Read how Dylan Gong tackled his first time at Escape from Alcatraz... and landed a top 10 overall amateur spot.
I had a great winter of cyclocross, mountain biking, track, and duathlons so I was stoked to have been gifted a spot into EFAT 2022. Months of hard work, years of dedication, and a birthday weekend would be a major highlight to my year.
I knew I had some great momentum coming into the race with a really good track season and a 2nd place finish at my triathlon opener UC Davis Aggieathlon, but there was still more to work on. I went to SF 4-6 times in the lead up month and got experience being in the cold and learning the route thanks to WaterWorld. I scouted the course every chance I got and took care of my body by cutting out extra sports that could fatigue or injure me.
I was nervous in the lead up because I wasn’t confident in my swim speed and finals week took a lot out of me. During my taper, my body felt like it was going into hibernation mode and I didn’t know if I’d have the pop. Saturday I pushed that away and had fun on my shakeout swim, bike, and run. Had the gear packed on Friday so when I got home, I just recovered, ate dinner, turned off the lights at 9:30 pm for a 2:50am wake up.
Woke up at 2:15 to loud rain, went back to sleep and woke up at 2:50 energized. Out the door by 3:35 and got to the parking lot at around 4:10 where I ate my PB sandwich (happy bc this was the first time in a long time I devoured breakfast instead of picking at it). Set up transition and decided to put one of my trash bags I packed on top of my helmet and run gear to keep my stuff dry (dad said my stuff wouldn’t get too wet otherwise I would’ve put my gear inside the bag to stay dry. On the bus by 4:50 to pier 1. Used bathroom one more time, met up with some Cal Tri teammates and we got on the boat around 5:30.
Got straight to door and had tons of room to do my stretches. Hung out, stretched, stayed hydrated, and waited. Started putting on wetsuit around 6:50 and looked out the window to take in the sights. Was real surprised when we got to the initial drop point because I could barely see my sight points of the towers or fort mason. Fully zipped up around 7:10 to see we were just off aquatic park (real sad because it no longer felt like Escape from Alcatraz, but a shorter swim would play into my hands). Heard the final announcements, poured a water bottle into my suit and on my face to prep for the splash, and waited for the jump.
SWIM
Took in my location one more time and got ready to go. Saw Jake from WaterWorld outside my door. Crossed the mat, started the Garmin, and went over to the open gate to get a clear jump. Wasn’t too shocked by the water temp because my ear plugs did a great job (earplugs work) and got swimming. Kind of just aimed for the bright buoy on the lead boat for a bit and tried getting in people’s drafts but I kept falling off. Somehow, I found my Cal teammate, Grace, and just swum alongside her for a bit. I’d always try to swim a bit faster because it felt like she wasn’t going super fast, but I’d always get humbled and would go through a cycle of: she’s a teammate and a consistent swimmer, feels slow and I’ll try my own, snake off line, end up next to Grace. Half way in we found 2 more teammates (they had the Cal cap under their race cap). The four of us made our way to St Francis and I was a little disappointed with my “average/sub average swim.” Got on the beach, ran fast, found EBTC to strip wetsuit, got to my swim bag, grabbed run shoes and tossed my wet suit in and ran. Everyone had been telling me to take it like an ITU race and just run through to transition, but 1/2 mile of asphalt and a wetsuit was never my thing. Without my wetsuit and with shoes, I blasted past a ton of people. The time with/without stopping may have been even, but I felt fresher for the race. I was in and out of T1 and took less than 5 minutes from when I took my first step till I was on the bike.
