Alcatraz Challenge

 

San Francisco, California

I flew up to San Francisco with Mark Andersen and his wife Julie. Mark wanted to swim Alcatraz so I told him I would do it with him. I talked him into doing the aquathlon and running the bridge too. This was my 4^th crossing, 2^nd this year and my best navigation so far. There was a head wind and waves in our face the whole swim so my time wasn’t great but I had a much better run than last summer although I was cautious with Ironman 70.3 Hawaii only 4 days away. I beat my time from last year and had a good race. We went to see a game at Giants Stadium which was like the Celestial Kingdom of ball parks.

One funny aspect of this race, was that after the race was over I was looking at pictures that Julie took on her phone. There was Mark still in his wetsuit posing for a picture with a medal around his neck. I was puzzled. As it turns out Mark has let the volunteers take his chip of his leg after the race and then was guided to the medal people. He took a picture and then went out on the run. He ended up getting a medal for both the swim and the run and didn’t even know that is not how it works.