Escape from Alcatraz

Alarms went off extra early for Dani and me... Race Day!!  Race morning is a bunch of weird logistics.  Walk to shuttle.  Shuttle to transition.  Bus to pier.  Ferry to Alcatraz.  It was still dark when we got to transition and didn't spend too much time setting things up - after all, I wasn't biking so I didn't even have that much to do!  I decided to head to the bathroom once before putting on my wetsuit and the strap of my garmin broke - uh oh.  I searched around unsuccessfully for some duct tape and wasn't sure what else to do so joined Dani on the bus to the pier.  I did not want to lose my garmin!  As I was putting on the various parts of my swim ensemble, I realized that I could pull the neoprene sleeve down over my wrist and that would hopefully secure the watch.  Hopefully.  Time for the ferry.  It was an hour from the time the boat pulled away from the dock until the time we'd be jumping into the water.  Luckily time passed fairly quickly.  I turned on my garmin while keeping it tucked under the wetsuit, but it never found a gps signal.  I am not sure if that's from being inside the ferry, or being under the wetsuit material or both.  I heard from several others that they were having trouble finding the gps also. 

Then... it was time to jump!  There was absolutely zero time to second guess yourself as you stepped to the edge of the boat.  In no time at all I found myself dropping 6 feet into the San Francisco bay again, only this time I was getting tossed around... a lot.  I remembered the tips from my practice swim and only spotted the towers for a few minutes before shifting my focus to the piers.  I kept slamming into people and people kept slamming into me.  I suppose it was normal given how many people were doing this swim, but in the wide open bay, how was I on top of people so much?  It really started annoying me.  It also occurred to me that my watch had not buzzed at all alerting me of my laps - did I remember to hit start?  Was it still attached to me? 

At one point somebody passed me perpendicular on their way to Japan.  I paused to yell at them but by the time I got my bearings in the middle of all the waves, the person was too far away to hear me.  The good news for them is that there were a ton of boats out there.  In fact, Dani reported that the race directors didn't feel they had enough watercraft support given the conditions (small watercraft advisory and 2 foot swells, which I didn't find out until later) and had solicited the help of a bunch of fisherman who happened to be out.  I kept going, still getting tossed around pretty good.  I realized that I was probably more than a football field away from that rocky shoreline.  I tried with all my might to adjust my course but was no match for the current.  I overshot the finish by about 20-30 yards and rather than try to swim upstream, I got out on the beach and ran back up to the finish.  I was not alone as there were a bunch of people running up the beach.  45 minutes for the official race time.  My garmin was indeed still on my wrist, and the timer was going, but the gps signal never picked up. 

There was a half mile "run" to transition from the swim exit.  I chose to skip the gear bag that we had been allowed to store at the swim exit in favor of walking in my neoprene booties.  I had thought I would jog part of this but the booties just didn't provide very much padding on the cement.  I walked up until we got to the edge of Marina Green where transition was located and was able to run the last portion that was on grass.  I yelled to Lucy who was ready with her bike.  She asked someone to take a quick picture of us and she was off!  I grabbed some water and stood there for awhile to cheer in case Tommy or Dani as behind me.  As luck would have it, I got to cheer for both of them as they came in from the swim and headed out on their bike.  I took off my wetsuit, got my run gear together, had a couple snacks and generously applied anti-chaffing cream.  Luckily the chaffing wasn't much worse than I'd started off with.

T1 - out of the water and Lucy is about to head out on the bike

Lucy had predicted her time to be about 2 hours, but I wisely got ready much earlier - good thing too since it only took Lucy about 80 min to return to transition. I grabbed the timing chip from Lucy and headed off on the run.  There were crowds lining the streets for the first half mile so I jogged.  It was getting warmer and I knew this was going to be a challenging course, so I slowed to a walk as the crowds thinned and I headed towards Golden Gate Bridge.  It was a slight downhill and I was a little worried how it would feel on the out and back course going uphill for the last mile or so.  At least I'd be almost done.  I trudged along, walking some, jogging some, and then we turned a corner and I saw a staircase.  A steep staircase.  I knew there was going to be a staircase and I recalled the documentation saying that it was narrow and not to try to pass people.  I didn't want to be a hindrance for the people behind me so I made sure to keep going as fast as I could and no breaks.  I got to the top and the run course continued to go uphill.  Then more uphill.  And more uphill.  Geez!  I was at about 3 or 3.5 miles now and glanced up to see Tommy coming the other direction.  I'd somehow missed him coming back through transition on the bike - he must have done really well on that bike course!  I yelled at him and he looked absolutely drained! 

