Outlaw is a legend – everybody out here wants to do it 
. It’s been on my radar for a few years, and it’s one on the few independent IMs that’s happening this (northern) summer. So I figured what the hell, if you don’t bet, you can’t win.
Wildflower might belong in the " Things that show you’ve been doing tri for too long" thread (Mile 4 aid station!). Lake San Antonio is at 11% capacity and falling. All of California’s lakes are like that now. One race I did had a half mile run from the swim exit to transition – good practice for Outlaw it turns out 
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The bigger problem with bringing Wildflower back is Monterey County, which owns the park. Budget cuts and drought-related closures over the last ten years, and disputes with the company hired to run the park have left it in an increasingly natural condition. Which is fine for a weekend of camping with a few friends, but a problem if you’re trying to turn it into a small city of 4 or 5 thousand people. The company that used to run Wildflower – Tri California – spent weeks doing trail and campsite maintenance, hauled in drinking water and bussed people to a new swim start near the dam, where there was still some lake left.
That got expensive, so they sold the race to a group that tried to reimagine it as a weekend festival of everything – tri, running, swimming, biking, paddle boarding – but that only lasted a year. They haven’t exactly given up on bringing it back, but no one here is counting on it anymore. Another company tried to do a much smaller race at the lake, but covid put it on ice.