Got to SF, put the bike together, and went for a quick shakedown ride to make sure all the bolts were tight and the gearing was right for the hills. Rode over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. The weather was clear and visibility was good. Could see quite a ways and the view was beautiful. Nice and cool, about 65 with a cool breeze.
My brand new carbon fiber rear wheel with zero miles on it and a brand new tire was, disappointingly, out of true from being crunched into the bike carrier. It wasn’t bad enough that it was catching the brakes or would slow me down, but you do tend to wish for perfect when you pay $800 for a wheel… Found a local bike shop (Sports Basement) and bought a couple CO2 canisters that I couldn’t ship on the plane in case of any race-day flats.
We had a great room at the Hyatt at Fisherman’s Wharf, two blocks from the water and about two miles from transition and registration. Our hotel room was also about four doors down from Hunter Kemper, last year’s defending champion and 2006 ITU points leader. Hoped a little talent would wear off on me by being so close to someone good. It was nice to be so close to the water and I spent a lot of time down at the pier taking pictures and strolling around when not getting things ready to race.
Friday morning I got up early. I was trying to stay on Central Time in order to make the 4:00 a.m. get up race day a little more tolerable. Went for a short run along the pier that took me by the Dolphin Club, and saw a number of competitors out in the bay swimming. Ran back to the hotel, grabbed my wetsuit and goggles and headed back. Suited up and jumped in and instantly got the biggest ice cream headache I’d ever had from the cold. It felt like my head was in a vice. Got through about 75 strokes and things weren’t getting any better. I bagged it for the day and resolved to buy a squid lid to try to keep my head warm. Otherwise, the wetsuit was great. My hands and feet just went numb, but there was no pain.
Got the squid lid and found some Spenco blister pads that turned out to be my savior. I’d torn up my feet very badly at CapTex Monday as a result of running without socks. These pads got me through race day without any blood. They stuck well through all the sand and transitions, but proved to be a little too tenacious when I tried to remove them after the race, taking decent chunks of skin with them.
Mom, Dad, Darlene, and DD’s Mom were patient with me and let me do my thing to get ready for the race. They were a big help all week. We met up with Al and Sylvia, Darlene’s friends from work, for dinner Friday night. They drove up from LA for a long weekend and stuck around Sunday for most of the race, despite the seven-hour drive home. Nice to see them again.
Saturday, Darlene and her mom took off to go shopping and eat lunch at the Cheesecake Factory up on Union Square. Mom and Dad went to a museum, and I spent most of the day on my back resting. Couple quick workouts in the morning to get the body recovered from the rest day, but still not quite feeling right after the quick turnaround from Monday’s race.
Went down to transition for packet pick up and for the mandatory race briefing. It was out in the middle of a grassy area and the sun was absolutely beating down. They started the briefing with lots of words from the sponsors before the meat of the presentation, particularly on how the swim would work. They punctuated everything with a five minute interlude for some sponsor or another to talk about their stuff and how happy they were to be a sponsor. After 90 minutes, we’d only covered the swim, and I was feeling dehydrated and sunburned. Decided to bail on the bike and run portions, thinking I’ve done enough that I could figure those parts out on my own. Don’t have any idea how much longer the thing went on, but the next briefing was supposed to start three hours later. They were at least done by morning when I returned for the race…
Woke up race morning at 4:00, bolted down a bagel, some yogurt and granola with a little protein sprinkled in, tons of Gatorade and water. Dad was nice enough to haul out of bed to take me down to the transition so I wouldn’t have to ride down in the dark.
