Alcatraz Challenge Official Website

The "Nitty Gritty" Details (User Opinions)

Jill M.
Cupertino, CA

  (03-10-2010)

"My crazy friend had mentioned doing this race, so I was game and said yes. I hadn't even visited Alcatraz as a tourist, so I didn't realize what I signed myself up for. As I started telling people what I was doing, the reaction I was getting started to worry people. The typical reaction was, "Oh my gosh. Are you serious?" These were people who didn't bat an eye when I did marathons, or 60 mile bike rides. For some reason, Alcatraz was a BIG DEAL. I had done a few triathlons and open water swims, so I felt I had pretty good swimming skills. Really, how intense could this be?
Well, my first clue should have been the THREE waivers I had to initial when I registered. But, I still convinced myself I would be fine since I was only doing the swim, not the aquathlon.

I arrived race day morning at the Presidio at 6am. My friend and I squeezed into our wetsuits and hopped on the cable car buses with all the other participants to go to the Ferry Building. There is something surreal about riding in a cable car in San Francisco with a bunch of barefoot people wearing wetsuits and swim caps.

We boarded the ferry that was to take us to Alcatraz. Because we weren't allowed to start the race on the island, we were supposed to jump off the ferry in groups of three. Our nerves took over and we agreed to be one of the last to jump out, as we watched our fellow racers plop into the water.
Finally it was our turn. I got up on deck and SMACK! I managed to trip on an uneven part of the boat. How embarrassing. The race volunteers helped me up and then shouted, "GO!"

And suddenly I was in the water.

This race is one of the hardest things I have done. The water is cold. The waves are choppy, and push your body three strokes back. Volunteers in kayaks paddle towards you to tell you which monument in San Francisco to swim towards because the current keeps changing. Since it is a small race, I was by myself most of the time which can instill a small amount of open water panic and claustrophobia.

But, about halfway through the race I found myself in a brief moment of zen and mid-stroke looked to the right and saw the Golden Gate Bridge. The solitude of the race mixed with the significance of this amazing structure made me feel like I was having a quiet and private moment with San Francisco.

But then I started thinking about all the critters under me and thought, "Dude, lets go. I gotta get back on non-shark land.

I made it to the finish, barely brought myself to a standing position and felt like I got into a full on brawl with mother nature. I was so glad I didn't have to run after doing THAT.

Plus, I get to tell people in a nonchalant manner, "Yeah, I swam Alcatraz."

How cool is that?


"

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2008

Dave L.
San Jose, CA

  (08-04-2009)

"As a newbie to this event, you can take my review with a grain of salt. As you can imagine the course was phenomenal. It's an open water swim from Alcatraz to Crissy Field.

The organization of the event was top notch, from the check-in to the reception. Here are some highlights and what you can expect:

In the morning, parking was cheap and easy. The walk from parking to check-in is about 5 minutes. Check-in was quick, the volunteers friendly and organized. From check-in, you went to the "transition area" which for the swim-only event is really just a cordoned off area where you can safely store your stuff. Then you changed into your swim stuff and headed to the 5 minute trolley ride to the boat dock. This is where you got your very helpful and mandatory orientation. They talked about currents and sighting, etc. Finally, around 7:45am all 750 of us boarded a Blue and Gold boat. It took about 20 minutes for us to all board. Be swim ready. That means don't take anything except what you will swim in. The boat ride is about 10-15 minutes to Alcatraz. Here's a little insider's tip: The first ones on the boat are the last ones to jump off, so don't be too eager to get on board unless you like being in the back of the pack.

The swim: I swim ocean open water every week so I was somewhat prepared for this. What I wasn't prepared for is the chop. It looked smooth from the beach but once in the water it was about 2 feet of choppy water, not gentle swells, these were chops. It makes for difficult swimming. The water was a nice 62 degrees, Fahrenheit. The 1.5 miles to Crissy Field was uneventful and well supervised with kayaks and small motor boats.

Post swim we were greeted by the friendliest of volunteers who handed us our medals.

In terms of challenge, this was the hardest swim I've ever done. Not because of the distance so much as the rough water. I'll be better prepared next year...I hope ;-) "

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2009

Suzy H.
San Francisco, CA

  (08-03-2009)

"Great course! It's hard to complain when you get to swim in the bay and run on the GG bridge! This is a perfect, low-key, small level race (the opposite of Escape from Alcatraz tri). The swim is very well organized with plenty of kayaks and boats. Even with the dense fog (nothing to sight!), I managed to stay on course and find the exit point. A lot of participants only do the swim portion, so the run was a bit sparse, but still pretty cool. There are plenty of other "non-racers" out on the course running and walking, so it's probably hard for the volunteers to figure out who to direct to stay on the course.
If I could change on thing, I would add some sort of Finish line marker (some sort of banner) or anything besides just a timing mat on the ground. It's nice to be able to see what you are going towards when you get close to the end, and I think I tried running through the finish line and into the crowd not realizing I was done!
The prizes are pretty cool, though.... win your age group and you get a really cool shark tooth! Thankfully, no sharks were seen on the course ;)
"

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2009

David N.
San Francisco, CA

  (08-03-2009)

"The Alcatraz Challenge is an Amazing Event! This is a well organized race with a spectacular run course.

Millions of people come and visit San Francisco each year, but only a handful of them have seen the city, Alcatraz and the rest of the SF Bay from this vantage point.

*Something to note, if you’re thinking about racing for time, each swim in the SF Bay is different. The same swim could take 30 minutes, 45 minutes, even an hour, all because weather and water conditions are always different.

For many, swimming from Alcatraz is a once in a lifetime experience. I have been fortunate enough to make three crossings. The first was thanks to my friend Leslie and her amazing open water swimming program Swim-Art (yes, shameless plug. But thanks to Leslie and Swim-Art I love open water swimming. www.swim-art.com *Check it out, Leslie is amazing!) My second was during the 2008 Escape From Alcatraz. Number three was the Alcatraz Challenge.

As always, the swim was exhilarating. We jumped off the boat just off the Alcatraz shore, and began swimming towards San Francisco. As always I began wondering “am I swimming too fast and going to come into shore too early or swimming too slow and end up outside the Golden Gate Bridge?”

It turned out to not be my best swim; I ended up slightly too shallow and had to swim the last portion much closer to the yacht club than I wanted. But I still enjoyed every minute of it.

Typically, this is where I would run out of the water, hurry through a transition, hop on my bike and ride away. Instead, I took a leisurely 5 minute transition and then started the run. Passing tourists and other Bay Area locals, I ran towards the Warming Hut to begin my climb up to the Golden Gate Bridge. As I made my way up the steps (walking), I watched as many of the other racers tried to run up the stairs (Little local knowledge, always fast-walk the stairs, very few people can run up them and keep going).
I zigzagged all of the tourists as I crossed the bridge in both directions. One of the nice aspects of an out-n-back run is that you get to see your friends, whether you’re passing them or they are passing you.

I finished the run strong and feel as though I probably could have pushed it even more. But this race was about enjoying the day.

I strongly recommend this race. Whether you are from out of town or a local. You’ve really never seen San Francisco until you’ve seen it from the middle of the bay swimming towards it :)!"

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2009

David M.
San Francisco, CA

  (07-14-2009)

"Always wanted to do this race because of the general "coolness" of the course. Can't beat the Alcatraz swim and GG Bridge run. Biggest complaint is that you had to enter the boat "swim ready." You'd think they could easily do a sweep of the boat to collect bags to deliver back to the finish. It was a COLD morning and being able to bring a sweatshirt on the boat would have been much more enjoyable. There were a lot of cold people before anyone even jumped in the water."

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2009