Wildflower
Wildflower was what this weekend was all about! A weekend of camping, racing and fun. Amazing would sum it up the best!
Wildflower is a camping triathlon and is knicknamed “The Woodstock of triathlons”. More than 7000 particpants, families, and friends all descend to Lake San Antonio for the Long course triathlon (half-ironman distance), Mountain Bike sprint triathlon, and Olympic triathlon races.
I wasn’t racing in either of the events, but I went up to support my team mates and especially my “mentees” Erin M., Leavy, Tony, and Shae who were all doing their very first olympic distance triathlon. I cheered them on and took hundreds of photos of the races.
Friday
It was fairly long drive from San Diego, taking a little bit more than 5 hours to get to the camp site. I elected to take the 5 all the way up to Hwy 46, which wasn’t very scenic, but the traffic gods were favouring me as I made it through Los Angeles without any significant delays.
It was raining when I arrived and setting up a tent in the rain isn’t so much fun, but Erin R. gave me a much needed hand and most everything stayed dry. The mud was another issue all together. I hung out with the team for a bit, and it was great seeing that our honoured team mate Alfred Duron made it up for the weekend!
Honoured Team mate Alfred Duron
Dinner was at Team In Training’s Inspiration Party, with great food and a wonderful recap of why we are here this weekend — supporting the mission to find a cure and supporting our honored teammates.
After dinner we all shared a few stories while huddled under a canopy safe from a gentle rain. Eventually we all turned in for the night as the long course team had a very tough day a head of them.
The rain was soothing as it softly hit our tents. The NYC chaper of TNT was still out and about singing but sleep came quickly anyway.
Saturday
Blissful sleep was rudely interrupted by the large truck that came at 4am to clean out the portable toilets. Nothing like a loud diesel engine and lots of slamming doors to jar you out of that dream of better things.
Around 5:30 the camp site was stirring as the long course participants began to get ready to head down to the start in a few hours. We shared a great breakfast with the team and Coach Trent was masterful with the coffee — thick and strong!
The morning air was crisp and cool and the sky was clearing. A welcome relief from the showers of yesterday.
I made my way down to the start with some of the olympic course team mates and began the day of taking pictures for the team.
Marnix on the run!
The transition area was huge and looked like total chaos as athletes racked their bikes and setup their spaces as the race was soon starting. Coach Trent was out talking with each of the team and making sure they are ready for the full day of racing. With fresh coffee in hand, I made my way down the boat ramp for the race start.
The Pro “Elites” started the first waves. It was amazing to watch them start and see how fast they competed. Andy Potts was favoured and he had a strong swim, but slipped exiting the water. Making up time, he eventually took the race in 3:59:41 — under four hours!
Marnix, Tony, Allen, and Brian, Theresa and Vic all put on a great race – 70.3 miles of swimming, biking and running. They all looked great, though a bit tired!
Congrats Long course finishers!
Another TNT Inspiration dinner and then relaxing around the camp fire. More stories and celebrations for all the long course finishers. Coach Sam talked to the olympic team to prepare them for their race on Sunday.
Everyone turned in early again as the morning was going to come fast.
Sunday
Again at 4am the sound of a large diesel engine startled me awake. Some of the team were up by 5am as nerves started to take over. Breakfast again with the team and everyone went through their pre-race rituals of eating, stretching, and packing gear while the rest of us enjoyed pancakes and coffee.
The morning was pleasant though it did look as it would be warmer than the day before. It was still a great day to day for a race and it wasn’t as hot as in past years.
After checking and re-checking to make sure they had all their gear (and not forget their bike shoes as Coach Trent infamously did one year), the olympic team left down to the transition area at 7:30am.
I made my way down again and gave lots of encouragement to my nervous mentees. I knew they were all well trained and they would do great, but having been in their shoes years ago, I know all the crazy thoughts in their heads. Serious pre-race jitters!
A pleasant surprise was seeing Coach Gurujan participating in the event. This was his 274th (or so) triathlon! He was my first TNT coach when I trained for and completed the 2004 Los Angeles Olympic distance triathlon.
Coach Gurujan and Diana
The collegiate waves went first, and there was some serious competition in that field. After the collegiate waves, it came time for the TNT waves — there were 260 or so TNT participants from 6 different chapters (including NYC) with athletes participating. The adrenaline was already flowing and everyone was getting anxious to get started.
The first TNT men’s went first, followed the first TNT women’s wave. With only 5 minutes separating the waves, it was likely that some of the fast women swimmers would overtake the men, so I told Leavy I would give her $50 if she caught Tony in the wave ahead of her. She gave a valiant effort, but wasn’t able to catch him out of the water. Leavy still had a great swim! Shae and Erin were in later waves so they still had work at keeping their anxiety under control.
Getting Ready!
So much was happening as waves were coming out of the water while other waves were just starting. A continuous flow of triathletes swimming and exiting and then transitioning to the bike. As the collegiate waves went first, they were already finishing their bikes and heading out on the run while some of the later waves were still in the water.
It was tough to watch everyone as they were spread out across many waves and they all had different race paces. I moved to the bike in/out transition to try to get some pictures of the team doing this leg of the race as well as getting photos as they entered the finishing chute from the run.
To top off the race day, the team took a jump in Lake San Antonio. How refreshing!
Go Team!
Congratulations!!
Journey Home
I elected to take the 101 along the coast instead of taking 46 to 5. It was a beautiful drive back, though it did add about an hour extra to my drive. I have never taken the 101 north of Los Angeles before. The extra hour was well worth it as the scenery was simply lovely!
