I don’t know why this is so incredibly difficult to find but I have a feeling it has to do with me being dumb.
Can anyone fill in the blanks?
The Wildflower Long Course Bike has ________ ft of elevation gain.
&
The Wildflower Long Course Run has ________ ft of elevation gain.
I’ve seen multiple graphs with the profile but nothing that just gives the amount of elevation gain. I went through 30 pages on ST backlog posts and still saw nothing. So if this is painfully obvious and has already been posted over and over again please forgive me. It’s been a long day haha.
This is the only thing I have ever been able to find. I’m not nearly patient or good enough at basic addition to go through and try to figure out the total elevation gain by adding every incline on those pdf files
I think maybe a more relevant question would be… what are the major climbs like? The supposed “nasty grade” looks like 5 miles at 4% average gradient. I’ve never been there, so I’m just basing my estimation on the pdf course profile. And 5 miles at 4% doesn’t sound too bad, but… there’s gotta be a reason that its so infamous. Does anyone know what its really like? Is it a steady climb, or is it more like steep, flat, steep, flat, and it just averages out to 4%?
I raced at WF last year. Nasty Grade is a steady climb that gets slightly steeper as you get closer to the top. It’s a tough climb primarily because it comes so late in the course. The first 15-20 miles of the ride have lots of rollers that take the snap out of the legs so by the time you get to Nasty, you’re pretty tired.
In all honesty, while the bike is tough…its the run that really kicks your ass on this course. The run is crazy hard…in particular the ascent that begins at Mile 4 nearly brought me to tears and I’m a decent runner. Not to mention the pit at Mile 10.
What JP said. It gets steeper than 4%, what it is, I don’t know.
I wouldn’t clal either of the climbs “major” from a bike ride perspective. They do bite pretty hard though in a tri. 2 “major climbs” I guess, Beach and Nasty. A friend put it well before my first, if you find yourself panting on the first 40 miles of this bike course, you’re in trouble
I did the LC in 07, going back again for more, so my memory maybe a little hazy, but reading my race report, I said the first 15 or so of the bike is hard, the last 15 or so is hard, but the middle 20+ miles are actually pretty easy. Almost right off the bat you climb Beach Hill, about a mile, not super steep but your HR is up from the swim, etc. Then getting out of the park, and after the right hand turn onto Interlake (?) is a series of decent rollers. I found it very hard to settle into a rhthym and get my HR down to where I could start nutrition well.
From there to the bottom of Nasty is I think even a net downhill and some flat and fast sections.
Nasty starts out pretty easy actually, then you pass the aid stn and make a left and it kicks up. And then the “top” isn’t the “top” as there are more rollers. I remember it being not as steep as I thought it would be for as long as I thought it would be.
This is sort of a Kuota sales job, but found this little vid showing Nasty Grade
I’ve been there before but crashed at the mile 12 aid station, blacked out for the next 11 or so miles of the bike and then was woozy for the remainder and suffered my way through a slow painful run.
What I remember of nasty grade was that if you train on hills it’s not a killer. Just train with climbs towards the end of your long rides.
Couldn’t agree more. That climb at 4 was ridiculous. I was hoping it was only cuz I was in a lot of pain but I had a feeling it was going to suck again this year.
For some reason I’ve seen more people walk the hils at WF than any other challanging course. It could be the heat combined with steady tought climbs. The downhills are blazing fast, I still havn’t beat my personal downhill speed record of 67 mph that I did in WF 2004.
IMHO American Triple-T day 3 is a harder course, much harder if you considerthe previous 2 days of racing
I totally agree with you Gavnunns that the run is what makes Wildflower so tough. I think the bike is actually pretty fair especially compared to the Wildflower Olympic race on Sunday. Although it’s less than half the distance, you almost never stop going up or down and so you never really get into any kind of rhythm. At least on the LC bike course you get some significant flat section to get some rhythm going. Nasty Grade is not that tough of a hill but as others have said, it’s where it is in the course that can make it challenging. The other challenging thing is going down that huge downhill after Nasty Grade and THEN hitting the rollers around mile 50 - 54 of the bike. It’s like your body thinks the bike is almost over so it relaxes going down that awesome hill. And then boom, you have to tell it to work again.
As for the run, it is absolutely relentless. Once you get over that angled billy goat trail at around mile 5, you still have a bunch of ups and downs that just wear your legs out. By the time you turn around at mile 10 to come out of the pit, you’re blasted. The good news is you just have to make it to the top of the hill at mile 12 and gravity will help you get to the finish line.
As for weather, we’ve had phenomenal weather for the last 4 years so hopefully this won’t be one of those 90+ degree years. The first year I did the OLY in '04, it was about 92 when I finished. Needless to say I ran the slowest 10k in my life and so did a lot of other people from the looks of the results that year. Last couple of years it’s been in the 70s which is absolutely perfect.
Ok, so the general vibe I’m getting is that there aren’t any absurd climbs on this course, but there’s nothing really flat either. Thanks for the info! Only 7 weeks to go, it’ll be a great way to start the season!
the absurd climbs and descents are on the run course.
Fixed that, the mile 4-5 descent is no picnic either, especially if you suck at running down hill, and it comes right after the ridiculous climb away from the lake
Hopefully there’ll be scenery at the top to take our minds off it. heard they weren’t there last year
I’ve done the long course over 20 times, and to the person that said it was easier than the short course because of the flats, where in the hell are the flats??? I guess the transition area is flat, but other than that, you are going up or down the entire 56 miles. It is very gradual in parts, but still up or down. The nasty grade hill is not a 4% grade. I would put its average between 7 and 8%, with some 10+% pitches. Bring the smallest gear you have, most pros will use their 19 to 23’s, but if there is a headwind blowing down it, you will wish you had a 28…The hill right out of the water is pretty tough, just under a mile, with the same 8% or so average. It just seems easier because it is first, and your legs are fresh. Just remember that wind and temp can alter that course by a lot, and on the best days, it is a tough SOB…
The run is only as bad as everyone makes it out to be if you are trashed, and most folks are by then. It has the one really tough hill at mile 4, but if you really cruise up to that point, then after is a lot of rolling stuff that can be fast if you sitll have quads…I mean, look at the pro run splits, high 1:11+ for the record, and many go 1:14 to 1:18, so it cannot be that slow. I’ve always felt that it is about .2 mile short, so that could explain the faster times than you would expect from the pros. AG’ers have a much bigger problem, since most do not know how to pace a bike ride like that, so their times are a lot slower…Take what you want from this, but the message is pretty simple…
Have fun, it is one of the best courses I have ever done, a real test of your fitness, pacing, and toughness. It is in a picture perfect setting, and nothing like running through the woods, and having a dream of naked girls handing out water…(-;
I knew that run course was hard, but that explains things. I thought I was running well in 2007 but somewhat dissappointed with my run split…but now that I see > 2K feet of climbing and descending on the run, almost 2 years later, I am actually quite pleased with that run!
2007 was when I did it as well. This will be my 2nd go at the 1/2…I’m dreading that run. I’ve been making sure I get over 2K in climbing in all of my long runs, I’m just hoping it helps.
