The race was fast approaching on Saturday morning as I climbed a big hill that was close to our campsite.  (It was a mountain by Louisiana standards) I found a stump with an amazing view of the lake and enjoyed the sunrise as I munched on my pre-race breakfast of trail mix and cranberry juice. I said a little prayer to ask the Good Lord to give me the strength to do my best and to watch over the participants and I while we were on the course. This course was no ordinary course and this race would be no ordinary triathlon. This, my friends, is WILDFLOWER! Some say it's the toughest 70.3 half-Ironman distance course in the United States, if not the world.

Was I a little apprehensive and even, dare say, scared? You bet. This course will definitely separate the men from the boys.

Did I let that fear get the best of me? Heck no! I was ready to give Wildflower my best shot and quitting would NOT be an option under any circumstances!

Rewind 3 months...

Meridith Rich & Colleen Bousman with Tri-California contacted me via email in February after visiting my Team 464 website and seeing my weight loss and triathlon journey story. They invited me to participate in the race and tell my story as one of their featured athletes. Tri-California puts on amazing races all over the state including Escape from Alcatraz, Treasure Bay in San Francisco and of course Wildflower. I have my dream races that I want to do which include Kona, Escape from Alcatraz, St. Anthony's, Vineman, IM-Florida, IM-Coeur d'Alene, Silverman and of course WILDFLOWER! I immediately called my buddy and tri-coach, Will Jones of 4th Dimension Fitness, to get his advice for the race. His response was something along the lines of, "Dude you realize how difficult that race is?"

After some persuasion, he begrudgingly agreed but again advised me of the difficulty. To complicate matters even more it was only 3.5 weeks after my first 70.3 race in New Orleans. To be quite honest, I was IN after the first email. :) I called and spoke with Colleen and officially accepted the slot.

Coleen asked me, "So Chad, which race do you want to do? We have the mountain bike, the Olympic distance and the long course half-Ironman distance race."

My answer was simple. "Colleen, sign me up for the Long Course. If I'm gonna fly out to California I'm gonna go LONG of not go at all!"

She was so awesome she hooked me up with entry, VIP passes, a prime camping spot and even provided a race slot for my coach Will. This was one of his 'must-do' races as well. In addition to the other goodies, Colleen advised me that I would be interviewed by Tri-Cal TV and have an article in their Wildflower Athlete guide as one of the featured athletes. Good stuff! I was stoked!

Fast forward three months...

Will and I landed in San Jose on Thursday night. He borrowed a couple bike cases and helped me pack my bike... actually he packed my bike while I stood and watched. It was $50 each way to bring the bikes on the airplane but that was certainly cheaper than shipping them. The bike cases were a huge pain in the arse to lug around the airports, especially when I had it along with my big diva suitcase and my transition bag. We rented a SUV and drove from San Jose to Salinas which was around 90 miles from the race site. Big pimpin' at the Motel 6 of course!

We woke early Friday morning and headed to the race site. The weather wasn't what I would have expected for this time of the year in California. It was chilly, muggy and rainy. It was almost as if the weather that we usually get in Louisiana decided to follow us to California. I was glad that I packed some warm weather gear for the bike but I wasn't prepared for rain. Oh well! I just had to pray that the weather would clear up by Saturday morning.

We drove through some amazing scenery Friday morning on the way to Lake San Antonio and the site of the Wildflower Triathlon Festival. Fields of broccoli, lettuce, grapes and other assorted veggies covered the landscape and seemed to stretch on as far as the eye could see.

