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So, finally. After 3 months of hard training, Lola and I jumped in the car and drove to lake San Antonio for racing weekend. Wildflower is known as the "Woodstock of triathlons" because all the 8,000 participants set up their tents in the beautiful San Antonio Reservoir. It's a massive camping experience.

We got there Friday afternoon, set up our tent along with the TNT folks, had dinner and chatted with the folks that were doing the half ironman next morning. We all went to bed (sleepeing bags) at around 9:30 pm. Next day we woke up late, at around 8:30. For some reason, and according to the coaches, your have to make sure to have a good night sleep two days before the event. The night before the event is not as important.

After breakfast (one egg, oatmeal, peanut butter sandwich and orange juice), we went down to the race area to pick up my packet for the race. There were tons of people and I actually started feeling pretty anxious about racing the next day. At around 1 pm we decided to go back to the camp, making sure I stopped every 20 minutes to pee because of the insane amount of water and electrolytes I was taking........

We spend the afternoon chatting with other TNT members and at 6:30 we all gathered for our pre-race dinner. Triathletes from TNT chapters all over the USA gathered there. We ate and insane amount of pasta and chicken. A couple of people that have had some form of Leukemia or Lymphoma thanked all of us for our efforts and wished us good luck on the big day. It was actually a pretty nice event. Before we went to bed something curious happened. Suddenly, naked college guys and girls showed up running through our camp....yes, naked female triathletes running all over the place, yes fully naked.......It's a tradition at Wildflower that has been going on for several years I heard. Awesome, what can I say. I am going back next year, for sure. Off to bed with my belly full of carbs, my mind full of boobs and completely rested after a couple of days without training.

Race day

We woke up 7:00 am and had the same breakfast as the day before. I had this same stuff during my trainings so it was guaranteed I wouldn't run into any stomach issues during the race.

All TNT members gathered at around 7:45 and went down in our bikes......there was the Wildflower course, intimidating, challenging, brutally beautiful, ready to test me.....

We got to our transition area to set up all our stuff. This is where you actually come after the swimming and after biking to change for your next sport. As a result everything needs to be in pristine order so you don't make mistakes. For example, if you get on your bike with a hat instead of a helmet you can be penalized or even disqualified. When you get out of the water you are pretty tired and confused so is quite easy to make mistakes. Probably my sister Erika would be the best person in the world to set up a triathlete's transition area. With her German-neatness and order, everything would be ordered at exactly the same distance and in exactly the same order any athlete would need it. In my case, it was pretty neat, but never as if she would have done it....

Swimming

My start time was 10:05 so at around 9:35 I started to get into the wetsuit....yes, a full body wetsuit that makes me look like a third-world version of a German sausage. I headed up for the race start area where the rest of the TNT folks were. After the wave right before us took off, we were allowed to swim for a couple of minutes. This is important because this is when you let water into your wetsuit (yes, it was quite cold) and "feel" the rythm of your swimming stroke.

Three minutes later and with the crowd cheering Go Team!, bang! the shotgun and we all ran towards the water. TNT gets its own starting time (normally people race with their own group ages), so we were not that many people. This was quite nice since you don't have 10 persons swimming around, thus, no kicks nor accidental punches in the TNT wave.

The swim was 1.5 kms, the water was a bit rough because the day was quite windy. As a result I drank two good mouthfuls of water...tasty, clear water that of Lake San Antonio. Have you ever gone swimming with a wetsuit? Its awesome! You really, really float and are able to rotate a lot easier. Is a much less effortless experience. The course was pretty simple, you swim 750 mts and then turn around a buoy and come back.

I felt pretty damn good on the swim, just concentrating in maintaning a stable rythm, not to fast, not to slow, just about right. My goal was to finish the swimming part without stopping for rest and to do it in ~30 minutes.

As I approached shore on my way back I could hear the people cheering up. When I finally touched the ground with my hands I got up and started running up the hill (like all Wildflower....a freaking hill) and removing the upper part of my wetsuit. This was quite an exciting moment with all the people around you, cheering you up. 1 minute later I was in my transition area, put on my cycling shoes, helmet, sunglasses and got on the bike.

Biking

Well, what can I say about biking at Wildflower. Still struggling to catch your breath from the swimming, here it comes, the steepest hill in all the course. It is brutal, brutal, brutal. You can see on the picture below how you need to climb ~100 mts in less than 1 km. It's the very first upward hill on the green graph. You feel like your heart is going to come out of your chest.

Fortunately, at the top of the hill a bunch of folks from TNT were waiting, cheering us up. As we were leaving the National Park to go out to the road, all the spectators were shouting and encouraging us to keep on going. Needless to say, that if you are wearing the purple Team in Training shirt you get special attention. I probably heard the words "Go team!" 300 times, no kidding.

