You obviously have not done two transition races like St. George, Indian wells, etc where you have to park at the end, take your bike to T1 56 miles away the night before, take shuttles the morning off, finish then have to go back to pick up your shit!!! How is that easier than everything centralized in one huge festival area? If you don’t like camping you stay at Paso Robles, like so many other do, so you drive 40 mins no different than being on a shuttle except you can listen to your own music, breky, coffee, etc. as for the drive not terrible 6 hrs from San Diego and like I said I have done it 20 times, easy enough to get in and out of there.
I do it once a year with the kids. It’s a lot of fun and they all love it. This race is a bit too far for me to make it happen when I can go camping to other races that are closer, but I love the combination! It is a lot of work though… all the gear of triathlon plus all the gear of camping.
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Integrity for what?
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Monty still waiting for your race by race numbers to support your claim.
Here is the official USAT ranking data. Quite different
While your numbers are correct for “finishers” in the individual triathlons they do not show the entire picture for what constitutes a successful multisport weekend. These days race directors try to attract a wider group to athletes to ensure there is more interest in the “overall” weekend experience instead of relying on the feature event filling. That way you get a profitable event even though the numbers might be down on the feature event. It is why so many Ironman races also hold 70.3’s and other fun events on the same weekend as they can see that the numbers for stand alone Iron’s are not holding up in the current climate.
Multisport festivals are the way to move forward and just because the feature event is lacking past numbers does not mean that, for the event organisers, the race weekend was a failure.
Wildflower had 11 different events on offer this month and just over 1,300 race entries were sold across those events ranging from swims to runs to teams to the individual triathlons. While those numbers are not what they used to be and I agree that the “camping culture” will not return in force, they aren’t bad from an RD’s point of view and certainly do show some promise for the future.
The biggest issue they face is trying to convince the modern triathlon community that Ironman isn’t “Triathlon” and that non M-dot races are just as fun to do. Tough to get the sheeple to try the grass in another field though.
Wildflower Experience (May 3, 2025) (Eternal Timing)
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Hi @h20fun
I never answered why I was not at this year’s Wildflower. It is the same reason I have NEVER seen you at any race in Ontario where I live. Wildflower is not a local race to me. I travel to away races on weekends/times of year that work. Some years wildflower worked out, some years other races worked out, not to mention that me and trail running don’t mix. It has nothing to do with camping. Just travel on the wrong weekend and a trail race.
I’ve likely done more US based races than most Americans have in their lifetimes, so you’re welcome to hop on a plane and come race in my neighbourhood before you shout at me to come and race in your neck of the woods. Happy to come and race in your patch when all things in life align again. It just was not this May at Lake San Antonio
It was stated they would have 4500 folks, please list race by race how they did.
I have raced a number of worlds in Canada, I guess our paths did not cross at these either. I have done 3 in the past.
I am just puling your leg. Still waiting for Monty to justify his statement there were 1700 folks, the goal was like 4500 folks, etc.
Triathlon as we knew it is dead!! For old folks wanting to hold onto the past, good luck!! It is all about fun now, no more of this mucho copmpetitive stuff old folks still want to talk about!!!
It was stated that they hoped to get 4,500 entries and not that they did get 4,500. Stop being such a pedantic dickhead and how about thanking the RD’s for at least trying to resurrect an iconic event.
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An iconic event that he won. Just fwiw.
Makes no difference.
If he is so down on that race ,as well as the rest of the sport it seems, he should just move on and let people who do still like the sport enjoy it, regardless of the numbers.
Think perhaps he is talking about me… (-;
And I have stopped responding to Dave because he has really gone into a sink hole on this one. He seems to be mad at the world at the moment, but do wish his family well in the struggles with his father. Went through that myself, but did keep training and racing as an anchor to my own life…
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It just seems… uncharitable? given that context.
Seems like Monty is likely correct. Best wishes from me as well.
Just a general response.
I do concur that the sport has changes (as it should). Does that mean all events need to flat and fast, at 5 star resorts, with lots of swag and good social media opportunities? Maybe there is still room for camping + hard courses + triathlon woodstock.
1500 seems like a very decent start though.
And as the others have said to you @h2ofun , we wish you well in taking care of aging parents.
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I do not like people having integrity. So instead and giving the data to support your statement, lets just attack dave. Guess what if I am wrong, I will just say I made a mistake, but never lower myself to folks that do the personal attacks!!!
I am just sick of USAT, and others, who want to lie about what is going on in our sport. If this makes me bad, I want to be the best to expose the lies.
Again Dev, the race did not have close to 1500. Please post your results race by race from a source we can all verify!! I have.
I just wish they would put their energy into a race location that meets today’s customers, not the ones from the past. Now, if they have tons of money to lose, like some race companies seem to have by their low race numbers, great, more power to them.
Monty cannot even back up his statement of numbers, says it all
Based on the timing company’s results, there were nearly 1400 participants. Total number for just the triathlon events (assuming 3 people on each relay team) was 1144, with another 235 in the running and OWS events…
https://raceresults.eternaltiming.com/20250503_Wildflower_Experience.htm
Do you count DNS or DNF or ? What are we counting?
Either way, no 4500, not 1700, or even 1500.
If folks would just post the real numbers up front. Has anyone posted numbers that were ever LESS than the results? 
Jeez who cares seriously. If they got over 1000 signed up they did great for a reboot!
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