For the first time ever I got to meet a slowtwitcher. As I was walking to the swim start I walked by the pro rack so I could check out the rides, I located the Bjorn mobile and there was 1 more person looking at it and of course as soon as I saw the TSR jersey I understood why! I got to meet Mr Heinz57, pretty cool.
Anyway, the weather was perfect but other than that I was dissapointed by the race. 1st of all the lack of Cal Poly students was evident as soon as you got on the bike course. Is it me or the water on the bike course tasted like pool water. I would hope that for $190 we could get bottled water, not filling up a bottle with hose water.
As I made it into the run course you could see that what used to be the area packed with students was kind of deserted. I still had hopes of there being some nakedness out in the run course and my hopes were shattered when we got to mile 4 and there were a couple of ladies and 4 kids handling out water and gatorade. God bless them for being out there and I am very grateful for the volunteers that showed up and manned the aid stations. But not having the fun atmosphere of years past made for a very sober run course. I know I wasn’t the only one dissapointed with the lack of rowdiness out there, people around me commented the same.
Special thanks to the 2 bare breasted ladies at mile 12 aid station that took it on themselves to maintain the Wildflower spirit, they certainly made my day on the horrible race I was having. As for the other usual logistical mess there was no improvement and I had to haul my bone tired ass 1 mile uphill at the end of the day. If any of you with families ever consider doing this race, do them a favor and leave them home. After 3 years I think I am done with Wildflower, beautiful bike course though.
Just a quick reply…just got home from 4 days at the lake. My other half raced yesterday the long course and I raced the short course today.
Yeah the hill kills you after racing…either you walk it and suffer or wait hours for the purple menace to finish and burn. They definitely need to sort something out on that end. I agree. After walking up and down 3+ times a day I was tired of that freaking hill.
Today on the short they had some guys in thongs dressed as devils and the girls in bare bikinis…at least a little entertainment on the hilly course.
***I cant believe they start the race so late in the day. I was the 1st girls of waves and I didnt start until 10:15am when it was boiling already…BUT terry davis had to have his routine pray service and church in the festival area…it is a triathlon not CHURCH…sort it out tri california.
It was my first time racing there and maybe my last…we shall see.
OK Tai, before I scratch Wildflower off my “Must Do This Triathlon Before the Body Shifts to Golf Mode” list, can you give me your first impressions from a guy spoiled on pretty nice Hawaii triathlons? Did you guys have much fun or has WF jumped the shark?
i was lucky racing collegiate mens wave, and i was in the top 10 after the turn around on the bike leg. looking back, it was like one large draft line from the start of the age group waves all the way back to the lake. totally nuts. as i descended the hill to the transition area i was passing someone, but there were all these people crossing the center line riding up the hill!!! WTF??? i’ll never do this race if i’m not in the collegiate wave.
and while i’m grumbling, the main reason we bring our club to WF is for the exposure to alumni etc. but, they do the collegiate team awards LAST so by the time they get to them, when some cal alum can see our team, the only people left are college kids. oh well.
It was good to meet you KingK. I don’t know how anybody can ride a bike set up like that P3C but it was cool to look at. Wildflower is kind of a love-hate thing for me. It was my first half but I said I would never come back. So I go back this year and had a pretty good race and a good time but I don’t think I will be back any time soon.
Before I bitch I want to say this race course is awesome and camping with thousands of other tri geeks almost makes you feel normal if only for a few days. This is a must do race for everybody at least one time. Good and bad, there is nothing else like it.
Driving in the front gate and shelling out $150 for a small slice of dirt didn’t make me feel good from the start. You can’t pay for one or 2 days at the gate no matter how soon you leave it is a 3 day minimum. The shortage of Cal Poly folks hurt the party feel of the place but there were still a lot of college kids running around having fun. The pack of streaking cal poly students was funny as hell but with only 4 topless women to 30 totally naked guys it was hard to watch. Here is what I don’t understand. They wanted to cut down on the students drinking but they had a beer tap truck parked by the Cal Poly camp. So do they want to cut down on drinking or do they just want to make a profit on any beer sold?
The aid stations were understaffed from what I could see. I got a “sorry dude” when I couldn’t get water at the first bike aid station because they didn’t have enough people working. Drinking concentrated accelerade isn’t a good thing. When I did get water it had so much chlorine that it was hard to drink. Calling it pool water was spot on.
The Bike course had so many pelotons it could have been a draft legal race. The only official I noticed the whole day was handing out penalties at 1.5 miles into the run for headphones which there were a lot of. I didn’t see one motorcycle the entire 56 miles of the bike so the cheaters had a field day. For you tri club folks, remind your members if they are going to cheat all day they should leave the club kit at home. Not good advertising for your club.
Bottom line is this is a great race but is a major hassle and more expensive then an M Dot when you add it up in the end. I don’t think you get the same value you get at an M Dot with everything being run like a clock. But as long as people keep shelling out the cash and all the top pros show up this will be a major race.
