Escape from Alcatraz

Despite the fact that I live in San Francisco and have more than ample opportunities to practice the Alcatraz course, that race kicked my butt for the second year running. Once again, the swim killed me! Although last year, my swim fitness was pathetic and I deserved being thoroughly whooped by the Potts and Sanson express train, this year was a different story and I was swimming faster than ever in workouts. As usual, I had an awesome start – how I wish every race had a pontoon start or a dive off of a boat – and quickly settled into a nice pace. However, I am not sure why I decided to do this, but I decided to take a different line than the lead boat. Halfway though the swim when I realized that no one was going around me I took a couple of backstrokes and realized that I was leading a renegade pack of about 5 swimmers way off course. That pack of seagulls that I thought was in the water a solid 200 yards to my left was everyone else. I tried to correct my line and drift over to them, but in the end went too far left and got into the rocks. My best bet would have been to stay my course since the current was not as strong as in years past, but oh well. When I exited the water with a couple of the female pros I knew I had some work to do on the bike. Once I was on my bike I started picking up athletes and got into a really nice rhythm. I was really happy with my decision to ride a tt bike and entered t2 in 9th place. Onto the run, I tried to maintain good form, but I could tell that my bike effort was going to hurt me on the run. A fast moving Lewis Elliot flew by me. The next athlete was my good friend Matt Seymour and Matty offered me some words of encouragement when he went by. I tagged along with him until the downhill to Baker Beach where his foot speed combined with my toasted quads gapped me by about a hundred yards. The second half of that run was uneventful as I could not close the gap that Matty had on me and finished in 11th place. All in all it was a fun race and it was great seeing familiar faces like my good friends from Cal – Melissa, Maggie, K Hass and Brandon cheering for me on the flat stretch and Dave and all the Pac Bikes crew scattered throughout the course. You guys carried me through after my awful swim and allowed me to dwell on the good parts of my race, like not giving up after the swim and my solid bike. Thanks for all of the support! And Mags and Melissa, those custom nose strips were a super hot look!