After climbing over the mountains and into the valley we finally arrived at Wildflower around 10:00 AM. Upon entering the front gate of Lake San Antonio park we were greeted with a festive atmosphere of which I couldn't figure out if we were at a serious race or just one a huge party in the middle of nowhere. Heh, it turns out that Wildflower is neither and actually a little of both. You could feel the energy and excitement in the air. It was unlike anything I had experienced before in Triathlon and it's hard to really explain. A lot of people proclaim it's the Woodstock of Triathlon and I believe it. Now understand, Lake San Antonio is in the middle of NOWHERE. The site is rustic and beautiful but there isn't a town or even a store for 40 miles in any direction. You literally leave the boonies and pop into the state park where there are thousands of people in tents and RVs spread out in large fields that are situated on flat spots in the mountains. We drove down, down, down the mountain to get to where the main festival stage was which was surrounded by dozens of triathlon gear stores and food vendors. The bottom of the mountain was also where the swim start and transition was situated. Transition looked to be double the size of what Ironman New Orleans was. It was HUGE and by far the largest transition area I had ever seen.

I met Colleen and Meredith at the administration trailer and they hooked us up with our VIP badges and race info. I was pleased to find out that the VIP treatment included breakfast, lunch and dinner at the VIP hospitality tent. We got to rub elbows with such triathlon greats as Pip Taylor, Andy Potts, Chris Leito and Samantha McGlone. I also met the host of Tri-Cal TV, Eric Gilsenan and setup a time to do the pre-race interview. We had a few hours to go setup our tent site, get some lunch, get our registration packets and tool around the vendor booths.

Colleen offered us beds at a hotel off-site but I didn't want to risk being late to the race start so we decided to rough it. Will brought his tent and we set it up at our campsite. It was big enough for two but I opted out of sleeping in it. I made a personal vow after I got out of the Army that I would never again sleep under the stars if I didn't have to. Weeks upon weeks of 'camping' in the woods with the big green was enough for me for a lifetime. Since we rented a SUV my bed would be in the back of the vehicle. We stopped at Wal-Mart on the way to the site to pick up snacks and such and I bought a $2.50 air raft to serve as my 'mattress'. At one point shopping I actually had a twin air mattress in hand but I ended up putting it down when I saw the rafts. Well... I learned rather quickly on Friday night that rafts do NOT offer much back support.  I should have gone with the damn air mattress. Lesson learned. At least I didn't have to sleep in the tent. :)

We also got to see our buddy Philippe Kozub, new pro triathlete and a good friend of both Will and I. Philippe is training with some other pros in Oregon and he rode down with some of those guys that were doing Wildflower. Since he wasn't racing they were using him as a pack mule. I'm assuming that since he is a new pro and he wasn't doing the race that's the reason they were making him haul around their crap. If they were trying to put him through a hazing or something I gotta call BS on that. They aren't even HALF the man or athlete that Philippe is and it bothered me the way that they were treating him. He will be the Ironman 70.3 World Champion in the next few years. Count on that! He is gifted with some sick athletic talent and now that he is training full-time he WILL be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years.

I also got to meet Marie Hughes, a friend from Obesity Help. She lived in the area and was doing the Olympic Distance race on Sunday. It was cool to hang out with her pre-race and finally put a face to the forum ID. She made a cool sign for me and she and her tri-club helped cheer me on when I most needed it during the run at mile 6. Thanks Marie!

I met up with Eric Gilsenan and did a 5 minute interview after dinner. I'll post the link to the interview when it goes up on the Tri-California website. (CLICK HERE to view the video.)

So after a restless night I arose and did a last minute check of my gear before heading down to transition. Philippe walked up the hill and helped me cart my bike to transition. As I was packing my race belt and bento box with my honey packets, Philippe looked a me weird and asked,

"Chad are you using duck sauce (Chinese sweet and sour sauce) for nutrition?"

I laughed because I realized my honey packets that I swiped from a Chick-Fil-A looked just like sweet and sour sauce.

I replied, "Yeah man. I use soy sauce for my salt / electrolyte intake too." It took him a minute to realize I was just kidding.

Transition looked ridiculously huge with no bikes in it. WITH bikes in it was just massive. Thousands of people running this way and that of which I was one of them. I racked my bike and laid out my equipment carefully. Time always seems to fly by so fast the moment you enter transition. Before I knew it the pros were starting. I shuffled down the steep hill to see Will off as his race would be starting in a few minutes at 8:25. Mine started at 8:45 so I still had a few minutes to try to contain my nervous energy.

