I spent the last 4 days at Wildflower leading two different camps and took up a lot of info about the changes that will happen this year. Here are my thoughts....
The Long Course and Olympic will be a swim, run, bike, run. Due to the extremely low water level, the swim will take place in a different part of the lake (Harris Creek) than normal (Lynch). The water has been tested and is safe but it's not super clear. The water is pretty warm (USAT Official measure there on Sunday was 64.5 deg). The edge of the lake (start & exit) is pretty deep silt but the RD (Terry Davis) is building a proper ramp for entrance and exit). The good news is that it'll probably be glassy: it could blow a gale and not get much of a ripple since it's a small body of water now and sits down low in the canyon. Also, sighting will be easy as there are plenty of nearby hillsides in the back ground with cuts and trees and such.
After the swim athletes will proceed up the bottom of a boat ramp and on the edge of that will be - T1A - essentially a transition area where you can strip your wettie put it in a bag that you'll get at registration (you'll get two actually, one to stuff your warm ups into), it'll have you number on it and you can leave that there as race org will deliver that back over to Lynch for you to pick up after you finish. You'll put on your run shoes and start the 2+ mile run to T1 - the normal transition area at Lynch.
This run is tough. It starts with a very long, steep club up the Harris Creek boat ramp, up a park road and then up a bit more 'til it finally flattens out. I'm gonna guess and say ~350m of up hill running, steep at bottom (10%? 12%? more?) and a hair less steep on the upper half. Then the run is a bit more humane for a while. Most of the first mile of the run will be known to those how have raced WF in the past because you'll be running on the normal oly/LC run course backwards from Harris Creek to the bottom of Beach Hill (that's the first dirt section of the normal run courses). At that point you'll ease off the paved road, drop down to your right and onto a road that has been plowed into the dry lake bed. This is soft sand in places, has one small bump in it and pops out at the very bottom of the Lynch boat ramp. Then you have to run up the entire Lynch ramp (again, steep, hard) to finally arrive at the regular transition area where your bike will be waiting. Advice on this first run: 1) bring a pair of run shoes specific for this run segment between swim and bike. Preferably ones that you can run in sans socks (use Blist-O-Ban before the start on risky spots on your feet to help avoid blisters). These shoes will be wet from post swim dripping and then will be sandy/muddy/dirty after the run. You probably won't want to wear these for the longer run after the bike. 2) If you're crazy fit and have big goals then jog the Harris ramp. If your a bit less fit and have more modest goals walk the Harris ramp and hold your run 'til your up on the less steep bit up by the Harris parking lot.
The bike is the bike is the bike - same exact courses as have been for years. The rollers are still beautiful, Jolon is still rough, nasty grade is still nasty.
The runs for both Oly and Long Course will be ~2 miles shorter. IMHO the Long Course run benefits nicely from the 2 mile snip because "the pit" is gone. You'll come out of the Lupine Meadow area (flat, dirt, baseball diamond, in the mile 9ish area) and when you step onto pavement you make a left and run ~1.5 mi home rather than the norm which is to make a right and run down into the pit, turn around and run back out. The Olympic course is harder (relatively harder, since it is only a 4mi run now) and this is because you have to run up Beach Hill. It's long, at ~1k and it's very steep. Once you're at the top of it you have ~1.5 mi of running to do that's pretty nice but getting up there is tough.
Odds and ends: RD is urging all to rack their bike the day before and leave it over night so that you can catch one shuttle from up on top of the camping area down to Harris start. Many of us like to see our bike in the morning (tire pressure check, nutrition/hydration detail). You could shuttle down to the transition area, make final touches and then walk the two miles to Harris for the start - it's an option. Only athletes will be shuttled to Harris for the start - no family or friends, they can walk if they want. If there was ever a race where you wanted to double check that your name and phone number are in your wetsuit - this is it. Lastly, there's always one or two who will be tempted to run barefoot from Harris to Lynch - respect, but don't do it. The dry lake bed is loaded with dangerous human detritus. I saw rusted cables, broken beer bottles, torn aluminum cans and more. Much of this hidden in the sand on the second half of the run. A swim warm up will be unlikely as the RD wants to try and keep the churn up of silty bottom to a minimum - consider bringing some resistance bands for a dry-land warm up.
Best of luck to all, wish I could be there with ya but PATCO Dallas holds sway.
Ian
PS. The mountain bike is 100% new and different and probably better but I'm less sure of those details so I'm holding back.
