Run Run Away

Question:

Anybody have any personal opinions or experience about the bike leg of Escape From Alcatraz (i.e, the course that will be used for Alcatraz XVI on June 9th.) that they’d like to share with the rest of us? Anyone have any good/bad experiences with it? Crank it, Milk.

Phish– Here’s a copy of the bike section of my ‘95 Alcatraz report.  As you can garner from this bit, the Alcatraz bike course is short but hardly sweet; lots of hills, except for the stretch out on the Great Highway.  This year’s course will be slightly different because there will be one main transition area at Crissy Field, so the beginning and end of the bike course will be out there instead of at Forts Mason and Winfield-Scott, respectively. If you’d like to see the complete Alcatraz report, you can find it on my WebPage:  http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~brooksie/      Click on the link to the ‘95 race reports page.  Here you will also find reports on the following 1995 events: – Wildflower Olympic – San Jose International Tri – San Jose Danskin – Great North Triathlon – The Triathlon at Pacific Grove – Bass Lake Classic Triathlon – Santa Cruz Sentinel Triathlon Enjoy! The Bike And I’m off!  Now I’m in the event that’s my strength, and I’m ready to make the most of it. The first two or three miles are flat and fast through the Marina and Chrissy Field.  Then we start climbing in the Presidio, up past Fort Point and the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge.  We ride under a bridge onramp as we continue to climb past old barracks and beautiful brick buildings that were once officers’ quarters. Just past the tunnel created by the bridge on-ramp, a girl says to me, "Oh, god, can you believe that??"  "What?"  "Somebody said that someone threw tacks all over the road up here!  That is so slimey!" "Oh, great," I say, "with my luck, I’m *sure* to pick one up!" "Well, be careful.  Geez, what kind of a jerk would do that?" An evil one, that’s what kind.  One minute later, just at the top of that first climb, I hear an ominous *thwit* *thwit* *thwit* as my tires go ’round.  I look down with a sick feeling, then reach down to feel my front tire.  Yep.  A long series of expletives spews from my lips. The only good thing about a tack flat is that you can’t miss the filled the air.  I flung the venomous device deep into the brush with a resounding "Damn!" Now, whip out the tire levers and patch kit.  I was worried since I’d never yet flatted on the road with a Shamal wheel, and I didn’t know how well my frame pump would work with the valve extender.  No problem.  Plus, a couple of really nice race volunteers happened to be at this location, and one of them did the pumping for me; he was able to get that tire *much* harder than I ever could have.  I reckon I lost about 10 minutes altogether. OK, get back on the bike; oh, hold on a minute, here comes a runner, followed by a motorcycle—it’s the race leader!  I hastily pull back over to the side as Mike Pigg hauls by me.  "Go, Mike!  Yeah!" Wow, there’s no one else in sight behind him, he is moving!  So now I get back on the bike and ride down the hill, hollering as I pass the Pigg, "All right, Mike!  There’s no one near you!  Do it!"  So now I can rightfully boast that I once passed Mike Pigg in a race. The bike continued out of the Presidio and up through Sea Cliff on El Camino Del Mar— more uphill!  Through the Lincoln Park golf course.  As I started through the course, a golf ball whizzed by just about 15 feet ahead of me.  Geez, and they said the swim was the dangerous part!  Crest the hill, pass the Palace of the Legion of Honor (currently undergoing seismic retrofitting), then enjoy a brief downhill before *more* uphills out to Land’s End.  A really fast descent past the Cliff House and the old Sutro Baths ruins, and finally we’re on the Great Highway for 5 miles of flat and fast hammering.  The headwind on the way out became a tailwind coming back, allowing me to maintain between 25 and 27 mph for a long stretch.  Yow!  I took a moment out here to rip the GU from my bars and gulp it down—dang, I taped that on there tighter than I thought! On the way back, the downhills were now uphills, starting with that part past the Cliff House.  Ouch, that was the worst!  In the middle of that hill, there was Skippy, camera in hand, ready to capture the moment (and my grimace of pain).  She was holding the bike of another racer who’d fallen prey to those lovely tacks (twice) and who was working frantically to repair the flat. Back through the golf course, and now down the hill to Sea Cliff. Look, there’s someone running on the way back in here.  Who is it? It’s a woman, she’s blonde; is it Michellie or….    "Go, Paula! All right!  Yeah!"  The woman is flying!  I see a big grin light up her face as I ride by and cheer.  It’s so cool to be out on the course with these people! Onward, and here’s the last hill.  Boy, that one hurt!  Then a short downhill to the bike-run transition area at Fort Winfield-Scott on the Presidio grounds.  We had to run our bikes into the rack area, rack ‘em up, then run over to where our running bags were lined up. Off go the cleats, on go the running shoes.  RST singlet, number belt, cap, and (one of the smartest things I ever did) torso pack holding a water bottle, packet of GU, and a Stoker bar.  With aid stations only at 3.5 and 7 miles, I was pretty sure this would come in handy… Tri-Baby                                      _                                   –    o      ’             –  __o       –    </_  `     ‘         –    <         – __/    /o_         – (()) (())        -  / "REAL Triathletes don’t draft!" http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~brooksie        

Response:

Anybody have any personal opinions or experience about the bike leg of Escape From Alcatraz (i.e, the course that will be used for Alcatraz XVI on June 9th.) that they’d like to share with the rest of us? Anyone have any good/bad experiences with it? Crank it, Milk.

Response: