Saturday Ride Map 5/14/10

39miles 3,000 feet of climbing!

Rev3 Quassy Course Preview Sunday May 23rd with TT! Join us please!

Liquigas-Doimo "Slices" through to first place on their Cannondales...

Liquigas-Doimo as they rode the Cannondale Slice to a 2010 Giro D'ITalia's TTT victory!

TARGETRAINING Members Scale Peaks to help Special Olympics

Congratulations to TARGETRAINING Members Lauren Nadler and Dan Price for completing a daunting bike tour from Baltimore, Maryland, down to North Carolina and finishing atop the formidable Mt. Mitchell all in the name of raising funds and awareness for Special Olympics.
Thank you for helping to make others athletic dreams a reality!

Escaping Alcatraz

Last weekend, Dave Yockelson and I had the opportunity to race in the famed "Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon."

If you ever get the chance to do this race - do it! What an experience!

Both Dave and I headed out on Friday morning and met up at Aquatic Park that afternoon for a quick dip in the Bay - the wind was howling so it was REALLY cold. When I got out of the water I thought my face was frozen over! Of course, then we saw an older woman swimming by sans wetsuit!

Race morning had perfect conditions for racing - weather in the upper 50s/lower 60s, water was calm for the bay with a 4+ knot current and no fog for easy sighting. One interesting aspect to this race is that you have to set up transition, then board a bus which takes you to a pier where you wait for an hour or so, then board a very large ferry with all 1500+ other racers. The race starts after circling around Alcatraz Island and giving the pros about a 1 minute lead. Everyone jumps off the boat (about a 6' drop) in a matter of minutes and the goal here is to not loose your goggles or get jumped on. It's quite an adrenaline rush, which is a good thing since it helps you ignore the frigid water.

Unlike most triathlons, there are no buoys. Instead, you have to sight land markers to help direct you to shore. After about 5 minutes I felt like I was swimming all alone with a few people to my far right. Luckily I was near a kayaker so I asked if I was heading in the right direction. He said "yep", so on I went heading first for a large tower and later in the race, the Palace of Fine Arts (large gold dome). After about 25 minutes I arrived at the beach and headed up to the first transition. My fingers and toes were completely numb, but luckily my wetsuit came off quickly. I put on some sneakers and ran about 1/2 mile to the bike transition area.

The first mile or so of the bike are flat and then the hills come and they don't stop. But, to distract you from the suffering are amazing views - this is one of the most beautiful bike courses I have ever been able to ride. In hindsight I should have pushed the bike a little harder, but I really enjoyed this course and took it all in.

View from the bike course

I really didn't know what the run would be like since I did not have a chance to preview it before the race. I had heard that there were more stairs than just the sand ladder but didn't know much other than that. In fact, there is almost no road running on this course. The flat 1.5 miles at the beginning and end of the course are mainly on a gravel trail. The middle is primarily on trails and either going up or down. It's what I imagine an Xterra race might be like - lots of trails, lots of stairs, a tunnel and beach running. Suzy would do very well at this race! My favorite part of the run course was running on the beach near the turn around and high-fiving Dave as he whizzed by about to challenge the sand ladder.

As for results, I ended up 2nd in my age group, 5th amateur female and 15th overall. Dave finished 8th in a very tough age group with his second fastest time ever and fastest swim split.