Wildflower Long Course Race Report

California
Wildflower Triathlon Long Course Saturday May 02, 2009
by: Charisa Wernick

Wildflower is often referred to as the Woodstock of Triathlon. It’s a festival atmosphere and a camping race. This all makes for a fun weekend.

The first time I raced Wildflower was in 2002, on a Softride bike I had inherited from my Dad. The course is hilly and is known as one of the more difficult half ironman courses. It is also beautiful.

I had a great swim - didn’t necessarily find any feet to draft off, but nonetheless, I was happy with the swim. I then promptly threw away most of my great swim time by having issues removing my wetsuit. I was laughing by the time I got it off, partly because it just seemed very funny to be struggling with some neoprene so adamantly, and also because by this time the crowd was cheering for me to “Get that thing OFF!”

Out on the bike, some headwind and some hills to face. Other than the very rough roads and a few sketchy potholes on descents, the bike course is awesome. I actually pulled my heart rate up and held it where I wanted to for most of the race.

Off the bike and onto the hilly trail run I was told I was 6th female. It is really hard to tell in these races because of the wave start on the swim. I figured I just needed to run hard.

The run course is awesome and brutal all at the same time. The trails are beautiful with big oak trees providing a little relief from the hot sun. The hills are steep. A few times I wondered who designed this course and thought they were definitely cruel. I figured I would run somewhere in the mid to upper 1:30s. So my 1:33 run split was surprising and a nice way to finish the day.

I had been hoping to break 5 hours and finished with a 5:00:07. I’m blaming the wetsuit issues!! I am happy with the result. It was good for 2nd in my age group and 3rd female amateur. And I took an hour off my time from when I raced in 2002 on the Softride - pretty fun!
- Charisa Wernick