Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon - what a great event!

What a weekend! This was the coolest athletic event I've ever competed in. Everything about this weekend was a success, the weather on race day was perfect, the logistics for the race were great, the race could not have gone much better for me, and I had a great support crew. Even a flat tire on Saturday ended up working out well.

Heather and I drove her car up to San Francisco early Friday morning. At the time, my knee tendinitis was still an issue, and since I had not been on a run longer than 6 miles in weeks, I was worried it would not hold up over 8 miles of hilly (especially down hill) running. We arrived in San Fran around 1 p.m. and after checking in, I went for a run. I was determined to break in my new Saucony racing flats that gave me terrible blisters at the Carlsbad 5000, so I wore them without laces during the car ride, then took them for a quick 1 mile on the treadmill. I wasn't getting any blisters, but during the 1 mile, my knee started to bother me. I quickly popped off the treadmill onto the elliptical for a few minutes. Then after I thought I had loosened up enough, I threw on my trainers and went for a painfully slow run down the Embarcadero to Fisherman's Wharf. I totaled a painful six miles for the day and at this point was starting to worry more about my knee than the swim. I should also mention I was furiously icing my knees all day, to the point where I may have broken the hotel ice machine, but at least it helped.

Saturday morning I let myself sleep in a little. No use in keeping sleeping patterns when I knew I wouldn't get a wink of sleep anyways on Saturday night. I knew running would be a bad idea so I hopped on the stationary bike for about 40 minutes to get a good sweat going. Then Heather and I headed down to the Marina for breakfast and the Expo to pick up my race packet. When the valet brought her car around, the right rear passenger tire was flat (with a nail in it). They claimed this could have happened anywhere, but the tire definitely did not have a nail in it when we arrived on Friday. After suppressing a near freak-out, I was actually quite relieved. We were lucky we chose to drive down to the Marina, instead of cabbing it, otherwise I would not have discovered the flat until 5 a.m. on Sunday morning. The hotel valet was very nice, and changed our tire for us, then took the flat over to a tire center and paid for the patch work, and waived our valet charges. Crisis averted, and $100 saved.

At the expo, the race organizers were giving hourly course talks so all the competitors would know what to expect. Mostly it was just "do not be afraid of the water" for about 30 minutes. After the Expo, we headed back to Union Square to meet Mom and Mary, then pick up some race-day nutritional supplements. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a grocery store anywhere that carried my favorite Oatmeal Raisin Power Bar, so I had to settle for Vanilla Crisp. Then Mom, Mary, Heather and I went for a great pre-race meal at Antica Trattoria (Anne recommended for us via her tennis coach, Lele) which had a fantastic spinach salad.

After dinner it was time for final pre-race preparations. I laid out all my gear and food for race day, bib #'s, put air in my tires, and set up my two transition bags. As you can see by the pictures it's actually a ton of stuff. Mom and Mary went across the street to buy some ID tags and colorful string to identify my tri-bag so it wouldn't get stolen out of the transition area. I tried to go to sleep around 10, and set a 4:30 a.m. wake-up for myself, but predictably, I barely slept that night. I woke up about once and hour, and actually changed my alarm to 4:15 so I could really take my time Sunday morning.

RACE DAY

I woke up minutes ahead of my alarm on race day and began my usual routine: 20 minute hot shower to loosen up my leg muscles, food intake, bathroom etc. All my equipment was packed up so I didn't have to think about forgetting anything, and the car was even pulled forward when I got downstairs. I arrived at the Marina around 5:15 with only whimpers of daylight to help set up my bike in the transition area. There were two transitions to set up. First, I had a plastic bag (with my #256) for the transition area at the water exit. In this bag I had my racing flats, a half-filled Gatorade bottle, and a power bar. Then I headed over to my assigned bike rack, which was in a good position on the end of a row, so I had plenty of room to set up my gear. I brought a second pair of racing flats along in case the new ones didn't work out well on the 1/2 mile run from the marina to the bike rack. After I finished setting up, I boarded a bus with 50 other escapees, and headed over to Pier 3 to pick up my timing chip and board the San Francisco Belle.
It was light out by the time my bus arrived at the docks around 6 a.m., about an hour before the boat was scheduled to leave the dock. It was relaxing to see the water was perfectly calm, no wind whatsoever, and not a cloud in the sky. I stayed off the boat for a bit because I was getting antsy and figured once I got on board my jitters would increase. Once on board I found my friend Sarah and compared nervousness for a while. Fortunately, there were not too many people on board at 6:15 so I had an opportunity to make one last bathroom stop. When I came out of the cabin, the line for the bathrooms was about 45 minutes so this ended up being pretty clutch. We had been advised not to put on our wetsuits until the boat left the dock because otherwise we might risk overheating. I spent the last 20 minutes before we left putting on way too much body glide to make sure I had an easy time getting my suit off.