I was there when transition opened, racked my bike, spread out all my gear, and got on t he first bus to the pier where the boat was waiting. Got marked at the pier, hit the Port-O-Let for the last time, and boarded the boat. Found a spot near t he starboard of the boat so I’d be one of the first from my wave out the door. Leaned against the pole and tried to relax and stretch as the boat filled up. Pretty soon, the bottom deck of the boat was noisy and filled with people. It wasn’t so bad that it was claustrophobic, but it was definitely full and noisy. The boat finally started moving at 7:15 and I pounded a gel pack and 16 ounces of Gatorade. As we neared the island and got into position, we started crushing for the door. Really had to pee, but no time. I noticed the carpet by the door was wet and I looked around and noticed a lot of people just peeing in their wetsuits. I couldn’t quite bring myself to it.
Pros got the gun and you could feel the anxiety in the air as we queued up to jump in for the age group waves. The fog was starting to roll in over SF, and the communications tower we were told to sight from was drifting in and out. I switched to the backup, the dome of the Exploratorium.
I managed to get to the rail as one of the first age groupers and stepped over. Dropped about 10 feet to the water, felt the crushing shock of the cold water, and stroked hard to get away from the boat to avoid getting jumped on from behind. So damn cold, but the squid lid was helping quite a bit. Finally let it go and warmed up the wetsuit a little. Even though there were tons of people in the water around me, I had plenty of room and felt surprisingly alone. The waves were around ten inches and most were whitecaps. Tried to find a good stroke and rhythm, but the wave sets would swamp my breathing every six or seven strokes.
Couldn’t find anyone moving at my pace, or slightly faster, so was stroking it alone. About half way out, I stopped to cough up a little salt water I’d just swallowed, and took the opportunity to turn around and take in the scenery. There was Alcatraz and Oakland in the early morning light, and the water was silvery. Seemed like millions of swimmers behind me. Turned to look back toward the Golden Gate Bridge and SF. Starting to lose both in fog, and now the Exploratorium dome was starting to fade in and out of the fog. Really needed to just follow the swimmers in front and hope they knew where they were going.
I wasn’t having a great swim, but it didn’t bother me too much. I knew the terrain of this course didn’t really favor a heavy guy like me, so I had no ambitions of a high place. Got to within about 200 yards of the shore when some of the back eddies really started pushing me around, and it was a struggle to line up with the exit gate. Made the exit and the crowd was deafening. My family said they were right there shouting for me and from the pictures, looks like they could have reached out and touched me, but I didn’t hear or see them through the tunnel vision and the din.
Got the wetsuit off and shoes on for the half-mile run to T1. My feet were completely numb, so t he run felt weird. Got to T1 and had a decent change to the bike. Tried to get the legs moving with a high gear, but definitely wasn’t setting the place ablaze. Up the hill past the GGB, and the fog was getting really thick. The salt air was creating quite a scum on my glasses and making the roads a little slick. Some of the descents and corners were pretty technical and I was surprised not to see bodies stacked up in a couple of them. Maintained a decent tempo coming back, although I was clearly not shining on the climbs. Got onto the last flat section of about 1.5 miles leading back to transition and poured it on because I was back in my element. Felt very fast and it was nice to feel like I wasn’t completely worthless.
Bit of a slow T2, and my legs really weren’t moving well. The crowd was very thick along Marina Green, and I got lots of yells for Texas thanks to my Texas Iron jersey and UT visor. It was about two miles on the flat trail along the beach before the trail turned sickeningly skyward. The pros were just coming back on mile six and hauling ass when I made the turn up the stairs. They were composed of railroad ties, had uneven tread lengths and were fairly steep. Felt like shit after the run and because they were uneven, it made it hard to get into a rhythm. It got pretty narrow in places and then I saw the worst part: the pros were coming back down the same narrow trail. This was completely nuts!
We ran on rocky trails along the gun emplacements, up rickety stairs, over protruding tree roots, through tunnels so short you had to duck way down, and two lanes of traffic through ridiculously narrow trails. Dropped down a very sandy and loose downhill onto the beach. The sand was deep and damp, and very slow going. Everyone was trying to get to the hard-packed sand at the water’s edge and it was sometimes a game of chicken with competitors coming the other way.
