Wildflower & Alpha Win

Triathlon Forum
1

At the risk of opening a complete can of worms and being a shit-stirrer… I opened Facebook (a rarity) and saw a post from Wildflower Experience. I can only assume they announced a new “Lake San Antonio Triathlon” which was the catalyst for this. Looking at their website, I think that’s the case… anyways.

From Alpha Win
Alpha Win is proud to announce that it will be adding a new race to its California lineup at the location of the historic Wildflower Triathlon: the Alpha Win Lake San Antonio Triathlon! Standing by the motto, “A Distance For Everyone,” Alpha Win Lake San Antonio features Sprint, Olympic and 70.3 triathlon distances, coupled with aqua bike and duathlon. Just a short drive from Paso Robles, come swim, bike, and run through the rolling hills and beautiful scenery that is Lake San Antonio!

From Wildflower via FB post
Wanted to send out a clarification email: We are in NO WAY affiliated with Alpha Win Productions and they are NOT BRINGING BACK Wildflower Experience, Wildflower Triathlon or Lake San Antonio Triathlon. While we have been greatly effected by water levels at the lake, and have been working the last few years to stay in business during Covid, Mo Co changes, lake level issues etc. so we could truly bring the Wildflower Experience back to those that have loved the event for the last 35 years, this company is FALSELY advertising that they are ANY part of the past 35 years of traditions and hard work, or have ANY understanding what it takes to make Wildflower Experience the event its so well known for. I had hoped to have an announcement for a 2024 event that we could bring back the REAL Wildflower Experience, so this company is actually keeping you from truly experiencing Wildflower and all the memories you really have. I do apologize for not reaching out sooner and hope you will continue to support the Wildflower Brand that I was born and raised in, and have Race Directed personally over 25 years.

I find it a little disingenuous from the Wildflower folks to say they were hoping to have an announcement miraculously this year… the last post from them prior to this was December 2020. And before covid stopped all events from happening in March 2020, they hadn’t shared anything and had not opened registration for 2020.

I know that it has a long history, and the water conditions at the lake as well as political conditions in the county had made for a rough go, but utter silence for 3 years and then being upset someone else is putting a race on in their backyard? I don’t know the details, but I sure would love to know the challenges that have been going on because I *loved *Wildflower and would put it on my calendar in a heartbeat if it were back as its normal self.

For what it’s worth, I don’t read the Alpha Win description as trying to replace Wildflower, it’s just at the same location? (Which holds no allure for me without the magic of Wildflower, anyway!) Do we think or does anyone have inside information that there’s actually a possibility of a Wildflower return??? Or do I just chalk up vomiting my guts out while both legs’ quads simultaneously cramped a once-in-a-lifetime experience?

2

Wildflower folks may have a plan to bring it back, maybe waiting for new political powers to be in place or some such, many possibilities. That it appears AW used the Wildflower name to their benefit to garner interest is a legit complaint, and Wildflower answered to it. I, nor you, have any idea what WF is doing behind the scenes.

AW espousing the beauty of the venue and the course on their own? no problem, hype it up!

3

I was signed up for Wildflower in 2019 when it was canceled in February and don’t remember them ever providing a reason why. Sucked since my accommodation was non-refundable and had friends who planned a whole trip around racing it with us.

I’d give a Alpha Win a chance if I wanted to do that triathlon again, very skeptical of Wildflower ever returning.

4

I have no intel on this, but it does seem like AW swooped in and nabbed the Wildflower weekend and location. This is the same organization that is now running the June Lake Triathlon.

I’d be curious if they’ve pulled a permit for this with Monterey County, or if they’ve even started having that conversation with them.

Water won’t be an issue for 2024. There might even be enough water for 2025.

5

So I’ve heard a lot about Wildflower, but it disappeared before I’d even done a triathlon. Is it so well loved because the course is awesome or because of the festival atmosphere surrounding the race?

6

Ha. The course if awful and will crush your soul.

Presuming there is a puddle to swim in, the swim is pretty nice. And the race starts out like any other. But then… it gets interesting.

Somewhere in this forum is a racer who described the ride like so: “Jolon road will gargle your balls.” Being a lady, I can’t relate, but I wouldn’t disagree.

Then there is a climb where the energizer bunny used to stand at the top beating a big drum and you just kept pedaling and pedaling and pedaling and hearing the drum and never reaching the top. Oh, and it is probably 100 degrees by now (it was probably 40 degrees when you woke up in your tent a couple of hours earlier).

Then go out for an endless run and when you drag your lifeless body past your car and then your campsite at mile 8 or 9, you finally get to run down a hill, only to reach the bottom where there is a little construction cone. At that cone, you turn around and run right back up the hill. The very long hill. It might be 102 degrees now. At this point, any life you had left exits your body. To an observer, it probably looks like a death march.

Eventually you get to Lynch Hill and at that point you know you only have to run to the bottom of the hill to the finish line, so you send it. Except you absolutely destroy your quads while beating down this hill because it is steep and long.

