Jon Klingensmith: Race Report - Wildflower Long Course

My goal for the day was to go under 5 hours. A lofty goal since I had raced the course 3 years earlier and did a 5:59 (40 min swim, 3:13 bike, and 1:57 run). However, I am an order of magnitude stronger, particularly on the bike, which allows me to run better off the bike. I have improved my swimming dramatically, too, but that only seems to be worth 3-4 minutes over a half-iron swim.

Wildflower is a great venue - a.k.a. the woodstock of triathlon and we were there camping with several other Total Intensity athletes. I didn't know many of them well, but it was still nice to have a spot to camp with some other folks. In spite of the camping, I slept fairly well prior to the race. Had some anxiety around expectations and the like, but nothing huge. In the morning, I had my PB&J and banana(s) and got ready to roll!

We walked down the hill and since my start was fairly late, I got to hang out with Emily for quite a bit and watch the pros. I love watching the pros start (and finish) the swim; it's always exciting! I was curious about how much improvement I would see on my swim time from 3 years ago after having worked on swimming a fair amount. In 2007, my split was a 40:47. Should have not trouble beating that! My wave was a pretty big one and being the non-agressive swimmer that I am, when we started, I kind of let everyone go and just moved in behind, somewhere in the middle. There actually wasn't a ton of contact and it thinned out fairly quickly. Also, last time at Wildflower, I had some cramps during the swim. Fortunately, this time, I got a little bit of one in my left calf, but it was as I was approaching the finish. In spite of that, I felt pretty good the whole time and thought I had a decent rhythm and so was a little disappointed when my watch had a 36 on it when I got out of the water. Nonetheless, 4 minutes better is progress. My first transition was fairly uneventful - about average in my AG.

Swim: 36:48

T1: 3:31

My plan for the bike was to build into it and not kill myself on the rollers after you exit the park. There was, after all, a big hill (a.k.a. Nasty Grade) looming at mile 45. There is also a fairly big climb leaving transition - for the long course, it's Beach Hill, which is a doozy-of-a-way to start the ride. Anyway, my plan worked really well and I made it out of the park and was just cruising over the rollers as they came. It was not nearly as hard as I remembered it from 3 years ago, but that may be due to the fact that my FTP on the bike is probably almost 50% higher. The back side of the lake is mostly downhill and fast! I tried to take advantage without jeopardizing my plans for the run. My whole goal was to nail the run. My nutrition was working well (went with Perpetuem) and I started actually feeling pretty good as I neared the turn to head back towards Nasty Grade. I took advantage and passed a ton of people on the hill. It's a couple of miles and about 1000 feet of climbing, so it's no joke. I got to the top and still felt pretty good. There was some good downhill after that, but then a false flat and some more rollers back into the park. I started noticing that I was probably going to end up with a sub-2:50 bike split, which was about what I was hoping for. Once I got back to T2, I clocked a 2:45 and change and averaged over 20 for the ride without toasting myself. Pretty good for a ride with ~3500 feet of climbing. T2 was quick and I headed out on the run, ready to tear it up!

Bike: 2:45:54

T2: 1:36

The first part of the run is a little up and down and in 2007, I had major cramps right away at mile 1. NOT THIS TIME! I actually felt pretty good. A little fatigued, but my run legs were there! I was blowing by people constantly on this run and that always makes it feel better. I got to the first little hill by the boat ramp and had not problem. Then it was on to the trails and it actually felt good to have some varied terrain. The big hill at mile 4.5 was looming. When I got there, I just chugged up it. Not fast, but steady, and kept running. Then down the back side I was flying! Still felt strong through the camp site and then came to the "pit." This is a section at mile 9.5 or so where you run down a road to the bottom of a hill and then have to turn around and come back out. It's hot, hot, hot! I went pretty fast down it and just grinded my way back out. A major difference from 2007, when I felt like walking death by this point. Not this time! Sure, I was fatigued and getting near my limit, but still able to run. In fact, only 1 person passed me on the whole run and that was a 47-year-old former pro who is still a machine of an athlete. Then down Lynch hill and into the finish chute... I didn't quite break 5 hours, but came darn close and cut 58 minutes off my time from 3 years ago. I did a 1:33 run! I was hoping to have a top-10 AG run split and just made it at 10th (I think). All-in-all, I had a great experience and it was a blast! And to top it all off, my wife raced the next day and broke 3 hours on the Oly course and was 10th in her AG!!!

Here are a couple of pix: