Monday, June 09, 2008

Inmate 631 Escaped from Alcatraz

SAN FRANCISCO - Inmate number 631 Glenn Gervais (AKA GGTriGuy) escaped from the ROCK also known as Alcatraz on Sunday June 8, 2008. After an early morning wake up call at 4:15 he was seen riding his bicycle from his cozy hotel room to the Marina Green near the San Francisco waterfront. Glenn dropped off his bicycle and left behind a Scooby Doo towel, helmet, sunglasses and shoes for bicycling and running but quickly left for his get away vehicle, a large tour bus.

John an Ironman athlete from Wisconsin was seen talking to Glenn on the bus ride to Pier 3 but did not apprehend our triathlete. Unable to verify, but we think Glenn was among 1800 people in wetsuits boarding the San Francisco Belle, a 292-foot stern wheeler two hours later just before 7 am. The cruise ship departed at 7:15 sharp before we were able to board to take Glenn into custody. The San Francisco Belle returned empty and we think Glenn jumped ship near Alcatraz Island and swam 1.5 miles to shore.




Glenn was seen exiting the water at St Francis Yacht Club by his Brother, Wife, kids and about 2000 other spectators but no one grabbed him. Glenn took off his wetsuit but left the Blue Seventy swim socks on and ran about half a mile before finding the bicycle and gear that he left behind hours earlier. He was too fast and was already gone on the bicycle before we could stop him for questioning.

There were over 1800 athletes and 20,000+ spectators so we could not follow Glenn out onto the bicycle course, but we believe he conquered the out and back hilly San Francisco course that went up and down through the Presido and out the other side and down to the Great Highway before turning into the Golden Gate park. Glenn's family saw him returning to the bicycle parking lot and caught him waving, so we know he really enjoyed the bike course.



After another quick stop to change his shoes Glenn was back on course, this time running. The sun was really beating down on all the athletes as they ran out towards the Golden gate bridge along the waterfront, only to find some stairs that took them oh so close to the bridge deck but just eluded capture by running under the bridge and through a battlement and some trails at Fort Point before running on the street out to a trail that took the athletes down to Baker Beach.

The athletes were seen running south to the end of Baker Beach before turning north to run to the other side where Glenn was seen at the bottom of the infamous 400 step sand ladder by an 11 year old athlete from Florida as she passed him and quickly beat him to the top.



Once tackling the sand ladder Glenn was rewarded with Clif Bloks before running back the same course to get back to the Marina Green where we finally caught Glenn as he crossed the finish line and officially Escaped from Alcatraz!




Once Glenn slowed down we were able to interview him and it is true, he did escape from Alcatraz along with about 1600 other triathletes. 1259Th out of the water he passed quite a few on the bike and run to finish in 595Th place. Plug in inmate (bib) number 631 here for complete results.



What a great race, What a great event! The weather turned out perfect, no fog, the ebb tide pushed us in the right direction. I used the pre race advice and sighted properly and came out on the correct beach. Hearing Debbie, Joe and everyone cheering for me gave me a great big smile and pumped me up even more. With so many people, the only thing I can compare to is the Ironman in Coeur d'Alene. Both races were put on by different organizations, but both were perfectly run and very well run. I highly recommend doing this event. I will do it again some day.

My Picasa photo album of the event is here: http://picasaweb.google.com/ggtriguy/EscapeFromAlcatraz

My Picasa photo album of our GREAT vacation is here: http://picasaweb.google.com/ggtriguy/SanFranciscoVacation

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Off to Alcatraz

Well we are on our way for a great week of fun ending with a Triathlon where I will swim 1.5 miles from Alcatraz to downtown San Francisco followed by a nice 1 mile warm up run to find my bicycle amongst the 2000 bikes for a hilly 18 mile ride finally finishing with a short 8 mile run including the famous sand ladder up from Baker Beach! WOOO HOOOO!!!

Hopefully you can track my progress online at: http://triathlon.accenture.com/SanFrancisco/

While your waiting for me to finish, head over to the B-Fit BDay site where I did a birthday Triathlon on my birthday. Since I turned 38, I swam the 3 miles, biked 38 and ran 8 miles in about 5 hours or so on my birthday to complete the GOLD challenge. Please vote for me (GG Iron Guy) and I might win a prize!

Voting is along the left side of the screen: http://www.bfitbday.com

Check back next week for a race report and photos from Alcatraz!!!