Ok, maybe the dumb voly thing was harsh, but well... I dunno...
Having been a voly for many races I can appreciate the thankless hours that go into the job, And I always thank them, because without them I wouldn't be able to race... That being said, if you are assigned to man the intersection that requires you to direct riders to do a double lap, well then you should be on your game.. But more on that later.

So as many of you know, we went out to Wildflower in central Cal last weekend for Tonys (running hubby) first tri. It was to be of the mtn bike persuassion. He adores mtn biking more than anything, so this was going to be a good race. Never mind the fact that he only really started training two weeks ago, he felt confident in his abilities.
We had never been to Wildflower before, so we had no idea what to expect.
Thursday night we headed out for so cal. It's a 9 hour drive total, so we wanted to get a head start. We stayed the night just south of the grapevine, and were up bright and not so early the next morning. I was shocked when I came out to the parking lot of the hotel and saw that someone had left their tri rigs complete with ZIPP wheels (disc and 606) in the back of their truck! We didn't even leave our scroungy mtn bikes in the truck!
So on we roll... ON ON...
We get to the Lake around 1:30 and are directed into a campground. We are told to basically find a piece of ground and take it. Well it took a good 15 minutes of driving before we found a halfway level piece of real estate.
We set up camp, and I noticed that it was WINDY! Hmmm...
We then made our way via mtn bike down to the race registration and expo. Now when I say we made our way DOWN!! I mean down a nearly vertical hill!! I was holding on for dear life, and then the dreaded feeling came on... I have to ride back UP that thing!! DOUBLE EEK!!
Race registration went rather smooth. We then checked out the booths. SPencer pointed out Sarah Rienertsen and the challenged athletes crew. It was cool to see her in person.
We then got to ride up Up UP UUPPP the hill. UGH! Was that not so fun!
Tony got all his gear together for the next morning and then we went back down the hill for his pre race dinner. We were smart enough to take the shuttle this time.
While we ate dinner we listened to the pre race meeting for the mtn bike course. Ummm.... In most races the pre race meeting involves going over the course doesn't it? Well here they were more interested in pulling kids out of the crowd and talking about the locals and long time Wildflower peeps. Tony was not impressed as he was really unsure of where he was going to be going. Also there are 7000 people racing total, so A LOT of racks! Basically they didn't talk about the actual course at all. I guess it's a good thing we had a race program, cause we were going to need it.
It was SUPER windy Friday night, so we basically headed back after dinner and hunkered down in the tent. By now we had neighbors. Now you would think that they would be friendly, since we were all there for a common purpose. Ummm NO! They wouldn't even say hello! And when I say we were neighbors, I mean within a few feet!!! Like 6 feet tops! It was very strange.
We tried to knock off early, but the TNT contigent upwind of us were putting on a banquet and were pretty loud.
Speaking of TNT... (here is my rant. If you are a TNT'er you may skip this part. I don't want to offend. This is simply MY opinion) They had a HUGE banquet tent set up. You know the fancy ones with faux pane windows. And when I say HUGE.. Yeah, HUGE!! They had their own catered dinner that night. It was quite an affair. I couldn't help but think about how many peoples donations went into THAT!! You see that is one of the many reasons I will never support TNT. I'll support the CAUSE. I'm a cancer survivor for cripes sake. But I just think it's wrong to shake down your friends and family for a donation when a good chunk of it is going to "admin" things- or the wetsuit they give you, or the race fee's they cover for you etc. I know most all charities have overhead, but IMO if you are going to raise money for a charity then give the charity the $$ and don't take any kick backs in return. Ok. Rant off. Sorry...
So race morning we get up and at 'em early. Tony doesn't go off until 9:54, but since the long course started at 8:00 he needed to be racked early.
We get down there and he has no idea where to go. An annoyed voly finally yells at him that he had better "get down there QUICK because the long course race has started".. So he goes in and wonders off to his rack. He get's set up and then body marked. We then set off to figure out where he is going to need to be for the swim. That was quite an adventure. Did I say they weren't clear with directions?? We go down near the swim start and realize that there are two different PA systems going. So if you were up top you would not hear your swim waved being called to the start. More than a few guys missed their wave start. Go figure?!
Finally the long course waves are done. Sister Madonna Buder is in there, so we got to see her go off. COOL! But now it's time for Tony.
His wave was the 4th or so to go, so he got to see where he was going to have to turn around. Did I mention they weren't good with instructions?
So off he goes. SPencer and I then ran to the top to wait for him to emerge from the swim.
He came by looking strong! YAY! It was getting windy and the lake was pretty choppy, so I was a bit worried. Remember, he started swimming in earnest 2 weeks ago.
SPencer and I ran at break neck speed to the bike out to see him off. We were cheering like mad dogs! It seemed like forever, but finally he was off.
We then had to run all the way around the other side to wait at bike in.
We were hearing the announcer say that the pro men for the long course should be coming in off the bike in a few minutes. Well one FLEW in, and the announcer missed him. About five minutes later he said "well we should see them any minute now"... Umm, BUDDY! He's ON THE RUN COURSE!! It wasn't until the 2nd guy came in ten minutes later that the announcer caught on...Go figure?!
So the bike course was one big loop, with a small loop in between. Basically you headed in a counter clockwise circle and when you got to about the 9:00 position you veered to the right, did a small loop and then came back out at around the 8-9:00 position and finished the big loop. Well Tony got to the intersection and started to veer right and the voly stopped him and said "No. go this way" and pointed him left. He started to question her and she said "your good". So he headed left and soon realized that he really WAS suppose to go right, because he had missed that loop. So he got to T2 and asked the voly at the mount line what to do. He said "I dunno. Just go run I guess" so Tony went in and lingered a bit in T2 trying to figure out what to do?? He eventually took off on the run, and soon I saw him coming down the finishers chute. We were so proud of him. I didn't know about the bike debacle of course, so I was all giddy. He was NOT! He was PISZED! And wouldn't even wear the medal. He figured he would be DQ'd as Surely they would figure it out... Umm.. NOPE! He's considered and official finisher!
What a sham! All total he cut 3 miles off the 9.73 mile bike course. He feels like he didn't really do the race. I told him "well honey, now you know to question the voly when something doesn't seem right". He acknowledged that iit's his responsibility to know the course. But they sure didn't make it easy for him.
But I keep reminding him that he did SWIM, BIKE and RUN. So he IS a triathlete!!
But it's not much solice to him, so now I need to find him another race STAT!

