Thursday, May 6, 2010

Part 3 The Run

One word to describe this run from an east coast perspective, Epic.  This is by far the most difficult portion of the race.  The hills, steps, sand, sand stairs, more hills, and downhill's make it so.  Not to mention you run right along the bay, under the Golden Gate Bridge, out to the outer bay/Pacific Ocean and back.  People who get to run on these trails are spoiled.

The run has pavement, crushed gravel, single track flat and with stairs, a tunnel where you have to duck, cliffs, and beach sand.  All that combined with the technical and hilly nature are what make it one of the great runs I have ever been on.

When I came out of transition I was right at 1:40:00 on my watch, so I knew even with a slow 10 minute pace I would coast home under 3 hours. Piece of cake, right?  I didn’t expect to be challenged like I was out there.  We started out on the pavement for a brief moment then headed back out to the beach at Crissy Field.  This part is on crushed gravel and is very firm, and the bay and bridge are right next to you, so lots of ways to check out mentally for a moment.  The sun was nice and high, and temps were pretty warm for San Francisco.  As I turned to run along the beach the leader and winner Hunter Kemper passed me on his way to the finish.  He was motoring.  A few moments later Andy Potts and Macca were in hot pursuit, but were a bit far back to catch him.  Close to the 2 mile mark you hang a left at the end of the beach and the climbing begins.  After the first brief climb you get to run under the Golden Gate Bridge and that was pretty cool.  The path has stairs and single track, and you had to pay attention for the leaders still coming down the hill right on top of you, not to mention your footing.  The pace slowed as it was tough to pass anyone here, but everyone was moving with no walkers.  There was also a tunnel that had about 5 feet of clearance at one side where you really had to get low to clear your noggin.  This total climb up to the road was a little more than a mile in length and had right at 300 feet of climbing.  I was gassed towards the top and started walking for a few seconds.  Thankfully I had a couple of competitors urge me to keep it up and that was enough encouragement to get running again.

We topped out on the road above the ocean and had some shade cover for a few moments.  At the three mile point I checked my split and was surprised to see it at 27 min, so with the tough climb I was already 3 min above needed pace.  I thought surely all that uphill would have slowed it more, but not so.  It was all downhill for about a half mile as we descended past the top of the sand ladder then turned on a winding dirt road that took us all the way down to the beach.  The sand proved a little more difficult than I thought it would be, just hard to get good footing and you definitely felt it in your glutes more than normal running.  After the turnaround it was back down the beach to the sand ladder.

Sand Ladder from bottom Tough Climb

The sand ladder is as tough as you can expect.  I don’t think I saw anyone run for more than a few seconds, as you were already a little uncomfortable from running on that soft sand.  I pulled up a lot on the railing and used as much upper body as possible to save my legs.  The ladder covers .13 miles in distance but rises 123 feet in this quick amount of time.  You just can’t imagine how steep it is unless you are on it.  Once you are at the top you get to climb another 150 feet over the next half mile to top out the uphill portion.  So with the ladder and uphill after it, you are looking at 300 feet in .75 mile, quite a workout.  My split for the sand ladder was 3:24. I started feeling cramping in my quads at this time, I am pretty sure it was effort and not hydration as I was drinking sips of water at most of the aid stations.  My legs just are not used to that much uphill that quickly.  I was actually a bit concerned that it would get worse, but once headed back downhill it was manageable.  I took some cytomax to drink at the next aid station and went back down the drop at Golden Gate Bridge as fast as possible.  I passed a lot of people here, my main goal was to lower my average as much as possible.  At the 6 mile split I was at 2:38, so I ran the first 10K with all those climbs and stairs at a 9:20 pace.  At this point I felt good and turned up the pace.  I had good posture, a decent kick (for me at least) and covered the final two miles around a 8:30 pace to finish the run in 1:11:32 for a 8:57 min/mile pace.  That was good for my total time of 2:54:53, well under my 3-3:15 goal.

Finishing Escape from Alcatraz

So I went in with some attainable goals and with an excellent performance wanted to try and break 3 hours.  Even with the fast swim conditions I still managed to beat that by 5 minutes, so if the bay was choppy I feel like I had enough gas regardless to make that time.  My splits and rankings were:

Overall: 2:54:53  499/1524 overall (33rd percentile), 97 of 226 in my age group

Swim: 29:32  257th overall (17th percentile)

Bike: 1:04:50 (16.7 mph) 650th overall (43rd percentile)

Run: 1:11:32 (8:57 pace) 733rd overall (48th percentile)

Obviously my run is still the weak spot and has the most room for improvement, so speed work here we come.  If I can do this race again you better believe that I will, it was one to stamp in the memory bank.

Part 2 – The Bike

Transition

Although we had a chance to preview some of the bike course on Friday it was still a challenging 18 miler.  It started out with a mile or so stretch of flat along the waterfront then a hard left with a 250ft climb to the main road over about a mile and a half.  This first climb did a nice job of getting the heart rate up then gave a nice break with a fast downhill down into the Sea Cliff neighborhood.  That is one swanky area, but you only spend about 2 minutes in it before your next climb into Lincoln Park and up to the Legion of Honor.  This uphill stretch is about 200 feet in a little over a half mile.  Most of the time here you have the Pacific Ocean out on your right, so the views were fantastic.  When I peaked out up at the top you could start to hear the helicopter and soon the pros were passing us coming back in.  Those guys were really huffing it up the hill form the other side of the Legion of Honor as we all flew down past them.  This downhill has a hard right turn at the bottom and then a steep climb up Clement Street towards the beach.  I didn’t get into gear fast enough and ended up dropping my chain here. Thankfully I was able to get off, reengage the chain and get back on with about a minute lost.  That climb setup the fastest section of the course as you dropped back down at Seal Rock and The Cliff House to ride directly on The Great Highway with the Pacific Ocean right next to us.

