Wildflower - Results

May 3, 2009 -

So my main goal was to beat-up Wildflower in under six hours and I did!!! Final time was 5:55:50. Because I had such a slow brutal run I thought I would miss this goal by at least 10 minutes, but somehow managed to squeak in a full 4 mins under my self-imposed deadline.

So here is my Wildflower breakdown:

- Time: 5:55:50
- Swim: 36:55
- Bike : 3:04:37
- Run: 2:05:21
- T1: 6:18
- T2: 2:38

I wanted to beat six hours and I did that, so score there. I was aiming for under 40 mins on the run and I beat that by over three minutes, which is sweet. I was shooting for three hours on the bike and missed that one by only three minutes so I'm not overly bummed about that one. On the bike, my first hour was 18.01 mph, second hour was 20.68mph, and the third hour dropped to 14.69 mph. That should clue you in on how lame those hills were in the last 14 miles of the race. On the run I was going for and hour and fifty minutes and I missed that by fifteen minutes. Although I'm bummed about that, I can say there was considerable running improvement over last year. Both Boise and Lake Stevens are pretty flat run courses and I did 2:07 and 2:03 in those. So getting a 2:05 after the hilly bike and on 13 miles of brutal hills has me thinking that my run is much stronger over last year. I wanted to hit five minutes on T1 and got a little over six but I do like to take my time on that one as you prepare to jump on the bike for so long. In T2 I wanted to get three minutes and I hit two and a half so that was a good one.

Overall I placed 640 out of 1886 finishers, which is top third, and in my age group (30-34), I finished 133 out of 285 finishers, which is in the top half. I'm pretty happy with all these results and gained a ton of confidence going in to IM CDA. So, now, back to the grind.

Day 123 Training Log - Sunday morning we had to get up around 7:30a so we could break down the camp and get out of there before 8:30a when they closed the roads for the Olympic race. We drove up to a In and Out burger for a double double animal style (a much earned and deserved burger) and then on to San Jose where we hung for the day before flying home.

Post Script - One lesson learned....cover everywhere with sunscreen. I thought I did so well getting my face, neck, top of my head, arms and just about everywhere else.....just about. I forgot to hit the knees between the bottom of my bike shorts and the top of my compression socks. I also forgot a small strip of my back that my jersey doesn't cover when I'm in aero on the bike. See pic....lesson learned.