What goes up must go down, right?  The downhill finally arrived.  We went down and down and down and I ran the whole thing.  May as well take advantage of gravity!  The course popped us out on the beach and I made my way close to the water edge where the sand was harder.  I grabbed some water or electrolytes or whatever they handed me at the turn around, which was also in pretty deep sand, and headed back down the beach.  There were piles of sand in my shoes now! 

And then.... the dreaded sand ladder.... There was a timing mat at the bottom and a timing mat at the top and I know that it took me 6 minutes and 23 seconds to painfully drag myself up, using every bit of the cable that I could to pull myself along.  Finally at the top, the course continued uphill.  I recognized this part of the course as where I'd seen Tommy when I was going the other direction.  No wonder he looked so drained!  I'm sure I looked near death.

Sand ladder!  Photo taken from race facebook page.

I was walking along and got to talking to some other racers.  I jogged when I could and honestly I jogged a lot more than I thought I would, especially after how grueling the course had been so far.  There was another staircase, some very steep downhill sections that I considered getting on my butt and scooting down, and back on that long gradual uphill that signified the final couple miles.  It was getting pretty hot but the knowledge that I'd soon be done kept me going.  Lucy and I had discussed crossing the finish line together, and she was waiting for me with about a third of a mile to go.  To be honest, I hadn't planned on running the final third of a mile but the excitement was too much and I just kept going!  We ran down the finishers chute and high-fived as the announcer called our name - so much fun!

We got some water and made our way into the bleachers to cheer for Dani.  She had passed me going the opposite direction when I had about 2-3 miles left.  We didn't want to risk going back to transition and missing her.  It was really cool watching people finish and we cheered for every person.  Once Dani crossed the line we started the tasks of cleaning up our transition areas, dropping off Lucy and Dani's bikes, and most importantly taking pictures!  We escaped!  There was no nap for us as we headed back to the hotel for lunch, shower, drinks and then to meet up with Lucy and Paula for a celebration dinner. 

Oh yea... that's me... climbed onto the dump truck :)

I was exhausted as we finally turned in for the night, and I dreaded the extra early alarm I'd set for my 5:20am flight back home.  The flight change required a layover in Chicago and I was lucky that all my flights ended up on-time.  Jon picked me up from National airport and we proceeded directly into DC for game 4.  We had such a good time watching that win, it was nearly midnight when Jon finally dropped me off at home.  We'd made plans to get together with some friends to go to the viewing party for game 5....... and to fast forward a few days......... we won!!  The Caps won the Stanley Cup!!  What a week!!  #ALLCAPS  #ALLOURS  #WEBELIEVE  #THECUPISOURS

Getting ready to escape! And the practice swim!

I didn't necessarily mean to throw all my bucket-list items in consecutive years.  Ironman was planned.  Then Andrea convinced me to sign up for the Chesapeake Bay swim lottery.  I honestly wasn't expecting to get in on my first try; it takes many people multiple years to get selected.  But then in the 4th of 4 rounds, my name was selected.  I knew the Alcatraz swim was lingering there on my list, and I had no intention of going after that goal this year.  Then.. I was talking to Dani who had gotten in off the lottery for the triathlon.  The triathlon was never my goal - there are a lot of areas I want to challenge myself, but biking San Francisco hills is just not one of them.  There are a few opportunities to swim from Alcatraz throughout the year and that was what I had planned on doing.  On a whim though, I looked at the relay option and realized you don't have to go through the lottery to sign up for a relay.  Hmm.... OK, but who would bike?  And run?  Suddenly the stars aligned and I reached out to Lucy, the bike leader for the Wakefield rides I had done through Ironman training.  She's living in Houston now, spending summers in Colorado, and happened to be free and interested in joining me!  I checked with a few people about the run but didn't find any interest, so I decided to do that part myself.  I mean, how hard could 8 miles be???

