Since I DQ’ed at Desert Triathlon a few months ago, Wildflower Long Course was a big race for me. If I finished, I can officially call myself a “triathlete.” Although we were told that this was not our race (because Vineman is my big race), we were to treat this event as training. “Just another day at the office,” as Coach Brad would say. In more ways than one, I did though. I guess it’s from the years of marathons that I don’t get much of the pre-race jitters anymore. I’ve always looked at these events, even if it were my race I’ve been training for, as just another training, because there’s always going to be another one after that. Not too long ago, we had our training weekend here, but it was raining like crazy, so we didn’t really experience the full course, so I think that was probably the only thing I was concerned about.
Swim
We swam as a team the day before to get our preview of the lake. Each time I’ve entered the open water I’m a little more and more comfortable each time, so by the time the actual horns sounded that morning, I wasn’t so nervous. It was a wave start, and I was calmly walking at the back of the pack until it was deep enough to dive in. It was an L shaped route – up, right for a long straightaway, short right, then right for another long stretch, then left back to shore. First half was a bit tough to get used to the rhythm, plus I couldn’t get it out of my head that there was so much more swim to go. “Where’s the next buoy?!?”. Once I rounded the corner for the turnaround, I had my rhythm and was able to swim back pretty nicely. Water was rough and choppy, and at one point there was a bunch of debris I guess from all the choppiness, but I eventually got past it. The last turn back to shore, I was pretty much swimming and smiling because I knew then and there, I was DONE (with the swim). Out of the water, I was celebrating as if I finished the whole race!
Continue Reading