An Awesome Bucket List Race
Today I Escaped from Alcatraz with my nephew, Michael. It was on his bucket list and I accompanied him because I am a super aunt. This is the most hyped race I have ever done… Everyone had a story, advise and the “oh my god I am gonna’ die” factor was extremely high preceding the race. We even met the man who swam into the man who died a couple of years ago in the water. The much-hyped up race lived up to its awesomeness but the terror quotient was lower than anticipated. The most dangerous thing about Escape from Alcatraz is riding your bike around Fisherman’s’ Warf pre- and post-race—every tourist rents a bike and one or two actually know how to ride—very scary!
So the morning of the race we rode our bike a couple of miles to the race with all our gear, set up the bikes and boarded the buses to the pier, then boarded the boat for the trip to Alcatraz almost 2,00 of us. Tension everywhere was high? How cold will the water be? what about the swells? how do you site? when do you turn? what if I get sucked under the boat? Sharks?-the course was across San Francisco Bay and then towards Golden Gate Bridge till you exit on a small beach (1.5 miles). Don’t’ turn too early or too late or you will never be able to fight against the current; millions of gallons are exiting the bay per minute.
The swim entrance was crazy they take about 6-8 minutes to get everyone off the boat. Michael and I were close to the end to get off; you don’t have a chance to even look just get the edge and jump. One last goodbye and we jumped. Goggles pooped up, replaced and then I was on my way. Water was unusually warm (about 58 F- same temp at Ester and Gord Pauls’ and Margret and Mario Dorio’s—I was prepared). Swim was a bit hectic people were swimming, left, right all over you and everywhere heads sticking up to site. Unfortunately I couldn’t really see any of the landmarks they told you to site—new goggles were foggy as was the vista, could even see the Golden Gate Bridge. A couple of times removed my goggles to take a look—this was supposed to be fun. The swim was actually good—I just put my head down and swam—I figured if there were still folks on the left and right then I was probably ok and the race directors said “Just Swim Across the Bay” so I did. And when I looked up, there was the swim exit about 50 stokes ahead, perfect aim (not like my last session with Miguel)—how could that be—what about all the folks on my right heading to another beach? Well those are the folks who overshot the exit and would have to run up the beach (as did Michael I was to learn later).
Felt great .5 mile run to the bike and I was off on the bike. Someone told me three hills out and three back for the 18-mile course- I sort of lost track. The other thing everyone said is that you will be so cold on the bike…after the first climb not a problem. I decided to go high tech for this race and use my new to me Garmin (thanks Kathleen Robb). Of course I didn’t ask how it works till I was setting up my bike in the dark in the morning. Michael gave me a quick demo, which I promptly forgot. I did manage to get it started about a mile or so into the race. What it told me is that I was going very slow up the hills, fast during the mile or two of flat- for the entire race- and too scared to look fast on the downhill. This course wasn’t a great race course—very congested both uphill and down with some sketchy roads and sketchier riders. Thanks Greg and the TCOB riders for the hills—we love to climb). The bike seemed to be done so quickly—very pretty views when the fog lifted and when you could pay attention.
Then off and running. I was so focused on the swim and bike that I didn’t look at the run course. It was an interesting course all types of terrain—stairs, hills, trails and more stairs. The best was running along the beach except it ended on the sand ladder—think the Chedoke stairs (comprised of sand dunes and railroad ties). Then mostly downhill to finish an amazing race. I did it in about 3:08, 4th in my age group (by 3 minutes, Michael told me—guess I should have tried harder). Waited a bit of time for Michael, who said he was signing autographs the whole way—that’s what took him so long. Thanks to Michael for a great race buddy- except for his constant requests for foot massages—none of which I complied with.
An awesome bucket list race.
