Escape From Alcatraz - 6/3/2007

Background

I had planned on starting my race season late this year in late June or early July. My wife and I had our second baby on Feb 22 and things have been crazy. But, after Ken Schultz put a link to the Escape from Alcatra lottery on the HEAT web site, I decided what the hell!! Much to my surprise was picked!! So....Plan B.....go to San Francisco, have fun and enjoy a legendary venue.

For those of you that don't know, The Escape is a 1.5 mile swim from a boat just off the Alcatraz shores to Marina Green, an 18 mile bike through prsidio and Golden Gate National Parks and an 8 mile run from Marina Green to Baker Beach and back over bike paths, trails, stairs, deep sand and the famous 400 soot sand ladder!!

Once again, I'm reminded that traveling with a young family is not the relaxing vacation experience of my youth and also not ideal prep for a race. The hotel told me they were one mile from the race venue. In San Francisco, you need to ask what that mile looks like!! In our case it was 1 mile down what seemed like a 70 degree incline. Try that a few times a day with a double stroller and a 38 lb two year old and a 14 lb 3 month old. My calves actually ached by race morning!! Sleep in the hotel room was also a joke, but in general we had a lot of fun.

I met a guy in the hotel who had an aunt from SF that belonged to the South End Rowing Club. They had their own beach, so we decided to swim on Sat before the race to experience the cold. Two observations.....1) I had to swim at a 45 degree angle to swim straight (currents) and 2) when I exited the water, I was slurring my words because my face muscles had frozen!! Yikes. But it was comforting, because I survived and it really wasn't THAT bad after about 5 minutes.

I shipped my bike out there and it arrived Friday so I really didn't have time to pre-ride that course without expending too much effort too close to the race...so, I was going to fly blind.

And as far as pre race runs....only if I felt like doing hill repeats!!

Race Morning

Up at 3.30, out of the hotel at 4AM (forgot breakfast....bummer). White knuckle decent to race site in the dark. Set everything up and board the bus about 4.30AM. Buddy gives me a cliff bar (breakfast accomplished - Sorry Hammer). The good thing about this race was that traveling with small children has taught me the value of allowing a ton of extra time. So, there really was no real pre race stress. A little valve extender problem on the Zipps, but I'm getting used to those useless things!! We were at the dock by 5AM.... body marking, porta potty and relaxing. Boat leaves dock at 6.15AM as the sun is coming up. Old guys on the second deck, youngins and pros down below. I head up the stairs with the rest of the gray haired racers (for those of us that still have it). Everyone is pretty jovial, the bars have water and cytomax (breakfast juice) and there were bathrooms that I used at least 4 times. The give the swim instructions a second time. They point out landmarks to use to aim to compensate for the VERY strong currents. I listen carefully and start to smile. For once in my triathlon career, I'm really taking in the venue!! Alcatraz, The Golden Gate Bridge, The San Francisco Skyline....Man, this is a race EVERYONE has to do. Its just awesome.

Swim

The boat stops, national anthem and the gun!! The first thing I make a mental note of is that the pros and the first age groupers are NOT going where they were told. I'm nervous about the currents because I had talked to someone who had done the race the year before and had missed the exit ramp and had to swim against the currents to exit the water. Talk about butterflies. They exit 1800 people from the boat in less than 5 minutes!! Its like a military exercise...you wait in line, step on the mat and then, like it or not, jump. No time to rethink what you are doing. The currents are so strong that the people who jump before you are already 10 feet away by the time you jump. BIG rush of adrenaline and the first thing I notice is the water doesn't seem that cold. For all those that might do this race...the swim isn't that bad. I'll take it over the IM Lake Placid start any day. The way everyone exits the boat, nicely spreads out the field. Yeah, it was cold, yeah, it was choppy, but for those of us who have done races in Long Island sound, its cold and choppy there too.

The biggest mistake I made was to follow the RD instructions for Moderate swimmers. I now know that they build in a ton of safety. I could have even cheated where they told the strong swimmers to go. I really swam much more of an L than almost the whole field. I felt like I was swimming alone most of the time.

That said, GOD bless the VASA!!!! I exited the 1.5 mile swim in 32.13 with the 150th fastest swim out of 1800 with......2 open water swims since my last race in October of 2006 and....1 time in the pool. No fatigue at all!! And quite honestly I could have been faster if I wasn't so conservative in my route or if I pushed even a little.

Transition

2nd mistake. I talked to a few people and they convinced me it wasn't worth the time to use shoes for the 1/2 mile run transition. BS... my feet still hurt today, 2 days after the race and my time was about 1.5 minutes slower than my closest competitors. I actually thought I made the right move becasue the grass and gravel wasn't bad and I clearly passed people in the bag pick up. But when I hit the pavement reality set in. The pavement was essentially that crushed shell concrete. OUCH!! 6.29

Bike

The Escape Bike is like a hard golf course. You shoot 5 strokes better the second time you play!! The bike is my strength and it is where I make my time. I chose a road bike set up over my tri bike and it was 100% the right call. It is a VERY hard 18 mile with steep ups and STEEP downs. Very little falts and lots of turns. Some of the downs end in 90 degree turns and some run into the next uphill and I never knew which. I got passed alot on the downhills but made up big time in the uphills. Again, I think the reality of living in CT is we live in the hills. My Wed club rides are much harder and every bit as hilly if not more. There were athletes compting from all 50 states. I think there are top triathletes from places like Ohio and Indiana that just get blown away by the hills. For me....let them try the Griskus Sprint in July.

My time was 55.45 or 19.3 mph. 97th best. I definitely lost a couple of minutes here. I would have been much faster if I was familiar with the course

Transition #2

Uneventful 1.31, took time to put on socks after last years 70.3 fiasco and my aching feet from T1 needed them!!

Run

God bless Coach Al. The first 1.5 miles and the last 1.5 miles are flat and I got passed alot, nothing new for me on the run. But, there were steep climbs, the 400 foot sand ladder, stairs to the top of Golden Gate park, etc. When the road / trails turned up all the winter Strength training and downhill strides paid BIG dividends. I picked alot of people off. One word to sum up the whole run is spectacular!! The views were awesome!! I could have done without the 1 mile through deep sand, but it was fantastic.

One quick note, its always great to race with the pros. What made this really special was the run was essentially an out and back. The pros were coming back down the trails from the Golden Gate as I was going up. I literally brushed shoulders with them because the trail was so narrow. It made a lasting impression. I fancy myself as a pretty good triathlete but when I saw the pros run, my jaw hit the ground. You really get a feel for how fast those guys really are!! Lets just say seeing Andy Potts while he is averaging 5.30's over rugged terrain is humbling.

Running is still my weakness, 1.00.36 - 247th best for the day 7.34 avg. (2.16 on the sand ladder challenge!!)

Overall

2.36.34 128 overall out of 1800, 18th out of 239. Not bad for a B race against very good competition. I gave up time on the swim and the bike, but if I wasn't complaining about some aspect of my race I wouldn't be a triathlete!!

This venue is amazing!! IM has 1800 athletes over 140.6 miles. This has the same number over 28!! The people are great, the fans are great, the festival was great...Try to do this race....Its one of the ONES!!

Update...I looked at the final results for the first time, 21 "people" who were ahead of me were teams...so 107 out of 1545 finishers. As usual, slowest run in the top 107!! But... my sand ladder time was up there... ranking aren't out yet. So, my theory of strong in the hills holds...now to work on the flats....maybe I should have gone to the track once?