So the race was over and now we had to walk the bike up this STEEP wling trail. It was another vertical affair. Just what you want to do after a race huh?
We then cleaned up camp and got ready to go. But wait... the roads were closed until 3:00, and the run course for the long course was snaking through our campgound. We finally decided to try to make a run for it around 3:30. The run course was thinning out, and we figured we could slowly coast down the hill and out. We were then met with some RUDE spectators that felt the need to tell us that a "race was going on" and the roads were CLOSED! Ummm, Liek we can't see that, and NO they are NOT! Cars were starting to trickle out. Some lady said "how would you like it it you had been racing for 6 -7 hours and had cars passing you?"... Ummm, I had cars passing me all day and all night at Ironman. It's not like we were going to kick up dust and be idiots! SHEESH!
But finally we were out of there.
Overall I give Wildflower a D+. Tony liked the course, but I just found the organization lacking (after 25 years you would think they would have it down). The logistics of trying to get around a PAIN! Never take your ailing mom or grandma because the hill would do her in! And the mood of the people there not so welcoming. I guess if you were part of a tri club and had a group there it would be different. But overall people were just NOT friendly.
I like the AZ races much better! So from now on I'm staying closer to home!
Dueces wild HERE WE COME!!!

Ok, sorry this was so long. But I wanted to give y'all a good picture of what the "woodstock of triathlon" is really like.
So there it is...
And if you would like to see pics, check them out here:
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailsh...25/t_=49810225