Escape from Alcatraz Bike Leg

I've only done Alcatraz so I can't compare the 2 races.

My personal experience....

I totally underestimated the bike leg. I knew it had hills and my coach had me training appropriately, but all of my nerves were focused on the swim. I'm a decent swimmer but not fast. I was so worried about making the swim in the time cut off (which I did with plenty of time to spare...and without being picked up and repositioned by the nearby boats).

The bike leg has some hills, but the one series that I remember the most was the one that went up the San Francisco neighborhood. It went up, flattened out for the road crossing, went up again and repeated in a step wise fashion. There are other hills on the course and pay attention during the briefing as there are a few sharp turns at the bottom of some of the hills (Presidio).

My Garmin showed 1,460ft elevation gain over the 18 miles.

Most people chose to ride a road bike. While I am more "comfortable" on my tri bike, I was glad to have my hands near the brakes on a few of the downhill turns. There was a good mix of road and tri bikes out there so ride whatever you feel best on. Have fun and enjoy the scenery. It is truly a beautiful race! I would love to go back one day but it is a very expensive weekend of racing.

I went for a few runs in SF. Well, yah....of course I'm going to run down Lombard St.......and I'm gonna go up to Coit Tower and stuff.
So, yeah, I brought a little of it on myself...
But I don't think I'd want to do a race where you actually have to put into practice that whole wheel-turn-thing-when-you-park....that you have to learn on the drivers test in places like St. Louis and Des Moines where you never really actually have to do it. Let alone get a ticket it if you fail to do it like they will in SF.

Or swim in a bay where there's still sharks that have one fin cut off so all they can do is swim clockwise around Alcatraz Island.