Pre Wildflower Ramblings

I used to run. It was so simple. Shoes, socks, maybe a hat if I remembered, then out the door. Then I guess I decided my life was way too easy, so I took up triathalon. Geez o'pete, packing for Wildflower takes two days, two lists, four bags, two bikes, and a cooler full of food. Oh, and one husband.

Loading the car is a full on military maneuver requiring careful strategic packing. Or actually just me yanking luggage around and cursing under my breath.


Lucky for me Simon cat decided to supervise the packing. Wisely though, he decided to stay at home and not compete this year.

We left Friday morning around 11:00, and I was elected (!) to drive the two and half hours down to Lake San Antonio.

Wildflower!

Lake San Antonio. Quite possibly dreaded as much as Lake Lachrymose?

An empty transistion area...

Checking in; race packet had lots of good stuff this time: free jamba juice card, a tin of jamba juice lemon drops, free poster, triathlete magazine and my mandatory ugly yellow swim cap.


After picking up my race packet we hung out at Wildflower awhile checking out the vendors and snagging free stuff. I was happy to be there with all the other tri nerds. It's an entirely different vibe then hanging around with mountain bikers. Mountain bikers don't spend a lot of time calibrating their heart rate monitors and talking about the aerodynamic advantages of carbon water bottle cages. At most you might get "sick bike, dude." Triathletes are perhaps a little more (*cough*anal retentive*cough*) high maintenance?

After I got my fill of tri stuff, I was once again elected (!) to drive on to San Luis Opisbo to our hotel.

Saturday we hung out at Pismo Beach and watched the surfers compete,


played on the swings,


walked down the beach,


played air hockey,


And took pictures of giant clams.


Saturday night I cleaned my bike, packed my bags again and after setting the alarm clock, my watch alarm and arranging for a wake up call (I was a wee bit worried about getting up on time) went to bed early. Just so I could lay awake for hours thinking about Sundays race.

Coming up: Wildflower!