BIKE
Did a flying mount but missed my shoes. Took a bit to get setup, but was riding 25 mph within a minute. Got to the base of the climb with some good looking bikers that latched onto me. They dropped me on the first climb but I had all the confidence on the downhill. Rode the downhills very conservatively, braking early and taking the turns in a way to avoid the puddles and painted lines. Kind of felt like an XC race where it’s 2-5 minutes of hard climbing, get up to speed and tuck on the dh, and tempo the flats. I ended up yo-yoing a lot with those guys bc they rode a fairly consistent pace; if I got gapped, I’d work back and ride on the tail to recover at their consistent pace, if it felt slow, I’d force the pace and go fast so they’d be forced to ride just as fast. Felt really good going down Ocean Blvd and riding the flat into golden gate park at 28-30mph with minimal effort thanks to the hill. Saw Eric Langerstrom and Ben Kanute at the exit so I noted the time and counted the gap. Felt real good going up the park and pushed a pace in hopes of splitting my group. Rode tempo effort heading down because I knew I had a lot of climbing to come and a run after. On the climb up, a new group formed and it was a good pace. A guy in a yellow kit who was maybe 30 sec behind me earlier in the bike was now in front of me and I just decided to ride behind him. There were times I could tempo/spin and time I was on the limit. The last dh, I gave that guy a bigger gap so I could watch his lines/decide how to respond to corners. He’d pull me through the last miles and I turned off my cycling brain to prepare for the run. Overall, my bike was pretty good. Cornering and braking were kind of sketchy with the water, but I never felt cold out there. The humidity never gave me dry mouth and I drank my goal amount of electrolytes and gels.
(Taped nutrition plan to my bars and drank/took gel as recommended in the athlete guide). ^learned to not wear visor when it’s rainy. Got super foggy and had to lift it every climb to get air/visibility
Planned on not rushing T2 bc this was the first time I’d race 8 miles. Racked bike, took off helmet, and sat down to slide on my socks and shoes (surprised myself with how fast they seemed to go on). Grabbed my hat which held my number belt, glasses, and arm sleeves and put them on as I ran out of transition.
RUN
My goal was to run an average 7min-7:30, meaning no slower than 6:10 on the flat miles to make up for the climbs. Got onto the pavement, got into a rhythm, had a chat with dad who was on the bike, and wanted to tempo the flat 2 miles so I could be fresh for the climbs. Felt great those first 2 miles; happy to see the EBTC crew and later have a chat with the Cal Tri coach Dean Harper who told me I was a top 10 amateur. Walked/jogged the stairs and used the rope to pull myself up (didn’t really help bc the slack but it was refreshing). Caught a woman pro and a 30 y/o am on the climb and tried my best to go fast on the dh to the beach. Had no idea what the grip would be like so I went downhill conservatively until I took a small pee break. Definitely relieved, but my race kind of fell apart after that. I used momentum to get across the soft sand all the way to the hard pack by the water but went super slow on the soft sand at the turn. Hiked up the sand ladder but never stopped. The dirt climb became a mud fest and I couldn’t find much grip. Ran cautiously on the way down, only going fast on the section of bike path going under the bridge. Walked down the stairs because I didn’t know what grip I had, and hit the flat ground knowing I had a little less than 2 miles left to go. My goal was to reel in a Cal teammate up 30 seconds and that was my motivation. The ground got harder to navigate and I just tried keeping decent form and not cramping. Slowly but surely, I picked off some people and kept trying to move up the M 20-24 ranking. With 3/4miles left, I kind of lost focus and started feeling slow. I wasn’t slowing down, but it was hard to keep pushing, knowing there’s nothing difficult left and it’s just about pinning it. 0.5 to go, back on the pavement and I just tried to hold on and push a little faster. Probably didn’t push enough because I didn’t go faster, but I was happy to get so close to the finish. The finish line aura didn’t exactly make me go faster, but I felt so good coming in and finishing such an iconic race. Running through the chute alone, knowing I was about to conquer the course. Celebrated across the line and embraced my teammates.
LESSONS
Safer than sorry, a lot of stuff for transition but at least I had contingencies
Don’t wear a bike visor on rainy/wet days. Use glasses
Probably better to have used my specialized crux with clip on bars for better handling and a slightly better climbing gear
Work on swim
Eat within 30min of finishing race bc body will crash hard 40min after finish
Author: Dylan Gong
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