>Wildflower is one of triathlon’s truly classic and iconic races. With it’s storied history, challenging course, enthusiastic fan support from the Cal Poly students, and thousands of campers, this race always draws a world-class field. This was my second straight year at Wildflower, and after performing poorly last year, I went there with something to prove. Thanks to the work I put in over the winter, I knew I had a shot at redemption.

Swim – 31:30. The swim has always been my weakness, although I’m getting better. This was not a half-iron swim PR, but I am happy with how it went. I stayed strong and comfortable the entire time. My only issues were some sighting problems due to the sun, and so I could have swam straighter on the second half. Also, this was also my first time in my new BlueSeventy Helix wetsuit. It was freaking awesome. Warm, buoyant, and completely unrestricted range of motion. Such a huge upgrade over my old wetsuit, I can’t wait to race in it again.

Bike – 2:35:13. Not too much to say, I went out and rode smart. Went hard on the climbs, but not too hard. The most important lesson I learned from this is that I need to get more aerodynamic. Based on my power output, I should have gone faster. I have some plans in place, and I’m just waiting on delivery of a couple parts.

Run – 1:26:01. Half-ironman run PR. This run course is no joke. 2000+ ft of climbing on trails, and a lot of it is quite steep, so it’s not a typical place to set a PR. Fortunately, I do almost all of my running on trails in the foothills and the mountains of Boulder, and so I feel right at home running at Wildflower. I like running hard on trails. It’s fun. And the Cal Poly students help to make it just a little bit more fun.

Overall time: 4:37:08. 2nd in the 30-34 age group, 7th overall amateur, 36th overall (including pros). Considering it was a world-class pro field, that’s not too shabby. I’m pleased because it was a huge improvement from last year, but I wouldn’t say that I’m ecstatic or anything like that. I just went out and executed the race plan, and I performed exactly as my training predicted I would do. Coach Tim predicted I would be somewhere between 4:37-4:45. His powers of prediction still kind of freak me out a little bit.

Up next: the American Triple T, in Portsmouth, OH. May 21-23. It’s gonna be dope.

Until next time – keep training hard, and resting harder.