Back from doing WF’05 long course and here is my take. Volunteers at the event were there in sufficient numbers, mostly students, and they did an outstanding job in the transition area, as well as the bike, and run (the swim too I am sure but hard to tell thru goggles :). Compare to '03 or '04 I would say they even did a slightly better job than years past. Incidentally, when I went by the student camp ground on the Long Course run I noticed the number of students tents was FAR less than in past … perhaps 80% less – this implies, perhaps, that in the previous years maybe 20% of the total number actually DID the volunteer work and the rest were maybe too partied out? Also noticed the park rangers and police were out in higher numbers than years gone by, enforcing the laws of the land as they as sworn to do.
In any case, my hats off to this years volunteers, students, and Terry for an event run with excellence. It is still has the real Wildflower ambiance and I will put my money on the line and definetly be back there for '06.
My story. I finshed 3:15. My ever -present chronic calf showed up at mile 4 run. Walked the rest of the way in. <yawn, boring>
My wife, AKA “First tri 2005” had a story. Mile 6 in the bike, a car whips in front of her and slam on the brakes. She locks up brakes, fishtails and swerves to the shoulder just missing a collision. (Why do they let cars in the middle of a race where there ar that many bikes??) Anyway, next mile she gets a bee in top and gets stung. On the 2nd to the last hill, she drops chain. Puts it back on jumps on and dops chain again going uphill, loses her balance and rolls down an enbankment with 1 foot still in the peddle. Here brake lever is bent, seat is twisted 45 degrees and wheel is wobbing. She jumps up dusts off and and takes off again. Now she can’t get on to the small chainring for some reason. She has to ride uphill on the large ring with a seat cocked 45 degrees to the right and a wobbleing tire. She can’t stand up to peddle since the seat is in the way so she has to power up the hills in a high gear sitting down. She makes it in-another 11 miles that way. Starts on the run and realizes she tore up her quads riding like she did. So she walks the hole run. half mile from finish she gets toe cramps and has to stop and take here shoes off and rub them out. She finished the race crying as she ran through the chute.
She has the heart of a champion, a real ironman. I was so proud of her.
We won’t do Wildflower again. It was an awsome spectacle but just too crowded. It is like the Bay to Breakers - you have to do it at least once. Unsafe conditions on the bike. The tram system is totally inadequte. To make people that just finished a half IM walk up that damn steep dusty hill is ridiculous.
I agree that the warm tap water at the aid stations was inexcusable.The kids there were awsome. hard working and very encouraging.
This was my first time at Wildflower and my first official triathlon so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I did the 1/2 and had a blast. Yes, the camping was crowded, but we expected that. The swim was uneventful and well organized, bike course itself was really nice. Yes, some of the water tasted bad, but I never had any trouble getting what I wanted at the aid stations. The transition area was well organized. The run was staffed adequately and again, I never had trouble getting what I wanted. Actually, I wanted some topless babes and didn’t get them, but being a married man the price would have been to recite that I wasn’t a bit attracted to young college girls boobs for about a week, so it’s a wash. Yes, expensive; yes, tame; yes a well organized and challenging race. So go to a strip club in TJ if you wanted drunken naked chicks, go to WF for a great race.
i was lucky racing collegiate mens wave, and i was in the top 10 after the turn around on the bike leg. looking back, it was like one large draft line from the start of the age group waves all the way back to the lake. totally nuts.
I wondered about that. That’s why I won’t do the Oly race since I would have started in the last wave. Too crowded for that small of a road.
For the LC, the swim was great. The bike–I agree with the funky tasting water. The rest of the bike aid stations were fine–plenty of volunteers and supplies (and I started in the next to last wave, so 2,000 people had already been by). Didn’t get to the run, but as previously mentioned, the medical staff was top notch and plentiful. TA volunteers were good.
The camping was what it was, but made so much better by hanging out with Hinds57 and JohnA. The $50/night pisses me off. I’ve been down to LSA on non-WF weekends and it’s way less. I like to go to big races to see people I don’t get to see regularly and trekking up and down that damned hill multiple times gets old. I only went down twice–to register and to race. I couldn’t tell you who/what was at the expo since it wasn’t open yet on Friday when we were down there and post-race I was more concerned with getting back up the hill.
I’ll probably go back for our training weekend, but to race, probably not.
I just came back from my first ever WF and I based on some feedback (i.e. bitching) on this board i wasn’t expecting much. However to be honest I thought it was one of the best races I’ve ever done. Yea - the bike was really hard and yea going up and down the hill to transition 3 times the day before the LC probably wasn’t such a good idea but that was my fault not Terry’s!
