Wildflower Triathalon 2005

Kris, Ben and I drove south Saturday night, for Ben, Kris and Kyle Smith to run the Wildflower 2005 triathalon as a relay.

Tragically, Ben's flight was cancelled, so we were unable to drive down to the hotel early in the afternoon on Saturday as planned. We drove down late in the evening, leaving around 6:45, arriving in King City for the night late, and meeting up with Kyle, who was at the hotel already.

Fortunately, everyone wanted to sleep, so we were able to go to bed early. We all woke up at 6:30, to drive to the race, which turned out to be a good thing: we missed at least 4 turns on the way to the race.

On the way south, we were looking for gas for Kyle's car. We turned off 101 and took a tour of San Ardo. Population 501. One gas station. Barely. It was one of the itty bitty towns that is sort of lost in time. We asked the gas station/convenience store attendant for directions to Jolon Road. The guy tells us, "Hold on. Hold on." When we didn't stop and immediately look at him, he started raising his voice, "Hold on! HOLD ON!" Whoa, hold on buddy. We're not going anywhere.

His eventual answer? "Jolon Road is just south. I think. I haven't been there in 10 years or so. I don't get out much."

The road was five miles south.

Not getting out much, indeed.

Turns out, Jolon Road loops along 101 South. We could have driven the 20 miles along a narrow, winding road, or fly along the freeway, and take the short part of the loop.

We took the short loop.

We had a few other mishaps along the way: Kyle forgot to put on the chip that tracks his movement when he's racing. 2 minutes before the race started, he realized this. Kris ran the chip down to Kyle, so they were able to track him, just fine.

When the top level swimmers came in around 18 minutes, Kyle predicted he's swim the mile loop in about 21 minutes. After 22 minutes, we started to get worried when he didn't come out of the water. At 25 minutes, we figured we missed him.

Kris and I ran over to the transistion point, to see Ben standing there, What? What? Where's Kyle?

Turns out, Kyle swam a 28 minute swim. Kyle always breathes to the right, which means he drifts right when he swims. He had lined up on the right side of the swim area, because all the turns were to the right. Well... since there are no swim lines, Kyle swam out of the course, then had to correct back into the course, then back out of the course, then correct back into the course. He thinks he might have swum 1.1 miles.

Ben cycled really well: he pedalled a 1:43 race.

Kris didn't run as well as he wanted, running a 45 minute race. Not too bad for someone who was horrible sick two weeks before.

The race was really well organized. Seeing Kyle again was great. The three of them are already planning on swimming/biking/running the race again next year.

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