Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon Official Website

The "Nitty Gritty" Details (User Opinions)

Brock A.
Houston, TX

  (05-08-2010)

"TOUGH COURSE FOLKS! Swim was not very choppy this year. I turned in a 32 min time.

Bike: my the HILLS. when you live in Houston, these are brutal.

Run: oh yeah. mor HILLS. go get the sand ladder!

Overall: Great course! you will have a terrible time getting public transit though. cabs refused to work that day down in the park. transition bags pickup at end of race was terribly inefficient.

"

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2010

Gregory L.
San Francisco, CA

  (05-04-2010)

"There was a fair share of drama surrounding the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon this year: new race management company, same weekend as wildflower, still $400 (crazy for an olympic-ish distance race) but...it did NOT disappoint! This one was definitely worth every penny. This was also my first race in about 18 months due to a hamstring injury, so I was excited to say the least.

Let's start from the beginning.

Expo: The transition and expo area for the race is in the Marina area of SF - right on the water w/ great views of Alcatraz, the Golden Gate bridge, etc. Registration was a little hectic, had to wait online for about 30 mins just to check in, pick up race packet and goodie bag. Schwag is good - nice little duffle bag, tech tee, and aluminum water bottle were the highlights. They run several "athlete meetings" throughout the afternoon. If this is your first time doing the race, I would HIGHLY recommend it - they do a great run through of the course, which is especially important for this race since the swim is challenging and the bike and run portions are pretty technical (more on this later). One thing to remember about this race, you don't rack your bike the day before - everything is done the day of the race.

Race Day: The weather was picture perfect this year. It was definitely a bit of a concern since the race has traditionally been done in June. For 2010, they moved it up to May 2. I got to the transition area about 5:15AM, which was plenty of time to get everything setup. This race is a bit unique since you have "two" transition areas. You have to drop off a bag w/ some run gear as the swim exit is about .75 miles from the main transition area. After setting up my transition area, I hopped on the shuttle bus around 6:10, which takes you from the transition area over to the pier w/ the boat that takes you out to The Rock. They have plenty of porta-potties areas to relax once you get to the boat, so don't worry about getting there too early.

The boat departs for Alcatraz at 7AM sharp (they will NOT wait for people). The atmosphere on the boat is electric. Close to 2000 triathletes sitting on this boat getting ready to jump into 50 degree, shark infested waters (don't worry though, these are only non-people eating 3-4 feet sharks and are 20-30 feet below the surface :P). Make sure NOT to put your wetsuit on before hopping on the boat, as you don't want to get your core temperature up too high before jumping into the cold water. I put my wetsuit on about 15 minutes before the gun.

Swim: A quick play of the national anthem then the pros are off at 8AM. Shortly after goes all the rest of us. It's amazing, the crew unloads all 1800 people off the boat usually in under 8 minutes! The best analogy to swimming across the bay is that you're swimming across a river. So unless you're a really strong swimmer (which I'm definitely not), you should not be aiming directly for the swim exit as you'll probably get swept past it (which plenty of people did). I sighted three landmarks en route to the shore. The first were the Fontana Apartement towers right above Ghiradelli Square. The second was Fort Mason and the final one was the Palace of Fine Arts. Overall a great swim, only hiccup was someone kicking my arm and knocking my watch off. Hope some fish can put it to good use. The current was very strong that day, so my swim time was definitely way faster than it should've been (not complaining though).

T1: Once you exit the swim course, there will be volunteers showing you to your first transition bag for the short run to the bike transition. There were a few wetsuit strippers, so if you have issues w/ taking wetsuits off like I do, make sure you get one of them to help you out.

Bike: The bike course is on the short end (18 miles), but very technical. There are very few flat portions, you're basically going up, down or turning the whole time. So no real need for the aero bars and disc wheels on this course. Because of the complexity of this course, if you can get out and ride it ahead of time, I'd definitely recommend. Also be prepared for some rough roads (these are mostly city roads after all).

T2: Pretty uneventful - grabbed some food, race number and ready to hit the run.