Cliff House Downhill to Pacific  Downhill to the Pacific

  This downhill and flat allowed some good 30+ mph riding and led us into the Golden Gate Park section of the course.  This area had most of the traditional aero position riding with a few rollers, but still allowed you to get some mph average back up, as well as rest the legs for the biggest climb back up at cliff house & seal rock.  As you exit Golden Gate park you hang a right and start retracing the ride out.  The pacific is over on your left and allows you to let the mind wander before the tough climb back up to the top of Clement Street at the VA Hospital.  This climb is a little less than a mile and gains about 300 feet in elevation.  Hard to replicate that here in Atlanta.  After you reach the top you plummet back down and hang a hard left to climb once more to the Legion of Honor.  I peaked my speed here of 44 mph.  After topping out at the Legion of Honor we flew back down thru the Seal Cliff neighborhood and had one more small climb back up to the Presidio.  We passed the pros on the run here as they were dropping down onto the beach for the sand ladder.  The helicopter was hovering but nobody came up the ladder when I passed it.

From there on in it was all downhill then flat into the transition for T2.  I was hoping for a sub 1:05:00 bike time and a good transition to stay on pace, and ended up with a 1:04:50 bike split and a 2:06 T2.  I was pleased and in good shape, especially losing a minute with the chain issue.  The bike was a lot more technical with the turns climbs and drops than I am used to here in the south, but it is hard to imagine a better short ride in America than this one.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Race Day Part 1 – Setup and Swim

 

CIMG1020 The morning started early with a 4am wakeup for shower and prep.  My race partner David and I rode our bikes to the transition setup at about 5 am, it was quite a scene with the dead quiet downtown streets except for a bunch of cyclists.  We took to transition and setup, and thankfully they had numbers on rack positions, not just a range so you knew exactly where to go.  Of course the guy next to me racked his bike backwards, but there was plenty of room to get setup.  Coffees of Hawaii was there bright and early, and before we loaded the buses I was able to get my hands on a cup of joe.  We left for the loading pier and had about an hour before the boat was leaving to hang out on the pier and chat about our prep and mentally prepare for the day.  Boat loading was a breeze, and although they had different areas corralled for age groups, it was pretty much a free for all on the boat.

We circled the island once before parking, and I was a bit surprised at how close we started to the shore.  We were only about 20 yards from the sign up top, so you had a pretty good view to start.  Helicopters were hovering, the national anthem was played and we were ready.  The pros queued up right outside the window we were sitting at and the horn went off at 8am sharp.  It was crazy how fast those guys moved out and in a matter of minutes all you could see was a rooster tail from their pack in the water.

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Our rookie mistake here was we were directly in the center of the boat, and it turns out that we were some of the last to get off the boat.  It took almost 7 minutes from the gun for us to get out the door and then the leap of faith.  The guy in front of me took a bit of time to jump, and once they told me to go I took off, unfortunately he was still taking his time coming up form the water and I nearly landed on top of him.  It surprised me how crowded it was in the water to begin, I figured everyone would spread out pretty quickly but for the first 5 minutes it was full contact open water swimming and climbing over people.  Another 5 minutes after that I was able to finally find some open water and lock in on a good rhythm.

The suggestions for sighting and directions tell you to point way left of where you will eventually come out of the water and let the current drag you to the right and towards the finish while you swim across the current.  After about 15 minutes of following this suggestion I stopped in the water to take in the sight and sound of being in San Francisco Bay with the Golden Gate Bridge to my right, San Francisco to my left, and Alcatraz Island behind me.  I also wanted to get a good idea of where I was in relation to the finish and pick a new line.  I had made a pretty good clip and decided then to bear right and take an aggressive line just to the left of the swim finish.  I took off, started swimming very aggressively and was surprised to get out of the water at a 29:32 split.  You run up the sand an into a mini transition area where your bag awaits for you to leave your wetsuit and put on your secondary pair of running shoes.  Once the shoes are on it is about a half mile run to the main Transition area and I managed to get in there and out on the bike for a total T1 time of 6:33.

My swim goal was anywhere between 42-44 min, and my T1 goal was to be under 7 min if possible.  Even with the very fast swim conditions I blasted the swim and ended up with the 255th fastest time out of 1,564 finishers (1800 started), so I was solid at the 14th percentile there.  Combined with my sub 7 min T1 I started off well toward my “excellent race” goal of a sub 3 hour finish.  Next up the bike.

San Francisco Recap

What a trip. I am going to give a race recap in three parts, pre-race and swim, bike, and run. However it was a resounding success. Without knowing what to expect I was hoping for a 3-3:10 race and ended up coming in at 2:54, so well under my goals. I will break down each portion in the next few posts. The city of SF is one of the best places I have had the chance to visit, and it was even more special getting to spend some time with just my wife sans the kids (which we adore). It has been quite a long time since we have had a vacation with just the two of us.

Flights out of Atlanta went off and bike shipping was a breeze.


Everything arrived in one piece and we had a morning ride the first day and were able to get into the water on Saturday to acclimate to the water. There were a lot of people down there at the water when we did our swim and we were able to chat it up with many of them. We also had a chance to meet some of our fellow competitors from Georgia as well.

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Food was great while in town, and we did a lot of the standard tourist things like Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge, and the cable cars. The best part outside the race was all of the great meals and adult time we were able to get in.

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On Saturday we picked up our packets and got to see some cool bikes, and met some of the pros as well. Macca, Andy Potts, Hunter Kemper were all there as well as Michille Jones. Check out the cammo bike with the antler aerobars at the bottom

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