Ian Murray
http://www.TriathlonTrainingSeries.com
I like the pursuit of mastery
Twitter - @TriCoachIan
The Long Course and Olympic will be a swim, run, bike, run. Due to the extremely low water level, the swim will take place in a different part of the lake (Harris Creek) than normal (Lynch). The water has been tested and is safe but it's not super clear. The water is pretty warm (USAT Official measure there on Sunday was 64.5 deg). The edge of the lake (start & exit) is pretty deep silt but the RD (Terry Davis) is building a proper ramp for entrance and exit). The good news is that it'll probably be glassy: it could blow a gale and not get much of a ripple since it's a small body of water now and sits down low in the canyon. Also, sighting will be easy as there are plenty of nearby hillsides in the back ground with cuts and trees and such.
After the swim athletes will proceed up the bottom of a boat ramp and on the edge of that will be - T1A - essentially a transition area where you can strip your wettie put it in a bag that you'll get at registration (you'll get two actually, one to stuff your warm ups into), it'll have you number on it and you can leave that there as race org will deliver that back over to Lynch for you to pick up after you finish. You'll put on your run shoes and start the 2+ mile run to T1 - the normal transition area at Lynch.
This run is tough. It starts with a very long, steep club up the Harris Creek boat ramp, up a park road and then up a bit more 'til it finally flattens out. I'm gonna guess and say ~350m of up hill running, steep at bottom (10%? 12%? more?) and a hair less steep on the upper half. Then the run is a bit more humane for a while. Most of the first mile of the run will be known to those how have raced WF in the past because you'll be running on the normal oly/LC run course backwards from Harris Creek to the bottom of Beach Hill (that's the first dirt section of the normal run courses). At that point you'll ease off the paved road, drop down to your right and onto a road that has been plowed into the dry lake bed. This is soft sand in places, has one small bump in it and pops out at the very bottom of the Lynch boat ramp. Then you have to run up the entire Lynch ramp (again, steep, hard) to finally arrive at the regular transition area where your bike will be waiting. Advice on this first run: 1) bring a pair of run shoes specific for this run segment between swim and bike. Preferably ones that you can run in sans socks (use Blist-O-Ban before the start on risky spots on your feet to help avoid blisters). These shoes will be wet from post swim dripping and then will be sandy/muddy/dirty after the run. You probably won't want to wear these for the longer run after the bike. 2) If you're crazy fit and have big goals then jog the Harris ramp. If your a bit less fit and have more modest goals walk the Harris ramp and hold your run 'til your up on the less steep bit up by the Harris parking lot.
The bike is the bike is the bike - same exact courses as have been for years. The rollers are still beautiful, Jolon is still rough, nasty grade is still nasty.
The runs for both Oly and Long Course will be ~2 miles shorter. IMHO the Long Course run benefits nicely from the 2 mile snip because "the pit" is gone. You'll come out of the Lupine Meadow area (flat, dirt, baseball diamond, in the mile 9ish area) and when you step onto pavement you make a left and run ~1.5 mi home rather than the norm which is to make a right and run down into the pit, turn around and run back out. The Olympic course is harder (relatively harder, since it is only a 4mi run now) and this is because you have to run up Beach Hill. It's long, at ~1k and it's very steep. Once you're at the top of it you have ~1.5 mi of running to do that's pretty nice but getting up there is tough.
Odds and ends: RD is urging all to rack their bike the day before and leave it over night so that you can catch one shuttle from up on top of the camping area down to Harris start. Many of us like to see our bike in the morning (tire pressure check, nutrition/hydration detail). You could shuttle down to the transition area, make final touches and then walk the two miles to Harris for the start - it's an option. Only athletes will be shuttled to Harris for the start - no family or friends, they can walk if they want. If there was ever a race where you wanted to double check that your name and phone number are in your wetsuit - this is it. Lastly, there's always one or two who will be tempted to run barefoot from Harris to Lynch - respect, but don't do it. The dry lake bed is loaded with dangerous human detritus. I saw rusted cables, broken beer bottles, torn aluminum cans and more. Much of this hidden in the sand on the second half of the run. A swim warm up will be unlikely as the RD wants to try and keep the churn up of silty bottom to a minimum - consider bringing some resistance bands for a dry-land warm up.
Best of luck to all, wish I could be there with ya but PATCO Dallas holds sway.
Ian
PS. The mountain bike is 100% new and different and probably better but I'm less sure of those details so I'm holding back.
Ian Murray
http://www.TriathlonTrainingSeries.com
I like the pursuit of mastery
Twitter - @TriCoachIan