Run: The first 1.5 miles of the run is flat, then it's all up and downhill from there. On the out portion, throw in a bunch of stairs, some trails, a small tunnel and you have a very challenging first 4 miles. Careful on the course as it's really easy to trip on a rock (or two or three) when you're tired. The return portion of the run course is where it gets real interesting. You eventually end up down on Baker Beach where you do about a mile in the sand (stay as close to the water as possible) and then once you get to the end of the beach your biggest test will be the infamous SAND LADDER! It's something like 400 "steps" of sand. Definitely an awesome test and one thing that makes this race very unique. After the sand ladder is about .5 miles to the peak of the run course then the last 2 miles or so is all flat and downhill. One thing to keep in mind - the run course is VERY narrow in some areas, so it's super easy to get comfortable and just stay behind the people in front of you. If you're going to pass, make it quick as there will most likely be people coming in the other direction. The run finishes through a big grandstand and since it's a really well supported race, you'll have people cheering you in for almost the entire last mile.

If the race wasn't $400, I would do this every year...though I might just land up doing it anyways cause it really is an awesome experience."

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2010

John M.
Mountain View, CA

  (05-03-2010)

"This is a great race. The swim is fantastic, beautiful course.

In the past the Race Organizer IMG worked with Tri California to put this race on. This year they did not work together. Cal Tri's version will be fun on May 30, 2010. I was curious to see what differences resulted in the departure of Tri-Cal.
Here's what I noticed.
1) Cheaper swim caps. Last years were high quality Silicon, this year, just regular caps.
2) Transition from Swim / Run / T1 was poorly organized. No one directing traffic. You had to run 25 yards out of your way to get to find your own bag.
3) Drop bag pickup after finish was a disaster. I spent at least an hour looking for my bags. It took race organizers an hour to realize they had a problem and send more volunteers to help out.
Still a great race, but, not as good as previous years.
"

Reviewed by a: Repeat Participant for 2010

Roman P.
San Francisco, CA

  (08-24-2009)

"One of my favorite races of the year. Would have give this a five star rating, but a $400 price tag makes this extremely expensive and a loss of one star!"

Reviewed by a: Repeat Participant for 2009

Marlene S.
Redwood City, CA

  (07-13-2009)

"Wow, what an event! The 2009 Escape from Alcatraz was a journey within a greater journey for me. It all started back in November 2008. I had recently completed my first triathlon ever (2008 San Francisco at Treasure Island) and had barely survived the run. In fact, that 6 mile race run was the longest outdoor run I had ever done in my adult life... yes, you can infer that I did not properly train for the event but I was literally just doing the triathlon because of John's interest in training together for it.

Being new to the triathlon world, we had heard of the Escape triathlon and that there was a random lotto system to get in. So not really expected to get in, I signed up for the random lotto. The first drawing was in December and since I got no notification, I knew I was not in. I pretty much forgot about the whole thing until February 1 when I received an email that I had been selected to participate! I was shocked, amazing, excited and extremely scared at the same time. I had previously been fearing my next major tri, Avia Wildflower, which was scheduled for May 3 and I was afraid of that one because of its reputation for being very hilly. During the first weekend in April, I participated in the Tri-California training clinic for Wildflower. During the all day training event, we covered aspects of the swim, bike and run courses. This greatly alleviated my fear of Wildflower and all that remained was of the fear of the Alcatraz Tri one month later in June.

All of my increased training from December 2008 through April 2009 really paid for Wildflower as I ended up doing very well, placing 13th in my age group out of 230 women. I am amazed at my own progress and ability to perform. There was no mistaking it, I was officially a triathlon junkie. I couldn't get enough of the training, discipline, strategy and of course, the clothes and gear. :-)

So now it was early May and back to the upcoming Alcatraz, I knew I had to prepare and the swim portion was definitely worrying me. I turned to Tri-California training again and participate in the 2 day Swim only clinic in which we completed the entire actual swim course on an early Saturday morning. This practice swim was amazing and totally boasted my confidence about the upcoming triathlon. I knew I could do the swim and do it well. As for the bike and run, if you have been following my blog, you know about the 3 trips I took into SF to practice the courses, one RUN only and then two BIKE/RUN brick workouts. Again, the course practice was invaluable and I would recommend that for anyone to do whenever feasible for your event.

