Team Trutane

Escape From Alcatraz 2002

Here are some pics that were taken of Steve competing in the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon, 16 June 2002 (happy Father's Day!). Click on them for larger versions.

You can order hard copies (for a limited time).

See also the official race website for results and other details.

Swim

Getting ready to jump in (these are actually the pros)
Jumping in (pros again)
In the SF Bay (I'm in there somewhere)
Bike

Starting out on the bike
Cranking uphill on the last hill of the course
Run

About 2 miles to go. Two thumbs up.
Hey, where's the finish line?
Homestretch. Feeling quite hammered about now.

Steve's Comments

I woke up race day morning with feelings of a cold coming on (funny throat and feeling a bit weak). I managed to overcome it with the help of Echinacea and adrenalin, but it eventually caught up with me in the days after the race.

Conditions were near perfect for the race. Weather was sunny and clear the whole day with a gentle cool breeze. Water was 57°F and quite calm for the Bay. There was a strong ebb current that improved everyone's swim time, but due to a tactical error on my part, I had to fight the current at the end of the swim after I failed to cross the main channel quickly enough and I over-shot the end of the swim course. Cost me about 3-4 minutes. Even still, it was my fastest swim time of the three times I've done this course (36 min).

The bike went well. This was the first time I successfully transitioned onto the bike with my shoes pre-attached to the pedals. Yea! No mechanical failures, although I thought I smelled burning rubber a few times when braking hard. Fortunately, it wasn't my tires.

I witnessed a bike crash at Cliff House as some guy lost it on the downhill turn as I was coming up. Don't know how he faired. Maybe we'll see it in September when the Escape airs on TV.

It was good to see Kim & Russ while I was transitioning from bike to run. I had just enough time to give Russ a kiss and then off I ran.

The run ended up being my strongest leg (210th place out of 1250). I guess it shows that I haven't been doing as much biking or swimming in my training. It definitely ranks as one of the most painful runs in recent memory. I ran out of endorphins with about 1.5 miles to go. The scenery, spectator cheers, and visions of our new bathtub got me through. :-)

As for placement, I managed to make it into the top quartile of my age group (55/229) with an official time of 2:45:23 (my watch recorded 2:46:06 however).

Here are my results from the official race website: 

Class   Overall  Sex   First      Last      City              Final     Class    Swim    Swim    Swim      Swim       Bike      Bike  Bike        Bike        Run      Run    Run       Penalty Sex  Age    Bib#
Rank    Rank     Rank  Name       Name                                           Time    Rank    Min/Km    Transition Time      Rank  Miles/Hour  Transition  Time     Rank   Min/Mile

  55    274    238    Steve       Trutane      Albany           02:45:23  M35-39    00:36:54  556   00:24:36  00:07:16   00:59:52   243   24.8      00:02:07  00:59:14      210  00:07:24   00:00:  M   37     906

Field: 1252 total participants, 944 men, 284 women.

Copyright (c) 2002 Steve Trutane.