Matt’s Escape

The night before at 7PM panic set in as the bike derailleur was locking the rear wheel up, so a cab ride to the amazing “Sports Basement” – a triathlete’s wet dream of a shop and the staff there got me sorted out with an hour before they shut !

I had a totally sleepless night – concerns about mechanicals, the swim, the run, everything then at 3:30 I was up before the alarm had a chance to go off.

Early start, 4am hotel meet and at transition by 4:30 am, Jumped on the coach to the dock and waited whilst all the other competitors were ferried out too.

The boat left at around 6:45 and arrived at Alactraz around 30 minutes later, we did a tour of the island, my age group (yellow cap) put me on the second deck of the boat whilst a few others (Kid Stardust and Tritans sneaked in below their age group !!! to the first deck). Having had terrible weather at the start of the week on Sunday morning the sea was calm and conditions were amazing.

The atmosphere was palpable, a kid (24 or so) in the queue for the loo in front of me said he’d never been so scared in his life and was literally shaking with fear !! Everyone seemed concerned about the swim, it was a very tense (although at times hilarious atmosphere).

At 8 am the pros all dived in (I was directly above Chris McCormack – he wasn’t wearing goggles (!), on the bow so I should be able to pinpoint myself in the press photos).

The pros all took a straight line for the exit which we had all been briefed was the wrong approach, as the current would make you overshoot, everyone on our deck was like “what the F*&%$ are they doing”, the next group of swimmers also took the same line, as we were a good 5 minutes or so left to go we could see that after a few minutes the pros started heading to the landmarks we’d been briefed in on, so they either were being very aggressive or knew something we didn’t ! Speaking to a couple of guys who took the same approach ( they followed the pros) they found themselves in trouble and were actually redirected by the kayakers, so obviously not as strong swimmers as the pros.

Following the pros was the mass lemming start…very funny and quite a spectacle. This video just about sums everything up….http://bit.ly/bzzLbD

I got a great swim – You can feel the currents change as you move through the water and the sighting really became a big deal, I changed my line throughout the swim several times as years of being in the water (diving and surfing) gave me a good feel for what was going on with the water movement.

I timed my leap from the boat to hitting the beach at 27:45 with an official split (after the run up the beach) at 28:29 which put me at 155 / 1492 or around top 10% (very happy with that), looked for the fan club but couldn’t focus on anything, really dizzy , made it to the wetsuit drop and then put in a good run to T1 (around 3/4 a mile or so) with a T1 split of 6:25, then on to the bike.

My bike definitely wasn’t made for the climbs, got overtaken by loads of guys on road bikes but I flew on the downhills. The route was stunning, some typical steep SF hills as you’d expect but not as many as I thought (although a couple of real killers) , really spectacular views all round and on the return leg of the bike we saw the pro leaders just heading back on the run – they were running faster than we were cycling, unbelievable – they must have been doing about 5:30 minute miles (!) . 18 mile bike went too quickly, would love to have spent longer out there. Not so strong on the bike – 1:07 or 818/1492 then onto T2 , split here of 1:21. Finally saw the fan club on the ride in and on the run out of T2 Bike to run felt really good, legs still felt strong for the run , the brick training sessions in the last few weeks really helped out here.

It was also on the return to T2 that I finally saw the Fan Club (who according to other competitors said they did a fantastic job of cheering everyone on !!)

I was aiming for sub-3 and knew that If I averaged around 10 minute miles then I should be okay so was pretty comfortable at this stage.

The run starts of flat along the coast and then you go straight up a series of steps that take you up to a level just below the Golden Gate bridge, then a few more up and downs and more steps puts you back on the road that the bike course takes. There were still some riders heading back on the bike and then almost as soon as you hit the road you’re heading back down to the beach (around 3 miles) , then along the sand beach, which wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, along to the turn around point – 4 miles you run another 1/2 mile or so and you’re at the stair ladder. There’s no way you can run this. Its just a slow processional slog up to the top. At the top you’re faced with another uphill and then you’re finally on the way down again. I grabbed some cytomax at around the 2 mile mark and then picked up the pace for the final slog in. The final run along the road is quite amazing with everyone cheering you on and you know it’s all coming to an end…

run split – 1:08 or 510/1492 final : 2:51. I was aiming for sub 3 and so managed that and still had a great day out, the swim was considerably faster than I thought so that helped a lot and made the whole race really enjoyable rather than a constant clock watching affair..Final position 402. Considering 1800 started and only 1492 finished I was glad to get round it, especially after the mechanical issues the night before.