Let's jump to race day...the 4AM wake-up was not as painful as expeted, maybe I am sort of getting used to this. We got to the transition area around 5:30AM, which was not too early but not too late. Time to setup transition and then hopped the bus to the ferry terminal. Once we boarded the San Francisco Belle, the energy was incredible. Hundreds of triathletes (soon to be 1000s) were loaded up into this retired casino ferry boat...all sitted on the floor with wetsuits either on or in hand, assorted energy food and beverges, banter, laughter, nervous energy... all in one! After the ferry headed out, we knew it was just a matter of time before we would all be loaded into the 55 degree water within 6 minutes.

MY RACE REFLECTIONS

•SWIM: Loved it. I knew what to expect. I spotted well off of Sutro tower. It did feel a little longer than I thought and that ended up being because of the current, so everyone basically had an extra couple minutes tacked onto their times.
•BIKE: Loved it. Again, I knew the course well. I had planned out when I should go into aero position, when I should be in small and large gears and how to handle the turns and hills which were all of the place. With the traffic being gone, I was able to soar and was very satisfied with my time.
•RUN: Hated it. I did feel some worry setting in during T2 after the bike because my legs felt like rubber. I knew I had been very aggressive on the bike so I started to think I might have burnt my legs out. But there was no time to think because it was off to run. Like I have always felt in training, the first 1.5 - 2 miles of a run for me are always the toughest. It takes me about this distance to really warm up into the movement. I kept trying to remind myself of this during the first couple miles but negative thoughts kept plaguing my mind and I knew my pace was a little slowest than where I wanted it to be. Once I passed the uphill trail climb underneath the bridge and then down to Baker Beach, I started to feel a lot stronger. The dreaded Sand Ladder did not even end up being that bad because everyone was walking up it. So I did not feel like a slacker for just walking and grabbing the side cable line. After a little remaining uphill, I knew the rest of the course was all downhill and then flat. My energy really kicked into gear then and I pushed it out as best as possible. I made a minor mistake at the very end...I forgot that the red balloon gate sign was the entrance to the transition area but not the finish line... so I started my final all-out sprint too early and could not sustain it down the finish tunnel.
All in all, it was an incredible race and fabulous event.

Marlene's RACE TIME: 3:07:50
Age Group Place: 20th


Breakdown

•SWIM TIME: 42:28
•BIKE TIME: 01:01.46
•RUN TIME: 01:13.3
They even created a cool completion certificate for us. Can't wait to Escape again another year! See more pictures from the weekend in my Flickr Photostream.

For pictures and the full posting, check out my blog:
http://www.accentfitness.net/accent-fitness/2009/0 6/reflections-on-alcatraz.html"

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2009

matt l.
Moraga, CA

  (06-28-2009)

"I agree with Melinda's opening statement

"EFA is not the kind of course you race for a fast time; it's more of a sight-seeing course."

I think if you keep in mind that there is a lot of traffic on this course (unless you are a remarkable swimmer) and do this race for the sake of the accomplishment it represents then you will be delighted. There really are a lot of areas where it is difficult to pass others (bike and run) and the hills of the run are too tight and steep so create log jams of runners/climbers.

But do not be discouraged from doing Escape: it is awesome. Just focus your best efforts for a different race."

