With only 8 weeks until the men’s Olympic Triathlon the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon was the perfect opportunity to get a good hard training race in and also give me an indication on where I’m at with my fitness.
I’ve been 2nd there the last few years and was hoping to break that curse with a win this year! I wasn’t going to back off my training to freshen up for this event but knew I was fit enough for a good performance.
The only down side to this event is the 4am wake up, but as soon as the sun eventually came up everyone was greeted with a stunning San Francisco day. All the age groupers we going to get their moneys worth, at USñ400 you would hope so, and with triathletes coming from all over the world just to say they have “Escaped”.
This event offers so many highlights but probably the best is jumping off the boat next to the iconic Alcatraz, if the water wasn’t so cold it might even be enjoyable! The organizer had told us in briefing that there was going to be strong currents assisting us in our swim and that it was going to be quite fast, but that certainly wasn’t the case as we finally exited the
water after 27 minutes. Unfortunately for me I had positioned myself on the wrong feet in the swim and found I had drifted off the back of the lead group.
Now when your racing ex Olympic swimmers and you’re already on the limit, trying to come around that person and bridge across is near impossible, so I found myself 25 seconds off the lead out of the water. As soon as I was on the bike I pushed as hard as I could to close the gap. This is a course I really like and knew that I could make up this deficit on the first few climbs. Sure enough by the top of the 2nd climb I was with the leader Andy Potts and we had already gapped the rest of the field. However, in the process I had spent a little too much time in the red and began to suffer. Around the back and over the second half of the bike Potts slowly pulled away, coming into T2 with about a 45 second lead.
At this stage I was still paying for my earlier effort and struggled in the first part of the run, still holding the gap between Potts but good friend Courtney Atkinson had already run me down and had his sights on Potts. Towards the end of the run I did come into good form however it was too little too late as I had to settle for 3rd, 1min behind Potts and 30seconds behind Courtney.
So once again the win has “Escaped” me, however am still pretty happy with where I’m at with my training towards London. My bike split was significantly faster than previous years, so I can take the confidence that my training is on target. From here I have one more week of solid training then I’m off to Europe for a quick WTS race in Austria, followed by more training and pain. I’m pretty happy with how things are progressing and can’t believe that the Olympics are only 6 weeks away!
Thanks for all the support.
Bevan