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Race Report: Avia Wildflower, 30 April

Wildflower is renowned as the biggest, toughest half ironman in the world. I now have so much respect for previous champions of the event and it is a race I hope to, one day, call mine.

 I landed at San Francisco last Wednesday and set myself up in Santa Cruz with Bevan Docherty, Kris Gemmell, Dylan Mcneice and fellow Aussie Paul Matthews. Dylan and I headed out to Wildflower for a bit of a road trip with ambitions of a successful start to the season.

Race morning arrived and it was freezing. The wind was up which I knew would play into my hands. I had a good swim and swapped turns setting the tempo with Dustin Mclarty, leaving us with a nice handy lead going onto the bike.

I felt good on the bike and was pushing a big gear into the wind knowing it would be hurting the boys trying to chase me down. Bjorn Anderson, who is regarded as one of the best cyclist in the sport, picked me up at about the 60km mark. He put down a lot of power when he went past me and made his intentions pretty clear that he wasn't ‘taking any prisoners’; there was no fighting back. I spoke to Gemmell during the week leading in and he said “race your race…get the job done.” These words stuck with me and I maintained my tempo. I climbed the ‘nasty’ grade in the big ring just as I saw Raelert do the year before. Head down and pushing hard I almost got back onto Bjorn. I chased so hard going down the other side I thought I had speed wobbles, but looking down I realised it was my legs shaking from the power output over the last 80kms. I threw down a gel and got within what I thought was about a minute and a half of Bjorn.

Onto the run I felt good…sore, but good. I took the same ‘Gemmell’ approach into the run and ran my own race. I picked Bjorn up quick and hit the lead with about 17kms to the finish. My coach Grant has done a lot of work with me, often saying “running is king” and I certainly believed it. I felt light, strong, fast and in control. I got through the hills, taking 'crowie steps' and taking on the mentality of just another training session. I imagined I was running back at home with all the Aeromax boys doing one of our ‘build runs’ which turned out to be a very good approach.

With three miles to go and two of them up hill, I was still holding form as I turned at the bottom of the hill and saw James Cunama and Jesse Thomas approaching. When I reached the top of the hill, with only a half-mile to go, I was passed by Jesse and remained in this position watching him claim the 2011 Wildflower title; frustrating yes and a bitter sweet finish, but it is hands down, the highlight of my career to this point. I now know exactly what shape physically and mentally I need to be in to put myself in with a chance to win a big race.

 Next race will be New Orleans and Memphis 5150.. Keep an eye out, the form is good.

 Cheers Clayto