And then you get to have your beer and lay on the grass at the festival.

It was fun in the day… And the course is pretty.

7

Wildflower is dead. It’s not coming back and they know it. So what if someone said “same site as the famous Wildflower triathlon”. How does that say they’re affiliated? It’s a point of reference.

Wildflower with so much history has had so much sputtering the last ten years that I only blame the promoters.

8

I ran across this thread kinda on accident, and feel like I need to throw in my opinion. I love(d) Wildflower. Wildflower 2012 was my first triathlon, and I was instantly addicted. It changed my life. I went from being overweight, to losing a little bit with some running, to a total addiction to athletics, WF got me started.

One of my mom’s boyfriends went to Cal Poly and started working at WF as a volunteer in comms as a part of the Ham radio club, and my mom got involved. She mentioned I should go hang out for the weekend and give it a tri (er, try). So I did the mountain bike sprint,; dog paddled the swim, rode a Walmart bike, and ran my ass off for those two miles.

A few years later, I turned pro on the mountain bike. I still returned to race, and volunteered every year until the race ended.

Okay, all that long windedness to say I love this race, and feel like my opinion has some value to someone.

Wildflower is dead. It is not coming back, at least never like “The Woodstock of Triathlon” that it was. The whole race was run by college kids. It was truly an incredible experience watching all these “kids” grow from being 18 year old punks to leaders in a few years. That cycle is broken.

Wildflower was bought out, it is a corporation now (Tri California). Very disingenuous for the company to act like they care about the “experience”. They basically gave up when the lake went away and never once reached out to their thousands of fans to give any updates, they just quit. Now that someone else has stepped up to at least do a triathlon in the same beautiful venue, they are throwing a fit because they see $$$, they don’t give a rats ass about the experience.

Alpha Win used to be HITS triathlon. I did a couple races with them years ago, including my first 70.3 and 140.6. They were absolutely wonderful back then when I did those races and I can only hope they still are. They provided a fun race at a cost I could afford. $400 for a 140.6? Yeah, I don’t give an crap about IM brand, I want the experience of doing a fun triathlon, I don’t need a brand name to do it for me. I’m less poor now, but still don’t care about the brand.

If AW can set up a triathlon in the same beautiful area, and make it affordable, I think that is great for everyone.

Is it Wildflower? No. Wildflower is dead. Can it be Wildflower ish? Absolutely. But screw Tri California for getting pissy.

And yes, I’m signing up. And my GF is thinking about doing the 70.3 as her first tri (she’s an ultra runner turned cyclist).

I’m bummed it won’t be Wildflower. My mom wants to volunteer in comms again as a Ham operator, but probably can’t. But I’ll take what I can get.

(Fun fact, I still have the KOM’s on both the MTB and road sprint courses, too bad I can’t swim 🤣)

9

For what it’s worth, I think you just summed up how I feel about the dramatic FB post from the og promoters. I didn’t want to drop a nasty opinion as the original post and walk away so I tried to be a little more politically correct? But I’m glad to know (a) professional(s) feels the same way. Friends I’ve talked to agree, too.

I think your opinion is valuable and very very legitimate. Maybe I will put the new AW date on my calendar for next year, and those of us with knowledge and history can make camping and some new memories happen. Wildflower was the first race that truly kicked my ass. I bought my car with the race in mind (fit my TT and MTB in WITH camping gear). It was my first off-road race and while I still am yet to do another, I loved every second of it.

10

I loved the Wildflower!

I think it was my second triathlon that I did in 1985.

11

glad to know (a) professional(s) feels the same way. My tag line is “Slowest pro you’ll ever meet”, so don’t take me too seriously 🤣

I’m not very good at being diplomatic. Might be why I don’t have any friends? 🤷‍♀️

12

Ha. The course if awful and will crush your soul.

Presuming there is a puddle to swim in, the swim is pretty nice. And the race starts out like any other. But then… it gets interesting.

Somewhere in this forum is a racer who described the ride like so: “Jolon road will gargle your balls.” Being a lady, I can’t relate, but I wouldn’t disagree.

Then there is a climb where the energizer bunny used to stand at the top beating a big drum and you just kept pedaling and pedaling and pedaling and hearing the drum and never reaching the top. Oh, and it is probably 100 degrees by now (it was probably 40 degrees when you woke up in your tent a couple of hours earlier).

Then go out for an endless run and when you drag your lifeless body past your car and then your campsite at mile 8 or 9, you finally get to run down a hill, only to reach the bottom where there is a little construction cone. At that cone, you turn around and run right back up the hill. The very long hill. It might be 102 degrees now. At this point, any life you had left exits your body. To an observer, it probably looks like a death march.

Eventually you get to Lynch Hill and at that point you know you only have to run to the bottom of the hill to the finish line, so you send it. Except you absolutely destroy your quads while beating down this hill because it is steep and long.

And then you get to have your beer and lay on the grass at the festival.

