The Wildflower Experience triathlon and endurance racing series is revived for a 2025 event.

After a six-year hiatus, the Wildflower Experience triathlon and endurance racing series is returning to Lake San Antonio May 2-4, 2025. The announcement from the Wildflower Experience came through several channels including verbally through podcasts, social media and in an email to past participants from over the years. 

The Wildflower Experience is a series of triathlons and endurance racing events that usually takes place over the first weekend in May at Lake San Antonio resort in south Monterey County. The race series has been around since 1983, but drought in the recent decade has caused hardship for the event.

The triathlon race course had to be modified in 2014 and 2015 to accommodate low water levels in the lake, leading to lower attendance. The Monterey County Board of Supervisors voted to close all recreational facilities at Lake San Antonio July 1, 2015, effectively canceling the 2016 and 2017 events.

The event was revived in 2018 after a rainy winter raised water in the lake to sufficient levels for the race, but this was short-lived. Lack of rainfall in 2019 saw water levels drop, again canceling the event. Then the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 brought any hope of holding the events to a screeching halt. 

The Wildflower Triathlon series was rebranded to the Wildflower Experience after co-owners Terry and Betsy Davis handed the reins of their company, TriCalifornia, to their daughter, Colleen Bousman, owner of See & Be Productions. Bousman grew up going to the Wildflower Triathlon and remembers it for its festival-like atmosphere.

“Triathlon is usually ‘you go to the race and then you leave,’” Bousman says. “Wildflower is different. You have teams, families and generations of people that come here to race.”

The endurance racing community reveres the Wildflower triathlon for both its rigor and its fête. Nicknamed “The Woodstock of Triathlon,” the weekend event traditionally sees over 10,000 people come to Lake San Antonio not only to test their human-endurance, but to camp, cheer on loved ones and triathlon elites and volunteer to make the event happen. 

Registration for a variety of races and events opened Sept. 30, including trail runs, 5- and 10-K runs and an open water swim in addition to the triathlon races.

Bousman had been working with the County of Monterey since earlier this year to obtain necessary permits, but also began reigniting relationships with volunteers and the community in 2023. She is also working with pro-gravel bike racer Angela Neath to design a potential gravel bike course. According to Bousman, more options for attendees to participate in the festival allows the Wildflower Experience to flow with the evolution of endurance racing.

For information and to register, visit wildflowerexperience.com.