During the week or so before the race, we got an email solicitation about practice swims they were holding where you could swim all or part of the race course.  INTERESTING!  Last year, the swim portion of the triathlon was canceled.  I know it would have been rare to have the swim canceled two years in a row, but this was a bucket list item and doing the practice swim would give me 2 chances to complete it.  I opened the link and they wanted over $200 for the luxury of torturing yourself!  I hesitated.  That's a lot of money and I was somewhat worried that I may be too traumatized from the practice swim for the race the next day. 

But then... the stars aligned once again.  The Washington Capitals made the Stanley Cup playoffs.  I received a text from Jon during game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals that they had released the schedule and we'd have home games on Saturday (the day before the race) and Monday (the day I was flying home....due into Dulles at 8:30pm).  Yikes!  There was no way I was going to miss my first chance at going to a Stanley Cup playoff game.  I knew I couldn't go on Saturday but I quickly jumped online and changed my Monday flight to arrive in DC earlier.  Do you know how much money people will spend on a Stanley Cup playoff ticket?  Let's suffice it to say that the sale of the Saturday night ticket not only covered my flight change fee, but it also covered the ridiculous price of the practice swim (with money to spare!).  So I signed up.

I met Dani in the San Francisco airport around noon on Friday.  We checked into the hotel, ate lunch and then made our way to board the boat for our Alcatraz tour.  This would be my first of 3 trips to Alcatraz Island.....with only one of those being a round trip.  We spent the afternoon walking around Alcatraz and by the time we got back were too tired to think about doing a quick run (me) or swim (Dani), so settled for eating dinner and heading to bed early.

I woke up early on Saturday and headed down for the practice swim.  The email update suggested arriving in your wetsuit, so I put mine on in the hotel room and then grabbed an uber.  People were definitely staring at me walking around in a wetsuit as if it were normal clothing, and it turns out that most people put their wetsuits on right there at the dock.  Oh well, glad my [brand new] wetsuit is pretty comfortable (and that's only semi-sarcasm).  The boat we took for the practice swim was much smaller than the ferry we'd be taking for the race.  It only fit about 25 people and it was a pretty bumpy ride.  Nervous! 

When we got to Alcatraz, we practiced jumping off the way we would on Sunday, and when you get to the edge, there was no time to think about it, you just had to jump!  And then there was no time to think about the shock of the coldness of the water because somebody else was about to jump on top of you.  I swam away from the boat, happy that I'd decided to put on the neoprene sleeves and neoprene booties.  My hands were freezing though.  The coaches did a little in-water briefing and most of us treaded water with our hands out to keep them from going numb.  Then we were off.... it wasn't so bad!  I did start to acclimate to the water temperature as I started swimming.  We were to sight the towers at aquatic park, and then the piers, and then this white dome thing, and finally the red-roofed building.  A coach kayaked up to me and told me that I'd been sighting the towers for too long and it was time to switch to the piers.  I glanced at my watch and it had only been 7 minutes - that was fast!  Less than a minute later my watch buzzed indicating I'd gone 500 yards.  Really?  In 8 minutes?  It must be broken.

I kept on swimming and swimming trying to spot the piers and then the dome.  I was alone except for some kayakers but tried to follow a group in front of me.  Finally another kayaker told me that I was too close to the rocky shoreline - should have stayed about a football field away - and I'd have to swim back out to get around the yellow buoy and head to shore.  I reached the beach and realized I was so happy to have done the practice swim.  And my garmin wasn't broken - just under 39 min total for the 1.5 miles.  That's a fast swim; compare it to my 47 mins for a 1.2 mile swim!  Now, no matter what happens on race day, I can say that I have completed the swim from Alcatraz! 

