8th at Alcatraz!

Last weekend it was back to San Francisco for one of my favorite races. This is an especially fun race that I look forward to each year, for a few different reasons: Dave travels with me, we visit friends in the city, and I love the challenging, beautiful course. The hills just seem to suit me! Being in SF and racing Escape From Alcatraz this past weekend was pretty sweet...from start to finish, it was a fun weekend topped off with a great race.

Usually, I'm too scared to dive off the boat into the bay (it's high off the water, and it's scarry, hanging onto the railing, balancing on about two inches of ledge, trying not to slip off into the 55 degree water before the horn goes off!)... but this year I got brave (with the urging of Dave) and I dove in! And, here's proof - that's me second from the right. I know you can't tell, but that is me, in my new F2R suit. With this picture, I'm glad I didn't do the lifeguard stride jump this year!

I had a great swim and came out of the water right where I wanted to; right with some of the others girls I usually TRY to swim with. It felt good to stay with a pack and not find myself swimming all alone out there in the bay. That has happened before and it's not a good feeling!



The bike course is technical, with some tough climbs and some super screamin' fast downhills. Yup - it was FUN! And, it seemed to go by fast.



Onto the run, my legs felt surprisingly good. I settled into a good clip and did what I could to hold my place. I knew there were fast runners behind me, so I put on my "A-Game" and did all I could to hold them off. One flew past me in the first mile, but I was able to hold off the others. It was good enough to cross the line in 8th place!

Check out the race results here

And, here's an article on the the race