Wildflower 2012 Long Course

March 5^th, 2012 Lake San Antonio , CA

Wildflower Long Course is one of the toughest half iron distance races and one you must put on your bucket list. It was the unofficial 70.3 world championship for years, until Ironman figured out how to make a profit off that too. Santa Barbara Tri Club showed up with a solid group, fans, and a great club spirit.

The pros that win Ironman become instant legends. Like Jesse Thomas. Last year, it was Jesse Who? Now, it’s Jesse Again?

Water conditions were excellent. Water warmed up considerably over the tranining the club did a few weeks ago. The sun came out early, peaked at 82o, but the wind was howling on the bike course, with measured gusts of 34mph. The run course was unforgiving as always. Hills. More hills. Suffer. But there is always the Cal Poly SLO volunteers to keep you in good spirits. And Heather Jackson, Female Pro Winner was talking about some “Naked Guy” but you’d have to ask the ladies who raced.

SB Tri Club was out in force. Team Blue & Yellow really stood out on the course. And when it came to the final results, Mighty SB Tri was FOURTH Tri Club overall against the 3000+ member San Diego and LA Tri Clubs. It was weekend where everyone was proud to be part of the group, from the camping, to the Sprint, Olympic and Long Course races.

Patty Bryant, Duncan Thomas, Fred Maggiore, Nicole Sweetland, and Sue Beatty all podiumed and brought home medals. Michael Desmond and Rob Jensen led the Men, and newcome Leslie Dimichele led the Women with a 7^th place finish in her age group, 5:29:23. Welcome to SB Tri Leslie!

Special congratulations to Santa Barbara’s Lauren Capone, who was the Top Overall Female Age Group Racer at 5:04:21. Lauren races for Elite Racing (Sponsored by Elite Performance-SB Tri Sponsor) and works at SB Running (SB Tri Sponsor).

 

Results

5:21:05            Michael Desmond M43

5:26:11            Robert Jensen M40

5:29:23            Fred Maggiore M54            3rd

5:37:35            Leslie Dimichele F27           

5:38:09            Duncan Thomas M63            2nd

5:39:41            Nicole Sweetland F42            5^th           

5:43:29            Jamie Haggar “SB Tri Relay”

5:47:36            Joe O'Flaherty M34

5:54:50            Patty Bryant F52            2nd

5:58:20            Stephen Litchfield M37

6:02:53            Curt Direnzi M33

6:07:41            Karl Weis M52

6:09:06            Christina Lund F47

6:13:24            Sue Beatty F49            5^th           

6:23:50            Renaud Gonthier M39

6:24:40            Zachary Bertges M28

6:30:15            David Parker M51

6:30:31            Elizabeth Farnan F42

06:31:50         Sarah Claus F46

6:55:13            Jon Goodman M48

7:09:45            Mike Sgobba M29

07:14:57          Greg Russell M34

7:36:43            Jerrett McFarland M49

INJURY           Terry Thomas F62