jenglert.com

Wildflower 2009

May 14, 2009 on 6:22 pm | In triathlon |

From wildflower 09

Another year passes and another Wildflower triathlon completed. This year I set sights on completing the long course which is a half ironman consisting of racing the following events in order:

•     1.2 Mile Swim
•     54 Mile Bike
•     13.1 Mile Run

Needless to say the race was brutal.  Wildflower is considered to be one of the most difficult half ironmans due to the hilly course.  Months of training paid off as I barely met my goal of finishing the race in under 6 hours for a final time of 5:58:17.  Looking at my watch toward to end of the run I realized my goal was in sight and started running as fast as I could to the finish where Meghan, Mike, and Garret were waiting with a cold beverage in hand.

I was a bit nervous going into the race since this was my first half ironman and I’ve never done this level of exercise before.  The race started with a 1.2 mile swim in Lake San Antonio were the water was a nice 64 degrees.  The swim is usually my least favorite part of the triathlon because people kick you and punch you (usually on accident) while fighting for position. This race I stayed toward the back of my wave and let all the fast swimmers go out in front.  Surprisingly the swim turned out to be enjoyable and and my favorite part of the race.  Transitioning from the swim to the bike took longer than I expected.  My bike shorts were already on under my wetsuit but I struggled getting my jersey on.  After two failed attempts at getting my jersey on (it’s hard to get a tight fitting jersey on a wet body) I stopped, took a few deep breaths, and finally got it on.  Running toward the bike out of the transition area I felt good and proceeded to pass quite a few people riding up the steep assent away from the lake.  The ride is fairly hilly and went around the lake.  My friend Tisha was at the top of the steepest climb on the bike course wearing the traditional pink bunny suit while banging on a giant drum.  Quite a sight to see after the streneous climb.  Going into the run I started thinking, “Uh oh…this is going to hurt…”, and it did.  I started getting into a groove around mile 6 and had to walk several times on the hilly course.  Toward the end I realized that with a little push I could meet my 6 hour goal and picked up the pace a bit.

Here’s the race details:

• Total time: 5:58:17
• Swim: 40:04
• T1: 6:43
• Bike: 3:03:30
• T2: 3:34
• Run: 2:04:24

Where did that put me in the 25 - 29 year old age group?

85/178

Proud to be slightly above average