Escape from Alcatraz - 6/10/12

The 32^nd annual Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon was held on June 10^th, 2012 in San Francisco, CA.

Alcatraz Island on race morning.

Besides the Ironman World Championship race in Kona, Hawaii, there are few other races that rival the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon in terms of allure and prestige.  Even though triathlon is growing rapidly, it is still relatively obscure in the sporting world.  Still, most people, no matter how little they know about triathlon, are familiar with this race.  Pick anyone on a street and ask them what they know about triathlon and you’ll likely hear three things:  Ironman, Hawaii, and Escape from Alcatraz.

Escape from Alcatraz originated in 1981, though it was a different course and it was a private club race put on by the famous Dolphin Club of San Francisco.  It is a unique race on many levels.  The race distance is all its own; a “modified” Olympic distance race consisting of a 1.5 mile swim, an 18 mile bike, and an 8 mile run.  But it’s not the distance that truly makes this race iconic.  Escape from Alcatraz is unlike any other triathlon because of its location and legendary difficulty.  The entire race is framed by the picturesque scenery of San Francisco, in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Race Overview

Without question, the great allure of the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon is the swim.  Borrowing from the legacy of the famous Alcatraz federal penitentiary, the race tests competitors to swim across the San Francisco bay.  In its years as a federal prison, no one is known to have escaped from “The Rock”.  The San Francisco bay is largely filled with snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, making the water notoriously cold (55° F on average).  Additionally, the currents can be treacherous.  During tidal conditions, the bay more closely resembles a river as over 4.5 million cubic feet of water per second flow out under the Golden Gate Bridge, and empty into the Pacific Ocean!  This massive flow of water creates currents that can reach 8 knots.  Its location, isolated from the mainland by the dangerous waters of the San Francisco bay, coupled with the fact that the prison was heavily secured, made escape extremely difficult; some say impossible.

After a challenging swim, competitors must get out of the frigid bay waters to face a very technical 18-mile bike course around the foot of the Golden Gate bridge area.  There are significant elevation changes along with tight, twisting corners and very fast descents.  If competitors have any energy left after the swim and bike, the tough run course will almost certainly sap what remains.  The 8-mile run course more closely resembles a trail run as it winds up, down and around the Golden Gate park trail system and the Baker beach area.


The race draws over 2,000 age-group and professional athletes to compete and offers a significant prize purse for pros.  There are three ways to enter this race:  1.  As a professional/elite.  2.  As an age grouper, by winning a race entry at a qualifying Escape to Alcatraz series race.  3.  As an age grouper, by being selected in a random lottery.  Additionally, age group athletes who win their age group at the Escape from Alcatraz are automatically eligible to return the following year.

Course Map

Race Details

The Escape from Alcatraz race is centered in the beautiful Marina Green area of San Francisco, next to the St. Francis Yacht Club.  Marina Green is a 74 acre field that was once just marshland.  This area was built up with the rubble remaining from the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake that destroyed 80% of the city.  The transition area, race expo, and huge finish line with grandstands are all in this area.  

3 mile shuttle from transition area to the boat.  Don't miss the last bus!

The transition area is over 3 miles away from the boat that athletes must board on race morning.  Competitors must load buses at the transition area and get shuttled to the boat.  Getting 2,000 competitors moved this early in the morning must be a logistical nightmare that keeps the race directors awake at night (kudos to them).  It also means that the day starts very early at this race.  Transition opens at 4:00 a.m., buses start shuttling competitors to the boat at 4:30 a.m., and the last bus departs the transition area at 6:00 a.m.  The boat departs for Alcatraz Island at 6:30 a.m. sharp.
  

Athletes jump from The San Francisco Belle.

Contrary to popular belief, the race swim start does not actually begin on Alcatraz Island.  Instead, athletes load up on The San Francisco Belle, a three deck, 292-ft. sternwheeler, and are ferried to the swim start, just a few hundred yards off Alcatraz Island.  At the cue of the boat's horn, athletes must jump from the lower deck of the boat, about 6 ft. above the water.  After the pro field starts the race, age group athletes begin filling out one of three exit points on the lower deck of the boat.  In what must appear to spectators like panicked passengers escaping a sinking ship, all 2,000+ athletes empty the boat in around 6 minutes!

Marina Green Beach and Alcatraz Island in the background.
Swim exit.  A small target in a large bay

Once in the water, athletes face a 1.5 mile swim to the Marina Green Beach area.  The landing beach area is relatively small and isn't really visible from the water.  Athletes are encouraged to sight on city landmarks; preferably on objects much further East than the actual swim finish in order to overcome the strong currents that push the swimmers West toward the Golden Gate Bridge and out to sea.  Sighting too aggressively can cause swimmers to overshoot the swim exit and end up either swimming against the current to get back to the swim exit, exiting the water further west of the swim exit and having an extra-long run to transition, or getting picked up and re-positioned by a safety boat.