We started heading back off the beach and came to the dreaded Sand Ladder. This was every bit as bad as they made it out to be. It is just three sets of long cables that stretch from the top of the hill to the bottom. Every twelve to 16 inches is a rounded 4x4 piece of wood strung along the cables to form a ladder. Each is about four feet wide with cable “hand rails” on either side. The shitty part about all this is that it is just tossed on a dune, so some of the steps are half submerged in sand. It was steep enough that most were reduced to a fast walk. Absolutely leg-busting. Got back up to the top and started struggling down the narrow trail. Had to stop to the side a couple times to let the faster people through. I wasn’t having a good day, but I wasn’t going to keep these people from having a good one.
Down the stairs and the crowd coming up was getting pretty thick. Just tried really hard not to knock knees with anyone on the way down, but the shoulder contact was inevitable. I heard Stacy yell for me as she passed going the other way, but was concentrating on the stairs and didn’t have time to see her or wish her well. Finally got off the stairs and back onto the flat section. Legs just weren’t turning over well, but it felt so good to be on something stable. I was still getting passed by seemingly every Tom, Dick, & Jane on the course, but couldn’t / wasn’t willing to push any faster. Some of the miles on the hills had been damn near 10 minutes, but now I was content just to get back to seven minute pace. Still felt impossibly slow.
Got back to the crowd and closed in on the finish; made the turn onto the grass and struggled up t he finishing stretch to the finish. Finally over! An epic day; truly everything the race was billed to be as the best in the world. Would recommend it to any masochist.
A quick look at the results afterward and I finished at 2:45. Good enough only for 128th out of 1800, and a very poor 32nd out of 220 in the age group. Didn’t stink the place up, but definitely not one of my better races. Still lots of fun. I think this goes into the category of been there, done that. Not really ambitious to do this race again, but happy I did.
Results: http://www.tricalifornia.com/alcatraz/2006/ Click on the 2006 Race Results link, then click on the link for the 1-500 list or the 30-34 link in the Amateur Division Results Male: section
Photos: In the 2006 Escape from Alcatraz folio in the photo section in the upper right and http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=12529&PWD=&BIB=365
My brand new carbon fiber rear wheel with zero miles on it and a brand new tire was, disappointingly, out of true from being crunched into the bike carrier. It wasn’t bad enough that it was catching the brakes or would slow me down, but you do tend to wish for perfect when you pay $800 for a wheel… Found a local bike shop (Sports Basement) and bought a couple CO2 canisters that I couldn’t ship on the plane in case of any race-day flats.
We had a great room at the Hyatt at Fisherman’s Wharf, two blocks from the water and about two miles from transition and registration. Our hotel room was also about four doors down from Hunter Kemper, last year’s defending champion and 2006 ITU points leader. Hoped a little talent would wear off on me by being so close to someone good. It was nice to be so close to the water and I spent a lot of time down at the pier taking pictures and strolling around when not getting things ready to race.
Friday morning I got up early. I was trying to stay on Central Time in order to make the 4:00 a.m. get up race day a little more tolerable. Went for a short run along the pier that took me by the Dolphin Club, and saw a number of competitors out in the bay swimming. Ran back to the hotel, grabbed my wetsuit and goggles and headed back. Suited up and jumped in and instantly got the biggest ice cream headache I’d ever had from the cold. It felt like my head was in a vice. Got through about 75 strokes and things weren’t getting any better. I bagged it for the day and resolved to buy a squid lid to try to keep my head warm. Otherwise, the wetsuit was great. My hands and feet just went numb, but there was no pain.
Got the squid lid and found some Spenco blister pads that turned out to be my savior. I’d torn up my feet very badly at CapTex Monday as a result of running without socks. These pads got me through race day without any blood. They stuck well through all the sand and transitions, but proved to be a little too tenacious when I tried to remove them after the race, taking decent chunks of skin with them.