We left the dock at precisely 7 a.m. and headed out for a loop around Alcatraz. There were plenty of slow-claps and whistles as we pulled away from the dock--no turning back now. I slowly put my wet suit on, up to my waste until about 7:40, when the boat was settled in launch position. With about 15 minutes to start, I had to pee really badly. I had been pounding water on the boat for the last hour and it just crept up. The bathroom line was too long and I figured I could hold it until I was in the water, and then who really cares. I zipped my wetsuit on with ease, something I usually have a hard time doing on my own, and put on my swim caps. I was planning on wearing a swim cap on my head, then goggles, then my age-group cap over that, but the second swim cap made the goggles too tight and hurt my head, so I just wore the goggles over both swim caps instead. I tied up all my sweats and warm-ups in my clothing bag (to be delivered after the race), and proceeded towards the starboard doors... 5 minutes to go. The elites made their way out in front of us and lined up on the outside of the railing so they could jump off together... 30 seconds. Everyone starts pushing towards the doors and I move my way forward so I can get off in a relatively good position. There's the horn and I can see people start to jump off the boat. I am ridiculously nervous, but inch forward, about 10 seconds from jumping off a perfectly good boat... this is really about to happen. Suddenly I'm at the end of the boat... GO!

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" is my only thought for the first 10 seconds, hoping the people behind me don't jump on my head. This is immediately replaced my "THIS IS FREAKING COLD!" Actually, my full body Zoot wet suit was phenomenal during the swim, and my body was warm the entire time. My extremities were not. For the first five minutes my face and feet were very cold. I pulled extra hard on the swim to warm up faster which half-worked--my face warmed up and my feet went numb. I had spot picked out just west of Ghirardelli Square, a tall antenna above some trees, which I focused on for about the first 10 minutes of the swim. Since I’ve spent the last eight weeks practicing breathing on both sides, I was generally breathing every three strokes, and using the people around me to make sure I was going straight. I kept telling myself that as long as I was in between people, I was fine. I then shifted my focus over to Fort Mason for the next ten minutes, and really didn’t look much at all. I focused in on my breathing and got a great cadence going, even as a few small swells trickled in the Bay. About half way through the swim, I started passing people and actually crawled up on a few people by accident. Finally, after what felt like 2o minutes of swimming (I left my watch at T1), I briefly removed my goggles to focus in on my destination. I was pleasantly surprised how close it was, probably not more than 600 yards to the beach at that point. With renewed vigor, I upped my pace, and headed straight for the beach. The last 100 yards is a blur; I was swimming as hard as I could, and my arms were spent as I hit the beach. I pulled off my swim cap and goggles as quickly as possible, started to run for the transition, and waved hello to my support crew which was quite relived to see me get out of the water in one piece and free of shark bites.

The run to T1 was a bit of a struggle. My feet were frozen and covered in sand, making for an uncomfortable trot to my transition bag, which was laid out on asphalt in numerical order. My first problem though, was my bag was hidden under another so for about 20 seconds, I couldn’t find it. After a near freak-out (see below) I found the bag, peeled off my wet suit (with ease!) and slipped on my shoes. Then I keep trying to shove my wetsuit back in the transition bag so it wouldn’t get lost or stolen, which ended up taking another 30 seconds. I chugged some Gatorade, opened my vanilla crisp power bar, and took off down the sidewalk towards my bike transition. Now came nervous part two: how would my knee react. For at least the half mile to my bike, my knee held up great. It must have helped that I basically sprinted the half mile, passed about 40 people, and didn’t feel a thing, probably because of the adrenaline. The other positive was that my new shoes were gripping to my heels really well, and I was comfortable enough to know I could wear them for the 8 mile run. I had an excellent transition out of my shoes and onto the bike, but lost a minute to the top age groupers due to all my follies by the water.

After successfully mounting the bike, I downed about the half the power bar I was carrying and stuffed the rest in my shirt pocket. I was carrying two water bottles on the bike, one half-filled with Gatorade, and the other mostly full of water (above pic in center). I took down about half of each bottle in the first two miles, which was just about the only flat section of the course. We headed west toward the Golden Gate Bridge and climbed up to the top of the Presidio. I was people right and left up the hill, and was climbing with surprising ease. I actually did not get passed on the bike, and if someone did go by me, I passed them back seconds later. Where I really excelled on the bike yesterday was riding strong over the top of the hills. I would continuously gap others while cresting over hills because while my legs were getting sore, I was never aerobically tired, probably a product of all the extra swim work I’ve been doing. The rest of the bike course was beautiful, swinging through some neighborhoods and down the Great Highway along the Pacific Ocean. The entire course was either climbing or descending, and at the top of all the major climbs volunteers were waiting with water bottles, which I took every time and quickly discarded a la Tour de France cyclists. While cruising down hill at speeds exceeding 40 m.p.h. I made sure to take a few quick glances at the 6-8 foot swells crashing on the rocks. The bike course returned home with a loop through Golden Gate Park, then we re-traced our steps, and I continued passing people on the way home. So many people it was shocking. I didn’t even strap on aero-bars because I thought they would weigh me down. I also got a chuckle every time I passed someone on a $10,000 bike. I don’t understand why people didn’t just bring their road bikes to this course. I think the tri-bikes created a disadvantage here because they are harder to maneuver and more difficult for steep climbs. After a rapid final descent to the Marina (nearly losing control, 46 m.p.h.), and un-clipped with half a mile to go and popped off my bike into the transition area. Total bike ride was 54:29, averaging 19.8 m.p.h. It was the 58th fastest bike ride of the day (when you factor in my long transition before-hand, probably about 30th without the transition).