I agree that the water on the bike was bit bleachy - but maybe that’s b/c they used bleach & water to clean out the water bottles to make sure they were clean. it didn’t really bother me. I thought the aid stations on the run were great - well stocked and just enougth volunteers so you could get what you wanted but didn’t have to run past 100 people yelling “water, goo, water, gatoraide, water, you’re looking great, goo, goo, goo”… i missed out on the naked aid station, but i wouldn’t damn the race because we didn’t get the chance to see a bunch of Cal-Poly students naked.
I was very impressed with how well organized the race was - from the transitions to the aid stations to the finish line shoot to getting the results online within minutes of the race being over. I would definately go back i lived in California - my only gribe would be how much it costs to do the race with the entry fee, the camping fee, a flight, a rental car, booze…
The reace was great, I had a great swim and bike, finnished both in 3:30 and I was sooo happy and feeling great. Then ran the run, woah, I was not ready for that, started walking at the hilly bit after the campsite… that was a challenge. By mile 8 I was running / wlaking and got passed by a heap of people but at the end of the day its a fun chalenging cours so thats how I take it.
Also if you want to see the naked ladies at mile 12 here is a hint for next year, run behing a cal poly guy!
anyway race was great, the only bad thing was the hill to get to and from the race. I walked the bike down on race morning on the dirt track and when I got to transition all I could hear was grind grind grind, a drive train full of sand and grit!!! it took me 10 minutes to get all that junk out of my cogs and gears, and then use suntan cream for chain lube, happy to say it works well!!! came in at 5:36 which wasnt great because of my bad run / walk, but still fun, even caught a sight of cathy the first day but she was riding the other way so I couldnt congratulate her on hawaii.
As a last point there was definately a lot of drafting going on out there, I was pounding the bike out and on every strainght I would get passed slowly by a group of people drafting off each other, so I would drop back the 3 bike lengths and get out of their way but its still weak they were drafting, I saw marshals out there but checked the DQ board the next day expecting a list as long as my arm but nothing, way too much drafting for my liking, if there is a rule then they should use it. Also saw a few guys using headphones on the bike and also the oakley thump mp3 glasses, not right
What impressed me was the quality of the food at the expo and probably five brands of beer. Thought we were going to have to drive to Paso on friday for dinner but the Thai noodles and Firestone beer were yum.
After a nights sleep here is what I think of the Oly race…it has WAY too many people and TNT people need to go last not first.
My other half (English Muffin) did the long course and was in the 1st age group wave so not a problem…I was in the 2nd of the women for age group and it was a problem. They let the women TNT go in the first wave. What were they thinking?
Swim…some freaking chic took off my goggles…I was like what the F@#$!!! I told her she did it and she was like oh!!! I was a competitive swimmer in college and usually finish in the top 3 of the swim BUT not today. Probably top 15 considering the situation. I was pissed. So I start the bike up the dreaded Lynch hill and there are herds of people…no way to pass since people are coming down the hillat 30mph. No one knows how to ride since again these are mostly TNT people. Get out of the park and start caning past people to have my chain pop off…try to pop it back on but actually have to stop and get greasy hands and fix it…back on the bike trying to re-pass everyone…more pissed off now. On the way back into the park I was over the race…contemplating if I should race the run or just train and take it easy. On the way back in I have girls with stir-up pedal bikes telling me to keep going…I wanted to say eat s#@$!!! but I was nice and kept my mouth shut. Back to transition, I took my time and talked to Glyn for about 5 minutes and then continued on the run…lots of hills and lots of heat, but finished.
My WORST race in 4 years and glad to be done with it. Will NEVER race the olympic race again…too many first timers, too many TNT people, and too many people that dont have a clue how to ride a bike. Only the long course if I race next year.
Looking forward to the Florida Half this month…hopefully I got all my bad luck out of the way for the rest of the season.
Yeah Cathy we saw you but you were riding your bike back up the hill the other way. We noticed you and then it was too late since we were walking. Next hopefully we can give a shout.
Your buddy should have experienced it 6 or 7 years ago. It used to be the coolest race in the world. I guess like all things small that grow too fast, it was a victim of its own success. Wildflower was more than a race and truely did feel like a festival and I can just say I am glad I experienced it before massive crowds, overblown commercialism and the SLO student backlash took their collective effects. One of the coolest things was being able to just walk up to the pros who were all over and shoot the breeze. Something about the race that made everyone feel like you were part of something more than a sport.
A shame really…maybe so many people will get pissed off and stop going and it could improve but I doubt it. After doing it seven years straight, I don’t see myself going back and that is a bummer. I truely did love Wildflower.
I can’t believe how many times I was passing someone on the bike, look up and see a car coming at me down the middle of the road with bikes on either side. 4000 cyclists on 8 miles of Interlake Road and they can’t close it to cars for a few hours? Is this common?
That is only an issue for the Oly race as it is an out and back. I did that race once and never again. The long course bike is great. Just one big loop so not an issue.
You are right though…too many damn people in that race. It is not very safe except to Terry Davis’ accountant.