Alcatraz Tri - 3rd!

When deciding my race calendar for the 2011 US season I made sure to fit in the Alcatraz Triathlon. This was my 2nd year racing at Alcatraz and it truly is one special race!



Race morning kicked off at 5.30am with a bus trip from transition to the ferry terminal. It was then onto the boat with some 800 other crazy triathletes bound for Alcatraz Island. After about an hour of sitting on the boat trying to keep the nerves calm, stay warm and prepare for plunging into the 15 degree (shark-infested??) water, it was time to go! At 7am the horn sounded and before I knew it we were jumping off the boat into the sea below.



The initial chill of the water doesn't quite hit until about mid-way into the swim once the adrenaline rush starts to wear off. However, there is plenty to take the mind off the cold, like where IS the swim exit?? The distance from the shore combined with the current and chop make sighting in the swim really tough. At times I couldn't see anyone or any boats around me and started to get a little concerned as to where everyone had disappeared to... Although eventually I could make out some flags on the shore, so put my head down in an effort to get out of the freezing water asap! To make it a little more fun, we had to swim a 1/2 mile further than last year (past transition). As such we had a mini 4th leg of the triathlon with an 800m run from swim exit back to the bike. This was actually pretty good as it helped get me warm for the cycle.





I exited the swim in 5th place and soon went about trying to make up some time on the 25 mile bike leg. The bike course took us through the hills surrounding the Golden Gate Bridge, then down onto the Great Hwy for an out and back section, before entering the Presidio for a gradual climb and finally back through the hills. It's a great ride with a bit of everything. It's important to focus on pushing hard the whole way as it's easy to back off on the downhills if the mind wanders. My bike split was 4min faster than last year which is always good to know!





Out onto the 7 mile run, and I was still sitting in 5th so knew I had to put in a strong run if I wanted to improve on last years 5th place. The run begins with a 2km long flat section, followed by a climb up to the Golden Gate Bridge. We then dropped down to the beach for 400m of sand running before coming face to face with the 400 step sand ladder. This is the toughest part of the whole race, with what seems like 400 steps of pure pain. I had managed to run into 3rd place at this stage, however the girl in 4th was starting to make up some ground so I knew as soon as I hit the top of the ladder it was time to get going, not look back and hold on. I made sure I pushed the down hills and finished strong along the final 2km flat section.




I ended up crossing the line in 3rd place with the fastest run split of the day. I was aiming for a podium finish so was stoked to come in 3rd. It's an awesome race and if anyone ever has the opportunity to do it I would definitely recommend!



Massive thanks to Sam and Bos for their awesome cheering! Also to Tri-California for putting on such a great race and looking after us for the weekend.

Big thank you to Malvern Star, Brooks, Selle SMP and Giro for backing me, as well as Josh for continuing to work with me.

Now it's back to Boulder for 3 weeks of training before hitting the World 70.3 Champs in Vegas on Sept 11 followed by one last race of the US season at Syracuse 70.3.