An interesting feature of this race is the "mini-transition" at the swim exit and the 1/2 mile warm-up run to T1.  Competitors have the option of leaving out a gear bag (shoes, towel, water, etc.) in this "mini-transition" are to use for the warm up run to T1.  The warm-up run is actually a safety feature of the race.  In years past, cold athletes with numb feet and hands were having bad crashes once on the tricky bike course.  IMG decided to add the 1/2 mile run from the swim exit to T1 to ensure that athletes have ample time to warm up and get re-oriented after the cold water swim.

The bike course begins at the Marina Green, and is an out-and-back 18-mile ride.  After heading West toward Crissy Field via Marina Boulevard, then climbing to Lincoln Blvd., athletes ride through the beautiful and famous Presidio area of San Francisco.  More climbing takes athletes up the hill to the Palace of the Legion of Honor at around mile 5.5, the highest point in the bike course.  Riders then descend toward Baker Beach and ride South on The Great Highway to Golden Gate Park.  After riding through the Golden Gate Park area, athletes ride back to the Great Highway on the north side of the park and then retrace the course back to the Marina Green, including the tough climb up to the Legion of Honor, for the transition to the run.

The 8-mile run to Baker Beach Battery begins by leaving Marina Green heading west toward Crissy Field to Fort Point below the Golden Gate Bridge.  From Fort Point, athletes run through the Presidio Headlands up and under the Golden Gate Bridge and onto the Coast Trail.  The narrow Coast Trail takes athletes high above the Coastal Bluffs and next to the old Coastal Defense Batteries up toward Lincoln Blvd. just past Battery Dynamite.  The run then drops elevation while running down Lincoln Blvd. before entering Baker Beach and the deep sand and shoreline.  At the turn-around point on Baker Beach, athletes must turn and run back along the shoreline until they reach the famous Equinox Sand Ladder around mile 4.  The sand ladder is 400 steps of deep sand and wooden beams up the very steep cliff separating Baker Beach from Lincoln Blvd.  After reaching the top of the Equinox Sand Ladder, athletes retrace the course on the Coast Trail, under the Golden Gate Bridge, past Crissy Field, and finish back at Marina Green.

My Race

Race day came very early on Sunday morning; 3:30 a.m. to be exact.  With transition opening at 4:00 a.m. and buses beginning to roll at 4:30 a.m., there wasn't much opportunity to sleep in.  Fortunately, we rented a studio apartment about three blocks away from Marina Green so I was able to hop on my bike for a 5 minute ride to transition.  I can't imagine how early folks staying across town must have had to wake.  I tried to psych myself up the night before by telling myself that 3:30 a.m. PST is only 5:30 a.m. CST...it didn't work.   

Racked and ready.

Surprisingly, Marina Green at 4:00 a.m. is a very dark place.  I was happy that I'd made an uncharacteristically good decision and packed a flashlight in my transition bag.  Under the warm glow of flashlight, I was able to get my transition area set up quickly, use the bathroom, then made my way to the bus headed to the San Francisco Belle at about 4:45 a.m.


Once at the San Francisco Belle, athletes gathered in a makeshift "staging area" in a large parking lot before loading the boat.  I used that opportunity to get in a small warmup, stretch, and get my wetsuit partially on.  At approximately 5:30 a.m. athletes were allowed to begin boarding the Belle.  But, since the boat doesn't depart until 6:30 a.m., and the swim start doesn't begin until 7:30 a.m., it is not encouraged to put on your wetsuit completely for fear of overheating.  I pulled mine up to my waist before getting on the boat until a few minutes before the swim start, and I was fine.  Before boarding the boat, athletes were able to drop off a bag with morning clothes and anything else used in the morning.  This bag was available for pickup immediately after the race.

Swimmers in the bay with San Francisco in the background.

After boarding the boat, athletes were corralled into holding areas arranged by age group.  I was lucky enough to be on the 1st level of the boat.  That meant that once the horn blew to begin jumping from the boat, I was only a few steps from the nearest exit door.  I estimate that I was in the water within 30 seconds of the swim start.  While it really doesn't matter when you get off the boat (timing starts at the timing mats just before jumping), it's helpful to get in and out of the water quickly as the bike and run courses get crowded quickly.

