Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon - TriathlonOther

Alright, the infamous alcatraz swim. As soon as the horn sounded people were jumping off the boat. I made it to the edge within thirty seconds, made sure the guy ahead of me was out of the way, and then took the plunge.

Son of a bee-sting, that's cold! Started stroking like mad to get out of the way and then settled into a nice rhythm. The nice thing about the current was that people spread out fairly quickly so I wasn't getting pounded like normal. Within a few minutes I didn't even notice the cold. Glad I opted for the 2 swim caps, because the squid lid was unecessary.

The swim was quite uneventful. Sighting went well: towers, ft. mason, and finally the dome near the end. Waves weren't a real issue. I just did a little more of an exaggerated roll when breathing on my right so the mouthfuls of saltwater were few and far between. Between the salt water, the wetsuit, and the strong current the swim felt pretty effortless. Before long I was stumbling out of the water just left of the swim exit as planned. Success! The easiest part of my day was done!

Swim a little harder maybe, I dunno. I was 5 minutes faster than I had estimated. I will savor those 1:10s since it will never happen again :)

Transition was interesting. There were some steps up that I took a little wobbly after the swim. I saw my sister and her family in the crowd so I gave them a quick wave and fumbled in to T(0.5) were I lost the wetsuit and slapped on some running shoes.

I passed a lot of people running that half mile to T1. Lost the running shoes, donned the bike shoes and helmet and took off. I was glad to have a rack position near the bike exit. I hate running with my bike.

Just hustle more. I had to remember how get wetsuit off. Seriously, it shouldn't be that hard.

Oh boy, the bike. This was the leg that I was the most worried about. I didn't exactly get a lot of hill training in in Iowa and the hills I did train on paled in comparison to the hills on this course. That, and after much debate I decided to leave my bike set up with a compact crank and an 11-23. I figured my legs were in for a trashing.

The first mile or two was pretty flat so I cranked, passed a lot of people, and took in some nutrition. Soon enough I hit that first mile of climbing and wondered to myself just how the heck I was going to survive the entire 18 miles. I didn't run out of gears but I was huffing and puffing something fierce by the top.

And then the descent. Holy crap! It was steep and curving and I had a mini freakout. Started riding the brakes a little until my back tire started sliding a little bit. Great, now I need a new pair of bike shorts! I got things settled down after that, but let me tell you I was not comfortable descending at all. If there weren't turns at the bottom of the hills or the road wasn't curving I was okay. That and all the guys I was passing on the uphills were flying past me on the way down. Crazy bastards!

And that's the way the bike leg went for me. Passing on the flats and uphills and then being retaken on the downhills. A few of the hills stretched the limits of my gearing and several times I was mashing that last gear pretty good, especially on the awful climb up Clement St. As I told a fellow rider on that climb, they don't make hills like that in Iowa.

I was more than glad when I finally made it back to mason drive. Spun the legs pretty good there to loosen up for the run and then took things on in.

Train some hills. Learn how to descend better than a 5 year old girl.

Perfect flying dismount and I was in and out of T2 darn quickly.

Nada

Time to run! Amazingly my legs felt pretty good starting off and I settled into a pretty good clip. I got to see my support crew right away and the helped lift the spirits. My brother-in-law came and jogged alongside me for a bit and asked how I was doing. At that point, great!

The first two miles were uneventful. Saw Hunter Kemperer en route to a sub-2 hr victory a little after the first mile. Man, those pros are fast! Shortly after mile two the ascent started on a narrow dirt trail. The pros and other FOPers were screaming by as I wound up the hill. I thought that was pretty cool.

A little later I was surprised by stairs. Who put these here, and why wasn't I informed of them? Grudgingly, I burned up them and continued on my way. Soon enough I was winding down to Baker's beach where we got to enjoy a mile of beach running. Running on sand with the waves crashing in and the Golden Gate Bridge in the background was pretty cool. Challenging and tiring, but still pretty cool.

After the turn around was the dreaded sand ladder and it was every bit as awful as described. I plodded up the steps with a liberal used of guard wire to pull myself self up. The quads were absolutely screaming by the time I made it to the top of 400 steps. And as if things weren't bad enough, the next half mile was still uphill. Eventually I got the legs turning over but the sand ladder had decimated me.

Luckily the last couple miles were pretty flat. I did some quick math and figured I needed to run a couple of sub-7s to come in under 2:40. I tried my best during that final stretch, but I was pretty beat up by that point. There were good crowds along that stretch and that helped carry me home. Soon enough I was running down the chute toward the finish line. I made quick detour to high five my support crew along the way and crossed the finish line, thoroughly spent.

Train some hills and some stairs. Then train more hills and stairs.

Lots of walking and a big ole plate of post race food


I was not prepared for this type of course, but I knew that going in. I was extremely pleased with the result though.

I would love to come back here in few years, properly trained and see what I can do to this course.


They put on a top notch race for the 30th anniversary. The course was totally unique and absolutely beautiful. It was an experience that I will cherish for a long time. I am proud to say that I escaped the Rock!