I headed back to the hotel to meet up with Dani who had done her own swim at aquatic park.  We set up my travel fan in front of our wetsuits, hoping they would dry in the next 24 hours, ate breakfast and set out for the expo and to pick up Dani's bike.  We did the 45 min walk to pick up her bike, grabbed a few necessities from the sports store and then got to the expo where we spent a lot of time checking in, collecting our race goodies and buying a couple extras.  We met up with Paula and Tommy, and Lucy, the cyclist of my relay. 

Exhausted from the full day in the sun, Dani and I returned to the hotel where we met up with Lucy for dinner and to watch game 3 of the Caps playoffs.  Thankfully the 8pm EST start time meant a later afternoon time on the west coast.  After the game, we headed to bed knowing we had another early wake up call in the morning.... race day!

St. Mary's Sprint Triathlon

First triathlon in almost 3 years!  Since Ironman!  Not sure how the time went by so fast. 

My "A" race for this year is Ironman Maine 70.3, so I signed up for this Olympic triathlon and Williamsburg Olympic in July.  As we got closer to the date and I realized I have not been on my bike even ONE TIME in months, I made the wise decision to switch my race to the sprint.  It was literally the best decision I've made in a long time.

My original plan was to drop the dogs at daycare on Saturday around 5pm and make my way down to Cindy's house for dinner and to spend the night since she lives much closer to the race.  It had been raining consistently for an entire week though, and the dogs had been cooped up in the house for too long.  I ended up taking them to daycare Friday morning and would let them stay until Sunday.  This meant that I could leave earlier on Saturday and make the team's scheduled practice swim.  It rained for the entire drive down to Southern Maryland but Coach Ed assured us the swim would go as scheduled.  Well, he didn't show up, but there were several other teammates who didn't get that message either and we decided to swim anyway.  There are definitely easier things in life than putting on a wetsuit in the pouring rain!  This was a brand new wetsuit though and I absolutely wanted to get in once before the race.  I only got in about 500 yards, but that was ok - loving the new wetsuit!

I got to Cindy's and took a quick shower before we headed out to dinner, watched a movie and then early bedtime.  The worst thing about racing is the early alarm clocks, and before I knew it I was packing up my stuff and on the road back to the race site.  I parked, checked-in, set up my transition and hung out at the Team Z tents.  The sprint race started about 30 min after the Olympic distance, so we had a few extra minutes to get ready before making the 1/4 mile trek down the hill to the swim start.  By the time we got there, the race had already started and the energy was strong. 

My only hesitation in switching from the Olympic distance to the sprint distance was that I wouldn't get in as much swimming - 750m vs 1500m - and I wanted the swim practice for Alcatraz.  Alas, the swim course turned out to be long and I got in 1000 yards.  Perfect.  I was at a 2:20/100yd pace which is a little slower than I was last year, but then again I was swimming a lot more last year preparing for the Chesapeake Bay swim.  Then it was back up the 1/4 mile hill into transition to get Xena for her first road ride since...... June 2016...... not kidding.

The bike was pretty much as expected for not having been on a bike in so long.  So very glad that I switched to the sprint distance.  There were a few times I had to drop to my lowest gear and felt like I was going up the side of the mountain, but the elevation chart from my garmin would disagree.  This was a pretty flat ride.  Definitely need to start up the bike training (but probably not until after Alcatraz).  I sure was happy when we made the final turn back into transition!

Off on the run.  It had rained the entire week non-stop, yet now, as I am starting on the run, the clouds parted and it was scorching!  What are the odds?!  I walked a bit but then started throwing in more run intervals.  I ran a lot more than I thought I would and am quite pleased.  It was really hot with only about half mile in the shade.  I feel that I finished strong and was happy.

I collected my stuff and started the hour and a half drive back home.  In the car I made some last minute plans with Joann and Sweeney to hit a winery to celebrate.  I realized than when I removed the stress of cut-off times, my ability to make the distance, etc, etc, I actually had fun racing!  I do love pushing myself to the bigger goals, but I think maybe after this year I may take some time and concentrate on smaller goals and improving my times.