Mom, Dad, Darlene, and DD’s Mom were patient with me and let me do my thing to get ready for the race. They were a big help all week. We met up with Al and Sylvia, Darlene’s friends from work, for dinner Friday night. They drove up from LA for a long weekend and stuck around Sunday for most of the race, despite the seven-hour drive home. Nice to see them again.
Saturday, Darlene and her mom took off to go shopping and eat lunch at the Cheesecake Factory up on Union Square. Mom and Dad went to a museum, and I spent most of the day on my back resting. Couple quick workouts in the morning to get the body recovered from the rest day, but still not quite feeling right after the quick turnaround from Monday’s race.
Went down to transition for packet pick up and for the mandatory race briefing. It was out in the middle of a grassy area and the sun was absolutely beating down. They started the briefing with lots of words from the sponsors before the meat of the presentation, particularly on how the swim would work. They punctuated everything with a five minute interlude for some sponsor or another to talk about their stuff and how happy they were to be a sponsor. After 90 minutes, we’d only covered the swim, and I was feeling dehydrated and sunburned. Decided to bail on the bike and run portions, thinking I’ve done enough that I could figure those parts out on my own. Don’t have any idea how much longer the thing went on, but the next briefing was supposed to start three hours later. They were at least done by morning when I returned for the race…
Woke up race morning at 4:00, bolted down a bagel, some yogurt and granola with a little protein sprinkled in, tons of Gatorade and water. Dad was nice enough to haul out of bed to take me down to the transition so I wouldn’t have to ride down in the dark.
I was there when transition opened, racked my bike, spread out all my gear, and got on t he first bus to the pier where the boat was waiting. Got marked at the pier, hit the Port-O-Let for the last time, and boarded the boat. Found a spot near t he starboard of the boat so I’d be one of the first from my wave out the door. Leaned against the pole and tried to relax and stretch as the boat filled up. Pretty soon, the bottom deck of the boat was noisy and filled with people. It wasn’t so bad that it was claustrophobic, but it was definitely full and noisy. The boat finally started moving at 7:15 and I pounded a gel pack and 16 ounces of Gatorade. As we neared the island and got into position, we started crushing for the door. Really had to pee, but no time. I noticed the carpet by the door was wet and I looked around and noticed a lot of people just peeing in their wetsuits. I couldn’t quite bring myself to it.
Pros got the gun and you could feel the anxiety in the air as we queued up to jump in for the age group waves. The fog was starting to roll in over SF, and the communications tower we were told to sight from was drifting in and out. I switched to the backup, the dome of the Exploratorium.
I managed to get to the rail as one of the first age groupers and stepped over. Dropped about 10 feet to the water, felt the crushing shock of the cold water, and stroked hard to get away from the boat to avoid getting jumped on from behind. So damn cold, but the squid lid was helping quite a bit. Finally let it go and warmed up the wetsuit a little. Even though there were tons of people in the water around me, I had plenty of room and felt surprisingly alone. The waves were around ten inches and most were whitecaps. Tried to find a good stroke and rhythm, but the wave sets would swamp my breathing every six or seven strokes.
Couldn’t find anyone moving at my pace, or slightly faster, so was stroking it alone. About half way out, I stopped to cough up a little salt water I’d just swallowed, and took the opportunity to turn around and take in the scenery. There was Alcatraz and Oakland in the early morning light, and the water was silvery. Seemed like millions of swimmers behind me. Turned to look back toward the Golden Gate Bridge and SF. Starting to lose both in fog, and now the Exploratorium dome was starting to fade in and out of the fog. Really needed to just follow the swimmers in front and hope they knew where they were going.
I wasn’t having a great swim, but it didn’t bother me too much. I knew the terrain of this course didn’t really favor a heavy guy like me, so I had no ambitions of a high place. Got to within about 200 yards of the shore when some of the back eddies really started pushing me around, and it was a struggle to line up with the exit gate. Made the exit and the crowd was deafening. My family said they were right there shouting for me and from the pictures, looks like they could have reached out and touched me, but I didn’t hear or see them through the tunnel vision and the din.
