Wildflower

"Racing Wildflower is like wrestling a gorilla. You can't stop when you get tired. You can only stop when the gorilla gets tired"

Alright, the time has come for me to put my efforts of the past three months to the test. Saturday morning I will be racing Wildflower. Wildflower is a beast. It's a half-Ironman distance triathlon in California's wine country. Last year was my first Wildflower attempt. I finished in 6hrs 43mins....it felt much longer than that. It was 6 hours of suffering. The factor that makes Wildflower so tough is the hills. For the entire bike and run, you are either grinding up a mountain, or bombing down the other side at 50+ mph. 7,000 people will be racing this weekend, with another 20,000 watching. It is an unbelievable race environment. Over the past 25 years, Wildflower has become the Mecca of Triathlon. Any triathlete who is serious about the sport either has, or will make the pilgrimage to this wild event. The closest town is 50 miles away, so there will be almost 30,000 people camping out. It's known as the woodstock of Triathlon.


I read an article describing the race like this:
"Racing Wildflower is like listening to a stereo. At first you've got a steady beat, then the tempo and volumn rise as you wind your way deeper into the twisting 70.3 mile course. By the time you are near the finish the stereo is a full volumn, blasting the life out of you as you come screaming down the mountain into the finish chute...this is Wildflower."