I pulled on my wetsuit and was upset to find that I somehow poked two holes in it. One 1" slash right on the left cheek of my butt and another 1" slash on my inner right thigh. They didn't go all the way through to the inner material but they did go through the rubber. Oh well, I knew I couldn't fret about that now because they were calling for my wave to step up to the starting chute.

The start for Wildflower was a running start through the huge blow up arch. I had around 250 people in my wave so you can imagine the gentle pushing and shoving at the starting line as we all tried to wedge our way into the 30 foot area. The announcer wished us luck as she counted down from 10.

"10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - GOOOOOOO!" she shouted through the speaker as the bullhorn signified the start of my wave.

I ran with my wave down to the waters edge and dove in. The mountain lake water of Lake San Antonio was cold but that thought quickly left my mind as I made my way into the wrestling match. It was a downright brawl for the first 200 meters as everyone seemed to be jostling for space. Neoprene clad bodies with arms and legs flailing every which way was my plight until we reached the first buoy. Thankfully at that point the faster swimmers were able to get farther out in front and I was finally able to establish some sort of a rhythm. The 1.2 mile swim was forgettable. Weird to say that considering my struggles last year in the drink. The thoughts that flowed through my mind during the swim revolved around how nice it was to be floating around in the cool water compared to the sheer agony and pain of going up some stupid hill later on in the day. I found a few faster swimmers and drafted off them for pretty much the entire swim. I kept my heart rate down and before I knew it I was at the halfway point and headed back towards the swim exit. There wasn't even a point where I did my thing and tried to drift off course. I sighted the buoys every third stroke and that helped me stay on course for the entire swim. I turned the last buoy and made a bee-line for the shore and the swim exit.

The announcer shouted out, "Chad Soo-leea... umm... I'm not going to even try that one. CHAD, bib 1054 from Baton Rouge, Louisiana," as I started my ascent up the first hill of the day that led into transition. I was out of the water in

Transition was organized chaos. I was just about run over twice by bikers scurrying out with their bikes to the mount line. When I finally arrived at my transition spot, which literally seemed to be a mile from the swim exit, I was pleased to see that my bike was not alone. That signified that I was out of the water quicker than many of the competitors in my age group wave. I put on my gear and donned my Team 464 jersey, grabbed my bike and clopped out to the mount line.

I mounted my bike and sped up the slight incline to the start of the bike course. It was kinda neat that the bike course start went right under the finish line arch. As I approached the arch and adjusted my gears to prepare for the upcoming hill my chain got stuck in the rear derailleur which caused my pedals locked up and quit turning. I wasn't even 500 feet into the bike and I was being sidelined with an equipment malfunction! I coasted under the arch and moved to the side of the path. Caught up in the excitement and emotion I frantically unclipped and almost fell over with a crowd of hundreds looking on. Thankfully I got my balance and didn't topple over. I struggled for a couple minutes trying to fix my gear and get the chain unstuck from the rear derailleur. It finally released it's hold and I was able to spin the cranks again. My heart was beating wildly with anticipation as I re-mounted the bike and continued on. Little did I know that I would continue to wrestle with the chain and the rear derailleur for the rest of the day.

A mile of little rollers and the course greeted me with the first serious climb of the day. Beach Hill was a twisting, steep hill that stretched on for a mile and slowed my speed to around 3 - 5 mph. Volunteers and spectators were on the side of the road cheering the participants to the top. My chain kept slipping when I was in the small ring and I knew it had something to do with the derailleur issue. Thankfully the slippage occurred only when I was in the small ring but in retrospect there was NO WAY I could have managed the hills in the big ring the whole time. I just hoped I could get everything under control before I got to Nasty Grade and Polar Heart Rate Hill towards the end of the course. After around 20 minutes I finally crested Beach Hill.

