Wow! Nice work. Sucks that you're not happy with your wetsuit.

I was in SF on Friday evening and saw the transition area - or rather, one of the transitions. Did you drop off your wetsuit & swim gear when you got your running shoes on for T1a?

What's the sand ladder?

Any shark sightings?

Nice race! Congratulations!

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the comments. Bummer about the wetsuit but it might have felt better if I had practiced in it so I have no one to blame but myself...besides this gives me a better excuse to try the swim without the wetsuit.

To answer Kirby's questions:

I dropped off my wetsuit when I came out of the water and put on running shoes to run to the main transition area. Probably not the fastest way to go but I'm not hardcore enough to run barefoot for 1/2 a mile on pavement with my wetsuit still half on.

As for the sand ladder. It is a set of steps that go from the beach to a trail above Baker's Beach. The steps are 6 to 8 inch in diameter logs with rope railing running along the sides of the stairs. Basically it was like doing stadiums on irregular steps in the middle of an 8 mile run. I was feeling alright but those steps made it painfully clear that I was going to have both a) a sore back and b) extremely tired legs when I was done because everything was screaming trying to go up those steps. Here's a picture: http://www.envirosports.com/exec/enviro/images/sandladder.jpg

As for the sharks I didn't see any but then again I had a really hard time seeing much of anything. I could see big things like the buildings I was aiming for, Alcatraz, the Golden Gate bridge, etc. but for whatever reason I didn't see very many other participants or support boats and thus felt very much by myself during much of the swim. Kind of makes me think I didn't take the best route. All in all the event was fun and the post race food was excellent!

I highly recommend the event.

Mike

Don't worry about the swim, the currents were against the swimmers on the day. Everyone was coming out of the water at a slower time than they were expecting. Sometimes it's like that swimming in the bay. If the currents aren't right, then well, you're not going to break any speed records.

I'd think that your bike performance was due to the fact that you felt you worked too hard on the swim. The swim can really take you down a peg on occasion.

Awesome....this seems like it is "THE event"...at least to me. Congrats on such a great feat.

I was thinking about everyone I knew who did Alcatraz this past weekend.  It originally was on my schedule, having qualified at the Westchester Triathon last year.  I thought i was going to have a major conflict with my A race being two weeks later, but that didn't pan out as planned, but I'd already blown off my spot.  Maybe I canqualify again, and give it s shot next year.