Got the wetsuit off and shoes on for the half-mile run to T1. My feet were completely numb, so t he run felt weird. Got to T1 and had a decent change to the bike. Tried to get the legs moving with a high gear, but definitely wasn’t setting the place ablaze. Up the hill past the GGB, and the fog was getting really thick. The salt air was creating quite a scum on my glasses and making the roads a little slick. Some of the descents and corners were pretty technical and I was surprised not to see bodies stacked up in a couple of them. Maintained a decent tempo coming back, although I was clearly not shining on the climbs. Got onto the last flat section of about 1.5 miles leading back to transition and poured it on because I was back in my element. Felt very fast and it was nice to feel like I wasn’t completely worthless.
Bit of a slow T2, and my legs really weren’t moving well. The crowd was very thick along Marina Green, and I got lots of yells for Texas thanks to my Texas Iron jersey and UT visor. It was about two miles on the flat trail along the beach before the trail turned sickeningly skyward. The pros were just coming back on mile six and hauling ass when I made the turn up the stairs. They were composed of railroad ties, had uneven tread lengths and were fairly steep. Felt like shit after the run and because they were uneven, it made it hard to get into a rhythm. It got pretty narrow in places and then I saw the worst part: the pros were coming back down the same narrow trail. This was completely nuts!
We ran on rocky trails along the gun emplacements, up rickety stairs, over protruding tree roots, through tunnels so short you had to duck way down, and two lanes of traffic through ridiculously narrow trails. Dropped down a very sandy and loose downhill onto the beach. The sand was deep and damp, and very slow going. Everyone was trying to get to the hard-packed sand at the water’s edge and it was sometimes a game of chicken with competitors coming the other way.
We started heading back off the beach and came to the dreaded Sand Ladder. This was every bit as bad as they made it out to be. It is just three sets of long cables that stretch from the top of the hill to the bottom. Every twelve to 16 inches is a rounded 4x4 piece of wood strung along the cables to form a ladder. Each is about four feet wide with cable “hand rails” on either side. The shitty part about all this is that it is just tossed on a dune, so some of the steps are half submerged in sand. It was steep enough that most were reduced to a fast walk. Absolutely leg-busting. Got back up to the top and started struggling down the narrow trail. Had to stop to the side a couple times to let the faster people through. I wasn’t having a good day, but I wasn’t going to keep these people from having a good one.
Down the stairs and the crowd coming up was getting pretty thick. Just tried really hard not to knock knees with anyone on the way down, but the shoulder contact was inevitable. I heard Stacy yell for me as she passed going the other way, but was concentrating on the stairs and didn’t have time to see her or wish her well. Finally got off the stairs and back onto the flat section. Legs just weren’t turning over well, but it felt so good to be on something stable. I was still getting passed by seemingly every Tom, Dick, & Jane on the course, but couldn’t / wasn’t willing to push any faster. Some of the miles on the hills had been damn near 10 minutes, but now I was content just to get back to seven minute pace. Still felt impossibly slow.
Got back to the crowd and closed in on the finish; made the turn onto the grass and struggled up t he finishing stretch to the finish. Finally over! An epic day; truly everything the race was billed to be as the best in the world. Would recommend it to any masochist.
A quick look at the results afterward and I finished at 2:45. Good enough only for 128th out of 1800, and a very poor 32nd out of 220 in the age group. Didn’t stink the place up, but definitely not one of my better races. Still lots of fun. I think this goes into the category of been there, done that. Not really ambitious to do this race again, but happy I did.
Results: http://www.tricalifornia.com/alcatraz/2006/ Click on the 2006 Race Results link, then click on the link for the 1-500 list or the 30-34 link in the Amateur Division Results Male: section
Photos: In the 2006 Escape from Alcatraz folio in the photo section in the upper right and http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=12529&PWD=&BIB=365
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