For the next 13 kms the ride is quite pleasant, some hills, but nothing too steep nor too long, and right after that there is a long, nice downhill where I reached my max speed during the race, 56.6 km/hr. It was an awesome experience to see people of all ages really pushing themselves so hard on that really hard and hot course. By the way, your age is written on your calf muscle, so you know exactly how old is the guy that looks like your dad and is riding way faster than you are........makes you wonder how much more you still need to go.

TNT Coach Cindy had advised us to really pace ourselves during the first half of the race (that is the swim and the first 20 kms on the bike). "If you feel strong when you reach the first half, you can really start pushing your body on the way back". Awesome. I felt pretty damn good when I reached the u-turn point (yes, all those nice downhills were to become uphills, see double red arrow in chart). My body was hydratated and had eaten very well along the way, so I decided to really push hard on the way back. My watch showed 1:30 mins, unless something went really wrong I would be able to beat my 4 hrs objective for the whole race.

As I entered the park I could hear the cheering, happy crowds motivating the participants. I ran into some TNT folks again and they were specially loud and cheerful whenever a purple shirt approached them.

As I was descending the final hill I realized that the result of the extra effort paid off. I had managed to cut 5 minutes from the 58 minutes it took me to complete the first half of the biking course. By the time I got to the transition area I was still feeling strong........but Wildflower had a couple of surprises for me.

Running

OK, so here is where the difference between a first timer and an experimented triathlete comes......Got off the bike, put on running shoes, cap, and started running. After leaving the transition I saw Lola and she actually ran with me for about 1 minute. We chatted about the bike, and she gave me a big kiss. I probably tasted horrible since I had been puring water and Gatorade over my head to cool down during the bike ride.

At this point all the adrenaline of the transition and seeing Lola kept me going for a couple of minutes. However, as the inclination started increasing I really, really started feeling the pain on my calf muscles (Chicken Legs, after all). My legs felt tense and I could barely run (see red circle in chart). After 13 minutes that I could barely run (no walking thought, no walking) and countless glasses of water poured over my head at the aid stations my legs finally loosen up. You can see it on the graph how my pace really starts improving even tough the hill got steeper and steeper.

The transition from the bike to the run proved really difficult. You feel that your legs are like butter, because they simply don't hold you. However, you also feel your muscles really, really tense, so running becomes especially challenging. You can see how here how hard this course is, the run is quite steep and by 1:00 pm the temperature had reached 28 degrees Celsius.

At the very top of the last hill I ran into Bill, Claire and Matt (another TNT group!). All three of them ran next to me asking me how I was doing and letting me know that the uphill battle was almost over. When I got to the top, I really accelerated my pace and gave everything that I had left. As I was approaching the finish line the pain dissapeared and I started running as fast as I could (you can see a slight uptick in my pace in the graph) and made sure to cross the finish line with a big smile.

I hugged Lola and actually started to cry. After smoking for 15 years and never had competed in an endurance event before, this was a big deal for me. In those moments I let go all those hours swimming, biking and running and all the expectations I had of myself. I was able to accomplish all my objectives: finish under 4 hours and never stop to rest nor walk during the course. My official time was 3 hrs 40 min, 1 hr 38 mins hrs more than the first place.

I would have never been able to finish a triathlon if it wasn't for my dear friends at TNT. I had a team of coaches, mentors and friends supporting and advising me. These folks are here on a voluntary basis and sacrifice their own training and time for all of us raising money for LLS. I cannot thank them enough for a life-changing experience. You did it. You got me hooked. In fact, I am signed up as mentor for next season. I will help my mentees raise money during Summer while at the same time I will be training hard because word is out there I'll be a prisoner and will have to escape from Alcatraz Island in San Francisco......

I trained for and raced Wildflower in memory of my mother, who unfortunately passed away from cancer back in 2003. In those mornings where I had to wake up and go biking and running, my mom's memory proved really inspiring.

I want to share with you part of a nice article that Timothy Carlson, a journalist that struggled to compete at Wildflower long course, wrote in this year handbook:

"....when I finished the swim, I yelled with joy! Now I get to ride up Nasty Grade and run the great winding course through the hills and flowers. With the exception of the Boston Marathon, no race anywhere had the joyous support of big happy crowds" "To my mind, Wildflower is the most beautiful and challenging long course triathlon test in the world, a race with a big heart for brave hearts......I am amply rewarded and satisfied that I earned a spot among the ranks of Wildflower finishers. Wildflower is truly “The One and Only”.

This blog started as Chicken Legs. However, after all the training, I think we can now call it Turkey Legs....