By far, this swim is the most mentally difficult of any race I've done.  Almost all the focus of this race is on the cold water, the strong currents and the debate over whether great white sharks are in the bay or not.  There are no buoys to follow, so over and over again the race director talks about the sighting landmarks and the importance of getting across "the river" as quickly as possible.  All of this stuff tumbling around in my head during the one hour boat ride to Alcatraz really started to ratchet up my anxiety and pre-race nerves.  Once it was my turn to jump in the water, though, it all dissolved in an instant.  In fact, I don't even remember feeling the cold water.  It was not until the end of the swim that I started to realize my hands were slightly numb.  Fortunately, I did have enough presence of mind to stop swimming for a moment and just soak in the views of San Francisco, Alcatraz Island and Golden Gate Bridge from the water; a view not many can say they've enjoyed.  

My swim felt really solid to me.  It felt like I was swimming fast (for me) and I wasn't getting tired at all.  This was the first race where I was able to get on the feet of a swimmer that I could get a solid draft from for a significant distance; probably 1/3 of the swim.  He was fast enough that I had to work to stay with him, but he never dropped me...well, at least until I made him mad (Sorry random dude, I didn't mean to keep touching your feet).  At one point he turned around and gave me the universal look that said "back off!".  He was much bigger than me, so I did. 


As it turns out, I truly was swimming quite fast.  Unfortunately, this had little to do with my ability and a lot to do with the currents carrying me.  I wouldn't have minded this except that the currents were not carrying me where I wanted to go.  As you can see in the map below, I was actually swept slightly past Marina Green Beach and had to swim back upstream to get to the swim exit.  That final 100-200 meters was the longest of my life and added minutes to my swim time.  In retrospect, it might have been faster to exit the water further downstream on Marina Green Beach and run back.  My swim time was slower than I anticipated, but given the conditions I really can't complain.  After the race, I found out that the swim was slow for just about everyone this year.  In fact, even 5 time race winner Andy Potts' swim time was nearly 5 minutes slower than last year!


Swim Time - 47:39

The straight line would be a perfect point to point route.  The curved line was my actual swim route, as tracked by my Garmin GPS.

San Francisco as seen from Alcatraz Island.

To further illustrate just how strong the currents are in the bay, take a look at the photo above.  The T.V. tower is the landmark I sighted on for the majority of the swim.  It seems like it would be a very conservative swim route, right?  Wrong.  I still ended up overshooting the swim exit!

Notice the large field of swimmers scattered all over the bay in the background.

After exiting the water, it was time to tackle the long warm-up run to transition.  Immediately upon exiting the water, there is a mini-transition area that athletes can use to take off their wetsuits and put on shoes for the run to the main transition area.  Being the slow swimmer that I am, I opted to skip the mini-transition and run back to transition in my neoprene booties.  I think this was a good decision from a time management standpoint, but I was surprised at how little the neoprene booties cushioned my feet from the concrete.  If the run to transition was any longer, I'd have definitely needed shoes.


T1 Time - 7:07

Start of the bike course

Once on the bike, my first priority was to get in some nutrition.  I gulped quite a bit of my Infinit mix in the first flat mile.  It's not that this race is really that long, but the bike course is so technical that there are very few opportunities to take your hands off the bars to get a drink or eat anything, so it's important to fuel up early.

In the days leading up to the race, I worried about how cold I'd be, not in the water, but once on the bike.  San Francisco can be quite chilly early in the morning, even in June.  In the end, I got lucky.  The weather was absolutely beautiful with the day's high in the low 70's.  This made for a very pleasant bike ride; I'm not even sure if I broke a sweat!  Maybe it was the weather, but I knew immediately when I got on the bike that I was going to have a good day.


There are lots of climbs on this bike course.  Most of them are relatively short, but they are very steep.  My focus was on not pushing too hard and blowing up.  I tried to focus on spinning rather than mashing gears.  For the most part, I think I executed a solid, paced effort on the bike.  I certainly could have ridden it faster, but I'm sure it would have been at the expense of my run.


I wish I had a camera mounted on my bike.  There are parts of this bike course that are nothing short of breathtaking.  One especially scenic area is the long descent down towards Baker Beach.  I don't have any photos of it, but if you ever get to San Francisco make sure you see this area, preferably on a bike or on foot.

I don't think that smile left my face during the
entire race.

As a flatlander, the descents seemed very fast to me.  I don't normally mind that, except that the bike course is quite crowded with athletes.  Since it's only 18 miles long with lots of climbing, it never really gets spread out.  That makes bombing descents at 30-40 mph a little hairy with other nervous athletes all around you.  You know you're going fast, when you can smell your brakes heating up your carbon wheels.  I'd be lying if I said the thought of rolling a tubular tire didn't cross my mind a few times.  It was fun, but I'd love to ride those roads alone one day and really let loose.


Looking back at all of the photos of me in this race made me laugh.  There were very few pictures of me where I wasn't smiling.  I truly enjoyed myself during every aspect of this race, but especially the bike course.  The entire time, I just kept telling myself how lucky I was to be there.  I was actually a little sad when I realized that I was almost to the end of the bike course.


