I went into the swim telling myself not to panic. I waded in slowly, avoiding the mass and started swimming. I spent most of the swim sighting and thinking about technique. That and reminding myself to kick so that my feet would not go numb. I ran into T1 to look for my sunglasses. I searched my sweatshirt, my towel, my bag before even trying to get my wetsuit off. Couldn't find the glasses so ate a gel and took off (5 minutes later). Since I had biked the course on Friday with Jocelyn, I was semi-familiar with what the hills were like, except the first hill. That was just long and annoying. But I mostly passed people on the way up and it continued like that. I think I wasn't passed by more than 5 or 6 people the entire time. Looking back I realized I probably could have pushed harder but I didn't want to blow up on the run. So into T2, another gel, and out. Put on my orange Avia visor from Jocelyn since I didn't know where my glasses were and took off. I did not get passed by anyone on the run. It was excellent. I didn't even feel like I was running that hard, and when I was coming down the last hill (the same hill I biked up and later down) I was like damn, I could keep running! Into the finish chute and I was finished with my first race of the season.

Overall I will say I had a very good race. I didn't expect much going in, especially since I figured there would be a very competitive field here. So I am especially pleased with the result. The hills weren't even that horrible compared to what I have done around here and in Sonoma County. And thanks to my coach for making me do speedwork on the run! Congrats to Jocelyn for a great race and to Soda for sticking it out.

And overall the weekend was a fun time. I still don't really like camping but it wasn't as awful as I expected it to be. The people I met were all nice and I even got a free pair of shoes for hanging out in the Avia tent. That and I found my sunglasses at the end, thank goodness.

I will say when I ever go back to Wildflower, I'm bringing an RV and doing long course.