Wow, what an event! The 2009 Escape from Alcatraz was a journey within a greater journey for me. It all started back in November 2008. I had recently completed my first triathlon ever (2008 San Francisco at Treasure Island) and had barely survived the run. In fact, that 6 mile race run was the longest outdoor run I had ever done in my adult life... yes, you can infer that I did not properly train for the event but I was literally just doing the triathlon because of John's interest in training together for it.
Being new to the triathlon world, we had heard of the Escape triathlon and that there was a random lotto system to get in. So not really expected to get in, I signed up for the random lotto. The first drawing was in December and since I got no notification, I knew I was not in. I pretty much forgot about the whole thing until February 1 when I received an email that I had been selected to participate! I was shocked, amazing, excited and extremely scared at the same time. I had previously been fearing my next major tri, Avia Wildflower, which was scheduled for May 3 and I was afraid of that one because of its reputation for being very hilly. During the first weekend in April, I participated in the Tri-California training clinic for Wildflower. During the all day training event, we covered aspects of the swim, bike and run courses. This greatly alleviated my fear of Wildflower and all that remained was of the fear of the Alcatraz Tri one month later in June.
All of my increased training from December 2008 through April 2009 really paid for Wildflower as I ended up doing very well, placing 13th in my age group out of 230 women. I am amazed at my own progress and ability to perform. There was no mistaking it, I was officially a triathlon junkie. I couldn't get enough of the training, discipline, strategy and of course, the clothes and gear. :-)
So now it was early May and back to the upcoming Alcatraz, I knew I had to prepare and the swim portion was definitely worrying me. I turned to Tri-California training again and participate in the 2 day Swim only clinic in which we completed the entire actual swim course on an early Saturday morning. This practice swim was amazing and totally boasted my confidence about the upcoming triathlon. I knew I could do the swim and do it well. As for the bike and run, if you have been following my blog, you know about the 3 trips I took into SF to practice the courses, one RUN only and then two BIKE/RUN brick workouts. Again, the course practice was invaluable and I would recommend that for anyone to do whenever feasible for your event.
Let's jump to race day...the 4AM wake-up was not as painful as expeted, maybe I am sort of getting used to this. We got to the transition area around 5:30AM, which was not too early but not too late. Time to setup transition and then hopped the bus to the ferry terminal. Once we boarded the San Francisco Belle, the energy was incredible. Hundreds of triathletes (soon to be 1000s) were loaded up into this retired casino ferry boat...all sitted on the floor with wetsuits either on or in hand, assorted energy food and beverges, banter, laughter, nervous energy... all in one! After the ferry headed out, we knew it was just a matter of time before we would all be loaded into the 55 degree water within 6 minutes.
MY RACE REFLECTIONS
- SWIM: Loved it. I knew what to expect. I spotted well off of Sutro tower. It did feel a little longer than I thought and that ended up being because of the current, so everyone basically had an extra couple minutes tacked onto their times.
- BIKE: Loved it. Again, I knew the course well. I had planned out when I should go into aero position, when I should be in small and large gears and how to handle the turns and hills which were all of the place. With the traffic being gone, I was able to soar and was very satisfied with my time.
- RUN: Hated it. I did feel some worry setting in during T2 after the bike because my legs felt like rubber. I knew I had been very aggressive on the bike so I started to think I might have burnt my legs out. But there was no time to think because it was off to run. Like I have always felt in training, the first 1.5 - 2 miles of a run for me are always the toughest. It takes me about this distance to really warm up into the movement. I kept trying to remind myself of this during the first couple miles but negative thoughts kept plaguing my mind and I knew my pace was a little slowest than where I wanted it to be. Once I passed the uphill trail climb underneath the bridge and then down to Baker Beach, I started to feel a lot stronger. The dreaded Sand Ladder did not even end up being that bad because everyone was walking up it. So I did not feel like a slacker for just walking and grabbing the side cable line. After a little remaining uphill, I knew the rest of the course was all downhill and then flat. My energy really kicked into gear then and I pushed it out as best as possible. I made a minor mistake at the very end...I forgot that the red balloon gate sign was the entrance to the transition area but not the finish line... so I started my final all-out sprint too early and could not sustain it down the finish tunnel.
All in all, it was an incredible race and fabulous event.
Marlene's RACE TIME: 3:07:50
Age Group Place: 20th
Breakdown
- SWIM TIME: 42:28
- BIKE TIME: 01:01.46
- RUN TIME: 01:13.3
They even created a cool completion certificate for us. Can't wait to Escape again another year! See more pictures from the weekend in my Flickr Photostream.
Marlene's Actual Bike Course recorded by Garmin 405
Marlene's Actual Run Course recorded by Garmin 405
Recent Comments