Part II The 'Warmup Run'

The warmup run to the bike transition was flat except for one steep hill near the start. I slowed a little on the hill but still passed people while watching someone running in the other direction with their wetsuit on. Obviously they had made landfall far downstream from the proper swim finish. I finished the hill with a huge smile on my face as I passed early morning tourists. My legs felt great and I had just finished swimming from Alcatraz while they were just wandering down the wharf. What a wonderful day! As I continued the run I actually caught up with some other runners. One guy was very talkative. He asked how my swim was and I said that the current had been pretty strong so I had gone under the pier. I said that it was good that I had finished my swim on my own since a he and a number of other swimmers had been picked up by boats and brought to the opening in the pier so that they could finish.

A little over half way through the 2.5 mile run my wife caught up to me on her bike and biked with me for a while. I loved being able to talk with her while I ran. I told her I was feeling awesome and she went on ahead to grab a picture. Then she kept along with me through to the transition area where she peeled off a told me she would catch me on the bike. I finished the run in 23:51 and headed into the bike transition building. The bike transition went very easily and there were still a lot of bikes left. I opted to leave my last Clif shot for the run and 1:53 later I jogged out of the building. My wife cheered my on as I rounded the first corner towards the first hill.

Part III The Bike

Here in Texas I never stand on my bike. Only on the very steepest hills do I every consider it and usually I can stay seated and still get over them. I had thought that I would try the same in San Francisco. That plan soon vanished as I was forced into stand just after I started the first hill. I ground my way up the hill until I passed a road that lead to parking for the visitors to the Golden Gate Bridge. The road leveled a bit here and I figured that I might be near the top. No such luck the road just continued going up. My legs were already burning and I began to wonder how I would manage three laps of this. I thought that I was strong on the bike but this hill was a monster. After about 2 miles of this I reached the top and began my descent. The view was gorgeous since I could see over the bridge and out to sea. I wasn't sure of the course and stayed pretty tentative on my first descent. The road forked from the cyclists returning up the hill and I had the whole road to myself. I took the corners fairly slow and allowed one cyclist to pass me. All to soon I reached the bottom and the turnaround where I began the long grind back up to the bridge. This part was not quite as steep and I was able to stay on my aerobars and spin a little. My legs were now recovering from the first climb and I began to reel in some other riders. The climb began to get steeper as I reached the fork where the descent split off. There were several more S curves to get to the top each one steeper than the last. I was very thankful to be wearing cleats so that I could pull on the upstroke as well as the downstroke. Even with standing though I was barely able to grind it to the top. As I pumped I realized that this course was the best I had seen to prevent drafting. No point in drafting on the uphills since there isn't much advantage when everyone is only going 5 MPH. On the downhills you would have to be crazy to stick to someones wheel at 45 MPH. Since there was nothing but up and down on this course there was no place to draft. As I reached to top I was back on more familiar territory since I had come up this section so I let loose a little more on the descent. I passed a couple of riders before I reached the bottom and looped around to start the second lap. I noticed a rubbing sound on my front crank though when I was in my big ring. I looked down and realized that either I had not tightened my crank enough or my front derailler had moved I hoped that it was the latter. As I finished the first lap my momentum carried me about 1/3 of the way up the first part of the hill before I had to stand. As I pedaled I began to hear a noise every time I pushed down on my right pedal. I figured that it was indeed my crank that was a little loose but a glance showed that everything seemed okay so I hoped that it would hold for the next two laps. This climb went a little easier and I played leap frog with another rider who would pass me on the steeper parts and then slow on the slightly less steep parts. This time when I reached the top I knew what to expect on the downhill so I stopped pedaling and dropped as low as I could go while tucking in my knees and elbows. It seemed to work as I passed several people who were still pedaling including the rider I was leapfrogging while cruising at over 45 MPH.

The next uphill went great as I finally dropped the rider I had been leapfrogging for good. As I reached the really steep part near the top I began to see some runners on the other side of the road. The next downhill also went well as I passed several more riders all of whom were pedaling while I just kept myself as aerodynamic as possible and zoomed on past. This was also good since I really couldn't get a good grip on my big gears due to the front deraileur/crank problem. I started up the hill for my last lap with a big grin on my face. I was having a blast. I reached the top without any incident and headed downhill. This time I almost wiped out as the rider in front of my kept edging further and further left before he finally heard me calling out and moved over. Much to close for my comfort. I was glad that I only had one downhill left. This time as I headed up the less steep part of the return hill I saw someone in the distance. As I got closer I realized that it was indeed my wife. I called out to her and couldn't quite understand what she replied with (I found out afterwards that she was asking what lap I was on but was able to figure out from my time estimates that it was my last so she headed over towards the run course.) With the encouragement I renewed my cycling with improved gusto. I reached the steep part again and was glad that this was the last time although viewing the runners reminded me that soon I would have to run up this hill. This time there was also this odd rider who kept swerving right and left. At first I thought that he was having trouble but then I realized that he was just trying to reduce the grade by going up the hill in an S shape. It made it much more difficult to pass him but soon I got by him with a quick surge. As I finished the final part of the hill I heard a siren. An ambulance and fire engine soon came over the crest of the hill heading for the bottom. I hoped that no one had crashed. At the speeds that could be reached on the downhills it would be possible to get much more than just road rash (I never did hear of anyone getting hurt so I'm not sure if the ambulance was headed for someone in the race or not. I sure hope it wasn't). I soon crested the hill myself and was on my final downhill. I let out a yell as I descended enjoying the free speed. Soon I was at the bottom and heading into the transition with a time of 47:10.

I clomped through the building to where my bike was. Then I sat down and removed my cleats and put my shoes on. I took off my helmet and grabbed my final Clif Shot I was set to go and feeling great. I jogged out of the transition building after just 1:44 and grabbed a cup of water moments before a runner came in. There were a lot of cheers so I was hoping that I had finished my bike before the first finisher, but the runner next to me said that he was actually the second and that the first had finished about 5 minutes earlier. Oh well I thought, I was still having a super time.