I added another needless minute to the final transition while putting my shoes on. The first shoe went on with ease, but the insole on the second shoe kept slipping out of place, so many times that I had to sit down and hold it in place. Finally, after two minutes in transition, I was off and running. According to Heather, I was about the 90th person to leave the transition area as we headed out for the run. Now it was time for some fun.

My favorite thing about triathlon is the order of events. The swim is my weakest event, so I’m naturally behind out of the water. I’m pretty strong on the bike, usually top 5%, so I’m always passing people, but I’m not an elite cyclist. The run is obviously my strength. My only concern heading into the run was that my knee might not hold up. I figured the only way to make sure the knee loosened up was essentially to a really hard first 400 meters to get myself going. After we got on the flat dirt path along the Marina we continued to pass people, and I was encourage not to be feeling a hint of pain, so I decided to keep the pace going, and hit the first mile marker in 5:05. Whoops! Now way I was keeping that up, so I slowed down to something closer to 5:45 pace until we started climbing the steps up towards Golden Gate Bridge. I continued to pass people right and left, sometimes 3-4 at a time, with no hint of going backwards. Mile 3 was straight up hill and really put a damper to my pace, but even more so for everyone else. Mile 4 descended down to the beach just north of the bridge, which was the only really tough part on my knees, and the course took us along the waters edge for 800 meters, to the turnaround, then back east and up.

The final real hurdle of the day was the infamous sand ladder, which I had never seen in person, but was quite steeper than the preview video. Nobody was running the sand ladder. I tried at first but it was too draining, so I pulled myself up along side the railing and did a quick “power climb”, which hurt more than any other part of the race. Even walking I passed three people. Finally, about two-thirds of the way up the sand ladder, I decided to myself into a run and passed another 5 people before the top. Small funny moment here. The sand ladder was so steep I couldn't see up over the top, so when it started to crest, much to my dismay there was still another 100 yards. "Are you f***ing serious?!" I muttered aloud to myself, just after the a lady on the course yelled, "you're doing great!" and I think she was somewhat taken aback. So to the volunteer/spectator on the sand ladder, if you ever read this, sorry about that. The sand ladder continued into another 400 yards of up-hill to the bridge, and finally it was time to descend back down the steps and head to the marina. Even though I power-walked/climbed for half the sand ladder, I somehow had the 8th fastest time on that section of the course, so I guess it hit other people hard too.

The stairs spat me out right below the Golden Gate Bridge and I had two miles of flat to the finish. At this point, I was passing fewer and fewer people, because there were just fewer left to pass, and I was running on excitement and adrenaline because I knew I had a great race going. As I passed the 6 mile mark a about 37 minutes (freaking sand ladder!), I scanned the dirt path ahead of me and spotted two twins in Stanford gear about 200 yards ahead who appeared to be moving at a good pace. That’s the target. I went into track mode and budgeted my energy to catch them by the finish. I passed a couple stragglers in between but by the 7 mile mark (5:40) I had halved the distance. I was winding up the speed, faster and faster, and with 800 meters to go, we started passing throngs of spectators, cheering quite loudly. I came around the final turn right on the twins heals, and in the process had caught two others. The momentum and crowd took me into a full out sprint, and I closed in a 5:18 last mile for 48:03 for the run (2nd fastest non-pro of the day), and a 2:22:31, about 7 minutes faster than my personal predicted finish time! I was also the 36th person to cross the line, meaning I passed at least 50 people during the run. I had the 40th fastest time of the day, was the 16th fastest non-pro, and 5th in my age group (M25-29).

My support crew and Erik had a perfect perch over the finish line and captured all sorts of unflattering pictures as I wandered around in a daze. I finally found some fruit and began impaling simple sugars. I also took at advantage of a free massage, which provided a nice opportunity for some interest pictures. It took us about two hours to get out of there, partly because I was in recovery mode and getting treatment, and partly to enjoy the environment. Finally, Heather and I left San Francisco with Erik in tow around 5 p.m. and made to back to Newport Beach by 11.

This was the coolest athletic event I’ve ever taken part in. The planning and logistics are great, the course could not be better, and triathletes always seem to be the friendliest people. I trained my butt off for two months leading up to this and it is so rewarding to see the fruits of hard work pay off. I’ll definitely come back and compete again someday.