Bike Time - 1:02:46 (17.2 mph)

Start of the run course.

Once back at the transition area, I quickly racked my bike and put on my running shoes.  I opted to run in my Brooks PureGrit trail shoes for this race.  I think that was a pretty good decision, as the run course definitely resembles a trail run more than a road run.  Running out of T2, I expected my legs to be tired from the tough bike course, but to my surprise they felt pretty fresh.  I was able to settle into a nice pace for the first flat 1 1/2 miles up until the climbing began.


When it comes to the run course, everyone has heard of the famous Equinox sand ladder.  True to its reputation, that part was extremely difficult.  However, what I found surprising was the first climb up to the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge.  It's a steep staircase with strange, unevenly spaced steps.  It's a part of the run course that took me off guard.  The most difficult thing about the first climb is that it immediately follows the first 1.5 flat miles.  Most athletes really attack that initial flat section and then, Surprise!, you get to climb about 200 ft.  It really takes a lot out of your legs.  I just tried to focus on increasing my foot turnover and driving from the hips.  I also did my best to focus on the beautiful scenery of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Coastal Bluffs.  I used that to take my mind off my burning legs.

For a little perspective of the grade and height
of the sand ladder, try to find the athletes down
near the waters edge.

Escape from Alcatraz is a race the definitely rewards athletes who can swim and bike in the front of the field.  Once on the run course, it gets tight fast.  Long sections of the run course are on single track trails.  It's hard to pass athletes going the same direction as you, much more difficult given that there are athletes running back the opposite direction on the same trial!


Ok, the sand ladder.  Besides the swim, it's what everyone asks about.  As I previously mentioned, its notoriety is well deserved.  It comes at mile 5 in the 8 mile run course.  It also follows over a mile of difficult running in the sand of Baker Beach.  It's such an integral part of the Escape from Alcatraz experience, that they even time this section of the course.


When I saw it coming up, my first thought was:  "Who is the mentally ill person that designed this run course!?!".  There's virtually no way anyone can run up all 400 steps of the sand stairs climbing up the cliff face to Lincoln Blvd.  Even the pros don't run up.  I did my best to take advantage of the hand cables and posts lining the stairs as much as possible to pull myself up and save my legs, but this part of the course saps everyone's strength.  I have to admit, this is one part of the course where I didn't do much smiling!


Sand Ladder Time - 3:21

Looking up at the face of doom.

My legs told me immediately how difficult the sand ladders were.  But, I really didn't get an opportunity to fully appreciate just how difficult the sand ladder is until a few days later.  My wife and I went for a little jog in San Francisco a few days after the race.  She really wanted to see the sand ladders, so we decided to follow the run course.  It was then that I was able to look around and take a few pictures from different angles.  I have to say, however, that pictures just can't do it justice.


One of the cruelest parts of the run course is the top of the sand ladders.  You'd like to think that the climbing is done at that point, but you'd be wrong.  Once you're exhausted and at the top of the cliff face, you still have another 1/2 mile of steady uphill running before you reach the highest point on the Coast trail.


The final two miles to the finish line are either downhill or flat.  Its a part of the run course where you can really make up a lot of time, if you've done a good job of pacing the obstacles of the first 6 miles.  My race plan was to empty the tank starting at mile 6 on the run.  It worked out well for me, and I was able to finish strong.  In the end, I was able to achieve my goal of finishing the difficult run course with a sub-8:00 minute average pace. 

Run Time - 1:03:27 (7:56/mi.)


The finishing chute at this race is remarkable.  There are grand stands set up on both sides of the chute where spectators can sit and cheer the athletes to the finish line.  It's a really awesome experience for the athletes to run through the cheering crowds; it kinda makes you feel like you're somebody!


In the end, I fell just short of making my goal time of sub-3 hours.  I had bike and run splits that could have easily gotten me there, but my swim time was a little too slow.  At this race you have to take what the bay gives you, and this year it wasn't very nice to us.  Some day I'd love to take another crack at it with some experience under my belt.


Race Finish Time - 3:03:01

All-in-all, I had an absolute blast competing at the Escape from Alcatraz.  I can't say anything negative about it.  There's not another race that I've competed in where I had as much fun.  Even during the most difficult parts of the course, I never stopped having fun.  Because of the tight racing conditions, I even had opportunities to have brief conversations with some of my fellow competitors out on the course; I never do that!  The positive vibe that exists at this race alone makes it worth competing in.


I typically rate races based on my perceived quality of the venue and the value of the race.  Escape from Alcatraz has to get a pass on this.  There's no other race like it.  It's often considered a "bucket list" race or a "destination" race, and, as such, it's impossible to assign a value to it.  They could double the race entry fees, and I'd still sign up.  If you ever get a chance to do this race, I highly recommend it.