Well, despite a good mental pre-race session with Suz, I think maybe after 3 years since my last time I had suppressed how hard the Wildflower course can be. What is funnier than that is today I'm already forgetting how hideously hard it is and thinking about how to do it better. I've never had a great run there and this time was no exception. I had a decent rack spot despite my advanced age. Right across from Huddle and Pete Kain who were obviously going to do some damage in my old age group, glad I was gone from there.
My plan was for a strong swim in my wave, and after warming up I got in the front row...countdown seemed to come suddenly out of the blue and we were off. No problem getting around the first boat as I looked for feet here and there and swam straight when there weren't any. I did get pinned by a veering person and tried a new trick I learned - backstroke roll kind of like my mark rounding technique, to get over someone's legs to the other side of them without getting kicked in the face. It works great and as advertised they don't even really notice. I will give demonstrations on request. Anyway, soon we were caught up in the next wave and then the next. Some of my bubble choices may not have been optimal as I came out in probably about 29:xx, a little slower than 1999 but then again there weren't many options, I was in the top 10 as far as I can tell from the splits, considering I took my wetsuit off and put shoes on before the timing mats.
T1 was fast, except the walking your bike part, suddenly new for this year due to them realizing during the race that the champion chips were not picking up if you rode over them. Onto the bike, getting settled, I was still a little disorganized as far as my food, we had worked it out on paper and I had everything I needed with me but I hadn't really correlated it to the clock or the course. Soon that was the least of my worries, as on rounding up onto Beach hill I noticed that I had not adjusted my derailleur limit screws for my race wheels. Doh! This left me stuck with a 21 cog as my easiest gear for the whole day. Slow grind up Beach and I knew that in 40 miles when the real hills started I was going to be in a little bit of trouble. I just raced as hard as I dared, the usual expending energy to ride clean while fighting off those who weren't. I was near a few guys in my age group that seemed pretty sportsmanlike. Tried to eat and drink sensibly and not obsess on my impending gear ratio doom.
From driving Nasty Grade we knew it was only 1.6 miles from the bottom to the turn (and I guess another .25 or so to the real top), so I just settled in, standing when I had to, and slogged up it. Legs tired. Not bonking but pretty weary for the remaining 15 miles. Saw Roch at some point in the last few miles in the campground like usual. 2:53 bike, not my fastest but could have been worse. Starting to get warm. Pretty sick of the G-push drink. I wanted to be running by 3:20, but it was more like 3:29. 5 hours was out. I shifted my goal to break my PR of 5:20 by running a 1:50, seemed doable but I wasn't sure how my legs would do or how well hydrated/fed I was. Turned out not very good for either. I jogged the first mile, gave salt to a guy crippled by cramps, and started to get that familiar Wildflower feeling "holding maybe 8:30/mile and not gonna get any faster". Started mental failure (aka "I'll just walk for just one little second") on the paved hill at mile 3. My salt had rapidly turned to dust due to no cotton ball in the container, I was reduced to licking little patches of it from my palm, and the tablet powder is not all that tasty... OK enough whining. I was running fast enough when I could but walking too much, heart rate was leaping up really fast whenever I ran it seemed like. Probably dehydrated, hadn't peed at all since before the start, I know that's not good on that course when it's 90.. At around mile 7 Mike Leone caught me, I had passed him early in the bike. He asked how I was, offered me salt, and encouraged me to run with him, which I did. Until the next aid station. I walked, he didn't, and he was soon a couple of hundred yards ahead. But I got running again, and kept him in sight here and there.
I was running a little bit faster, but walking short bits a lot. I worked my butt off to get up the "warmup" hill by the showers in the campground. Through the TNT section. Saw one TNT guy adrenalized by the purple crowd and running strong, but when the crowd disappeared, he screeched to a halt and bent over. A bit later there was a small cheering section of hash house harriers, offering a frosty mug of beer. Nobody taking any, but like in Kona I decided to humor them and took a (small) sip. They cheered, I ran off, nearly hurled a few seconds later.
Soon we were headed into the pit, Mike was still well ahead, the rubber band was really stretching but I was hanging on. Near the bottom, saw Dave Krosch ahead of me, he had a great bike. On the way up, I walked some, ran some, slowly ground up to Mike, and finally at the last aid station he was 10 meters ahead, and he walked. I walked, drank and secretly begged him not to start running too soon. But he did, so I did, and got alongside, just to say Hi before he dropped me. He was very encouraging and cheered me for coming back, and told me to just keep running a little longer and we'd be done. I was in a frame of mind where I thought there was no way I could do it, but he insisted and so we did, ran the rest of the way in and finished in 5:28. Which turned out to be 14th in my age group, I was pretty happy with that considering. My last 6 miles I owe to Mike for first being a rabbit and then taking charge to get us to the finish line in a workmanlike manner. I think for me to do that run properly, which I will do someday (next year) I need perfect hydration, electrolytes, fuel, and also a perfectly measured bike effort. Didn't have any of the 4 perfect this year, all maybe 75%.
The race was damn hard, as usual, but fun especially as soon as it was over and I started to cool off and get some fluids in.
I then commenced to waiting for Cathy and her finish, got info from Ed and Megan about her swim and bike, checked that her bike was in transition and looked at her computer, then had a jamba juice and waited at the line. I obtained an extra medal in case they ran out, no way was she not getting a medal, plus I wanted to give it to her personally.
All my damage seems minor, couple of foot problems which had me using the pull buoy today at swim, sore back (not from the race, from subsitute yoga teacher on Monday and maybe all the driving) but otherwise fine.
For some reason, looking forward to next year.
Wade