Paul May

I made it! Escape from Alcatraz was everything I hoped it would be; tough, fast, exciting. Hotter than I would have liked, but an absolutely great race. This is my full report of the lead up to the race, the race itself and the journey home.

Background

Despite the fact that Escape from Alcatraz is one of the “iconic” triathlons, the first I heard about it was about a year and a half ago from a work colleague. He was trying to get a spot in the race through a contact; keen to avoid the qualification process and the lottery for places. The race sounded incredible; a swim from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco, then a bike and run course around the Golden Gate national park overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Intriguing I thought - maybe I’ll have a go at that one myself!

I entered the lottery for a spot last year, and didn’t get it - then entered the lottery again this year….and got a spot! A quick word with the bank manager and a perusal of the Aer Lingus website and I was in. This wasn’t going to be cheap, but by god it’d be fun.

Before the Race

I got to San Francisco on Thursday, flying from Dublin on the very handy direct flight. Having blown all my money on the flight I decided to stay in the reasonable, hippy-tastic Green Tortoise backpacker hostel in North Beach. I basically did nothing on Thursday of Friday; just walked around the city a bit, researched the course and tried to get over the jet lag.

I had sensibly decided to rent a bike for the race; so no massive bike box to wrestle up and down the hills of San Francisco. The good folks of Bay City Bike offered a good deal on a race bike with my choice of pedals. I picked the bike up on Saturday and was really impressed. The Giant TCR C2 is *miles* better than the bike I ride every day and use for races in Ireland; and was a little over $100 for two days. A good deal.

We registered on Saturday morning; very straightforward and well organised. The race goodie bag was pretty cool, a very useful messenger bag with a nice tshirt, good quality water bottle, energy bars and the usual fliers and junk. The race briefing after registration was pretty good (despite the lame jokes and to-be-expected whooping and hollering), with some useful information about coping with the outflowing current during the swim and the hills on the cycle and run courses. The weather was on Saturday was hot, and was expected to stay that way on Sunday…unlike last year which was a classic, grey, choppy San Franciscan June day. I got a bit scorched on Saturday in the sun, but made sure to stay well hydrated and fuelled.

Race Day

4.50am - bright and early; a time that if I wasn’t still a little bit jet-lagged (in a good way, waking up early) would be a bit tough. There is a clear view of the Golden Gate bridge in the distance, and the lighthouse on Alcatraz island is searching around the bay slowly. It is quite the sight, the sun is just coming up as we get on the buses to the boat, the San Francisco Belle, which will take us out into the bay.

It is pretty surreal to be on board a paddle steamer, stuffed into a ballroom with 1800 other people in, or getting into wetsuits. At 7.30am the boat left the pier and we cruised out into San Francisco bay, circling Alcatraz and taking up a position about 100m off the shore. The buzz was great on the boat - everybody was incredibly excited and nervous about the race to come. Even though the swim isn’t *that* far, the view back to the shore is pretty daunting.

Unlike most races the wave starts are practically simultaneous. At 8am the horn blew to set the pros off, and within 10 minutes all 1800 people jump off the boat in their age groups into the bay for the swim, crossing a timing mat at the rail of the boat. Your race starts when you get in the water…no time for chilling out, getting your bearings, you just go while hundreds of others pile into the water behind you.

The tide was heading out to sea at the time of the race, and the currents in San Francisco bay are notoriously quick, so you need to aim well up the shore to end up where you need to get to. If you tried to do a straight line towards the swim exit you would overshoot by a mile, and could be in trouble. I found it to be a fairly technical swim, I was sighting every 5 strokes to make sure that I was heading towards the reference point up the shore, Sutro Tower. There is a lot of blather about the water temperatures being frigid and fatal, but the water is about 50 degrees fahrenheit, very similar to Ireland. The current did most of the steering for me after that. I did the mile and a half in 36 minutes, and I really enjoyed the swim. No agro, no hassle, just lovely weather and amazing views of the bridge and Alcatraz itself. At one point I did what the swim director recommends, I turned around, looked behind me back at Alcatraz and thought “Wow, this is incredible” - then I put my face in the water and got back to work.

Once I got out of the water there was the usual flapping around with my wetsuit and a 1km run to transition. If I was to do this race again I’d have a crap pair of runners waiting for me at the swim exit to make the run more comfortable. Oh well, I got back to transition along with the rest of the hordes and made it out onto the bike course pretty quickly.

This is where the disadvantage of the mass-start becomes apparent. You and about 1000 other people are getting on the bike at the same time, heading out of the same narrow transition exit onto the same narrow road. For the first 5K of the bike course it was a bit of a jam. I made a huge effort to power through the pack up into the hills of the Presidio just so I’d have clear road ahead of me. The cycle course, we were told, rewards an “aggressive approach” - so I did my best to power down hills and turn properly. It was the first course where I really noticed how poorly most people line up and take corners; in this race, even if you can get your cornering right most of the time you will make up serious time. I was really happy with the bike leg of the race.  Any Irish rider with good cornering skills and experience of long hills will do really well here.

The run was another story; the legs just never really got going. There was a point after the first ten minutes when I knew it was going to be a “grin and bear it” run. I had to grit my way around the 13Km course, up and down hills and trails, down onto deep sandy Baker Beach and up the notorious sand ladder; a 400 step climb up the cliff which you can only do at a walking trudge. I enjoyed the views on the run course, but it was tough, and hot. Some experience of fell/hill running would have put me in good stead for the course, it is rarely flat. Anyway, nuff said - tough run.

I crossed the line in 2 hours 54 minutes 10 seconds. Relieved, overjoyed, slightly sun-burned :)

Aftermath

After the race there was a really great selection of food and salad for the athletes. Perfect! It was really nice to have food available immediately. The expo was in full swing with all types of gear and bikes going for great prices. I found some shade, ate my dinner and cooled down - with a big grin on my face. Within a couple of hours I had dropped the bike back and was getting ready to leave San Francisco the following morning.

It’s still sinking in now. The race was an amazing experience. I can completely see why this is an iconic race; I can’t imagine a more perfect setting for a race. The course is challenging all the way through; the swim is technical, the bike involves climbs and fast downhill sections, the run involves off-road trails, beach running and several sections of steps. This is definitely not your standard Olympic distance race.

If you are thinking of taking a holiday in the US next year, or you fancy doing some racing abroad I would definitely recommend this race. Beautiful race, beautiful city. I’ll probably be entering the lottery for a spot next year.

Dear Mr. Bank Manager…

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 14th, 2008 at 9:00 pm and is filed under Adventures, Miscellany, Triathlon.