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2009

ross s.
san francisco, CA

  (06-17-2009)

"Last year I volunteered at the run Aid Station and decided that it was a great race to do, the location means that friends can come watch - as they did this year and they made a party of it with drinks and food. Yes you have to get up early but then that's normal with most events. The ferry ride was cool, I got a nice place on the floor then it was time. The jump off the boat wasn't far and the water was cold but not freezing so it was ok about the same temp at Oceanside. The swim is long, and there was a rolling swell, that was a new challenge considering I had never swum in the bay before. But in less than an hour it's over and you do get the best view of the rock and the bridges from in the water. The short run was a good warm up for the bike, the course is tough with quite a few hills so a great challenge. But the roads in the Golden Gate Park are really quite bad, it would be good to see parts of them ripped up and redone. (I got a flat on the bike course so be ready to change a tube if needed) The run is cool, the flat along Chrissy Field is sooo long and I wanted to get to the stairs to start heading uphill, it's an interesting course that requires you to keep your eyes open. Then down to the beach and turn left. It's good to have tried running on sand before you do the race. I found it fine on the sand and even managed to run the turn around. Then the sand ladder, I've been able to run at least some of it in past training but in the race I was walking it - still managed to do the ladder faster than the winner! After the ladder you head up hill, small steps and start running then you get back to the aid station and it's downhill from there. Then the long Chrisy Field section again. Keep going and finish strong, and awesome race with a great crowd. I will be back with friends next year."

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2009

Melinda L.
San Francisco, CA

  (06-15-2009)

"EFA is not the kind of course you race for a fast time; it's more of a sight-seeing course. Moreover, at $400 for a quasi-Olympic-distance race (1.5 mile swim, 18 mile bike, 8 mile run), I think it's one of those races you do once to say that you did it. As such, I probably wouldn't do it again. If I decide to do another "escape" triathlon from Alcatraz, I'd probably do Escape from the Rock again. That being said, I don't regret doing EFA one bit.

My first impression of the organization of the race wasn't that great. Although I was impressed by the registration/expo/transition area set-up, the info on the website didn't always correspond with the info given out... and I mean for important things like when the last bus departs to the ferry in the morning. Furthermore, they advised first-timers to arrive at transition at 5 am. I mean, I understand how difficult it is to herd 2,000 athletes, but 5 am is absurdly early.

The swim was great. However, being told to spot off Sutro Tower wasn't the best... especially since there was a momentary scare when Sutro Tower was obscured by some fog. In this regard I liked Escape from the Rock, where there was a huge orange buoy on a boat that we were told to swim towards, which gradually moved towards where we were supposed to end up. Figuring out where the swim ended was a bit confusing too. It was hard to see the red balloon arch on the beach. Moreover, there were two small orange buoys further down that just confused me.

After the swim, there was a short jog to the transition area. The volunteers did a great job of placing all the running shoes in order.

The bike course was hilly. Moreover the road was, at times, REALLY rough. Thus, I'm glad I didn't bother with my tri bike, instead going with my road bike.

The run course was also very hilly, has portions with uneven steps, and of course there's the sand ladder. One of the reasons I gave the course 3 stars is because of the run course. It's VERY narrow at certain places. In fact, at one point--going up the stairs towards Golden Gate Bridge--we were told not to pass. I understand why, but that's not what you'd want to hear if you cared about your time.

All in all, it's a well-run race. The energy of the race was great (Escape from the Rock is a lot more low-key)! The volunteers were simply amazing. The swag was pretty good. This year they gave out red carry-on sized bags, a nice performance shirt (but only in men's sizes--boo!), a nice Headsweats hat that says "Genuine Escapee," and a water bottle."

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2009

Kevin H.
San Francisco, CA

  (06-08-2009)

"I was just a spectator, but beautiful race, tons of spectator support and very well-organized"

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2008

Paul M.
san francisco, CA

  (04-23-2009)

"Super-cool race - definitely lives up to the hype. It is hard to beat swimming from alcatraz, then riding and running around san francisco on a beautiful day (which we had).

The race is really well supported, and since it is so popular and well known, there are tons of people on the street cheering you on. It made me feel like a star - until I got lapped by the race winner...

It is a tough race though - all high power, which hurts for a big guy like me. It is a tough swim in cold choppy water, then a bunch of hills on the bike, followed by more hills on the run. And just for fun, they have you run 3/4 of a mile on the beach before climbing the sand ladder. Its hard work for such a short distance...

I would definitely do it again though - it was loads of fun and really beautiful."

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2008