Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

The swim was my weakest event. While my time is respectable, I should have able to shave more time off of the swim. The entry into the water was not an issue. It was not as cold as I expected. I think the key was mental, in which I viewed this as a SCUBA swim with an open water swim. I followed the guidance of the experts and got about 500 meters away from the boat FAST.

Then, I began to sight toward Fort Mason. I believe this is one of two areas where I could have improved my time. I was tight and I would swim about 3 strokes and then resight. When I was sighting, I did a poor job—many times slowing down. At about the ½ point I decided that I needed to change my strategy. I began to swim 10 strokes before resighting—which helped to improve me time. The course was pretty wavy and while I drank my fair share of the ocean, I was able avoid most of the waves by breathing on my left side.

The view was excellent. I purposely did not look back to Alcatraz, but I did take time to look at the Golden Gate bridge/park and the city itself.

Soon I came to Fort Mason, and I began to sight toward the Palace of Fine Arts. I think I made this change too soon. It felt like I was fighting the current too much. It was frustrating—I felt I was swimming and swimming and swimming without making any progress.

Once I broke through the current, I started to sight toward the center of the St. Francis Yacht Club beach. I finally saw people of the beach and I knew that I had made it! I exited the water—listening to the aids to avoid the rocks. However, I started to walk diagonally toward the exit. I ended up tripping on the rocks and cut my feet. Bah—my own problem!

The good news is that I stayed pretty calm (of course you always hear those voices in your head!).

1. Most strokes per sighting
2. Figure the currents better

I think I could have cut 5:00 to 8:00 off of my time.

This is an interesting tranisiton. First, you exit the beach and then head to pick-up your shoes. Next, you run about 0.9M to the bike.

As I came out of the water, I climbed up the stairs and by precious bride (and about 5 teammates) was waitng there. I stopped briefly to give her a kiss. My legs were a little tight and it took longer to tie my shoes than it should have.

The transition run was good--I passed a fair amount of people

I need to invest in quick ties for my shoes.

The bike portion of the ride was probably my strongest event. If you had asked me a couple of months ago, I would have guessed that it would be my weakest event. My bike was making funny clicking noises throughout the event—but I pretty much ignored them. The course is very hilly and with the exception of one hill and a small portion of another hill I was able to stay out of my granny gear. I was able to pass a significant amount of other riders on the hills—many of them with Bikes 10X the cost of mine. Ok, so I’m a child and a little jealous.

Portions of the bike ride were close to single file—which created some slowdowns and the pavement in Golden Gate Park had significant potholes. However, the Tri California people did a great job of painting the potholes with orange spray paint.

The only downside was about 2/3 through the course I could hear ambulances in the distant. Unfortunately, there was a serious bike wreck. There were two bikers being strapped into gurneys and backboards.

I was surprised that my downhill game was as good as it was. Normally, people catch up with me going downhill—but that did not happen too much on the race.

As I headed back to the transition area, I heard cheers from my wife and many of my teammates. It was a great pick-me-up.

I must give credit where credit is due. I did the winter prep program and I feel like this was a major contributor to my biking success. Also, our TNT coach scheduled time for us all to race the bike course on a CompuTrainer. While my speed was slower today, this workout really encouraged me and gave me confidence to perform better today.


Don't take the bike tire off before the race!

I was going to change my shirt to my running gear--but I felt like there was no advantage for that today. I did swap out my socks for clean socks.

After the transition, I started down past the cheering crowds. I did my first part of the run by 10 or 11 minutes per mile. I did not push it too fast too soon. As we headed up the hills, I was able to maintain a decent pace. However, I did walk up the steps. The running paths were pretty narrow and this made passing difficult—but not impossible.

The beach running was an out and back—until you got to the sand steps. On the way out you were running on dry sand. On the way back you run on the wet sand. I found out that running on dry sand really sucks!

Probably the worse part of the course for me was the sand steps. My game plan was not to push it, but to walk up those 400 steps. After the sand steps, there were only a couple more hills and then the last two miles starting at Chrissy fields. My game plan was to really pick up the pace on the flat portion of the course. I passed probably 15 to 20 people—while two or three people only passed me. As I headed into the crowds, I stopped to give my wife a kiss as I ran by. I was really happy that I could finish really strong.


I did not run the course physically or virtually. I had a general understanding of the course from Coach Wayne and I was able to apply many of the strategies we discussed. I ran the race that I planned to run. I did not push it on the downhills. On the last two miles I picked up the pace and passed a ton of people.

I walked around and ate two plates of chicken and pasta. Danette and I milled around and talked to friends. We had to leave to catch my son's play-off game (he won). There I ate three hot dogs and had a cup of coffee and soda. Not necessarily the recovery meal for champions!


My swim sighting and understanding of currents were my limiting factors. I believe I should have had more open water swims before the event. I did not do a ton of work on my transitions--which I think I could have shaved sometime off of these results.

By the same extent, I'm not certain that these will be limiting factors during my next Alcatraz!


I do have to say this is one of the truly excellent race courses in the world. No matter where you go, people know about Alcatraz. The course is fun and well designed.

TriCalifornia did an excellent job of running this race. The only downside is that portions of the bike ride were pretty bumpy with significant pot holes. However, the TriCaifornia team did mark all of the potholes with orange spray paint.