Sweating, huffing and puffing I endured the rollers as I exited the park only to have my rear derailleur take hold of my chain again. This time it happened on a downhill and it scared me because I had to slow down and move to the side of the road with other cyclists speeding by me at 25+ mph. I got over to the side of the road and wrestled with the chain and it finally released it's grasp on the frame after a few minutes. I turned the crank and spun the rear wheel while shifting gears to see if I could reproduce the problem and it turns out when I was in the small ring and the smallest gear in the back the chain locked up. I took mental note of that and got back on the bike and continued down the hill. Turns out my mental note didn't take hold in my exhaustion as the course went on because the lock-up would occur 3 more times. At least I was able to fix it much quicker every time it happened.

I monitored my heart rate closely when the course got out into the country. There was no way I could keep it at 125 ascending the hills but on the downhills and flats I did my best to keep it in check. The course outside the park was absolutely beautiful. There were many times when I just sat up and rode my bike like a beach cruiser to take it all in. The grapes on perfect little rows of vines stretched out over the mountains onto the horizon as far as my eyes could see. It was amazing and it's Zen moments like I was experiencing on the bike that made me happy to be alive and proud that I was a triathlete. I figure this is what Wildflower was all about. I was in the zone and was having the time of my life!

It's amazing how such bliss can turn into sheer agony so quickly. From around mile 28 - 38 or so you get some nice downhills that stretch on for miles but just like the old saying "What goes up, must go down" on the Wildflower course "What goes down must go UP, UP and UP!!!!"

I had to go to my happy place as I started the ascent up Nasty Grade just before mile 40. Just had to spin, spin, spin in my granny gear and chip away at the over 1000 foot climb that stretched for damn near 5 miles. It was brutal to say the least. So I reached what I thought was the top of Nasty Grade and made a sharp right to find out that I STILL wasn't at the top. Another half-mile of climbing and the course finally treated me to another fast downhill. It wasn't like I could enjoy it because my stomach was in my throat and I was doing everything I could not to puke. One more major climb of the Polar Heart Rate hill which wasn't nearly as bad as Nasty Grade and the bike course was pretty much completed.

The downhills after the Polar Heart Rate hill were just SICK! I got up to 45 on one of the longest stretches. There were fire engines, ambulances and police at the bottom of one of the hills because I guess there have been accidents there before. I can believe it because I couldn't help but think if I hit a big rock or something going down that hill and lost control I would have been in a WORLD of hurt! At the suggestion of my buddy Llew I pumped my brakes all the way down the hill so I wouldn't get to a velocity that was uncontrollable. My skills on the bike have improved drastically since I first started riding but I'm not familiar with hills so I think that plan was best. I probably would have gone over 50 easily if I hadn't have done that.

A few more small climbs and descents and I was back in the Lake San Antonio park and descending into the transition area. I beat the 56 mile Wildflower bike course in just under 4 hours and now I was in for what would be my biggest challenge of the day...   I was about to embark on the 13.1 mile half-marathon on arguably the toughest triathlon run course in the world.

I sat down in transition to put on my shoes and smear a copious amount of sunblock on my arms and head.  I opted not to wear my sunglasses.   My folically challenged head sweats so much that all the sweat ends up in my sunglasses, the water evaporates and the glasses are left with a thick coat of salt on them.   I shuffled out of transition unknowing what lay ahead.

What was really cool about the Wildflower run course is there was an aid station at every mile.   I tried to break down the race into 13 one mile races because all I was really doing was running from aid station to aid station.   And mile 4 or 5 was supposed to be the naked aid station.  I heard conflicting reports of if the naked aid station existed or not.   Some say it did, some say it didn't.  I guess I'd find out for myself.