It was fun in the day… And the course is pretty.

Perfect description and having done it first in 1996, then 2007, then 2010, then 2015 spanning almost two decades my lifeless body got increasingly lifeless after turning at the cone and initially running up to that top of Lynch hill, then jogging then eventually a shuffle that was barely a powerwalk but each trip from Eastern Canada to Wildflower in May was truly glorious.

Nothing more to add to this thread

13

Came here to post about the same thing.
From the looks of it, the bike course is the same, but the run might actually be harder - you’d be doing 2 0.9 mile climbs with some pretty steep ramps.
I dunno, the race company is still sketchy in my eyes. I’d take a look how it goes in 2024 and maybe give in a go in 2025 if it’s still around. I also am honestly not looking forward to riding Jolon ever again, it’s up there with the worst of them pavement wise.

14

And there’s this…

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/lake-san-antonio-monterey-county-toxic-algae-stay-out-of-water/

15

My history of the race goes back to the very beginning, a pretty good history can be found in this old article dan wrote about it 13 years ago;

https://www.slowtwitch.com/Interview/Stairway_of_Champions_addition_2735.html

It does seem like the new owners have pretty much abandoned it for various reasons, but im still hopeful that it will one day make its comeback. But in the meantime I’m not going to be down on a company tries to bring another race to this awesome venue. So many great memories from this race over the decades, it would be fun to be able to go back and ride and run those historical trails and roads.

And as to the water quality, probably not an issue with the early May date, but for sure with hot summers like we have these days, it is going to be a problem later in the heat waves…

16

Not sure what they’re bellyaching about, the last WF event was in 2018. The 2019 race was abruptly canceled and it has been radio silence and virtually no updates since then. There is a small local outfit that have been putting on races at Lake San Antonio in the Spring since 2019, granted it has been a bumpy ride (’20 & ’21 canceled due to COVID and ’23 canceled due to low registration), but at least they’ve been actively trying and have put on some events.

17

Wildflower is the only race I regret not having done before I stopped doing triathlons with any real interest. It’s probably the only race (maybe alongside the Muskoka Half-Nice distance) that I would seriously get back into triathlon for.

18

Ha. The course if awful and will crush your soul.

Presuming there is a puddle to swim in, the swim is pretty nice. And the race starts out like any other. But then… it gets interesting.

Somewhere in this forum is a racer who described the ride like so: “Jolon road will gargle your balls.” Being a lady, I can’t relate, but I wouldn’t disagree.

Then there is a climb where the energizer bunny used to stand at the top beating a big drum and you just kept pedaling and pedaling and pedaling and hearing the drum and never reaching the top. Oh, and it is probably 100 degrees by now (it was probably 40 degrees when you woke up in your tent a couple of hours earlier).

Then go out for an endless run and when you drag your lifeless body past your car and then your campsite at mile 8 or 9, you finally get to run down a hill, only to reach the bottom where there is a little construction cone. At that cone, you turn around and run right back up the hill. The very long hill. It might be 102 degrees now. At this point, any life you had left exits your body. To an observer, it probably looks like a death march.

Eventually you get to Lynch Hill and at that point you know you only have to run to the bottom of the hill to the finish line, so you send it. Except you absolutely destroy your quads while beating down this hill because it is steep and long.

And then you get to have your beer and lay on the grass at the festival.

It was fun in the day… And the course is pretty.

Perfect description and having done it first in 1996, then 2007, then 2010, then 2015 spanning almost two decades my lifeless body got increasingly lifeless after turning at the cone and initially running up to that top of Lynch hill, then jogging then eventually a shuffle that was barely a powerwalk but each trip from Eastern Canada to Wildflower in May was truly glorious.

Nothing more to add to this thread
As a more local boy; I did it more times. None better than '15 when I got to meet you (finally!).
As a bonus you cruised by my dying carcass in the last few k’s at IMLT (such an easy course).
2x in one year - cool

19

Over the years I did all of the courses sprint, oly and half (didn’t do the Ian Murray special, sprint and half same day…). The WF post popped up on my feed out of nowhere, and I searched out the AW post. Agree with some others I don’t really know where WF is coming from. Other than the one and done return in '19 (?) haven’t heard hide nor hair from them.

The AW run course looks tough but not very inspired. Not sure why they wouldn’t use the old WF run course, not like they have to get extra permits or anything.

But it’s not the return of “wildflower,” checked out the camping and looks like they link to the campground reservation site. Seems like they’re going to rent out individual campsites as opposed to buy camping for $75 (or whatever it was) and find a spot big enough for your tent. That was what made WF really special.

At any rate, no one has mentioned the mtherfcking walk up the hill post race. Now that was special /s

20

It was both the course and the festival atmosphere. The bike was brutal and the run was worse. The steep downhill in the second half of the run that felt like this:
https://youtu.be/8RmlWAr3Qew
That and I don’t expect to have a topless coed aid station at any IM branded event.