The first mile was relatively flat.   The course skirted along the picturesque upper bank of Lake San Antonio.   I ran the first mile and then hit the first of the hills.   I didn't have a choice but to walk up them.  My energy was left out on the bike course and unfortunately I was fading pretty fast.   I knew that was going to be the case though because there is just no way to train for hills like Wildflower offers up in Louisiana. 

Running through the second group of hills, just before the course left the pavement for the trails, a group of Cal Poly students were camped out on both sides of the road shouting cheers for each participant.  

"Knee high tube sock guy!  Knee high tube sock guy!  Knee high tube sock guy!" they all shouted as I passed between them smiling from ear to ear. 

I wore my calf compression tights which cover my entire lower leg and they look like some funky 1970s tube socks.   They help with cramping though so I could care less what I look like in them.   I'd rather be comfortable than look cool. 

The pain train started when the pavement ended and the off-road trails began.   I was reduced to run 2 minutes and walk to minutes at this point.  Even that plan of attack failed when I hit the monster hills that skirted through the mountains at around mile 4.   The climbs between miles 4 and 6 were taking everything I had to walk up them.   I felt the nausea welling up in my belly as I struggled to crest each of the climbs.   I was looking forward to the 'distraction' at the mile 5 naked aid station but it turns out it was only a myth...  at least it was a myth for me.   I later found out that the pros and some of the fast age-groupers get to partake in the nakedness but the rangers run them off by the time slow schlumps like me get there.   Oh well.   I was so tired and struggling at that point I probably would have been reduced to, "Oh, nice.   Boobs.   CAN I PLEASE HAVE SOME WATER AND GATORADE!"

At around the halfway point the course flattened out a bit and I tried to get into a groove. I ran as much as I could and when I couldn't run anymore I walked.   My body was pleading with me to stop but I WAS NOT going to quit.  That just wasn't an option.  

When I entered the park again and turned back in through the heart of the camping area I caught a good stride and ran for at least the next 2 miles.   Running through the camping area was the highlight of the run by far.    Spectators were out in force cheering and offering water bottles full of beer.   I'm sure my pace was somewhere around 10 minute miles but that was the best I could muster.   That part of the run really helped motivate me to keep pushing forward to the finish.

Miles 10 - 12 were real ball busters.   Similar to the end of the bike this part of the course was the most difficult for me.   Somewhere around mile 10ish the course went up a big hill and then went DOWN, DOWN, DOWN on a gradual decline for around a mile.   The sick part about this part of the run course is you had to go back UP the same hill you just descended.   It was humbling and quad burning torture that really sucked all the more harder since it was at the end of the course.  I also remember I got the mileage signs screwed up and thought I was on mile 12 when I was actually on mile 11.   Every completed mile counts and I was a bit cranky when I realized I had TWO miles to go and not one. 

I finally made it to the final mile of the Wildflower run course.  It was all downhill to the finish line chute.   I'm sure my pace for the last mile was the fastest run split of the day.  First, because it was downhill and more importantly because I wanted so desperately to finish.   As I rounded one of the final corners of Lynch Hill road I heard the announcer and the cheering crowd for the first time and knew I was getting close.  What a wonderful site to see the finish line chute and the cheering crowds as I made my final descent and turn to the finish.    My reflection of the 464 pound man that I used to be flooded my mind with emotions and I did everything I had to choke back the tears of joy as I entered the chute.   I always remember how blessed I am to be able to participate in this wonderful sport at all my finish lines but Wildflower was special.   This was a brutally tough course and as I crossed under the arch and heard the announcer once again struggle to say my name I was proud to call myself a FINISHER!   I beat the course and that's what mattered to me.   8 hours and some change but I finished!   What an amazing experience and I can't thank the guys at Tri-California enough for inviting me out to do their race.

It wasn't until after the race that I found out that Will had an equipment malfunction on his bike at mile 3 and couldn't continue the race.  Even though he wasn't able to do the course he was still amazed by the organization and the sheer beauty of the race.  He wants to go back next year and I'm definitely IN for that trip.  Thanks for going out there with me Will!